~~~~

Xavier's POV~

Things are going great with the team and Alexi. Everyone treats her like the whole "incident" never happened which really relieved me. And of course, I'm really happy seeing her smile again despite the tired look in her eyes and her pale complexion. Although, I have to say she looks beautiful no matter what.

But I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Last night I found out that Axel took Alexi to see his sister Julia and it kinda bothered me how those two have gotten so close in such a short amount of time. Even so, I won't lose to Axel.

It was about 4am when I woke up this morning. I thought about going for a jog so I fixed up my bed and headed down to the field. On my way there, I saw Alexi running some laps under the light of the fluorescent lamp poles situated around the field.

Her hair was tied up in a messy bun as she jogged around in her blue shorts and white sleeveless shirt, cut just above her belly-button showing off her toned body. The sky was still dark and the air was a bit cold; nevertheless the sweat from her skin glistened as she struggled to catch her breath. It was definitely a sight to see.

I saw her stopped for a moment as she rested her hands on her knees and keened forward to catch her breath. Momentarily fazed by the sight, I slowly woke up from my daze and continued walking down to the field.

Once there, I saw Alexi jogging around the field so I called out to her, "Good morning!"

She abruptly stopped and smiled at me, her breath staggered as she did so, "Mornin' Xavier."

I jogged towards her and handed her a bottle of water I got from the kitchen. She took it and shot me a smile before thanking me. She then drank up and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"I wasn't expecting to see you up this early in the morning." I said as we started to jog around the field.

"Well, breakfast isn't going to cook itself you know." she said with a feint laugh. "Usually, I'd get up before you guys, do some jogging, get cleaned up and then start breakfast."

I nodded, "Then let me guess; you then wake us up, serve breakfast, clean up the dishes, then start training us afterwards, am I right?"

"Yeah." She laughed, "You missed the part where I prepare and review my notes from the last training, but other than that, you pretty much got it."

"Sounds complicated. Don't you have a short break or something?"

"Of course I do... occasionally."

"Yeah, of course you do." I said in a sarcastic tone. When I turned to her, she had an amused smile on her face that suddenly made the dark sky a bit brighter, I couldn't help myself but blush. "You need to learn how to take care of yourself more. You're making me worry about you, you know that?"

She shot me another smile and looked down as we continued to jog at a slower pace, "You sound like my cousin."

"Really? Well then, you should learn how to listen to him. It sounds like he really cares about you."

"Yeah, he does. But even if I could do that, you can't stop me from worrying about the team."

"What do you mean?"

She slowed down a bit more and let out a huge breath, "It was a huge risk for Coach Hillman and Coach Travis to put me on this team as a trainer. But I'm really glad they did, I get to keep an eye on Austin during the tournament. As a show of thanks, I vowed I'd take great care of you guys. I'll lead you all to victory no matter what."

The determination showed greatly on her face. Then I remembered what Coach Hillman said about her the other day, the thing about gamblers and nasty people wanting to use her for her abilities. I have to admit, it kinda drives me on the edge knowing how dangerous it is for her to stay with us.

"You don't have to you know..." I said as I stopped completely and looked away, "You could've chosen to reject his offer and stay home where it's safer for you. So why? Why did you take the job in the first place if you knew all this was bound to happen?"

I took the risk of looking back at her and saw that she was smiling, "Why? Isn't it obvious Xavier?" she then took a few steps closer to me, ultimately making my face feel warm, "It's because I love soccer. I owe a lot to the game. It was the one thing that helped me and Austin get through the subtle challenges in life."

She then told me about how Austin came to love the game and how they started out with it. When she was finished, I felt that I somehow got the chance to get to know her better.

"Back when we were younger, Austin used to think that if he could play just as good, if not better than Axel, our parents are bound to come home to congratulate him for a job well done. I saw how much he missed our parents so I promised myself that I'll do everything just to get him to be the player he wanted to be. And training this team...helping out the other players can help me achieve that."

Alexi then smiled to herself and turned away, "I have to go Xavier. I better get cleaned up and get breakfast started or else you guys will have a late practice."

Before she left, I ran out to her and suddenly grabbed her hand. She turned to me with a shocked expression on her face and a tint of crimson on her cheeks. "W-what's wrong?"

I couldn't answer. Heck, I don't even know why I did that, it was like my body moved on its own. We stayed like that for a couple of moments before I finally found the courage to speak.

"I-I uhm, I mean... If you're too busy taking care of the team, I'll try to take care of you." I stuttered. "The thing is, you already took a big risk of coming here training a bunch of guys you barely even know, so I thought that I'd bring back the favour and take care of you too. Of course, I know the whole team would want to help out as much as possible too. What I'm trying to say is... if you ever need anything, anything at all, just tell me ok? I'll be more than happy to help you out."

After I spoke, I thought she'd laugh at my face for being so corny, but she didn't. Instead, she gave me her signature smile and nodded.

"I might just take you up on that offer Xavier." She said, "Thank you."

With that, she took her hand back, turned away and walked in the building just as the sun was starting to rise.

I thought about doing a few more laps around the field when Axel, Jude, Nathan, Jordan and Hurley coming towards me wearing their training attire.

"Hey, you guys up for a morning jog?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure am." Answered Jordan as he and the others stretched a little.

We all started to run around the field until I noticed how Axel seemed a bit distracted. It was like something was trying to break his usual cool façade.

"Hey man, you ok? Something bothering you?" I asked out.

"Nothing really." He answered then he looked away, "Was that Alexi I saw you with a while ago?"

Oh, so that's what's been bothering him.

"Yeah, she was here a lot earlier than me so I thought I'd join her."

"That doesn't explain why you were holding her hand though." Jordan pointed out earning a few snickers from Nathan, Jude and Hurley.

Axel cleared his throat, obviously annoyed, "Yeah, what was that about?"

"I just wanted her to know that if she ever needs anything, she can just ask me."

"That's not enough reason for you to hold her hand."

"Oh please, I didn't say anything when you got to spend the whole day with her yesterday."

"Both of you, enough!" Jude interrupted, "You two sound like a couple of kids fighting over a toy. What's wrong with you?"

"Probably has something to do with Alexi." Nathan said with a snicker, "I think they like her."

"Isn't it obvious?" Jordan said with a laugh, "Who wouldn't though? She's really cute."

"True." Hurley piped in, "But I wouldn't get my hopes up. Looks like she's going out with Caleb. I mean have you seen them the other day? Caleb was holding her hand bro, he's totally the protective type."

"Well, it's not as if there's anything we can do about it." Jude said with a sigh, "Come on, 2 more rounds and we're done."

~~~~

Axel and I hadn't spoken a word since we finished jogging. We all went back, took showers and were all in time for breakfast just as Alexi finished preparing.

"Where's Captain?" Alexi asked as she served Jack's second helping.

"Guess he's still asleep." Sylvia said with an exasperated sigh. "Come on Hurley, help me carry the pail of water to his room."

"No need." Celia said as she and Camellia came in, dragging our half-asleep Captain along with them.

"M-morrnnniin~" he slurred as he rubbed his eyes.

"Good morning captain!" Alexi chirped as she gave Marc his breakfast plate. "If you keep sleeping in like that, you won't be left with anything to eat, especially with Jack's appetite."

We all managed to laugh a little and I even saw Axel smiling at Alexi's direction –a sign of how hard he has it in for her. Austin, on the other hand looks like he has something in his chest as he stared sadly at his sister. I feel bad for him. It feels like he's having a hard time adjusting to us but he's trying to for Alexi's sake; I got to hand it to him, he's a good brother.

After breakfast, we all made our way to the field where we did our usual practice match between offense and defence. The managers told us that Coach Travis went out early to get the result of who we're dealing with on our next game, so he left Alexi in charge which was wasn't a huge surprise.

Strangely though, she's been focusing more on our endurance and strength. She made us run twice the number of laps from our normal resume and got us in an offense defence match where each player from the offense side was tasked to at least score 2 goals whereas as the defence side were tasked to make sure that never happened. For each goal that the offense side made, a deduction from the defence side pre-accounted 20 points.

We played with those rules all morning and stopped when we heard Coach Travis was back with the results and has asked us all to meet him at the dining area.

Once there, we all took our seats while Alexi talked with Coach Travis outside. After a while, he came in without Alexi and asked our managers sit at the sides to take down notes.

"Our opponent for the next match is already set." He said as suspense hung in the air. "And the team is Qatar's Desert Lion."

"Qatar's Desert Lion?" Marc questioned, "What kind of team are they?"

"Well, according to rumours," Celia said standing up, averting out attention towards her, "The team is characterized by their lasting endurance and the resilient strength of their lower bodies."

"Exactly." Coach Travis said, "In order to fight them, you'll need to fortify your physical strength and physical abilities. For the time being, your task will be to think and execute the ways you think will build up your bodies concerning these two points until our game with Qatar."

"Wait a minute Coach." Jude interrupted, "By 'think and execute', you mean we have to make our own training regime?"

"Yes, just until Alexi gets back."

"Why? Where did my sister go?" Austin suddenly piped in, making that the first time we heard from him since this morning.

"She went out for an errand for the team. She'll be back this afternoon I think, by then you should make up your own training regime in her absence."

"You let her go out alone?" Austin said hysterically. "What if something happened to her? What if-"

"She'll be fine." Caleb said from the corner of the room. Despite what he said, it looked like he was trying to convince himself. "She'll be back before the sun sets, so don't worry too much, alright?"

Austin looked like he wanted to say more, but he finally took his seat and stayed quiet as a mouse. Caleb on the other hand kept sending 'I-hope-you-know-what-you're-doing' look at Coach in which he doesn't seem to mind.

"I'm heading out to Coach Hillman's shop, apparently something came up that we have to discuss. I'll be back tonight and I'm leaving Marc, Jude and Axel to oversee your training." Coach Travis said as he walked out on us once again.

"So much for coaching us..." Jordan mumbled beside me.

"Cheer up guys!" Marc said attempting to find a positive outlook on the situation we're in. "Think of this as test of our independence. We can't always count on the coach and Alexi to spoon-feed us every single order. Now come on!"

He then ushered us to make a circle and asked us for some ideas on how to make a regime fit for the Coach's instruction. After a few minutes of dead-silence, Marc let out a groan and slumped on the table.

"This is hard! I don't know how to make a training regime!" he said in an exasperated tone.

"Why don't you look something up from your grandpa's notebook Marc?" Nathan offered.

"Trust me, I practically memorized every letter, every symbol and every smudge of dirt in the notebook but nothing just comes to mind that fits the Coach's orders." He answered.

"How does Alexi manage to this every day?" I said, "She told me this morning that she reviews her notes from the last training day and uses them to make the regime today... I can't imagine her going through this much stress every day."

It's true. This kind of mental stress plus her chores as a manager and the pressure she puts herself through is just too much. I'm really impressed at how she manages all this and still be able to work 100%.

"Alexi determines the points to be achieved first." Caleb said as he looked out the window, "Then, she cross-reference them to what body-parts are coordinated with these points and then she estimates what kind of activities will help in training these parts."

All of us were kinda speechless at first, but as we put more thought into them it made sense.

"How'd you know about that Caleb?" Marc bluntly asked the question we were all thinking.

Caleb didn't turn to us, he only answered, "Because I know her. That's probably how she does it."

I wouldn't deny the fact that that statement kinda made me feel jealous. And I could tell from the way Axel looked down that he was too. The fact that Caleb knows Alexi this well is a sign of how close they are to each other, and no matter how much we try, Axel and I can never achieve that in such a short span of time.

Axel looked up at me and smiled. The message was as clear as day.

He and I have an agreement; we won't give up even if it seems impossible for Alexi to like as back. No matter how close Caleb is to her, we won't stand idly by dwindling our thumbs. We won't lose to Caleb.

But that doesn't mean I'm gonna lose to you either Blaze. I've got my eyes on the same prize.

"I got it!" Hurley shouted, "We should keep running and running until our muscles build up. That'll help out for sure!"

"That might just be what we're looking for Hurley." Jude said as he thought about it deeper. "Remember what she made us do this morning? Those exercises were precisely what we need for training!"

Shawn looked like he caught on with the idea, "Now that I think about it, it does make sense. And it targets the points we needed to build up."

"Yeah, you're right." Axel agreed. "I guess we don't have to make up a new regime. Alexi already made one for us."

"Alexi never ceases to amaze me!" Celia said as she wrote on her notepad. "She must've known that this is what we needed."

"Guess that's part of her being 'an oracle', huh?" Jordan said with a grin.

Marc nodded enthusiastically. "Alright, all we have to do is to write down what we have to do to make it official. We have to settle the number of laps, the-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have to go now." Austin said as he walked briskly towards the door.

"There he goes again." Tod said with a sigh, "That's the 10th time he ditched out on us."

"What do you mean?" Axel asked.

"We asked him to practice with us a few times, but whenever we start, he always excuses himself and leaves."

"Did he tell you where he was going?"

"Nope, not a clue."

"I wonder if Alexi knows about this..." Sylvia said, "She won't like it if she found out that her brother's skipping out on practice."

"Let's follow him!" Celia immediately said. "We have to make sure he's doing alright so that Alexi won't have another problem to worry about. We'll contact you as soon as we found anything!"

She then dragged off with Willy to 'who-knows-where'; I have to say, what they're doing is a huge help for the team's morale, so I hope they find something.

~~~~

Axel's POV~

We continued with our training and managed to finish the set number of laps and practice runs we agreed upon. It was about 30 minutes to 3 when we stopped and took a rest for the day; half of the team went back to their rooms and took a well-earned nap. I was planning to the same but I saw Marc running out the gates of the training compound so I decided to follow him.

"Where are you going Marc?" I asked after I finally caught up to him.

"Celia and Willy finally found out where Austin went." He answered, "I'm meeting up with Sylvia and Cami to go and check up on him."

Even if he didn't say it, I knew Marc was also talking about how distant Austin was acting ever since the 'incident' the other day. He talked less around us and usually hangs alone in his room.

"I'm coming along." I told him, "There's something going on about Austin and I plan to help out as much as possible."

Marc nodded and led the way. After passing a few blocks, we saw Camellia, Sylvia and another figure standing next to them outside a park entrance. Looking a bit closely, I realized that Alexi was the one who was with them.

She looked a bit sweaty and was panting as if she ran all the way from where she was to get here. Her complexion was a bit paler than usual and her eyes looked really tired. She was still wearing her training attire so I could only guess that she wasn't able to go back to the training grounds yet.

"Alexi, are you ok?" I asked as I rubbed her back to help her breath better somehow. "You don't look so well."

"I-I'm fine...just a bit tired." She wheezed. After a while, she straightened up and asked us, "W-where's Austin? I came here as soon as I got the call."

Celia led us into the park's mini-forest where a canopy of tall trees resided the area. During the whole time, I had to support Alexi who looked like she was about to pass out at any second. After a while of walking, Celia asked us to crouch down as she pointed to a clearing where Austin was.

He looked like a wreck and was sweaty all over; nonetheless, he managed to dribble the ball past the trees in such an accurate manner that I never actually seen him do on the field.

"I should've known he was somewhere around here..." Alexi whispered beside me. I turned to her and realized how close our faces were. I took into detail how the light managed to turn her blue eyes into a much deeper hue.

Without any explanation, she asked us to go back to the Training grounds and reassured us that Austin will find his way home soon.

Once we got out the park Sylvia held Alexi's shoulder and asked, "Alexi, did you know that Austin's skipping out on practice?"

A surprised look painted Alexi's face, "N-No, I haven't... I was hoping he'll feel better when he starts playing with his idols, but I guess I was wrong..."

She looked down and sighed. I could tell she's really getting worried about what's becoming of Austin. Without any precaution, I took her hand and gave her a smile, "Don't worry about it too much, I'll figure out what's wrong with Austin, alright?"

"Yeah" Marc said as he held mine and Alexi's shoulder, "I'm sure he's just shy, that's all. Austin can be a bit timid at times, am I right?"

Alexi managed to smile and nod, "Yes, he can." Her eyes then darted to our intertwined hands and blushed a bit as she looked away, "Uhm.."

"O-Oh sorry..." I said as I let go of her hand. From behind me, Marc, Sylvia and Camellia laughed a little making my cheeks warm up.

We continued to walk back to the Training grounds when some guy with flashy pink hair on a bike stopped in front of us with 3 other guys. The guy on the bike kept on eyeing Alexi while a smirk played on his lips.

"Well, well..." He said, "Look what we have here boys, buncha' nice looking girls to play with!"

He then moved in closer to us and smirked at Alexi, "Come on baby, wouldn't you rather hang out with me than those losers over there? Heh, I know you want to."

I clenched my fist and moved in between Alexi and the guy.

"If something bad happens before the tournament, we'll be disqualified." Sylvia said from behind me.

"Axel, don't bother with them." Marc's firm tone resounded, "Let's just go."

I sighed and followed Marc as he passed by those guys. But out of nowhere, the pink-haired biker grabbed Alexi's bandaged hand, making her yelp out in pain.

"L-Let go!" she screamed.

"Don't try to resist honey, I know you dig me." he said as he gripped her hand tighter, "I can see it in your pretty little eyes. Damn girl, you look so fine with that face you're makin'."

"Let her go, you bastard!" I yelled as I took a step closer to them.

I balled my fist and glared at him, letting him know that I mean business. He, on the other hand only smirked.

"Who're you? Her boyfriend? Can't you see we're busy getting to know each other 'ere? Besides.." he then snapped his fingers and the three other guys came forward, "you wouldn't want to mess with me. So why don't ya do yourself a favour and crawl back to wherever it is ya came from, punk. Or else you'll get badly hurt."

"Don't you dare hurt any of them you fucking prissy!" a voice said from behind us. We all turned around and saw Archer with his hands in his pockets and a smug look on his face."

~~~~

And that's chapter 20! Wow, I can't believe I've come this far. At first I thought the story will be discontinued after the first 15 chapters or so. But I guess I was wrong ^^.

I'm glad I was able to rush this one! Haha and I'm really happy a lot of you wanted me to continue this story. By the way, school's about to start and I might be able to update slower than usual. Hopefully, I'll be able to pass my articles on time and I'll be able to work on this and my other stories as well. So wish me luck!

Anyway, thanks so much for being patient and supportive guys! I really appreciate it!

Please check out my other books like "So Many Possibilities" and "Wildest Dreams" and my newest book, "Love Letters: A fangirl's Tragic Tale"

Stay awesome :3

Watch out for the next chapter!

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