Mark grinned. "Hey! Axel!"
He didn't even care about how rude Axel had been this morning. Starting at a new school was hard. Maybe he'd had anxiety the night before and couldn't sleep. Maybe that's why he didn't want to talk.
Axel turned around and stared at Mark. He almost looked amused. He then turned around and looked at the view. It was beautiful. That was the original reason Mark had started to come to this hill too.
Axel started to walk away. Mark chased after him.
"Great spot, eh?"Mark smiled. "I've loved coming up here since forever! Anyways did you hear? We have a big game against Royal next week!"
Axel looked horrified and raised his eyebrows. He gritted his teeth and looked uncomfortable.
Mark noticed but kept going. "We still only have 7 players. Officially anyway. We've been trying to recruit more, but nobody around here seems to have a passion for soccer. Not like me anyway. Even though you do seem to have a passion. Not just anyone is able to kick like that you know."
Axel's expression had went back to looking blank.
"Would you reconsider? Can you please join the team? If you didn't it would be such a waste of an awesome kick. I got goosebumps when I saw it for the first time,"Mark said earnestly.
Axel turned away and looked into the distance.
"I know you must have your reasons for quitting, but you can't hate soccer. You can't! Your kick had way too much passion!"
Axel turned back and looked at Mark.
"You talk a lot, huh?"
"I just want to play soccer with you! If we teamed up........"Mark smiled and thought about it. "It would be so cool!"
Axel gave Mark a dirty look and hopped the fence. He turned back to look at him.
"Just don't talk to me anymore,"he spat.
"Just please tell me why you kicked the ball if you hate it so much!"Mark yelled after him.
Axel looked sad and annoyed. "Just leave me alone."
He walked away and Mark stared at him. What did Axel have against him, anyway.
"WHATEVER!"Mark yelled after him. "I DON'T CARE!"
He felt stupid. He did care. A stupid amount for a boy he met a little over 24 hours ago.
Mark decided to use his anger for training.
*******
The tire smacked Mark in the face for the millionth time. He just lay on the floor for a while. He needed a break.
"Your training routine is nuts!"he heard a voice.
He secretly hoped it was Axels, but it was slightly higher and actually had emotions in it, unlike Axels flat voice.
Mark lifted himself off the ground. It was Nathan, the guy on the track and field team he had talked to earlier that day.
"Oh, hi, Nathan."
"It's a really weird way to train. But I think it's cool,"Nathan laughed. "Where did you get the idea?"
Mark handed him his grandpas notebook.
"This is just scribbles, though?"Nathan giggled. "You can actually read this?"
"My grandpa wrote it."
"Oh."Nathan said.
"He used to be the coach of Raimon's soccer club. If anybody's going to help me stop Royal's shots, it's him,"Mark looked at the stars.
"Wow, you really want to beat them, don't you?"Nathan smiled.
Nathan extended his hand and grinned. Mark looked confused.
"What?"
"I like you. I'm in!"he grinned.
Mark grinned and shook his hand enthusiastically.
The rest of the team emerged from behind the trees.
"We've got a new member!"Mark yelled, before he collapsed under the weight of the tire.
They all laughed.
"I think I overdid it!"Mark laughed.
"You'll die of exhaustion before we even get to the game,"Kevin laughed.
"I didn't organise this you know,"Nathan said,"They were all here before I got here."
"Yeah,"said Steve. "You've got us all fired up. We're going to try harder to help you and Sylvia recruit people now."
"We absolutely need to win this game!"Timmy put a fist in the air.
"Can we try your training method?"Todd asked.
Mark wasn't used to this praise and enthusiasm from his team, so he went red. "Of course you can! LET'S DO IT!"