Chapter 2: Getting A Feel Of Sino Academy

Sendan was Adrian's home country, an island country that shared marine borders with Spain.

It wasn't a big country, but it was home to a little over thirty million people, according to population statistics.

Most of his life had been spent away from the island country but Adrian wasn't exactly unfamiliar with it.

Afterall, he spent the first six years of his life there before they had to move to England due to work reasons.

Two weeks after his Mother informed him of their plan to return to Sedan, he found himself at Sedan's international airport having just alighted from the plane.

He had tried everything to convince his parents to let him stay and continue attending Ravenwood Academy but they refused, stating that they had nobody over there to entrust him to.

It was a bright day with no dark clouds to obstruct the sun but the temperature wasn't exactly that high as Sedan was known to maintain a fairly cool temperature most of the time.

Pulling his luggage along with him, Adrian's heavy steps reflected his reluctance to leave everything behind to come to a new place where he claimed there was most likely nothing for him.

After walking for a while, the youngster suddenly came to a halt before letting out a deep sigh.

"I understand people have to go through trials and tribulations in life but this is…."

Before he could finish that statement he felt someone tugging on his shirt from behind.

"What are you talking about?"

He turned around to find his younger sister standing there. Her was brown, just like Adrian's, except that she had them tied into twin ponytails, but unlike her brother, she had brown eyes that seemed to be prettier though.

"Nothing." Adrian shook his head unwilling to share his pain.

She sounded quite concerned when she asked him what he was talking about, but with that response, she couldn't help but roll her eyes before letting out a huff.

"No matter how much you brood about it, you still won't be able to go back, not anytime soon, at least."

"Sofia," Adrian grumbled.

A smile slowly found its way to her lips as she folded her arms before skipping ahead past him, the small bag hanging around her body dangling back and forth.

_________ __________

The drive from the airport to their home wasn't exactly a long one as they were able to arrive in less than forty minutes.

Although he was just six years old, Adrian always had a clear image of his first home in his mind and looking at it now, it was still the same.

A small house with two floors and a small yard protected by a small fence.

They hadn't been home for many years, but someone was always paid to come clean up the yard every once in a while; that was the reason why the lawn appeared to be well trimmed.

While his parents and sister seemed quite eager to enter the house, Adrian was lagging.

"So many years and this house hasn't changed one bit." Adrian's father said as he pulled the door open.

"For a construction engineer, this man doesn't seem to understand anything about buildings." The mother retorted sarcastically. "Let's see, maybe the inside has changed."

She turned around after saying that to find Sofia standing there scrolling through her phone; Adrian, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found, but his luggage was left sitting on the lawn.

"Sofia." Her mother called.

"Yes?"

"Where's your brother?"

"Uhh ... .he's probably gone to check out his new school; he was asking about it on our way here, wasn't he?" She responded, her gaze glued to her screen.

"Oh…"

________ _______

Following the instructions from his parents, Adrian soon found himself in front of Sino Academy.

While his family was busy talking about the old home, which was now a new home, this was what he considered his new home, but whether it was worth his acknowledgement or not, he was yet to see.

The school was protected by very long fences and a big black gate that made it impossible to see anything from outside as long as there was no form of elevation involved.

He stared at the gate for a few minutes before heading for the side gate.

He was just about to knock on the gate when it was suddenly pulled open by security personnel in a black uniform.

The security personnel scanned him from head to toe before returning his gaze to his face.

"Who are you?" He asked.

For a moment there, Adrian was stuck on how to answer that question and after giving it a bit more thought, he decided to be honest.

"My name's Adrian; I've been transferred here for next term, so I just want to take a look around."

'And see how your sports facilities are.' He finished in his mind.

Despite his response, the security personnel did not look convinced and seemed to have a hint of suspicion in his eyes.

"If you've been transferred for next term, then you're not a student here yet, so there's no reason for you to be here now." The security personnel stated sternly.

"Yes, but…."

"Sorry and goodbye."

He was about to close the gate when a voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Hold on."

"Huh?" He gasped before turning around to see the person behind him.

A man who seemed to be in his late thirties, standing about six feet tall with a well-built body.

His body was fairly tanned and he exuded some kind of commanding aura behind the subtle smile on his face.

"Oh, sir…" The security personnel said, making way for him.

Looking at the way the security personnel reacted on seeing him, Adrian could guess that he was someone who held a high position in the position.

"You said you've been transferred here for next term, right?" The man asked just after stopping in front of Adrian

"Yes." He responded with a nod.

"And what's your name?"

"Adrian Nero."

Getting that response, the man turned to the security personnel.

"Check the system for the name he just mentioned." He instructed.

Responding with a nod, he made his way into the small room to the left.

He returned shortly after and turned to the man.

"Yes, he's listed for the next academic session, third year but he has to wait till September to complete the process."

"I suppose there's no problem then." The man said before turning to Adrian with a smile. "Have fun looking around." He added, gesturing to him to enter the school.

With a grateful smile on his face, Adrian nodded to the man before making his way through the gate.

Sino Academy was a school with a very big land space, maybe even larger.

The left side of the area had beautiful and well-trimmed flowers showcased there, a line of flowers that would have stretched further down if it wasn't for the small building in the way.

The farthest right had what could be described as the tallest building in the school.

A three-storey building about thirty-seven feet tall while stretching up to forty-eight feet in length.

The building had a lot of rooms which Adrian could tell were classrooms, offices and laboratories.

"Academic block."

It was good to see the Academic block at least that confirmed that he was in an actual school.

However, he wasn't here to check how Academically sophisticated and equipped the school was, he was more interested in what was opposite the Academic block.

Coming from Ravenwood Academy, which had one of the best football pitches among all the high schools in England, he expected Sino Academy's football pitch to be below par.

However, he was left utterly stunned. Never in his life did he think that he would see a highschool football pitch as good as Ravenwood's in a country like Sendan.

The pitch was about ninety-two meters in length while being about fifty-eight metres in width.

It fell slightly short of Ravenwood's pitch in size, but nevertheless, it had good green grass, which also happened to be well-trimmed. That was only Adrian's observation from a distance though.

He couldn't get close enough to properly examine the pitch's condition because, to his greatest surprise, the team was currently occupied as two teams were battling it out.

It wasn't just that, the pitch was surrounded in all directions by a lot of students who were cheering for the teams they wanted to win.

There were also those watching from the higher points of the building opposite the pitch.

Adrian was especially confused because before he left, Ravenwood Academy had already dismissed its students, and according to his parents, the two academies had a similar term duration.

'Are they also playing friendly matches in preparation for the tournament?' He pondered.

The two teams on the pitch were still battling it out on the pitch, one side in black kits and the other side in yellow kits.

At the moment, the yellow side seemed to be keeping the ball from their opponents, passing it around masterfully.

It was a game of football, so of course, Adrian was interested in seeing how it was going to play out.

However, it didn't take him long to get distracted.

An unintentional glance to the left was what led him to spot someone who seemed to stand out among the crowd.

It wasn't more so about her appearance as he couldn't see clearly from where he was standing, it was more about her demeanour.

Looking at the way she was staring at the device in her hands while sitting under the tree, Adrian could sense some sort of detachment, like someone who was forced to be somewhere they didn't want to be so they end up staring into space the whole time with no awareness of what was happening around them.

Feeling drawn, Adrian found himself in front of her but even after stopping in front of her, she refused to look up.

"Hey." He called but there was no response from her.

Getting ignored like that, Adrian was starting to feel a little awkward. However, he still did not feel like leaving.

After standing there for a few more minutes, the girl suddenly let out a sigh.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to ask you about the match," Adrian responded, a bit abruptly.

"Among all the people here, you decided to ask me?" She said, her gaze glued to the tablet's screen.

"I suppose you have good judgment then." She uttered, a smile suddenly finding its way to her face. A reaction that confused Adrian a bit. "That's a farewell match for the graduating students; they're facing the second-year students, who are the ones in yellow. I'm here because someone who hasn't stepped on the pitch for a long time is finally making an appearance. I want to see how rusty his skills have gotten so that I can plan for that."

"She's actually here to watch the match," Adrian muttered, a stunned expression on his face.