16 LOST THE BET
"I thought he didn't know how to play! First, it was the shot, and now it's dribbling. He timed that play pretty well." A player commented, stunned by Noah's play.
They were only reacting like this because they all thought or assumed that Noah didn't know how to play and his actions throughout the first half didn't do anything to contradict that assumption.
Noah breathed out and a small smile crawled up his lips. He felt good about himself, just the fact that he executed that move as he intended to and score a goal.
He chuckled.
-Phheeewww!!!
The referee blew the whistle and snapped everyone out of the daze they were in.
Noah and his teammates went to their side of the field, none of them approached him or celebrated his goal. He didn't mind, in fact, he preferred that they didn't approach him.
-Phheeeww!!!
The referee blew the whistle once again and the game continued with the pink team in possession of the ball.
The pink team passed the ball amongst themselves, taking their time to attack. They didn't mind that game, currently was 1-1.
What Noah did wasn't much of a threat to them. Although it wasn't expected, it also wasn't special. They all felt that he was lucky, only the defender that he dribbled was on guard against him.
In time, the pink team got past the green team's midfielders and were almost done dealing with their defense. Just before taking the chance to completely break through the defense, Noah intercepted the pass.
"Yess!! Go Noah." Anisa exclaimed excitedly. Dragging the attention of many people that weren't supporting Noah.
"Is she his girlfriend?" Someone asked loudly.
"I don't know, but she seems like it."
Anisa heard this but she wasn't fazed by their comments. She knew why she was being supportive of Noah like this, she has her own plans…
Noah pushed the ball hard, making the same mistake that he made the first time. The ball rolled away from him quickly, due to the amount of force he used to hit it, and fortunately for him, he was able to catch up to it before anyone else.
'Why does it feel like running with the ball keeps on getting harder the more that I try to do it?' Noah thought to himself.
To him, he felt like he was hitting the ball the right way. 'Let me reduce the force a bit.'
Noah, still intending to run with the ball, pushed it once again and this time, lighter than the first push. The force that he used to push the ball was just right.
The ball rolled at a speed that was comfortable for him to control while running.
The pink team's midfielders turned their attention towards Noah, surprised that he was able to intercept the ball.
Quickly, they went after Noah.
The first player that approached Noah was easily thrown to the side by Noah's dribbling. The same was done to second and third players that attacked Noah.
Noah's sudden ability to dribble so skillfully left the audience and coach Wilbur speechless. The captain of the La Scala soccer team frowned as he watched Noah play like someone that had been playing ball for a while.
"What the hell?" Coach Wilbur whispered.
What shocked coach Wilbur the most was that Noah altered his dribbling pace, from fast to slow and slow to fast. This is a skill that only trained players could execute properly and yet he was doing it.
At the moment, coach Wilbur felt as if Noah had been pretending that he didn't know how to play.
'Damn it!! I've been played… wait isn't this a good thing? Doesn't this mean that I can have a skillful player join the te-'
Just before coach Wilbur could complete his thoughts, Noah tripped and fell to the ground. While he was dribbling, he stepped on the ball and fell.
The pink team took this opportunity and got the ball back in their possession. This time they were all on guard, they didn't want to be stopped by the person they all tagged to be the worst on the pitch…
"Damn." Noah chuckled. "That was unexpected." He smiled after uttering that. 'I couldn't do it as I imagined it.'
Noah propped himself up. He stood where he was and watched his opponent rush towards his goal post.
'This game is more interesting than I thought it would be.' Noah thought with a wider smile on his lips.
"Goal!!"
The pink team had out the ball behind the green team's net. They celebrated their simple goal by giving their selves high fives.
In seconds, the ball was returned to the middle of the pitch.
-Phheeewww!!
After the whistle was blown, Noah saw the ball heading his way, which was a surprise to him. He didn't think that the players in his team were going to pass the ball to him again.
Noah didn't know that his team had begun seeing some hope in him — they also wanted to see what else he was capable of.
-Thud!
Noah trapped the ball with his left leg and looked at his opponents with a smirk on his face. "Let's try that again, this time I'll take it slowly and try not to step on the ball."
Noah began heading towards the pink team's goal post.
As the players marked him, they did so with caution. They didn't want to be dribbled by Noah again.
Unfortunately for them, being cautious wasn't enough to avoid getting dribbled by Noah.
They were unaware that Noah had a knack for reading people's body movements. It could be one of the perks he picked from fighting a lot.
As Noah dribbled, he had a huge smile on. He felt alive and thrilled. This was unlike what he felt when fighting in the pit.
Sure to him fighting used to be fun, but it didn't make his heart thump this hard, nor did it thrill his mind as much as dribbling did.
-Sweep!!
Noah found himself falling forward, stopping a few yards away from the goal post. One of the defenders swept the ball out of his legs.
-Phheeww!!
The referee blew the whistle. "Foul! Penalty kick!!" He called out and gave the defender a yellow card.
Noah blinked a few times before spitting out the dirt that entered his mouth from falling. "That was also unexpected."
He smiled once again, enjoying every bit of the game now.
By the time Noah stood up, he saw that the ball had been placed a few yards away from the goal post, and every player but the goalkeeper was standing behind the ball.
"Hey, greenhorn. Get over here." Gabe called to Noah to join them, standing behind the ball.
Noah had never seen a penalty kick, so he didn't know anything about it. He decided to go and stand on the same line as his teammates.
"I will play the penalty kick." Noah heard Gabe say as he got closer. None of the players were against what Gabe said, including Noah.
Gabe went forward and stopped before the ball.
-phheeeww!
The referee blew the whistle and Gabe faked his play, making the goalkeeper dive after a façade. He played the ball in the opposite direction of the keeper.
"Goal!!" Gabe celebrated by throwing his fist in the air.
'Something new,' Noah thought.
Since the second half began, Noah seemed to have a smile plastered on his face. The game continued after that goal.
Noah didn't get enough chances to take possession of the ball from his opponent because they had changed their pattern of playing.
The players in the pink team only touched the ball twice before passing the ball to another player.
This made the pace of the game faster and it also made it harder for Noah to collect the ball.
Before he knew it, the pink team had scored another goal, making the scores 3-2.
Not long after that, the referee blew the final whistle, ending the game.
After the game was over, Noah walked towards the ball and picked it up with his hands. He was trying to feel and understand how this object brought many thrills to him today.
He was too engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't know when Coach Wilbur, Anisa, and a few people had surrounded him…
'He wasn't bad, but he wasn't good either. He could be compared to a B-grade player. If he wasn't lying about never playing ball before, then I have to find a way to make him play for me.
With ample training, I might have a real monster in my arsenal.' Coach Wilbur's lips were twitching as he was trying to hide his excitement.
"You said that football was just a game of hitting a ball, do you still believe that it is just that?" Coach Wilbur began.
His voice brought Noah back to reality.
"I… I lost the bet." Noah stated, still looking at the yellow football in his hands.
"Huh?" Coach Wilbur exclaimed after being caught off guard by that statement.
'The deal was that if his performance was up to a C-grade player's, he wins. His physicals already give him a huge advantage. Does he think that C-grade players are better than him?' Coach Wilbur thought…
