A Chat With Jam... Jordan

---

"It was torture," Jerry took a deep breath as he spoke into the phone.

The day had passed painfully slow for him. He was subjected to a lot of things that he considered inhumane by Jerkyll and Jude. They looked a lot gentler than his dad, but they were way worse. At the end of the training exercises, he could barely move. He basically slumped on his bed as soon as he got back to his room. He almost didn't have enough energy to take a shower; nay, he probably wouldn't have taken a shower if not for the fact that the stench coming from his body was disturbing him from sleeping peacefully.

Now, he found himself wide awake in the evening and ranting to Moses since that was the only thing he could do at the moment.

"I was running while doing pushups while carrying—"

"You don't have to feed me all that crap to make me pity you. I know you went through a lot today," Moses' voice sounded from Jerry's phone. "On an unrelated note, I had a very nice time relaxing today. My mum made me..."

Jerry sighed again and tossed his phone to the far edge of the bed as soon as Moses started rambling.

'That insensitive prick.'

---

The next day came quite quickly for Jerry. After he finished his hellish training, he spent the majority of the remainder of the day sleeping or just lying on his bed, so his body had recovered quite a bit. Although he still felt a little sore here and there, it didn't really affect him much.

He was currently sitting inside the changing room of Jeremiah Hayes Football Institution. It was a bit large and looked standard compared to the locker rooms of some professional clubs. It was very obvious that Jeremiah spent a lot of time and money on the development of the building.

There was currently no one with Jerry at that moment. He arrived quite a bit early. He didn't have it in him to walk all the way, and seeing as his dad was leaving in his car early in the morning, he hitched a ride—a decision that he was already regretting. He thought about doing a few light exercises but decided that the best thing to do was to rest his still-sore muscles.

"Fuck me."

Eventually, he started pacing around the locker room. The sound of the air conditioning was starting to get annoying, and he needed to hear something else to calm himself as he was close to getting very violent.

It wasn't just the fact that he was early that was making him vexed; it was what happened yesterday and the other days before that. The training that he had been forced to endure just so he could carry on his dad's legacy. It was exhausting and very infuriating.

"All this for what?" Jerry muttered under his breath as he continued pacing around the locker room. "For fucking what?!"

He got a bit angry as he shouted and swung his arms in the air a few times. After a few seconds, he realized that he was acting like his dad and burst into laughter. "At least now I can confirm that I'm actually his son."

Jerry continued angrily pacing around the locker room for a few minutes until eventually, someone entered. Jerry recognized him at once.

"James, how are you doing, man?" As soon as Jerry caught sight of Jordan, he stopped pacing and went over to give him a handshake. He wouldn't normally do something like that, but seeing as he was the captain, he thought he ought to socialize with his teammates a bit.

"It's Jordan," Jordan said with a sour smile. "It's fucking Jordan!" His voice got louder as he said his second sentence.

"Chill, man," Jerry said, raising his hands up. "I just mixed up your name a little. It's not like I murdered your mom or something."

Jordan let out a small chuckle when he heard Jerry's explanation. "We've literally come up together. Me, you, and Moses. We started together from Greatness Academy, moved to Birmingham to play in Graceland Academy, and now we're here together. I know you and I didn't really talk with each other, but at least you could've fucking remembered my name!"

Jerry stared at Jordan, who was borderline violent, and shrugged. "I could've sworn it was James."

When Jerry finished talking, his eyes shone in realization. 'No wonder Moses was acting funny when I couldn't remember his name!'

Seeing Jerry's nonchalant look transform into an expression he really couldn't understand, Jordan couldn't keep himself angry. He was pissed that Jerry didn't remember his name, but seeing the rapid changes to Jerry's expression, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"You know what, it's fine," Jordan said. His statement was followed by a few seconds of awkward silence. "So... you're early."

"Yeah, I thought I should be here early and, uh... you know, I thought I should be here early because I'm the captain." Jerry fumbled a bit at the beginning of his sentence, but he managed to save himself with a suitable excuse.

"Sure... I believe you," Jordan said while holding in a laugh.

"The way you said it makes me think otherwise."

"You know, the next time your dad screws me over, you can hitch a ride with me and my mum," Jordan said while walking outside.

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on, man, everyone knows what you have to go through on day offs," Jordan said. "And I live right across from you. What the actual fuck? We're neighbors, and you don't even fucking remember me?!" Midway through his sentence, Jordan got angry again. He managed to calm himself down, though. "As I was saying, I live right across from you, and I saw you going jogging with your dad at three in the morning. I don't know how the rest of the day went, but I don't think I need to ask."

"Ohhh... thanks," Jerry said with a smile. "I guess you and your mum will be seeing a lot of me from now on."

"Excuse me? I think I made it pretty clear that you could come only after day-offs," Jordan said.

"And I think I should make it clear that I don't really enjoy walking, so you'll be seeing quite a lot of me from now on... Jordan." Jerry put on a thoughtful expression at the end of his sentence to make it seem like he was trying to remember Jordan's name.

"Asshole," Jordan muttered under his breath. He knew that Jerry was just trying to mess with him, or rather, he hoped for Jerry's good that he was just trying to mess with him.