Petty Minds

"Yo look who's decided to come see us. It's been just a couple of days, but you look different." João Gimenez, a player for the SV98 U17 team, and one of the few friends Lukas had at the academy, said as Lukas stepped on the pitch.

Lukas went up to him, a big smile on his face, as he gave him a hug.

"It's been a while, João. How've you been?"

"A while?" João asked confused.

"I was at your house just two days ago man. Although you didn't even come out to greet me."

"Oh yeah that happened." Lukas thought to himself.

Javi had invited João, and a few other friends of Lukas—from both the academy and his school on Sunday to try and get Lukas out his room.

Give him people his age to talk to. People that understood what he was going through.

But he didn't even come out to greet the guests who came for him.

"That was pretty rude, I'm sorry" Lukas said to João sincerely.

"It's alright man, I really understand. If I was cut, I'd probably be just as heartbroken" João said as he shook his head to show its really no problem.

"Isn't this dude supposed to be 17 now?

How's he so mature in the way he thinks? I was such a fool to lose such a friend." Lukas thought to himself.

************

João had been a close friend to Lukas him since João joined the academy at 12—two years after Lukas.

His father moved to Germany from Portugal for work as a lecturer at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, and brought his wife and kids—Joao, his twin sister, Joana, and their youngest brother Ruben.

João was initially part of Boavista F.C academy in Portugal before the move to Germany where he joined the SV98 academy.

In the previous timeline, he had debuted at the SV98 first team 2 years from now, bounced through several leagues on loan, before he got a permanent transfer to S.C. Braga where he spent the remaining 15 years of his career.

Nicknamed 'o tanque de velocidade '—the speed tank—by the Portuguese media, for his ability to both out-muscle and out-run most attackers.

He was a mainstay in the team for more than a decade, and was a solid block in the defense for the team who were able to topple the reign of the traditional Portuguese big three—Porto, Sporting, and Benfica.

Winning the Primera Portugal League title 4 times, the Taça de Portugal 6 times, the Conference League 3 times, and the Europa League trophy once in that 15-year period.

In 2033, João captained S.C. Braga as they went on a surprise Champions League run to the final.

That season, they played the whole league stage of the Champions League without conceding a single goal in the process—topping the league and only falling to Manchester City in the final.

A season which saw him in the top 10 of the Balon d'Or ranking the following year.

He enjoyed similar success with the Portuguese national team. With 130 caps for Portugal in total, he was the 4th most capped Portuguese of all time— behind Pepe, Moutinho, and Ronaldo.

He won the Euros 2032, the 2033 Nations League, and was the 2034 World Cup—the golden era of Portuguese football.

But his relationship with Lukas, started to sour way before his rise to stardom—and it was through no fault of his.

Lukas had started quietly growing resentful of the fact that he was dropped from the academy—a feeling of helplessness turned resentment, and then misdirected.

He and João went to the same high school, and would occasionally have to leave school earlier a bit earlier than others to attend to match preparations or the likes.

But after Lukas was dropped, he could only watch his best friend do what they did together, and instead of pushing, training harder, and trying to get back on track—he started feeling helpless.

This turned to envy. And as João's career took off, the envy bloomed. Into full beautiful resentment.

As his career went from strength to strength, so did Lukas' resentment.

And so it started—screened calls, ignored texts, flimsy excuses when sent a match ticket.

After many attempts by João, he also gave up trying to save the friendship.

Lukas had lost a true loyal friend, a friend who was loyal enough to not leave his club even when he was being courted by the mighty Madrid.

It was a loss he never got over—but his fragile pride still didn't allow him to try and make things right between them.

"I'll message him later. He must be busy. He probably doesn't want to talk to me." These were excuses Lukas kept making, not knowing his life was close to it's end.

But, unlike everyone else—he got one more chance.

***************

"It really is nice to see you again Jao." Lukas said with a smile

"Bruh. For the 234th time, it's pronounced 'João'." João responded with a playful frown.

"Okay, I'm sorry, Zhao" Lukas added with a smirk.

"That's Chinese, do I look Chinese?"

"That's racist"

"I didn't mean it like th—"

"Alright girls, that's enough catching up." Coach Patrick said as he walked up to them

"That's sexist." Lukas thought to himself.

"Let's continue the training." Patrick added

"Yes sir." Lukas responded as he walked with Patrick and João to the other players who were each doing their own thing is different groups.

Patrick blew his whistle to draw their attention.

"Guys, Lukas will be joining us for training today. He's no stranger, so don't treat him like one." He then turned and nodded at his assistant manager.

"Alright guys, you know how it goes. We will start with a T-Test agility drill." The assistant manager said as he placed the final cone needed for the drill.

"You will get a second chance if you think you can do better than your first time, but I wouldn't count on that if I were you.

Alright, Wes, you're up next." He looked at Wesley—the captain of the U17 team.

"Yes coach." Wesley responded as he adjusted his training gear, walked to the starting line, and started bouncing on his feet.

He looked a lot older than he was, 17, and a very deep voice too—puberty hit him hard and fast.

FWEEEEEE

The whistle blew and he immediately took off running.

Straight ahead, tapped the cone base. Shuffled to the left cone, tap. Shuffle to the right cone, tap. Shuffle to the centre cone, tap. Back pedal to the starting point.

FWEEEEEE

The assistant coach's whistle blew again.

"Wes. 10.8 seconds. Not your worst, but you've done better before." The coach said as he looked at the stopwatch in his hands.

"Coach I wanna go again. I misstepped when accelerating and that slowed me down." Wesley gave an excuse.

"Sure."

FWEEEEEE

"11.1 seconds this time Wes." Patrick said as he looked at him with an expressionless face.

"I...I was still tired from the first run!" Wes tried to argue.

A few of the other players let out chuckles.

"You guys are laughing, how many of you except João can finish this drill faster than me?" Wesley asked, getting a bit defensive.

But nobody answered.

They knew he was right. He was their captain for a reason. And in most drills, he was ahead of the other academy players. But that had gotten to his head. Making him comfortable to be a small fish but in a minuscule pond where he feels like a blue whale.

"Wait. Why not me? I'm an academy student too, aren't I?" João said, with half a look of disgust

He was one of the very few that could compete with Wesley generally. And in an agility drill, he was the only one who could.

And Wesley was aware of that fact.

"No, except yo—"

"Let me do it." Lukas interrupted.

Heads turned.

"Is he serious?"

"What is he thinking?"

The students murmured.

And they had all the right to.

Lukas had always been at the bottom of agility rankings during his time at the academy.

With average scores of 11.9 seconds for the squad, his personal best was 13.1 seconds.

He almost always loses his balance when it comes time to pedal back from the top cone to the starting line.

It was pitiful to watch.

Wesley looked like he didn't understand what he just heard.

"Lukas!? You want to try?"

(He almost burst out laughing like a generic villain but the author stopped him because—cringe.)

"Well that's bold. I kinda have a feeling that he will surprise me.

He looks and acts like a completely different person from last week" Patrick thought as he watched the drama unfold.

"The team's average went from 11.9 seconds to 11.5 seconds in the 5 days we've trained without you.

You were dragging us back by 0.4 seconds.

One guy, in a 22-man team, was contributing THAT MUCH to the average.

And you think in one week, you'll beat me?

What drugs are you on?"

Most of the team burst out laughing this time.

"What's so funny to you guys?" Coach Patrick asked as his eyes looked like they had laser beams flashing out.

The players all went silent.

Some cleared their throats.

Others avoided his gaze.

Nobody wanted to be made an example out of.

"Most of you are past 16, in some countries you'd be considered adults, and you still act like cartoon characters? That's just sad." He said, his eyes still as angry as before.

"Lukas. You're up."

Lukas, who had been stretching when all this was going down, straightened up.

Walked up to the starting line.

And...

FWEEEEEEE

He took off.

A/N: Chapter 6 done. This felt the most fun to write out of all the chapters so far. They all felt fun.. But this was 'funner'... If that's even a word... Fr tho.. is it? I really dk.

My laptop broke yesterday after I uploaded ch. 5 :) so I wrote this on my phone. Please point out any errors you see, I'll try and correct them immediately.

And I get more inspired when typing on my phone.. just realized that.. type faster too... And feels less like a chore since I'm not stuck to a desk..

Anyway, sorry for the rambling. Let me know if you think the quality of this chapter is lower than the previous 5, then I'll stick to writing on a laptop.. already getting mine repaired.

If it's still good, I'll keep updating with my phone as my laptop is being fixed.

Love y'all.