WILLIE KNOCKED BEFORE WALKING INTO THE LOCKER ROOM. She noticed Zava leaving as she was heading out, and he was not dressed even though they were supposed to practice in a couple of minutes. Now that she thought about it, she had never seen him at practice. She had just seen him show up for games or to give random speeches in the locker room before a practice that he did not attend.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but hey, lads, I agree with Zava," someone said, and Willie had to do a double take to make sure that it was the person that she had thought it was/ jamie was standing in front of them, and they were all shocked because Jamie never agreed with anyone, especially not Zava, who he hated. "Yes, it's a big fucking game, but we've just gotta focus, do what we do, do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah. He's right. And don't forget, yeah? Believe in 'Believe'," Isaac told his team, and he jumped up and hit the yellow sign above the door to Ted's office. They all nodded in agreement and smiled because that sign had honestly won them some games.

Then, half of the sign fell off of the wall and hung loosely from a single piece of tape. There were several gasps and screams across the room, and Willie's eyes widened as she backed against the door in shock. "Oh, my God."

"What?" Isaac asked, confused as to why they were all freaking out. He and Jamie were standing with their backs toward the sign, so neither of them had noticed the destruction of their favorite sign yet.

They slowly turned around, and the Tartt man was the first to see it. He muttered, "Oh, shit."

"What? Oh," the Mcadoo man muttered, and he looked down at his hand, wondering if his slap did that. It obviously did not because a slap would not cause a piece of paper to tear in half like that. He turned to Jamie and hit him on the shoulder.

Jamie looked at him in confusion, confused as to what the hell just happened. He put his hand on where Isaac had hit him and rubbed it slightly as he questioned, "Why the fuck did you do that?"

"I was just checking if I acquired the ability to chop things in half," Isaac answered. So far, Jamie had not been cut in half. However, the sign had taken a moment to tear, so maybe it was a delayed reaction. They were going to have to wait and make sure.

The Tartt man looked at him like he was insane but not because he thought he gained a superpower. If he had gained a superpower, then Jamie would have been dead, which was not an ideal outcome. "Yeah, and what if you had?"

"Sorry, bruv. I didn't think it through," the other man told him, realizing what he had done.

Willie made her way over to the sign that was torn in half, and jumped up and grabbed both halves. Examining it, she came to the conclusion that it had been like that, and someone taped it back up. "Someone ripped this in half."

"What the fuck?" all of the guys exclaimed angrily, and they all went off on rants and tried to figure out what kind of monster would have done that.

While they were fighting and yelling, the Carlisle woman made her way over to Jamie, who was still standing in the front of the room. She raised her eyebrows at him, remembering what the Kent man had said about training him. "How was training with Roy?"

"I threw up four times," he informed her with a sigh. Her eyes widened because that was not the answer that she had been expecting. However, he was quick to assure her, "Don't worry. I brushed me teeth forty times, so you'll be fine if you kiss me."

"Shut up," she responded with a laugh. She was blushing as she shoved his shoulder playfully.

《❂》

THEY WERE PLANNING WEST HAM UNITED, THE TEAM OF NATHAN SHELLEY AND RUPERT MANNION. The entire stadium was packed because a win at the game would mean great things. "It's a full house for today's battle between West Ham United and Zava's AFC Richmond. A win would take either team to the top spot in the table, knocking mighty Manchester City off number one. Should be a tight match, Chris. Any predictions?"

"I stopped making predictions, Arlo. Because I was never wrong. Got to the point I was worried I was the one making things happen."

West Ham got a penalty shot at the very beginning, and the boys all lines up, trying to create a wall in front of the goal. It made it past them, but, luckily, Zoreaux — who now wanted to be addressed as Van Damme — was able to save it from going in the goal, keeping the score even.

The first half was about to end without anyone scoring when West Ham decided it would be really funny if they scored with two minutes left. It was definitely not funny, though.

Then, they decided to just add onto the joke and score once again when there was one minute left. Rupert stood up and started clapping, looking over to the box where his ex-wife was sitting. The smirk on his face made Willie want to punch him.

When the second half started, Willie furrowed her eyebrows when she saw every single player on the Richmond team coming out and glaring at Nate like he had killed a little girl.

That half was absolutely brutal. Everyone on the team kept getting mad, and dozens of fights started. There were a ton of illegal tackles, and by the end, they were left with about seven players. Zava scored a goal, but that did pretty much nothing for them.

《❂》

THAT PUT RICHMOND ON A LOSING STREAK. They were slowly making their way down in ranking, and it was looking really bad. During the game against Manchester City, no one could find Zava anywhere, which meant that Colin played instead of him.

They lost brutally, and it turned out that Zava had left Richmond and the entire sport of football. Willie did not know if that was good or bad because at least he did not join another team, but they were also the ones that made the great Zava quit the sport.

Willie was leaning against the wall outside the back door and waiting for a specific someone to exit. When he did, his eyes widened in shock at the sight of her standing there. It was incredibly late, and pretty much everyone was gone already. "Hey. I'd thought you'd have gone home."

"Tough loss, huh?" she questioned.

"Zava or the match?" he asked, and he gestured for her to walk toward his car with him. She shrugged, indicating that it could be either or both. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her toward his warm body because it was pretty cold. He answered, "Yeah, I guess."

She turned to him once they reached his car, and she put her hands in the pocket of her coat. She leaned against the hood of his car and raised her eyebrows at him. "Well, I was going to head out for a drink if you wanted to join me."

"I've got drinks at my place," he informed her with a small smirk making its way onto his face. He had momentarily forgotten about the game that just happened, and he was focused solely on her — her hair, her eyes, her lips.

"You must think you're real smooth, Jamie Tartt," she chuckled, and she took a couple of steps forward so that she was standing right in front of him. She peered up at him through her eyelashes and tilted her head in question. "Does that line work on all your girls?"

"I don't know. Is it?" he asked, letting her know that she was his only girl.

She grinned at him, and her heart was beating faster and faster at his words, at their proximity, and just everything about him, about them. She wanted to run her fingers through his hair, she wanted to feel his hands on her skin, and she wanted to kiss him. "Maybe."

"Then, let's go."