First Match

The bright morning sun rays escaped through the curtain and came in contact with his eyes, although it was a nice feeling but it still woke him up, he gradually opened his eyes and began to recollect yesterday's events.

Everything dawned on him when looked at his alarm clock and figured out he was late, the time was 7:30am, he had thirty more minutes to get ready.

"Shit" He hurriedly got up from his bed and removed his pyjamas, he slams the door open and found his way to the bathroom, the noise he made alerts his mother who was in the kitchen preparing breakfast

"You finally awake Aoki" She asked but got no reply. All she could hear was the sizzling sound of the shower in the bathroom.

After two minutes the bathroom door slams open as Aoki rushes out with a white towel wrapped around his torso. "Good morning mom" He said as he rushed in to his room

'Rare seeing him this lively' His mother thought to herself as she begins to arrange the food on the dining table, "Breakfast is ready" Her voice echoed signalling both father and son

His father comes out from their bedroom and finds his way to the dining, "Oho this looks delicious" He exclaims rubbing his palm together. He makes his way to the meal but was interrupted by his lovely wife

"What!" He whines like a little baby, "We have to wait for Aoki" She said

Aoki's father immediately lost all patience, and with a shout called his name "Aoki, get down here immediately"

"I'm coming Dad" Aoki comes out from his room looking tattered and messy

"Come let's eat" His father said, "Don't worry about me you guys go on" Aoki attempts to leave the house but was stopped by his mother

"You have to eat, today is your big day right, you need to have a strong body, so eat up" She said

Aoki was shocked he never told anyone that he had a match today, even his father he was more open with "How did you…"

Before Aoki could finish she pointed at the fridge, there was a calendar on it, and he marked today as the D-DAY, Aoki still had the placing and marking stuff on the fridge.

"So Aoki, you have to sit down and eat," She said. Aoki didn't have a choice he obediently sat down and began to eat

"Finally" His father exclaimed and began to eat.

Minutes passed and Aoki was finally done with the meal, the time was 7:48am.

"There is no helping it, I'm late" He sighed and began to walk to school

As he approached Hanko's house, the door opened and Hanko came out.

"Good morning Hanko-chan" Aoki greeted

"Oh Aoki-kun, Good morning"

"And here I thought I was running late" Aoki stated

"Late?? Says who? We have a match today, we have free entry to the school premises any time we want, even if we don't want to go to school you can still go to the location where the match will hold" Hanko quoted

"No wonder Shota-senpai always arrives at twelve in the afternoon"

"Exactly. Well then, now you are here, I have a job for you" Hanko opened her bag and brought a piece of paper and written on it was some items.

"Hmm what's that?" Aoki asked while stretching his neck to take a peek

"These are stuffs we'll need for today's match" She said and hands Aoki the paper

Aoki collected it and carefully went through the listed items "Liquid Glucose, Tape, Bottle water. I thought the school was meant to provide all this stuff"

"They are, but it's best to go prepared" Hanko flashed Aoki a wink

After some minutes of walking they arrived at a convenient store, they casually walked in and began to search the shelves separately.

"Here!" Hanko alerts Aoki, she had found the Glucose and Bottled water now its remaining tapes, but luckily it didn't take long for them to spot it. After going round the place they arrived at the cashier to pay the bills finally they were done and went straight to school

***

It was 9:30 and the school is already in the second period of studies and there are two more periods before break.

Everyone were gathered in the locker room changing up to their tracksuits, Eita was already dressed while waiting for Aoki, Aoki was dressed too but he was getting his stuffs ready and was about to put his boots into his bag

"Wait a moment Aoki" Kobayashi calls out stunning Aoki

"What is it?" Aoki asked

"Those boots… those boots"

Aoki was becoming more insecure. "Yes, these boots??"

"That is the Nike Mercurial Superfly Elite, that is the rarest pair of boots to ever exist, who ever gave you that boot really loves you" Kobayashi said with tears I'm his eyes

'Damn and I got it as a common Item' Aoki looks at the boot again before putting it into his bag

The team were ready and prepared to move, the match was scheduled by 10:30am, figures why Shota was early.

The big school bus was ready as the team began to board the bus their destination was Fujisawa

Fujisawa is a coastal city in Kanagawa popularly known for their beautiful beaches like Shonan beach, coastal landscape and other attractions like Enoshima and the Samuel cocking.

The journey was going to take roughly 30 minutes on the bus and just 10 minutes on subway.

Minutes of a wonderful journey passes and finally they arrived at Tsubaki high school ground, the school was big in size and student headcount when compared to Tenryu and it's also well know and a prestigious school for the rich kids

Their field was almost like a small stadium and well kept chairs neat and treated grass.

The team was welcomed by the school principal and the school's team coach after an exchange of pleasantries they were guided to the dressing room. The dressing room was also well kept and neat unlike a certain school's own.

The coach did some tactical recap with the team before heading into the field.

The weather was cloudy covering the scorching sun, the players stationed in the various positions, to some this was just a normal training match while to some their future, honour and pride was on the line. The home fans coming out in trove and filling the entire field it was a site that one could feel pressured to the very core of their existence but yet with a stern look on their face the away team knew that it isn't the time to whine. All is set, time, pitch, teams and player and weather now all that's left is to pray for a good match ahead