Carson Messi

Chapter Twenty-One

"Why weren't you at school?" Miles asks as I enter the training ground, just as he exits the locker room.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I reply. I tie my hair up into a ponytail then tie my cleats.

Miles rolls his eyes. "Try me? I'm talking to Lionel Messi's niece."

"I was picking someone up from the airport." I answer.

"Who?" He asks curiously.

"You'll meet that person tomorrow. Now stop asking me questions before I shave off all of your pretty brown hair." I say.

Miles clings to his brown hair dramatically. "You wouldn't!"

He's already got the soccer players attitude. The standard soccer haircut every footballer seems to love and cherish. The haircut is like a not-so-secret secret to soccer teams.

Coach calls us over to him so we, and the rest of the guys, crowd around the middle aged man.

"Today Carson will be practicing with the forwards, forwards will practice with West, and defenders and Jared are with me." He says. "So get where you need to be because we have to get ready for our first official game of the season." Everyone cheers enthusiastically at the mention of our game.

Once we've been dismissed, the attacking midfielders and forwards, plus me, head over to Coach West who has a box in front of his feet.

"Hey kiddos." He greets. Kiddos? He's only 4 or 5 years older than us. "Today I'm passing out your jerseys. You get two, one for home and one for away games. And I have Carson's goalkeeper jersey." He says.

He reads a few things off his clipboard then opens the box. We watch him as he pulls one out.

"Miles." He calls. "Number Ten."

He proceeds to call out more numbers.

"Carson. Number Eleven." He says, holding up a maroon jersey that looked identical to Miles.

"Why do I get normal jerseys?" I ask, taking the two jerseys along with my long sleeved goalkeeping one.

"Because Coach Leeper said." He bluntly replies before continuing. "Derek you're number nine."

West literally annoys the crap out of me. He couldn't have been more polite and answered me like a decent human being?

After he hands all the jerseys out, and we put them in our bags, we actually start practice.

"Today we're going to do conditioning," West says. "So everyone lay on your backs because first you have crunches."

I love crunches. If you'd asked me if I liked them a year ago, I would start crying and tell you to stop ruining my life. But after working on it, I actually have a strong core.

"Start and don't stop until I tell you to." West says.

I crunch and I crunch and I crunch and I crunch until my insides feel like they're exploding from the inside out.

"Okay. Switch to planking." He says.

Grumbling quietly, I flip over and hold myself up. I make sure to stay flat so West can't point out that I'm doing something wrong.

"Side planks." He calls.

I move over to my right arm and hold myself up. I count in my head whilst looking at the back of Nate's shirt. It was some band shirt I've never heard of.

I'm look up to see West on his phone. He doesn't even notice us suffering.

"Switch." He says without looking up.