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Chapter Two

The first thing I did as we exited the tunnel onto the field, was scan the crowd. Disappointment was on the verge of ensnaring me in its icy grip had I not seen her in the front row behind the opponent's goal post. As soon as Mlle Alexis saw me she smiled and waved, I tried to return the wave and look cool at the same time but judging from her surprisingly audible giggle and her whispering to her friend and fellow teacher Ms. Geetaram... I had obviously failed. "You'll make up for it when you score" I silently promise myself as I head to meet the referee. I stepped up and shook hands with the Stingrays' captain, a burly behemoth of a goalkeeper. He wins the coin toss and opts to have the ball first.

I run back to my team to inform them of the decision as well as to ensure that they remembered the plan for my special goal. We fall into formation and await the whistle, today was definitely gonna be special. The whistle blows and the ball is passed but instead of being my normal menacing nightmare to midfielders and defenders alike I become the predator slithering around the field waiting to pounce. The Stingrays unsuspectingly made their first mistake, they tried an air through ball clearly forgetting that I'm the tallest player on the field. I trap it down with ease and pounce. I leave defenders skating past me in my wake before I cross the ball from the edge of the six yard box to Ethan who flicks in his header for the first goal. By the 40th minute I had already assisted nine more goals ensuring each member of my team had scored, although we conceded 6 goals we were comfortably in the lead.
I looked to my closest teammate and shouted "Hit 'em with the OT". He nodded and passed the message all the way back to our keeper whom we call "Double M", this goal was gonna be out of this world. They fell for our offside trap and I smile; my time had finally come. As "Double M" lined up to take the free kick I put myself in position to collect.

As the ball touches my feet everything but announcers voice is tuned out.. "It's Nico on the ball, nutmegs one player and another one and another one and another one and another one, He must really be in the holiday season with all those nutmegs. He follows up with a rollie pollie, two quick rainbows in succession. He flicks the ball up in the air and scores a beautiful bicycle kick, it's reminiscent of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2012" The roar of the crowd fills my ears, I spring to my feet, start running in Mlle Alexis' direction, point to her and make a heart with my hands over my chest. She looks at me, smiles and returns the heart.. I feel my face reddening so I put my head down.

I hang back for the remainder of the first half opting to play the more defensive role of right wing back and allowing Daniel to play up front. I look up in the crowd past Mlle Alexis and see my best friend Tegan sitting by herself (As usual, unless I'm there) with her headphones in her ear. As soon as the half time whistle blows I run off the field to go talk to her. I sprint up the stairs, sit next to her and pull out her right headphone while singing along to the Childish Gambino song playing. "Could you be any more sweaty Nico?" She says as she notices the river flowing from my face. "I mean.... if you're into that kinda stuff" I reply while jogging on the spot. She falls over on the floor giggling as I shout in a singsong voice "I made you laugh, I made you laugh". In the background I see the teams getting back on the field and I start to head down the stairs before shouting back "Hey Tegan, I'll score a goal for you". "Lol thanks Nico" she replies
I stand at the center circle and I pass the ball to Ethan to start the second half. We decided to play our flanking style of attack. I run down the left hand side and collect the ball before cutting into the penalty box. As I was about to flick in the shot their last stoppers fouls me savagely without any intent to get the ball. I fall to the floor, surprisingly in pain.... For those who don't know about my powers assume I have a really high pain tolerance but those who know about my powers know that few people can hurt me and those are people with super powers. This Sebastian guy has to be a metahuman. The ref blows the whistle, it's a penalty and a red card. I step up to take it and score with a cheeky back heel. I limp back to position as I'm still temporarily in pain. This guy is trouble, the match continues and I score another beautiful goal as I swing it in from the corner flag. I blow kisses for Tegan as she laughs and claps.

The rest of the match was a blur to me as I was focused on this Sebastian guy. When the fulltime whistle blows I begin walking towards their keeper until I saw the black mushroom cloud in the air. I focus on creating the façade that I can see through the smoke and it clears up. I squint as I'm still getting used to contacts and I noticed the same Sebastian guy shooting energy bolts from his hands..... I knew he was a metahuman...