Post Olympic

Five on Five

hi, wow, this chapter is pretty damn short.

Also, intro to hockey terms right here 'cause I start to use them in this chapter

Grinder: a big guy who isn't amazing, and is used to agitate opponents

Duster: a guy that collects dust on the bench

-rabid

oh shoot, music. This doesn't match as well, but this energy is very Wolves pregame warmup: Everything Black - Unlike Pluto, Mike Taylor. 

alright, for real this time

-rabid

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"Sauerkraut, Ireland." I point to the two boys and they give me their attention. I've got a soccer ball between my feet. "Captains pick teams. Ireland first."

"Yeti." He blurts. Yeti looks over, and then wanders past me.

Håkon Rex. That's his name. I misspell it probably too much on lists, but that's okay, he wouldn't mind. The longer I know him, the gentler he gets.

"Greenbean." Sauerkraut waves up his line mate, Ben Douglass.

"Pikachu."

"Popcorn,"

"Langly."

"Keegan."

They finish up the teams and I look at both sides. Ireland picked the biggest guys on the team. He's got the grinders. 

Sauerkraut got the small guys, mostly. He picked the dusters and the quiet guys.  I give him a weird look for it and he just shrugs.

"You know the rules of soccer, right?" I chuckle a bit. Most of the guys nod. "Right. Starting lines out, pick lines, shift as necessary. I'm the ref and you will listen to me. Goals are on the far sides..." Ireland raises his hand.

"This field is too big for five on five." He interrupts.

"Well, all the better for conditioning." I toss the ball up and spin it on my fingers.

"It's way too big. Nothing is going to happen."

"That sounds like a you problem." I scoff. "Starters on the field." Sauerkraut leads his five out, Ireland as well. I chuckle and just throw the ball on from the sidelines. Screw this whole official start thing.

"Go!" I holler. The boys start running and kicking. None of them are good, but some are more skilled than others. Greenbean shocks me as one of the better players. Yeti is okay, Keegan is good. I run back and forth with them, calling plays and goals and everything that needs to be called.

Three hours later, the boys are soaked and shaking from exhaustion. Sauerkraut's hair is drenched and Ireland's shirt has become one with his skin.

"Alright, that's all for today," I call the game and they gather around me. "I made notes for most of you on the game yesterday, and I'll email those out. If you want help with whatever it is, find me before next game." They grab their stuff off the field and wander back into the building.

"That was the most fun I've had at a practice with you this whole time," Sauerkraut catches up to me.

"I saw you picked nothing but dusters."

"We won didn't we?"

"Still want to know why you didn't get any of the big guys."

"You can't toss people around in soccer. So I picked guys that don't."

"You won because I called all of Ireland's players for checking." I raise my eyebrows at him.

"See."

"Yes." I chuckle a bit and look over at him. "You smell awful,"

"Yeah, and I'm about to take a freezing cold shower," I have to laugh at this, every morning of mine starts with basically ice running down my back.

"No kidding,"