Chapter 16 Pick Up The Pace

Running two kilometers every day was always going to be a tiring task and having to walk back after that was even more tiring.

He opened the door to the living room to find a sweet aroma lingering in the air.

"You didn't tell me you were making my favorite stew for breakfast," Dave said quickly making his way to the kitchen.

The gas was burning slowly as Emma stood over her pot of boiling stew while stirring it with a wooden spoon.

"Well, it was a surprise," Emma said, turning to him with a smile but the expression on her face had changed when she saw that his shirt was soaked with his own sweat. "I thought you went out to jog, not to run a marathon race."

"It's two kilometers the distance for a marathon race?" Dave asked.

"No, but running two kilometers is quite a lot," Emma said.

"Yeah but I have to run to stay fit," Dave said.

"Yeah but you have to take it easy because I don't want to hear that you collapsed on the road one day," Emma said, returning her attention to her stew.

"No, that's not going to happen," Dave said.

"Okay," Emma said. "Do you need me to remind you to go take a bath?"

"I'm going," Dave said with a sigh as he turned to the stairs.

He went to take his bath as Emma got breakfast ready and by the time he was done cleaning up, she was already done with setting up the table.

The two ate their meals quietly and after they were done, Emma cleared the table before joining him on the couch where he was watching the highlights of the football match between Barcelona and Real Betis.

"Hey, I watched a full football match with you last night," Emma said as she grabbed the remote control from him and changed the channel to a telenovela channel.

"I am allowing this because that was just highlights," Dave said.

"Yeah, right," Emma said scoffingly as she dropped the remote control on her side of the couch.

"I don't even know what you see in all these over-dramatic shows."

'',

"Well if you would just sit down one day and watch them with me, you would understand," Emma said.

"I'll pass," Dave said as he tried to get up but he was immediately pulled down by Emma.

"What are you trying to do?" She asked with a mean look on her face.

"What?" Dave said with a chuckle.

"I am here because I want to spend the weekend with you and you do not get to leave me like that." She said resting her head on his body.

"Fine, I'll watch the show with you," Dave said, shaking his head.

"Good," Emma said before getting up to kiss him and then returning her head to its favorite position.

"You are aware that I have a training session in the afternoon right?" Dave said.

"And I am going to see my friends but it's not yet afternoon is it?" Emma said.

"No babe," Dave said, placing his hand on her cheek.

___ ___

Unique FC players had all gathered on the pitch putting on their training kits and they were just waiting for the coach to arrive.

Dave was casually passing the ball with Mateo as the two were talking about something.

"If you had special abilities that allowed you to increase your productivity in football, would you use them or would you think it was cheating?" He asked as he trapped the ball and rolled it back to Mateo.

He had been thinking about this since he had used his double jump skill which was only his first and lowest skill.

It all seemed like some sort of cheat code to him.

"It depends," Mateo said as he raised the ball and kicked it to him for a header.

"On what?" Dave asked, nodding the ball back to him.

"Whether the abilities are obtained from drugs or are just natural special abilities," Mateo said as he brought the ball down and passed it to him. "Because if the skills are from you, no matter how extraordinary it may seem, it's okay because it's natural, take Ciro for example. He does wonderful things whenever he's with the ball, special things that are just natural to him."

Dave was about to say something when Ferran called their attention as the coach had arrived.

'

"Let's go," Mateo said, already walking ahead of him.

Coach Norman had arrived with the rest of the coaching team and now he wanted to talk to the players before their training commences.

"I told you guys yesterday about how we were expected to finish our matches in two weeks instead of four." Coach Norman said.

"Yeah the UEFA order," Adolf said.

"Yes, they just released the fixtures for the two weeks we have to finish the league and according to those fixtures, we have three matches coming up this week.

"We will be facing Spree United on Tuesday, Ronino United on Thursday, and Litno FC on Saturday."

"With such a short time for all these matches, there are going to be a lot of injuries," Adolf said.

"I know and that's why a lot of my starters won't be starting most of the matches." Coach Norman said. "I am going to be implementing intensive rotation to make sure we don't suffer any serious injuries and end the season in a good position. We'll talk more about our tactics in the locker room after the training."

"Really?" Jonas said.

"Any problem Jonas?" Coach Norman asked, turning his gaze to him.

"Yes, my problem is that you did not talk about the main reason why we are losing matches and how to fix it," Jonas said.

"What problem is that Jonas?" Coach Norman asked.

"Our basket of a goalkeeper, of course, his clumsy mistakes have cost us a lot of matches," Jonas said. "We need a replacement if we are going to end the season in a good position."

"Our second choice goalkeeper is currently on loan as you all know, that was a really poor choice by the management, and Alexander from the B team cannot start matches unless something happens to Dave." Coach Norman said.

"We may get a replacement if I see no improvement but that will have to wait until the end of the season." Coach Norman said, turning his gaze to Dave. "We'll have to tighten up our defense."

<You should pick up the pace Dave if you don't want to lose your place in this club>

'I'm not sure if I know how.'

***

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