DROPPING WALLS (MANXMAN) ~UNDER REVIEW~

Thomas Scores, Thomas's Sore

On Thursday, with the players back to the center, the filming crew had what they needed to finish their piece on the 29 tryouts.
Every year the public waited for the players' favorites and those selected boys were always the ones to make the cut or to get chosen by other big teams. Thomas knew Sir and Lucas would talk good things about him, Vizanno was a mystery and unpredictable, but Thomas hadn't talked more than two sentences to the other 16 players on the team. He had only had small conversations with the ones that always followed Lucas around and they would not pick the boy as the most sociable and likable, he wasn't going to make a good impression after the huge material aired to the public.
"I think I'm screwed." Said Thomas to Tim.
"Why," asked the other boy and Thomas turned to him.
"The players are going to talk about their favorites, I haven't talked to them properly, I've only talked to Sir and Lucas." Explained Thomas and Tim laughed.
"If Lucas and Sir talk good about you none of the other players' opinion will matter that much... I wish I had their support. I mean, we know that what they think won't affect the final decision, but we can at least bargain that the public wants us..." Said Tim and Thomas hated that he knew the boy was right.
"Lucas' wife wants to manage me." Thomas and Tim smiled happily.
"That's great, is she like... Any good?" Asked Tim and Thomas nodded.
"She doesn't manage Lucas, but she manages Sir and Vizanno..." Tim's eyes went wide and he tried to speak a few times before he finally spoke.
"What the hell? She wants you? Oh my god, dude, you are the luckiest fucker I know." Tim hugged Thomas and as the boy felt weird, he also felt good with that demonstration of friendship.
"Can you promise me one thing, Tim?" Asked Thomas.
"O' course... Anything."
"Promise you going to try hard make the cut, promise me you going to work harder and harder and you're going to focus, you're the only tryout that I feel like talking here, so... Just promise me you'll try." That was the most heartfelt moment Thomas had ever had with the other boy and Tim smiled and nodded, none of the boys said anything until it was time to go back to their morning drills, that was getting harder, faster and more intense.

"Hey, Isabela's here." Said Lucas, as the boys sat at their usual tables, Thomas nodded. He excused himself and went to find the woman.
She was in the lobby and smiled broadly when she saw him, the boy kept reminding himself that he could trust her, she was Lucas wife and that she took good care of Vizanno and Sir.
"Hello darling, it's so nice to see you again." Thomas shook her hand and she led the way to a small office that the boy didn't even know existed in there. They both sat close to each other, she was skinny and tall, wearing fancy clothes and smelled like spring, she was like those gorgeous businesswoman people saw on the tv all the time.
"Lucas and Sir went to talk to me." He said and she nodded.
"When I told them I had talked to you and you didn't seem very likely to join me they got crazy. I guess they pledged my case better than I expected." The woman commented and Thomas exhaled the breath he didn't know he was holding.
"What has Lucas told you?"
"Well, he said you had your concerns with your interests, how can I deliver the number one spot to three different players? I guess he explained how this works." The woman explained and Thomas nodded.
"What else?" He trusted Lucas, but the boy didn't know if the man could keep something from his wife, something so important to a manager, like the sexuality of their client.
"What do you mean? Do you have like a secret? Murder? Prison? Baby? Crazy girlfriend? Crazy Boyfriend? Nudes? Sex tape? Hateful post on the Internet?" The woman listed some of the things that could be concerning the boy if she knew what he had told Lucas, she was faking like a pro.
"No, I just don't think you could give what I want." Said the boy. "I want to be the best this country has ever seen, I don't want to share the spotlight, I want to be better than Sir and Vizanno, and I know it has nothing to do with you, but I don't want to be involved in small rumors like the two of them are all the time, I want to be seen by my talent an only that." Said Thomas and the woman nodded, she was serious now.
"If you better the two of them, I'll make sure you won't be in any kind of gossip or rumors, I know from experience that having a public life is crucial to succeed, but if you want to get to the top without dealing with the mundane things that it request I will give you that, you'll still have to be public though, which means interviews sometimes, meeting fans, team events." The woman said and the boy listened carefully.
"This is not an option to me, but what if I don't make the cut, what would happen?" Asked the boy and she smiled.
"I've seen you play in training, I've seen footages of your games, if you can be that good as an amateur I can't even fathom how amazing you'll be as a professional. Every team can see that too, Unity is not the only team in town or in this country for God's sake, and also, you could play abroad, the possibilities are endless, I'll give what you want, just make sure you won't fuck up things to me." The last part got the boy's attention.
"What do you mean?"
"If you somehow do something to kill your reputation I can't promise you I'll fix it, most things done outside of the public eye can be fixed, but if you somehow commit a horrible crime in public and get caught there are little things I can do." Said the woman.
Thomas acknowledged what she said and she smiled again. He liked her better when she was all business, it made it easier to see her as trustworthy.
"I want to talk to Vizanno and Sir before I sign anything, I want to make sure they are okay with you having one more name on the list of people you have to take care of... I'm not going to be dealt with your employees, you personally will deal with things and that will take time of the job you'd be making to them, and I can't have them being angry and trying to cut me out" said the boy.
"Valid point, I think I'll call them both now. The sooner we deal with this the better."
Thomas stayed inside the office as she left and was gone for long minutes, during that time he posted a few pictures of the field and a picture that Lucas had snapped of him on Instagram. He followed a couple of the players on Twitter and retweeted some posts about the tryouts. He was about to leave the app as a notification among the thousands that were coming caught his attention, Vizanno followed him. And a few seconds later the door opened and the man himself and Sir Elenon got inside the room, they sat on the chair in front of to the boy's, the door closed and Isabela didn't get in.
"Isa said you wanted to talk." Said Vizanno, he was staring, it was unsettling.
"Yes, I want to know how do you feel about her managing me." Said the boy, he was trying to sound mature and sure of his words.
"As I told you yesterday, she can make things work for you, Thomas..." Said Sir but he was interrupted by Vizanno.
"You two are all buddy buddies now huh? When did the two of you talk about it yesterday?" Asked the man and Sir eyed him annoyed.
"Lucas and I went to The House to talk some senses into his head, he didn't want to be managed by her..." the older man wanted to keep talking but once again Vizanno cut him.
"Was Lucas there two? What the hell? I just heard from her that she wanted him, for how long has this negotiation been going on? Feeling very left out, and why would you be stupid enough to not want Isa to manage you? She's the best suspicious boy..."
"Don't be so childish and stop cutting me, I want you to sign with her, you have the biggest potential I've seen in years and she'll make sure the world will see this too." Thomas smiled and looked at Vizanno, still staring.
"She is the best, and she only deals with the best, if she thinks she can make you a star... Go for it, I think you should." Said the man and Thomas nodded. He thanked the players and left the room.
"Isa, get the papers ready, we have a new star being cared by you from now on." Said Vizanno loud and the woman smiled, she went and hugged the boy and he didn't enjoy it that much. She said how happy she was and she accompanied him to the cafeteria where her husband was having a happy conversation with Tim who laughed all the time.
"He likes you, Thomas." Said Isabela and the boy looked at her. "He acted this eager to help a tryout only once before." She said and Thomas got curious.
"When?"
"When he was a tryout too and he thought that Vizanno was going to blew his chances. He helped Vizanno be the star he is today and Teddy appreciates it more than anything, the man was a very scared boy, and tried to impress the older ones by been stupid, when Lucas made him see things clearer and said to me it would be nice to try to manage him things started to change, the rest everybody knows."
"So the two of you are like a team? Recruiting lost cases and making them famous and rich?" Asked Thomas and she laughed,
"Oh no, you are so different from Vizanno, he didn't have confidence in himself at all, he didn't see how good he was and that was a huge thing, Lucas had to make sure he realized this, and when he did I made sure the world was seeing! Lucas just like his friends."

On Friday the boys had to play with the players again. They were better, and they were pushing hard, they had a new game on the following Saturday and they wanted to give their best. They had a different network crew filming their training and the players were also playing hard.
Thomas and Marcus were the best players working as a team, they knew where the other was and they were fast, the defense was having a hard time to pick up the two of them and they were loving it.
Marcus dribbled the left full back player and as another one showed up and was preparing to tackle him he passed to Thomas. The boy received it with his sloppy foot and ran forward. He kicked the ball to the farthest corner, feeling the goalkeeper to close to the other side.
Thomas scored. The first tryout to score during that season, all the 28 other tryouts jumped out in cheers, they ran to the boy that smiled the biggest smile he could manage. Their coach was jumping with happiness, it didn't matter that they were losing by 7 points, the game showed progress and they all wanted to celebrate. The main players not that much.
After the celebration ended the players got back to their positions and as soon as the assistant coach blew the whistle the tryouts advanced as strong as they could and the players were mad. They were pushing back easily and stopping the attack like they were a bunch of kids.
Thomas was close to the goalie square, two backs defensive players were a few feet behind him and some of his teammates crossed the ball through the air to him, he prepared to receive it, he even smiled but a sharp pain in his leg made him change his focus instantaneously. He looked as in slow motion he got to the grass, he tried to touch it but the pain on his leg area was too hard and he just moaned, he saw the other players getting closer to him, Vizanno was the first one and instead of heading for the boy he went to the other person close to Thomas, the main team starting goalkeeper Fred was getting up with a happy smirk on his face, Teddy Vizanno went for him and shoved him with both hands on his chest.
"What the hell are you doing! Are you crazy?" He screamed and Tim was next to Thomas and so was Lucas. Sir was close but he went for Fred and Vizanno and shouted some things to both players, as the captain he had the power to make them behave, he said some things to Fred and lead Vizanno away from the goalkeeper.
"Stay put..." Was the only thing he heard Lucas saying and then the team's nurses were hauling him inside. He couldn't touch the ground without feeling the painful bolts of ache.
The boy laid on his back as they examined his ankle, his shin, and his foot, his shin pad protected him, but his ankle was swollen, it got all the impact and it hurt like hell.
After longs minutes that he hated that he had to be there the team official doctor was staring at the boy blank-faced.
"You haven't fractured anything, which is good, but you'll have to be careful with this leg of yours for a couple of days, no pressure and definitely no soccer until Monday when I'll check it again." Said the man and Thomas laughed.
"You must be confused Doctor, I can't, I'll play tomorrow, it's the first away game and I can't sit another game out... What can you do?" Asked the boy.
"I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait, there are few things that we can't force and that's how fast and well your body heal, on Monday I'll see how your ankle is..."
Thomas didn't believe what was happening, for some cruel joke he wouldn't be playing in the second game, he would once again be seeing his friends play and not be able to live the experience.

Back to the common area the boy was moping around in the game room, while his teammates played games the boy watched tv. The sport channel was talking about the footage of Fred colliding with him, the boy wondered how could they edit everything so fast and air it, but as he saw the malice in the way the goalkeeper moved, and how he didn't try to stop the collision, he wanted to hurt the other one and Thomas hated seeing that. Fred was the best goalkeeper the team had in years, his substitute was also very good and had been with the team since the last try out, the starting player was definitely part of the top 5 on the team, Sir, Vizanno, Lucas, Fred and their best back defender Loras, the fact that Fred had deliberately hurt him wasn't a good sign for being popular with the players.
Sky got to the room and he turned the tv off, he wasn't going to be a pessimist about the whole thing.