Chapter 1: The First Step

"How did everything get to this point?"

Those were the words that escaped from a young boy's lips as he slowly sat up on his bed, the lower part of his body covered with a brown blanket.

He turned to his left toward the window to see that the sky was beginning to rise, signaling the start of a new day, one that he didn't wish to start, at least not yet.

He wasn't alone in the room, there was someone lying on the other bed just beside him. A young boy who bore quite the striking resemblance to him, and he happened to be snoring softly with his blanket hanging between the edge of his bed and the floor.

"So much for getting up before me." The young boy huffed before getting up, walking past his snoring brother to get to the door.

The door wasn't his target though, he was heading for the light switch beside it, and as soon as he got to it, he pressed down on it with a devious smile on his face.

As expected, the light bulb above suddenly lit up, flashing the whole room with its bright white light and suddenly bringing the snoring to a halt.

"Hey, I told you to stop doing that." The sleepy brother complained before turning around, grabbing hold of his pillow to block out the light.

"I would, if you would try to attempt getting up early sometimes."

He made his way to his brother just as he said that and grabbed his pillow from him.

The room now made clearly visible by the light was just what anyone would expect from a room belonging to two teenage boys.

Well, not exactly since it was surprisingly clean, but still, there wasn't much that stood out in the room except for the trophy cabinet by the left.

It was mostly empty, though, with just two sliver medals sitting on the top shelf.

Those were the medals the brothers were able to get after failing to make things go their way in the final of a football tournament, a tournament they came to know as their last.

The two currently in the room weren't just any siblings, they were twins, they weren't identical, but it was easy to mistake them as such given how similar they looked.

The first one to get up was Eric Onyeka, the older brother.

A seventeen-year-old boy with dark skin and short dark hair, he was around five foot ten and although not buff, had a good athletic build which was expected.

Evan Onyeka was the other twin, most of his brother's description applied to him except that he had a slightly darker skin than Eric and unlike him didn't have a mole on the left side of his cheek.

"Do I really have to get up early today? It's not like we have anything to do." Evan remarked with a drowsy voice as he tried to grab his pillow from his brother.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get to it as Eric raised it higher to prevent that from happening.

"It's not like we have anything to do today?" Eric sighed. "Did you do all that parking yesterday and forgot what we're supposed to be doing today?"

The room suddenly fell into a temporary state of silence after that as Evan slowly brought his hand down, a look of intense concentration crossed his face, like he was trying to remember something.

While he was doing that, his gaze suddenly shot to the other end of the room just opposite him.

There were two black traveling boxes sitting beside the wall and seeing those were enough to jog his memory.

"Oh, that's today."

The tone of his voice suddenly went down as he slowly brought his gaze down.

"Iberibe." Eric scoffed.

That was a word from their native dialect that translated to stupidity or idiocy.

"Anyway, I'm going to take my bath now." He dropped his brother's pillow on his bed before heading for the door.

"We're not going jogging together?" Evan asked just as he pulled the door open.

Having that question sprang on him, Eric suddenly paused as he tightened his grip on the door.

"Sorry, but I don't have the strength for that today." There was a clear detachment in his voice as he spoke those words before exiting the room, slamming the door shut.

Evan found himself staring at the door after his brother left the room, and even after a minute had passed, his gaze did not shift.

"I guess a new environment would be nice." He muttered with a smile.

It didn't take more than two seconds for that smile to disappear as he slowly brought his gaze down with a heavy sigh.

Just until last month, the twins were leaving the best of their lives, attending one of the most prestigious football academies in the state.

They were aiming to become professional footballers as soon as they graduated from highschool, and that future was looking decently plausible until everything suddenly came crashing. It all started with a secret getting uncovered.

Their mother found out that her husband was cheating on her and when she decided to confront him about it, he decided to divorce.

Everything happened so fast, and before the twins knew it, the home they had grown to love so much was no longer there, it was all gone in the blink of an eye and with it came other troubles.

Their father didn't have any problem in continuing to take care of their welfare, but he refused to continue sponsoring their Academy days, and since their mother didn't have enough money in her disposal to fund that, they had to be pulled out from the Academy.

It was a dream, no, a goal that they were working so had to reach, but everything was suddenly pulled away by the very hands that placed them.

Saying they were just heartbroken would be an understatement, but that was also the very reason why they were unable to give up.

There was another way for them to get what they wanted, and although there was no guarantee that they would succeed in the end, they were going to give it a try.

That was the reason both of them could be seen standing in front of a massive gate with their boxes behind them and backpacks on their backs.

Just above the massive black was a metallic design of two words, subtly attached to the gate in a way that made it seem like it was just hanging in the air.

The words were painted gold and read out; 'NEW HORIZON.'

Enrolling in this highschool was the way for them to get what they wanted, but that was only the first step.