Blood, Sweat and Tears | My submission to the 2023 Apollo awards

Nico hurt. Everywhere. His legs, his back, but especially his heart. It had taken him 10 years to train and get to this level, and he made so many sacrifices along the way. But was it worth it?

It was raining. Again. Was London always this gloomy? It seemed that recently the weather was terrible as often  as possible. Nico sighed to himself before getting ready for the next forward to take his penalty. More often than not, Nico would spend the entire practice standing, crouched in the net, hoping for someone to shoot it somewhere other than directly at him, or 3 feet to the side. His boots cramped his feet and his gloves were wet, effectively freezing his hands. His thin jersey didn't do much to fend off the cold. Thwack! The Italian looked up, and seeing the ball hurtling towards him, calmly reached his hands out and caught it, hardly even moving. The coach decided to end practice, as the forwards "couldn't see". Nico knew it was just an excuse for their shit-poor playing, as they couldn't see in front of their own nose on a good day. He threw on a black hoodie over top of his clothes and went to his hotel room. Nico refused to buy a house in London, even though he had moved there from Italy over 2 years ago. After his mom died and his dad left him, he needed a way to get money, in order to live. So he chose football. For years he poured all his energy into football, learning how to best play every position. He tried out for his top ones, striker, keeper and defensemen. London wanted a keeper. So they got Nico. Only once did Nico wish he chose something else. Will. Will was his best friend, and Nico lived with him for many years. When they were 17, Will, his mother Naomi and his sister Kayla moved to Texas, while Nico stayed in Italy. Now, Nico is 24, with decent money. Will, also 24, moved to New York. He met a guy named Percy, and they started dating. Nico stopped his contemplation of life to go to sleep, so that he wouldn't be up all night crying over lost love.
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After practice the next day, the coach called Nico into his office.
-"Hello di Angelo" coach Hedge said
-"Hello coach, what can I do for you?" He asked
-"I wanted you to know that we are going abroad for a tournament next month."
-"Where to?"
-"New York"
-"Is that all?"
-"I want you to be the captain."
-"I'm honoured coach Hedge, thank you so much."
Nico made to leave the room
-"And kid..." Gleeson said, "take care of yourself. I would hate for my star player to be hurt."
-"thank you coach"
-"None of that, call me Gleeson, at least when we aren't in front of the others."
-"Thank you Gleeson"
-"No problem kid"
Exiting the office, Nico wondered if he would get to see Will again. That night, he scrolled down to the bottom of his conversations. Will Solace. The only person he's ever loved. He decided to try and start a conversation with him. "Hi, Will" he shook his head, deciding it was too formal. "Hi, Long time no speak". Too distant. "Hi, I think I love you ." No. Too sappy. He settled for a simple hi. He waited for a minute, and seconds before he was going to turn off his phone and go to sleep, three little dots popped up. Nico held in his breath, as if scared they would disappear. Nico looked at the message. "Hi Neeks", he had said. Will remembered him!
-"Will, how are you? We haven't spoken in so long!"
-"Can you call me?"
-"Of course!"
Nico hit the dial button. It didn't have the chance to ring before Will picked up.
-"Neeks, how are you?"
-"Surviving, my team isn't very good though. But that's not important. How are you?"
Will hesitated before responding.
-"I'm- ok."
-"What happened?" Nico asked worriedly
-"You know that Percy guy that I was dating for the last 4 years?"
-"Yeah, but what do you mean "was"?"
-"We broke up earlier today."
Nico was celebrating in his head. Not because his friend was unhappy, but because now he had a shot at him.
-"I'm so sorry Will."
-"It's okay. I didn't mean to bring this meeting down."
-"I'm always here for you to talk to, even if we haven't spoken in 2 years."
-"Do either of us have good news?"
-" I do, actually! My team has a tournament in New York that we are going to, and I might be able to see you again!"
-"That's great! It is past midnight for you though, you need to sleep."
-"I know, I know."
-"Goodnight Neeks"
-"G'night Will"
As the young Italian drifted to sleep, his dreams were full of Will, and only Will.
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"Last call to board flight to John F. Kennedy airport" Nico stepped onto the plane. He said hello to the flight attendant, as it seemed the right thing to do. Nico had never been on an airplane before, due to his fear of flights. But, it was the only way to get to New York, so he would suffer through it, just to see Will. The plane ride was slow. Or, it at least felt that way to Nico. In reality, it was only a few hours, but every second stretched itself to seem longer, as if they didn't want Nico to see Will. The London harpies' keeper  was awake the whole time, unable to sleep, even on a red-eye flight. Nico didn't need to sleep anyways. He planned on sleeping an entire day before meeting up with Will, and, not that he would admit it, taking extra care when getting dressed, trying to look his best for Will. Sometime during the flight, someone came over to ask if he wanted something to eat or drink. Nico got a coke, then looked at his playbook. Usually, he wouldn't do this, but Coach Gleeson wanted to try out some other keepers, so Nico would be getting some playing time as striker. Plus, as captain, he would be expected to help out his team with the plays, as their shitty memory would definitely kick in. When he looked at the competition, his heart stopped. The Barcelona Titans, the most feared European football club, was participating. Not only that, but The New York Demigods, a very talented team, with their star right wing Percy Jackson. Wait... Nico thought he had heard that name before. Turning back to the competition sheet, Nico saw a couple more good teams, such as The Los Angeles Furies, The Liverpool Cyclopes, The Houston Centaurs, and many more. Finding out that they were in the B seed was a relief, no way Nico's team could win against teams like the titans and demigods, right?
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It was Monday, and Nico had gotten to his hotel room yesterday, well past midnight. After spending a considerable amount of time sleeping to be ready to meet Will, he was ready. The boys decided to go get breakfast at a nearby café, and Nico was headed there at the exact moment that Will texted him, saying : "you didn't forget about breakfast right?" Nico simply responded:"I'll be there in 5" 4 minutes and 42 seconds later, Nico arrived. Taking a second to catch his breath, he readied himself. Walking into the café and smelling food, Nico looked around for a familiar mop of blonde hair, and he saw his Will. Wait, his Will? Where did that come from?
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Hours later, Nico found himself at practice with the harpies, except on the other side of the ball. That's right, Coach Hedge was making him practice his offence on the backup keeper. It's not that Nico didn't like Daniel, it's just that he wasn't nearly as good at stopping the ball as him. That being said, nobody is as good as him. Nico decided to have a bit of fun, so he put some spin on the next free kick he made, then shot it directly at Daniel. Daniel, falling for the bait, didn't move, and reached out, almost lazily, to catch it. Once it got near Daniel though, the ball veered sharply to the left of the goal. 17 shots in, only one stopped. Not bad, he thought to himself. Nico knew that soon enough, he would be on the opposite side of the field for the scrimmage. But again, Coach Hedge had a different idea. " Listen up Harpies! Scrimmage time. Team captains will be the strikers, di Angelo and Harvey!"
Nico was confused, as they hardly had another keeper, but seemingly, coach Hedge wanted to play. Nico ended up with a better team, but the old guy did amazingly behind the ball, letting nothing through. When practice ended, Nico trudged back home, feeling miffed from the loss. When he looked at his phone however, it was replaced with thoughts of Will, and all worries of the football tournament coming up were forgotten.
Will was perfect. How could Nico expect to be loved by him? Nico was just a small Italian boy with no family or friends, and Will was a hotshot country musician.
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The next day was the first games of the tournament. Will had come to cheer on Nico, who was playing keeper for the first round. The Harpies beat The Chimaeras 3-0, and got a buy to the semifinals. Nico did nothing notable the first game. He couldn't help but wonder if it was worth it. He could have moved to New York with Will, gotten an office job, and lived an average life.
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The Hydra won the second semifinal spot, so they would play The Harpies. Because of the stellar keeper on the other end, Coach Hedge made Nico play striker. The score was a much closer 5-4 win for The Harpies. Between games, Nico liked to hang out with Will, even asking him on a date, if his team won it all. It was going to be hard, seeing as they had to face either the NY Demigods or the Liverpool Titans. Will agreed saying, "You guys only have one player, and you can't play everywhere at once, Nico"
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The game between the NY Demigods and Liverpool Titans went to a shoot out, in which Percy Jackson won it all for his team, scoring the only goal of the match. So Nico had to face his crush's ex. Great.
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Coach Hedge called a team meeting the next day, sharing the game plan and the positions for the next match against New York's best. "di Angelo - keeper, can't let that pesky Percy Jackson score on us" Nico zoned out after that, daydreaming of Will Solace. What Will had said was true, Nico was by far the best player on the team, while the rest were average at best. The Italian was brought back to reality when all his teammates looked at him, expecting a motivational speech. Nico cleared his throat, and said "I know that we may not have the best players. We may not be the best team in the tournament. But tomorrow, we will go out there and beat the only team that has ever beaten our rivals, The Titans, because that was our right. It was our right to beat them, and now we will take our revenge." Nico paused to take a breath. "HARPIES ON THREE! ONE! TWO! THREE! 'HARPIES'" everyone cheered. Nico met up with Will outside, they spent the walk back to Will's car chatting, and when he dropped Nico off at his hotel, Will secretly wanted to do nothing more then kiss him, but he held himself back, thinking it wasn't right to do that to him. Will didn't know, however, that Nico's thoughts mirrored his. "Bye Neeks", Will said. "See you tomorrow. I expect you to beat my bitch of an ex's ass." Nico laughed, "of course I will" he said, much more confidently then he felt.
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"The Captain for The London Harpies, Nico di Angelo has gone out to meet the captain of The New York Demigods' captain Perseus Jackson. They will do a coin flip to decide which team will get to start with possession. We go down to the referee now." The announcer, Chiron said. "Harpies, call it in the air" the referee said. "Heads" Nico yelled. "The London Harpies will start with possession." Nico shook Jackson's hand and walked back to his goal. The match started well, Nico made quite a few wonderful saves, keeping the other team to nothing, while his forwards managed to give away the ball on all of their pushes forwards, leading to coach Hedge pulling them aside and making a decision that could make or break the game. He pulled Daniel from striker, and put him in the goal, while putting Nico to the striker position. Now into the second half, they were trusting Daniel and the half-assed defence to stop Jackson and his girlfriend, the two main goal-scorers on their team. The coach's plan seemingly worked though, as Nico stole the ball from Jackson, dribbled past the defence and beat the opposing keeper. 1-nil. Jackson didn't fall for the same trick twice though, and simply waited for Nico to move towards him before launching himself around Nico, and moving towards the net, passing the ball to the other forward, Jason Grace. "Grace passes to Chase, Chase to Jackson, Jackson back to Chase, Chase to Grace, JASON GRACE WITH THE SHOT, BLOCKED BY DANIEL FOSTER! Ball passed to Harvey, Harvey to di Angelo, pass to Stoll, who passes to Stoll, Stoll to di Angelo, and he shoots, he scores! It is now 2 - nil in favour of the Harpies!" Back to the kickoff circle, Nico thought. Only 20 more minutes, we can do this. Not long after that, Annabeth Chase scored. So Nico had possession. He turned around to see Jackson hurtling towards him, and Nico braced himself for impact. Instead, Jackson had merely nicked the ball from him, and was moving towards the net again. Now it was 2-2. Then 3-2. Then 4-2. Then 5-2. Now Nico found himself down 3, with ten minutes left. Looks like the coach's strategy wasn't any good, and now they were down 5-2 in the semifinals.  Nico cleared his head, took the kickoff. "Stoll up to Stoll, Stoll to di Angelo, di Angelo to Stoll, Travis Stoll scores!" The announcer said. "Great," Nico thought, "only three more to win." Jackson went to pass to his girlfriend, but Nico intercepted it, kicking it up the field towards Connor Stoll, and he wasted no time in burying it in the top corner. Two more. "Chase to Jackson, Jackson to Grace, Grace to- INTERCEPTED BY DI ANGELO! Di Angelo, moving up the field, in a one on one with McLean, -Daughter of famous movie star Tristan McLean- in between the legs! It is now tied at 5, what a great underdog story for the harpies!" Chiron was known for lively commentary, and he certainly hadn't changed today. Nico had to tune out the man in order to focus on the match. Coach Hedge called a timeout, putting Nico back in goal, and trusting the Stolls to score another goal. The rest of the game was going well, Nico stopping all offensive attempts from the opposing team. The match went to a shootout, as neither team had scored. Nico was registered as the third forward to shoot, and would keep their net aswell. First shot was taken by Annabeth Chase, who attempted to sink it in the top right corner, but Nico made an amazing stop to avoid a goal. Connor advanced and pretended to kick it as hard as he could, but instead hit a soft knuckler to the Keeper. Piper McLean took her shot, and if it hadn't been a bit further then she had wanted, the Demigods would be up 1. Travis had a different strategy then his brother. Travis ran at the ball, and kicked it as hard as he could, lacking accuracy but making up for it in speed. However, the shot was a bit wide, wasting an opportunity for the Harpies. Percy Jackson, the best striker in the tournament moved to take his shot and tried to fake Nico out. Nico didn't fall for it, and when Percy tried to shoot it to the opposite side, Nico caught it easily. Nico had to make a shot. One shot, and it was over. Nico didn't remember this moment, and if you asked him today, he would tell you that "nothing was going through my mind, at least that I can remember. That day is a bit blurry for me, even now." He kicked the ball, closed his eyes, and when he heard the crowd yell, he looked over, and saw Percy Jackson with his head in his hands. Nico and the harpies had won. The tournament, and the title of 'World Champions' was theirs. Nico looked out to the crowd, and found Will's blond mop of hair running towards him. When he got to Nico, he hugged him, and Nico went for it. "Will, can I tell you something?" He asked. "Of course" Will replied. Nico took a deep breath and said "I think I love you"