Fairy Tales Never Come True

FTNCT |Chapter 12|

"Sorry guys, I have to go or I'm going to be late." I waved back at them but they both didn't respond. It was as if they were in their own world.

That was absolutely weird.

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After school as I headed to my locker I realized that it was almost 3:45 pm. Nick had asked me to meet him around 3:55 so if I wanted to be there on time, I would need to hurry. The only reason I was so short on time was because Mrs. Malone had kept me longer review my essay. I had nearly failed getting a 65%. My parents would kill me but since this was Mrs. Malone we were talking about, she had taken pity on me and had given me another chance to redeem my mark. Thank God for that.

I raced through the hallways hoping to reach the basement level on time. The hallways weren't nearly as packed as most of the students had hade home. As I ran out of the corner of my eye I spotted Scarlett. She waved at me.

I stopped for a second panting, "Got to go- practice with Nick."

She nodded satisfied with my response but I still saw the smirk on her face. She would totally be questioning me later. I reached the gym floors and opened the doors to enter at the same time someone was opening them to exit. It was Dillon again.

"Hey." He muttered gruffly.

I replied to his greeting and brushed past him. It seemed that fate had intertwined many meeting between the two of us. It was getting pretty annoying if I did say so myself. Nick was already in the gymnasium doing keep-ups with a soccer ball.

I stopped to watch him. He wasn't wearing cleats yet the ball seemed to be flawlessly going up in the air and returning to the base of his toes. I could definitely say that Nick would be the next soccer captain after Dillon graduated.

I warmed up right away since I didn't have any other clothes to change into. Nick watched me quietly from the edge of the bench. Occasionally he would speak and comment on how to stretch my body better. Normally, I would have minded but this was Nick. He didn't sound patronizing ever. It was just him trying to be helpful.

I finished stretching and looked at Nick for more instructions. He was unusually quiet and wasn't speaking at all. His grey eyes were staring at the checkered wall across from him.

"Hey you okay?" I asked. "I'm sure that the wall is less interesting than I am." I joked half-heartedly.

He didn't say anything but sighed. "Alana, I hope you were practicing for the last week."

I nodded my head to confirm a yes. Since Justin's league ran through the whole year, he and I had been practising in our garage. Yes our garage. That was until Mom found us hitting the wall constantly and dropping all of Dad's hammers. She wasn't too happy but it wasn't like we could practice outside in the freezing Canadian winter.

"Okay then, let's start off with the most basic drills." He placed small orange cones on the ground. "Weave your way through them. A sweeper must have uttermost control when handling the ball."

He kicked me a ball and I started the drill. I got through most of the cones but went wary on a couple.

Nick pointed those one out to me. "Keep the ball in the inside of your foot, it allows for more precise control."

"Okay but what if my foot goes wary?" I asked.

"Then use the outside of your foot for the same thing. It doesn't make much of a difference."

After we finished that drill Nick made me kick the ball to him as hard as I could from various positions. "Accurate kicks are needed if you are going to kick to the mid-fielders," he said.

At first I was scared that I was going to hit him. I had terrible aim but a powerful kick. Not the ideal thing for defenders, especially a sweeper. Nick guided me on using the top part of my toe to kick the ball and then have my left on where to aim it. The problem was that I kept toe punting.

"Alana, remember to use the top part of your feet, on your toes." Nick repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time.

I sighed in response. "I know I'm sorry it's just a bad habit."

He looked as the ball sailed past him, "take five."

"Thank you." I muttered. I drank greedily from my water bottle trying to get as much liquid as I could down my throat. Beads of sweat trickled down my forehead and I knew that I probably wasn't in the best condition.

"What was wrong with you earlier?" I asked Nick quietly. I didn't really expect a response but was surprised to get one.

"Dillon and I just got into a fight over something stupid. Don't worry, I'm over it now." He said.

I nodded but didn't say anything. "How did you a Dillon become friends anyways? Isn't he older than you?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah, he's a year older. We met when we were in elementary school. He was in grade five and I was in grade four. He used to bully one of my other friends and nobody stood up to him. One day, he went too far and actually made the poor guy cry. I had enough. I stepped up to him and punched him in the stomach."

I looked over to him in shock. There was a smile nostalgic smile playing on his lips.

"Everyone was shocked and we both had to go to the principal. We were both given detention for two weeks. At first, he hated me but we slowly noticed that we had similar interest. He loved soccer as did I. We both collected hockey cards and have legendary hard to get Pokémon cards. Ever since then, we became best friends and continued to be so still."

He clapped his hands dramatically. "Don't try to distract me Alana, now continue on with your lesson."

I groaned but stood up to do what he said. At the end of the practice I had actually stopped toe putting for a couple of kicks and surprisingly by aim was getting better too. To top it all off, before we had left Nick had said "you're going to do fine at the Christmas game." The smile never left my face.

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Are you guys excited for the Christmas game? What do you think is going to happen? Remember if you guys like the chapter, please remember to vote and comment! It could even been 1 word. Doesn't matter.