Chapter 8: Training With The Burden

When Axel thought about going to the stadium to train, it wasn't just a fleeting thought, he was serious about it and right now he was at the stadium all alone.

There was no training session today because of the match last night and that meant that he had the whole place all to himself.

He started by running a few laps around the pitch before proceeding to bringing out everything he needed, which were just free-kick training dummies and a net filled with balls.

He brought out about eight training dummies and all of them were red except for one which was yellow.

He placed two of the red training dummies near the edge of the box and then placed three more inside the box before placing the yellow one a little ahead of them on the right side close to the goalpost.

There were two red ones left so he placed one a little ahead of the yellow one before placing the last one beside it.

"I don't want you being caught offside now." He muttered before he began to make his way to the center of the pitch where he had about fifteen balls just lying there.

His eyes still looked dead and he still had that poker face despite how much he had tried to cheer himself up.

"Maybe I shouldn't have spoken to her like that." He muttered before placing one of the balls on the kick-off spot.

'Whatever, she was the one that started it.' He said inwardly before taking three steps backward. 'But I guess I can't really blame her.'

He let out a deep sigh before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost.

The force behind that shot seemed to be little because the ball didn't even succeed in getting past the ones near the edge of the box.

It hit one of the dummies there before quickly rolling back.

"Hmmm."

He didn't think much about it and just dropped another ball on the spot.

This time he decided to try lobbing the ball but with a little more force than his first try.

He managed to float the ball over the first group and the ones directly blocking his target and now it was time to see if he was going to hit the target with a red dummy being that close to it but the ball ended up floating right past them before flying into the goalpost.

'Good, but there's no way a goalkeeper would let that pass in a real match. However, they do make mistakes from time to time.' He thought before dropping another ball on the spot.

It was already clear to him before this day that lobbing the ball was the most effective way to get it to a teammate in the box from a long distance so he continued doing that.

He took two steps backward before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying with his right foot.

He was able to float the ball across toward his target but he ended up hitting the red one beside it.

"The defender clears it with a decisive header." He muttered with a smile on his face but it didn't take long before that smile faded away.

He picked up another ball and dropped it on the spot before taking three steps backward.

'These are just inanimate objects so getting the ball across should just be fine because in a match my teammate can just do something to make sure that he gets the ball even though it's not directly heading to him, but the opposition can also do something.'

He folded both of his hands into fists before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying in.

He floated it in nicely once again, but it also ended up flying past his target this time to hit the crossbar before rolling back into the box.

That was another miss as he rolled his eyes before letting out a sigh.

"There's no way I'm going to become the ultimate playmaker with accuracy like that." He muttered before slowly sitting down on the floor. "But should I really be thinking about something like that at a time like this?"

He kept his gaze on the floor for a while before he shook his head and quickly got up from the floor.

"I'll try a few more times and then go home. Maybe apologize to Ariel too." He sighed before placing another ball on the spot.

'Today would have been such a great day if misfortune didn't decide to hit me on the day I stepped into the spotlight.'

He took three steps backward before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying in.

This time he floated it nicely and it looked like it was going to hit the red one at first but then its direction suddenly changed and it ended up hitting the yellow one.

Normally, he would feel really happy whenever he pulls something off after so many failed tries but he didn't even smile in this case.

He knew he had to be happy and he wanted to but the feeling just wasn't coming.

"Well, that's strange."

"Huh?"

The midfielder quickly turned his gaze to the tunnel area where he heard the voice come from to see Peterson making his way to him.

He looked like he was going somewhere wearing black pants, a white shirt, and a pair of white sneakers.

"Were you supposed to avoid the yellow one?" The winger asked as he slowly made his way to him with both of his hands in his pockets.

"No, I was supposed to hit it."

"And you did but you look like you missed."

"Well…"

"Well, what?"

"I just don't feel like it." He replied before bringing his gaze down.

"You mean you don't feel like jumping up and screaming 'I did it' at the top of your voice." The winger smiled. "That day when you succeeded in hitting the crossbar from the other half of the pitch, your first training session with us."

"Yes, I remember it, it hasn't been that long anyway."

"Yes, but you were so hyperactive that day that the coach had to tell you to tune down a little, I never expected to see this side of you so early but I guess you never expected something like this to happen to you this early."

Axel didn't respond to that as he slowly folded both of his hands into fists, bits of tears building up in his eyes.

"I'm sorry you have to face something like this at such a young age but you don't have to train with a huge burden in your heart, it's okay to take a few days off when something like this happens, and besides you won't be playing any match until Tuesday next week." He expressed before taking another step toward him.

"But if I take days off, then I'll start slacking and that will greatly affect my performance." His voice sounded a bit shaky as he said that, like he was trying to stop himself from breaking down in tears.

"The fact that you are very conscious of that is enough to show me that that's never going to happen," Peterson remarked before placing his hand on his shoulder. "I've seen how passionate you are about your dream and I don't think even this is enough to stop you, it's heartbreaking but I know you'll get over it."

Axel attempted to smile after hearing him say all that, but his smile system crashed before he could finish forming the smile.

"Thank you, Peter." He muttered before slowly turning his gaze to him. "But how did you know I was here?"

"Oh, I went to your place, I met your sister, she told me you were here after telling me about the despicable things you said to her before leaving."

"Oh, she told you about that?"