Chapter 5:

Useless (1)

Link-Up-Play


After Joe helped Eric buy his sandwich, he brought his sandwich too... Eric and Joe sat together in the plain old cafeteria eating their sandwiches together, bread was hella dry pretty sure the goldfish died and the bacon was pretty plain as usual like vanilla ice-cream and the sausage was decent for school cafeteria food...

''So you are that Eric everyone's been talking about''

''que (what)''  Eric thought 

''I can see that you are a exchange student from a foreign country, where are you from?'' Joe questioned Eric ''How great, crazy and ridiculous is that pass of yours?'' 

''I pass ok, I play in football academy in Spain'' 

''Which academy'' 

''... Real Madrid'' 

''Wait Eric is a Real Madrid academy player'' Joe was puzzled 

''Other peoples pass better''

''So he's only okay at passing compared to other Real Madrid academy players'' Joe thought ''Maybe he isn't as good as I thought, why were people hyping him up so much though...''

The blaring bell started going... Joe and Eric went on apart their separate ways... but they both had PE (Physical Education) together, so Eric went the wrong direction and wandered around like a lost child in a theme park, but he eventually spoke to a teacher about directions

''Where is PE?'' Eric questioned to the teacher 

''It's outside, you go straight pass through the cafeteria out to the sports hall'' Teacher answered & gave directions for Eric 

''Oh thank you'' 

Eric rushed down with wind flowing past the empty cafeteria at rapid speed his breathing was heavy, straight into the changing rooms to get changed into his PE Kit which was a light blue colour reminiscent of the sky above. 

As Eric goes into the sports hall it was a reasonable size, boxy shape and the lights were pretty damn bright Eric's eyes were squinting, he noticed that everyone was sitting down on the hardwood floor, waiting for what the PE Teacher and also the football teams Coach, were going to say next... 

''Eric why are you so late'' PE Teacher asked

''I was lost, sorry'' Eric responded '' have to get use to place''

''Alright Eric join in, sit on the floor'' Coach replied

'' So the boys are going to play football outside and the girls will play Volleyball in here'' 

All the boys filled with excitement, whereas with the girls they just continued with their conversation amongst each other. There were in total 60 students and 30 of them are boys and 30 of them are girls... The boys went with the Football teams coach to play football and the girls stayed in the sports hall with the PE Teacher to play Volleyball.

Focusing on the Football this is not a Volleyball novel... maybe next time

The boys rushed out the blue push backdoor of the sport hall, the temperature was reasonably average for spring currently mid June, fairly windy with dark clouds, ready to rain the next day... classic England.

They strolled, some ran with excitement towards the AstroTurf pitches... These AstroTurf pitches were not too exciting, pretty average it did feel like you were walking on sandpaper.

''Everyone go run a lap to warm up'' Coach demanded

All running a lap around the AstroTurf pitches at a average pace usually with their friend groups, also not getting them highly exhausted before the games. 

''Do dynamic and static stretches with your group'' 

They all did their stretches in a group of five usually compiling of their friend groups, as Joe, Ruben, Austin and John were in one group with Eric also joining in the group as well. Michael, Dean and Jacob were also in this PE class, but they were in other groups.

''I can finally witness how good this Eric guy is''  Joe thought

''Everyone come in, line up in ability order''

The line was very random, with some people distinctively lying about their ability to play football putting them worse than what they really are... Ruben and Austin the dynamic duo for Auriel Academy were at the front of the line whereas Joe always placed himself right in the middle of the line with John, Michael, Dean and Jacob all lined in front of him usually a couple players in front. 

This is due to some players being actually better with having more talent than the people within the football team, but they either lived far away or didn't want to participate in after school club activities.

But...

Eric did not know where to place himself in ability order so he just stood there still like a tree, he is obviously confused about this ability order malarkey as Spain didn't have any of this.  

''Eric you can go in between John and Michael'' 

As Coach didn't want Eric to get nervous about picking out other players yet.

''Hmm so Eric is better than Michael but not as good as Captain  John''  Joe viewed 

''Alright time to start picking out the teams, there will be three teams the captains will have two picks each and I'll put in the rest of the players randomly...''

''Ruben, Austin and John will be the Captains''

Ruben had the first pick...

''I'm gonna pick Joe of course'' 

Even though there were better players he picked his best friend Joe to anchor the midfield, there were of course better options as Michael was available. 

Austin had second pick...

''I'll go with Jacob, I need good hands protecting that goal'' 

Austin went for first team goalkeeper Jacob, which was smart decision to get a keeper to secure that position right away.

John had third pick... 

''I'll go with Dean and Michael''

John picked Dean for that rock solid defence at the back, and going familiarity over change is better. With the pick of Dean he had to pick Michael for that combination, as Dean and Michael are great friends that obviously play well together.

Austin then picks Eric by looking at ability order he was the best option remaining.

Ruben went for a student that played goalkeeper to finish off the picks.

''Ruben is team 1, Austin is team 2, John is team 3'' 

''I'll assign you all a number and you go to that team... 1,2,3,''

Coach went on with that 7 times until everyone was assigned a team. 

With all the teams ready up with 10 people on each team, one team would sit out or train on the other pitch.

''The first game would be Team 1 vs Team 3'' 

Ruben and Joe VS John, Dean and Michael... 

---

Character List For Useless (1)

Auriel Academy 

Main Characters

Joe (CAM/CM)

Ruben (RW/RF

Eric (RB)

Side Characters

John (CB)

Austin (ST)

Michael (CAM/CM)

Dean (CB)

Jacob (GK)

PE Teacher

Coach

Random Teacher