Twoset Football

Five: Pre-season

It was now the end of summer, the new school year had started which meant that Eddy's little soccer students were no longer "pre-schoolers" as they had all started "big school" for the first time in their lives. Eddy continued to teach his weekly soccer school and watch over the little ones enjoy chasing the ball.

Eddy managed to resolve the soccer mum incident. Eddy was not very successful in completely forgetting about the incident with the woman in question when he first saw her accompany her son to Eddy's soccer lesson, he was terribly embarrassed, but luckily for him, so was she. She discreetly came up to Eddy after her son's soccer lesson and apologised to him.

"You have this spark, coach Eddy. I was in a bad place and was struggling to feel any life left in myself. I was drawn to your energy and wanted to connect with you to feel alive. But I felt terrible afterwards for what I have done. I am so sorry."

"I am sorry to hear that you've been such a difficult place. How are you now?"

"I'm okay. I mean, I realised I needed help and got it. I think I'll be okay."

"That's good. Um, for what it's worth if I was able to somehow help you through it a bit? Maybe that was a good thing."

"Thank you for your understanding and maturity coach Eddy, I really appreciate it."

Her son became busy with big-school and Eddy never saw her again.

"So Brett, I think it's all good now."

"Well done Eddy, I'm proud of you."

As the opening to the season approached, training intensified and more coaches and agents paid visits to the oval where Eddy trained. Every time Eddy was approached after training from someone to discuss contracts, Eddy would tell them to "speak to his agent" as instructed by Brett. 

"Your agent ? You've already got one, son? "

"Yes sir, his name is Brett Yang."

"Oh f..."

Almost every agent was taken aback and gave the same response.

"Why do I get this response every time, Brett ?"

Brett chuckled.

"Cos I'm the best and the worst in the industry."

"How are you the worst?"

"I'm ruthless when I want something. I won't let go and will terrorise anyone who tries to take it away from me. Those agents who showed interest in you? I bet you never got approached by the same guy again after you gave them my name."

"..So, it feels like things are getting intense, Brett."

"They sure are. Everyone is interested in you. For the whole 2 hours of training, I don't get a moment to myself, they all want to talk to me about you."

"Wow"

"Yeah, you've been invited from quite a few teams to take part as a member of their pre-season games. I'm scheduling them so that almost all the teams we're interested in will have you in their team at least once."

"Will there be spectators?"

"Not paying ones yet, but I'm pretty sure there will be. The teams will be desperate for good players and they will be on their final talent hunting spree. Lots of ladies will come watch as well."

"Really??"

"Steady on. Most of them are either girlfriends, wives or daughters of the other players so make sure you behave."

"Humph."

"Did you want to invite anybody?"

"Oh, I wasn't planning to invite the kids from my soccer school till I formally make it into a team."

"No, I meant, like your parents or sister or, u know."

"Um... I think I'll wait till I make it into a team."

"Sure, fair enough."

Brett hadn't forgotten how Eddy exploded with rage towards him when there was a slight mention of hinting the possibility of Eddy preferring men to women. It wasn't even suggestive, more like a comment that Brett did not care either way, yet Eddy was very sensitive about it. Brett had wondered whether he should talk it over with Eddy sometime soon.

It was the day of Eddy's first pre-season game.

"Today's team is... a bit rough"

Brett warned as they drove out to a suburb unfamiliar to Eddy.

Eddy wasn't paying too much attention to what Brett was saying though, as he was too pumped for the game.

"Learn to dodge, Eddy, okay?"

Eddy felt the grass rub against his cheek as he fell to the ground with a thud. He wasn't sure how he got there but he knew he did not trip on his own. And it was happening way too frequently. He heard the spectators make noise, a mixture of a flinch ("ouch, that gonna hurt!") and excitement ("oooh, yeah, take that !") at his expense. He quickly tried to get up only to be pushed back to the ground. The opposite team player had pushed down Eddy's head. Eddy glared at him as he flicked the guy's hand away. The guy then pushed his knee towards Eddy's face to keep him down. Eddy hunched over as he quickly stood up, made contact with the guy with his shoulder, making the guy lose his balance and fall over. The small crowd roared. Brett saw Eddy taking the stance just like Brett saw in his office that day, towering over his opponent who was now on the ground. Brett was glad he wasn't on the floor that day, he couldn't imagine how intimidated the guy on the ground felt.

Brett called out.

"Eddy!! That's enough!!"

Then he heard someone call out from the opposing team bench.

"Oh just shut your trap you f*cking *******"

The racist, derogatory term made Brett see red.