The World I Knew

"HEY BIG BROTHER!!!" My sister yelled from our driveway.

"YEAH MARIA?" I yelled right back at her.

She came running into the house and then into my room, and showed me a green envelope.

"Guess who got invited to a football camp, err, facility to kickstart their career?!?!?" She said flashing the envelope in my face.

My sister only just started playing, but if a camp wants her, I'll congratulate her.

"Congratulations, Maria." I said smiling at her.

"No, not me, idiot. YOU!"

Eh?

MEEE?!?

I snatched the envelope right out of her hand and ripped it apart. When I got to the paper inside I saw the writing, to 'Pedro Gonzalez'.

That's me alright.

I opened the full letter, and this is what it entailed:

"Hello, Pedro. You must be wondering what we meant on the package about it being about a football facility. We will be hosting a competition, but it's for you to figure out if you want to be in it, Farewell and/or See you later, Football Association."

Are you serious?!? On the back I see where it's being held. IN SPAIN?!?

"I can't possibly go." I said holding my head down.

"WHY NOT?!" My sister said sounding a little bit angry.

"It's in Spain."

"AND?!?"

And? I know I basically raised her but is she this dull?

"WE LIVE IN BRAZIL. I CAN'T LEAVE YOU HERE, MARIA," I said right before I slumped in my chair and whispered.

"Besides. We don't have the money for that right now." I said really quietly and frankly I'm surprised she heard me.

"Don't you worry about that, Pe-Pe," she calls me that to give me a nickname for Pedro but it's just weird.

"You don't have to worry about a single thing."

"And why is that?" I said.

"BECAUSE WE GOT FREE TICKETS THERE!!!" She screamed waving them around.

Eh?

So here we are on the plane, to SPAIN! This is insane. Apparently they just made a new state there. Cajón. That means drawer or bin in Spanish, or even a instrument in Peru. Funny name for a state.

Holding the envelope in my hand reading it over and over, a guy came from behind and asked me a question.

"Hey, is that a envelope for a football facility?" He said just over the seat.

"Hm? Oh, Yeah."

"Nice, I got sent there too. But my invitation was blue. Sure it doesn't mean anything!" He said with a reassuring smile on his face.

"Yeah!"

"Glad your making new friends Pe-Pe." She snickered.

"Oh, shut up, will you."

I'm glad English is a universal language, because I wouldn't be able to make it without it as my second language, but speaking of chance, how did I get picked to go to this place? I'm only 16 and all I did was play in my Highschool football games back in Brazil.

Guess they got scouts? I don't even know. But for now, sleep.

When we landed and made it to Spain, I figured out, or err, Maria figured out that we had a WHOLE HOUSE FULLY PAID FOR IN THIS COUNTRY. We called a taxi and he dropped us off at the address that was on the envelope.

Oh my, this building is huuu-

Oof, It feels like I just got a black eye just for bumping into this-guyyyy???????

HOLY! He's HUGE!

"Uhhh, hello!" I said trying to make new friends. He looked down at me.

"Shut up, small fry." Well, that was friendly. He walked passed the green building. But that way is another huge building, it's blue?

Ohhh, so I'm guessing the color of the envelopes also correlate with our buildings. The guy on the plane is going there too! Hopefully I don't have to face, that guy.

I walk in through the 2 glass doors, they were also big. And I see people with different hair, eye colors, all in between. Then a guy walks out a door in the corner.

"Welcome to Cajón, you midfielders."

Did he say midfielders, there's only midfielders here? What's going on? I can hear other people murmuring too.

"You might have a lot of questions, and I'm here to answer them. I know all of you are from different countries and probably wouldn't understand me, but that changed when you walked through those glass doors. In this building, you can understand me and your competitors anyway in any language you see fit. Don't ask me the science behind it,"

Did he say, competitors? I thought this was a program to bring out our best interests, but we are competing?

"Okay, okay. Let me get down to the nitty gritty. You entered the green building, which means you got a green envelope. There is a red and blue building on different sides of us. Now this is my favorite part to explain so, no talking please,"

Everyone in the room got quiet.

"Okay, so the red building? That program is called, The Point. Filled up to the brim with forwards, they only train their positioning and finishing on the field. The blue building? The Shield, only focuses on defenders. Trains their physicality and defense."

So, that's where the huge guy and the kid on the plane was going.

"Now, we saved the best one for last. The green building. We are, The Engine. We train midfielders, and create all round talents. Now,"

He started walking between us and gets to the glass doors.

"You are not allowed to leave this place until our objectives is done."

The whole place was in a uproar. "YOU CAN'T MAKE US STAY." "WHATS YOUR BIG OBJECTIVE, HUH?" Questions were flying everywhere.

"Hmm, our objective is simple. TO CREATE THE BEST STARTING 11. If you don't like the idea of playing with the best of the best. You can leave, cowards."

A couple of people left.

"For those who want to stay, go through the doors,"

1 giant door opened up behind us.

"But duly note this, in order to join fully, you have to completely leave behind the world you know."

My, sister. She's going to be without me.

"And don't worry about your family members. We have people keeping them safe, delivering them food and everything in between."

Did he read my mind? Anyway, I guess everything is fine. I'll go. I will hone my skills and become stronger. A bunch of people started running towards the door, I did as well.

"Nice to have you, now we like to give you a choice. These are teams you have to join, there are their philosophies down on your phones. Look at the emails we sent you. But we will clean off the crop. So if we think you don't deserve to be in that team, we will completely bring you to another. 11 per team with little to none exceptions. Remember that."

I wonder how many teams there are. Because if there are high 200's people here and there's 11 per team. That's a lot of teams. Huh? This team caught my eye. The Hawks huh? They like hard work, and discipline? Sounds like me.

"Ahhh yes. When you sign up, go to the door below the teams sign. After that you can sleep, and you will receive a ranking in the morning. The ranking is to know how strong your skills are by us scouting you. And it will be out of the 293 players. Goodnight, midfielders."

I walk through the doors to find a hallway. There's 11 doors. I go to the 6th and fall to sleep. I'm ready. I'm ready to leave the world I know behind.