Chapter 9

Jude’s POV~

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We managed to finish the health exams at around 9 am and then immediately started to practice after Alexi ate her breakfast. After some stretches, Coach asked us to play a little match and have Alexi pinpoint all of our weak spots to plan out our individual and group training regime.

So there we were, getting ready for the whistle blow as the managers and Coach’s eyes were intently focused on Alexi. I knew they were excited to see her in action once again; but once I took a look the others, they were just as transfixed to her as the managers were.

Specially Axel and Xavier, they were looking at her as though they’ve seen her for the first time; bewildered eyes, faint blush on the cheek and a little dream-like daze on their face. I guess I should know because I’ve been one of the many here that finds her pretty.  

But girls are pretty much not my thing, so I’ll just leave the rest to them.

Austin was particularly happy today. I could tell why, he’s really proud of his sister’s abilities and is probably planning to show off some of the techniques she taught him. He was smiling pretty wildly and was really excited that he looked like a tiger ready to get out of his cage. 

I was still looking at her, hoping I could witness her in action. But as though she could read my- and everybody else’s mind-, she looked at us and said, “Please don’t mind me. I need you to be on full alert on this game, play as if it’s the real thing.”

We all nodded and once again, I could see the determination on my teammate’s face. I myself feel like going on hyper mode because of what she said. Have to give it my best shot.

The whistle blew and the game was set in motion.

Axel started the kickoff and passed it along to Jordan. I immediately went up and stole the ball from him.

“Getting serious already?” he said as I made a quick pass to Nathan.

Nathan got the ball and made his way through Todd and Xavier who couldn’t match up to his speed. Now the game was getting intense as the ball skidded its way from one side of the field to another. I knew I had to level up my game by now, but I got distracted when I heard Willy and the managers gasp from the benches.

I did not regret what I did next.

My eyes automatically darted to Alexi as she wrote in an amazing speed. Her eyes moved from one player to another at a constant rate then after a few seconds she begins to write in the notebook again, flipping from one page to the next. I knew it must’ve looked differently up-close, but from where I’m standing, her observation skills looked terrifying.

Seeing her in action proved that she really is “the Oracle of the field”.  One could tell from her gaze that she is calculating every single move we make and predicting every possibility that may happen. She was practically studying us.

And now I feel like all my weakness has been exploited, there’s something about her…something about her gaze. It’s so intent on her given task.

I managed to look around me and I noticed that almost all of us were staring at her. It’s like we were deers caught in headlights. It wasn’t until Coach Travis scolded us to focus on the game when we woke up from our daze.

By that time, Hurly was blocking Nathan and stole the ball from him easily. Afterwards he passed it on to Xavier who quickly made his way through the defenders and readied himself for the shot.

“Meteor Blade!” the ball made its way to the goal with a flare of light at its wake.

Marc acted quickly and managed to block it with his “Fist of Justice G2!”

“Great shot Xavier. Not bad.” Marc commented.

“Not bad yourself Evans.” He responded.

Nathan managed to take possession of the ball but was cornered by Jordan, Scotty and Xavier.

“Nathan! Pass it to Thor!” I shouted immediately after seeing the opening.

Nathan did what I asked him and passed it to Thor. Unfortunately, Austin managed to run up and stole the ball him. He then move the ball up to the goal and was about to shoot. It was a clear shot and it looked like no one can stop him. But in the last minute, he hesitated and passed the ball to Xavier.

To my left, Axel muttered something under his breath and looked as if he was disappointed. I guess, as a forward, he had this sixth sense for shooting goals. He knew Austin could’ve made that goal in but instead, he threw away a perfectly good opportunity. Austin had such potential, he had great talents. But when he’s infront of the goal, he hesitates to shoot.

I stole a side glance at Alexi and was shocked to see her momentarily stop. She looked sad as her gaze followed her little brother. After moment, she let out a deep breath and continues to skim through the game. I guess she couldn’t do anything about her brother for now, so she’s focusing on the game and worry about Austin later.

Xavier still has the ball in possession but then passes it to Jordan who kept his eye on the goal and readied himself for the shot. The ball was going straight for the goal with such force but was blocked by Jack’s “The Wall”

Instinctively, I looked over to Alexi to see if she’s still writing. To my surprise though, she wasn’t. After browsing the notebook in her hand, she closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them, I noticed her eyes change color. It was only for a short while, like someone just pulled a veil over her eyes, but there’s no way I could ignore how her sapphire blue eyes change to ruby red.  It was so fast that I don’t think anyone else could’ve seen it too.

When I looked at Coach Travis, his face paled. It must mean he’d seen the glow too. But why would he act natural about it? Does he know something that we don’t?

Alexi handed him the notebook and Coach started to read it. Every so often, he’s glance at the field then at the notebook. It was like he was comparing Alexi’s notes to the players to see if they match. A few moments later, he had a satisfied look on his face and called the game to stop.

“Line up.” He said and we did.

Alexi had a disappointed look on her face that made us all uneasy. She looked at each and every one of us apologetically, like she’d all sentenced us to our deaths. Everyone were on the edge, they took it as a sign of bad news. Only Austin and Caleb seemed pretty calm, it was like they already know what’s going to happen.

“I’ve asked Ms. Knight to observe you and pinpoint all of your possible weaknesses. Surprisingly, she did not only sought out your weak spots, she also made some plans to overcome them. I’ve checked the regime she proposed, made some modifications and approved it.”

He then opened the book and flipped through some of the pages, “One example is Jack’s habit of just standing there and waiting for a chance to defend. A defender must be ready at all times and must move the ball up when needed. A simple solution for that is a few running exercises and some drills with the midfielders. Another thing that you all must work on is your self-reliance.” He then stopped and looked at Nathan, “Tell me Nathan, why did you pass the ball to Thor? Just because Jude told you to? Can you not make any decisions on your own? ”

Nathan looked surprised and was not able to answer.

The Coach continued, “There are times where you are called to make quick decisions on the field and Jude may not be there to guide you. So you have to rely on your judgment and act upon it when needed. One way to solve this problem is to pull out some of you during the practice games. By then you’ll have to watch and analyze the game’s pace.”

The Coach went on about the team’s faults. And I have to say, I was impressed by Alexi comprehension and analytical skills. She managed to write down quite a lot about our weaknesses and faults and thought up some ways to overcome them.

“Alright, now to start training.”

~~~~

Coach made us go back to our basics and start from there. Half of us were given running exercises to work on the agility, balance and stamina of the team; while the other half was working on ball control which includes, dribbling, stealing, dodging and passing. Then after an hour or so, we would exchange training methods.

The simplicity of the regime was complete genius but the problem was, it didn’t help much on team building. When I asked Alexi about it, she said that that part was taken out by Coach Travis for the mean time. She was in charge of the running exercises and was doing a great job on it.

She really pushed Jack to his limits and encouraged him to do better. Austin was as happy as can be while training with the others and was showing no signs of exhaustion so far. It must be because Alexi was there to support him.

We were at it for a while and only took a break during lunch. After that, we’ll start training with Alexi and Austin and the others will start on Coach’s training.

Everyone was tired out at lunch and managed to eat a lot. Either because they’ve worked up an appetite or because Alexi was helping out the managers serve the food. For some of them, it must’ve been the latter.

“What do you think about the Coach Marc?” Xavier asked while we were eating his second helping.

“Well, I think he’s a good Coach. He tells us exactly what he needs from us and focuses on making the team stronger.” He answered plainly.

“I doubt that.” Jordan said from his table just loud enough for us to hear, “I don’t think he’s that good, I mean, just a while ago during practice, he actually praises Caleb for stealing the ball too roughly from Nathan. Didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he did.” Nathan said, “Glad I wasn’t hurt that much, but he could’ve at least told Caleb not to play rough. He should stop that kind of behavior in the field, not praise it.”

There weren’t much people in the dining hall since they already started warming up downstairs. But the other players who heard this started to doubt the Coach’s abilities. Come to think about it, why do we even need to change Coaches? Coach Hillman was a way better coach than he is.

“We shouldn’t let this change our goal here.” Marc finally said, “We’re here to face off the world, and we can’t do that without trusting our Coach. So come on fellas, lighten up!”

He was right. We can manage to win this thing, and all we have to do is to believe in our team…and in our Coach.

But still, Marc might’ve lift up our spirits, but he still didn’t get rid of the little doubt inside of us. I don’t know if we could really trust our Coach Travis, but right now, it seems like it’s my only option.

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Austin’s POV~

I’m so tired!

The second day of training camp was harder than yesterday! I even heard that Jack didn’t want to train because he was getting upset or something. Good thing, Marc and Alexi was there to talk some sense into him. Because of that, he managed to keep up with the rest of us during practice. He seemed really psyched up, and was really into it. He didn’t even seem tired at all!

I on the other hand feel like lead.

I was just fine when I was training with onee-san, but when I was with Coach Travis, I seem to lose all my energy. I guess, I’m still not used to being trained by other people.

Training finished at around 4pm. After taking a shower, I decided to take a little nap in my room. The others were still either practicing or were cleaning up after all that time in the field. I changed into my white tee shirt and blue shorts and then started to dry my hair when suddenly, I heard a knock on my door.

“Austin, can I come in?” I was relieved when I found out it was only one-san.

“Sure.” I answered slinging the towel over my shoulder. Alexi came in all cleaned up and was wearing her usual uniform. “Are you going somewhere?” I asked.

“Yeah, me and Coach Travis will be attending the opening ceremony for the FFI Preliminaries.” She answered. When her eyes landed on my wet hair, she giggled and motioned me to come closer.

“Come ‘ere, I’ll dry off your hair.” She then took the towel from my shoulders and sat on my bed as I sat on the floor.

She started to rub the towel on my hair in a relaxing motion. I could smell her favorite lavender perfume on her, the one me and Caleb got her for her birthday.

 Every so often she would rub it on my neck just below my ear making me laugh. She used to do this more often when we were kids and its times like these when I’m really glad I have a sister like her.

“How’s your day Tiger?” she asked.

“It was very tiring! I’m actually planning to get some sleep later on.” I answered happily. I always do when she calls me by my pet name.

“You should, you’ve earned it.” she said laughing, “Don’t overdo it though. Remember to wake up an hour before dinner and go for a little jog to shake off the sleepiness.”

“I will.” I promised. Onee-san is always like this. Whenever she has somewhere to go she always leaves me with things to do just while she’s away. It’s her little way of showing that she cares.

“Oh, by the way. I saw you slacking off at Coach’s Travis’ training exercise.”

I tensed as she stopped drying my hair, “I wasn’t slacking off, I was just feeling a bit tired.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. I’m afraid I lost some of my energy during that point.”

“Lost your energy huh?” she said holding on to my shoulders. “Then that means we have to recharge you!!!”

 I knew this was going to happen.

She started to tickle me relentlessly, and I couldn’t help but laugh! I tried to run away but I can’t she totally immobilized me. She was attacking me by my neck, one of the most ticklish spots in my body. So I tried to turn around and hope that she’s stop. Unfortunately, my sister knows all my ticklish spots and decided to attack me there.

“Don’t try to get away Austin. You’re still not charged yet!” she laughed.

I couldn’t breathe from all the laughing. But I still enjoyed it. I love spending time with onee-san. Even if it means being attacked from all sides just to be tickled. We both laughed our hearts out from all the tickling, it made my eyes water for a bit.

When she finally stopped, I was gasping for air and was wiping my tears away. She did the same. After a moment she stood up and fixed herself.

“I have to go now Austin. Make sure you get lots of rest ok?” she said then placed a kiss on my forehead before leaving.

After she left, I combed my hair and fell on my bed. That tickling session made me really exhausted; still, every second I spent with my sister was worth it.

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Hi! How’d ya liked it? I thought a cute sibling moment for Austin and Alexi would be fun sooooo… ta da! here it is!(NO INCEST PLEASE!!!)

I think you’ve noticed by now that I the main focus of this story is only on some of the characters. I’m sorry if I didn’t pay attention to all of them, but if you’ll notice in the anime, its one different point of view after the other… I tried to do it once, but the planning didn’t work out so I just stuck to my original plot.

Also, watching the actual anime before reading this helps a lot during the story progression. So if you had trouble catching up, then I apologize.

Anyway, I’d really love to hear from you! So please, READ, COMMENT, VOTE AND SHARE!!!