Chapter 8 : Discovery

Kaiser sat under the tree looking at Peter as if he had just seen a ghost, and in all fairness he technically had as Peter wasn't alive in his past life.

The tall lanky boy had just finished running 10KM but he barely exhaled, as if it wasn't much of a struggle for him. "Amazing." Kaiser muttered to himself.

Even with the system and his constant training, he still found the task difficult. He began to recall what he had heard about Peter from the newspapers and word of mouth.

Apparently he was seriously talented, however he came from abject poverty. He only had a mother who sold street food and himself in the world.

He was on a journey to Lagos in his past life to go for tryouts for English premier league side Fulham Football Club, before passing away in an unfortunate accident.

"You've all done good boys, please make your way to the other group to recover your energy." Coach Idris's voice brought Kaiser back to reality.

He was in a bit of a dilemma, what does he do now? Would trying to save Peter cause a change in the future? Would it affect his system?

He shook his head and grabbed a sachet of water that was being passed around by one of the assistant coaches.

The boys were now engaging in conversation as they had caught their breaths. And quickly the attention turned to Kaiser.

"Bro what on earth are you made of?" One of the boys asked in wonder. "I swear, aren't you fourteen? But you beat everybody here!" Another voice asked.

From the corner of his eye, Kaiser could see his mother being hounded by other parents but she was full of smiles. His guess was they were asking her about how her young son was able to come first.

Instantly that put a smile on his face. "Well to be honest it's all because of practice. I exercise everyday so it wasn't unusual for me." He replied to them.

"That's crazy that you're so consistent. Only at fourteen too." A boy named Tobi said.

"Even you Peter, you're amazing." And suddenly the attention shifted to Peter as quickly as it came to Kaiser.

"What academy do you go to?" One of the boys asked to which he met no reply. From his expression it could be easy to tell that Peter wasn't interested in conversing with any of them.

"Academy? Haha do you think that guy has enough money to go to an academy? Just look at his kit and shoes for Christ sake." Joshua butted in.

He stood up and gestured towards Peter who was still sitting on the floor. "Look at his shoes with holes in them and his dirty kit. It's obviously used." As Joshua said these words, it became more apparent the sad state of Peter's apparel.

"He's obviously just a poor boy that came here looking for help, but nobody is going to help him. That race was purely luck. Same as this useless Kaiser sitting here. Both of you are just lucky, I won't lose to you again." Joshua said as he sat back down.

An awkward and tense silence filled the air under the tree and remained that way until the silence was broken by another one of the boys.

"I wonder what the next trial is going to be." He asked and suddenly the silence was gone as everyone started making suggestions.

However after all the muttering coach Eze came and signaled for the boys to follow him. They had been so distracted that they didn't notice the assistant coaches that had come and laid out cones on both of the football pitches.

They were going to test their dribbling abilities. By this time they had split up into the two original groups they came in.

Kaiser and his on one side, Peter and his on the other. "Listen here, as you know this academy is not looking for amateurs. We're looking for rough talent that we can polish. If you can't so much as dribble, then this isn't the academy for you." Coach Eze said unapologetically.

From both groups, 8 boys had been eliminated from his and 9 on the other. So they numbered only about 18 in his and 19 in Peter's group. They would still need to play a full match so Kaiser didn't know how many they would need.

"In front of you all, there are cones and a post with various bins placed on top of it. Each bun has a number of points. Points will be based on dribbling, agility and the points you get when you score in that goal. The bottom 3 players will be eliminated." Coach Eze said and a familiar sense of dread filled the boys once again.

Kaiser caught a glance of Peter and he didn't seem phased in the slightest. He was obviously confident. He then turned his gaze to the goal post coach Eze was talking about. It was covered with a mesh like material with holes of varying sizes.

The bigger the hole the smaller the points one would get from it, there were 3 holes in the bottom center which was 10 points, the bottom left corner worth 10 points. The bottom right side was 25 points.

Then looking at the top right 90 of the post was a small hole just large enough for a ball to pass through. That was 50 points.

"If there aren't any questions, line up and prepare to run through the course." Coach Eze said

Everyone lined up nervously, the boys were scared to be the scapegoat who would go first. However on the other pitch they could see Peter step forward to begin running the drill.

He quietly placed the ball on the ground and began to dribble. He simply glided across the surface of the pitch, passing around every single cone as if they weren't even there.

The ball moved as if it were an extension of his body, a part of him that he had been using all his life. When it got to an obstacle he was meant to go around, instead of dribbling around it conventionally, he used a rainbow flick to jump over the wall.

"Oohs and aahs" filled the air as everyone watched him. His football was mesmerizing and beautiful to see. After he was eventually met with the final part of the drill, the goal.

Both the players and coaches present could easily tell that Peter was skilled without a doubt. They all anticipate closely what he would do next.

Even if he were to aim for the largest point of the goal he would still pass regardless. However Peter had other plans. He was going for the maximum points possible.

The coaches knew that most of the boys had some sort of shot training, so to make it more difficult, the coaches set it up so that the paths were divided, leading either left or right. each player was shooting from either the right or left side of the post rather than the middle based on their preferred foot.

So he was shooting at an angle, the right side of the post. Now one would expect him to shoot with his left foot since he was on the right side.

But he wasn't done with his surprises yet, everyone's eyes widened as he leaned his body in. Ready to shoot but instead of using his left boot to curl it, Peter used his right foot.

A trivela [1], he had shot with a Trivela! A move that only the best of the best of football players could pull off, and even then they struggled.

Everyone watched with bated breath as the ball sailed towards the top 90 of the goal post before the unbelievable happened.