My Goalkeeping System

The sun was blazing hot in the afternoon but Dave didn't seem to be bothered by it as he stood about six meters away from the goalpost in the lawn with five of his mini balls lined up right in front of him.

'Here we go, Catherine.'

He let out a deep sigh as he drew back a little before quickly stepping closer to kick the first ball in the row.

The ball flew straight toward the crossbar, Dave thought it was going to hit it until it zoomed past it and hit the flower behind.

<That was close>

'Yeah.' Dave replied before taking two steps backward.

He raced toward the next ball and shot it toward the top right-hand corner.

The ball flew toward the target and smashed on the crossbar before falling over.

"Yes!" He yelled with an elated voice.

<One out of two, keep going>

The third had flown over without hitting the crossbar, and the fourth one had also flown over out of his lawn and had to go get it.

"That's one out of four now." He muttered before allowing the ball he was holding to drop on the floor.

<If you want to get this right, you need to master a particular style of kicking the ball that works for you and not just kicking it in any way you want>

'A particular style?'

<If you were carefully watching Mateo when he was trying to hit the crossbar, you would have noticed that he kicks the ball in a particular way and he even gave you a tip on it>

'Okay.' Dave said before letting out an inward sigh. 'I understand what you're saying.'

He raced toward the ball and instead of hitting it with the side of his boot, he tipped it with the tip of his boots.

The ball flew up and landed straight on the crossbar.

"Yeah, two out of three!"

<Well, it's only from six meters out but still it's something, keep practicing and try to master a shooting technique, that thing you just did now won't be exactly useful from a long distance>

The goalkeeper had decided to cancel his gym training for today so that he could practice more on hitting the crossbar and there was no complaint from Catherine.

After about two hours of training outside, he went inside to grab a cool drink since the one he brought outside had turned into something else.

After having a whole bottle of chilled water, he made his way to the living room and crashed down beside the couch with his head relaxing on it.

He stayed there with his eyes closed for a while and opened them to look at the wall clock.

"I didn't know interviews lasted this long." He muttered.

<Maybe she went to do another thing>

'Another thing like what?'

<You're asking me?>

Dave sat up on the couch and after about five minutes of not doing anything, he stood up.

"I'm going to go get some shut-eye." He muttered as he slowly made his way toward the staircase.

He was about to step on the first step of the staircase when he heard the door move.

He turned at the same time the door was pushed open to see Emma standing there looking exhausted.

"Hey." She said with a smile before making her toward the couch and crashing on it after getting there.

"How are you?" Dave asked, walking closer to her.

"I'm fine, just a little exhausted." She said trying to see if there was any way she could sink deeper into the couch.

"The interview was exhausting?" Dave said before sitting beside her.

"Not exactly the interview." She said before sitting up on the couch. "I had to wait for hours before I was called in and.."

"What?"

"I got the job but...."

"But what?"

"They assigned me to the sports reporting department." She said before crashing back on the couch. "I know it's in my list of special areas but I wanted governmental affairs or health more."

"Did you try to talk to them about it?" Dave asked.

"I did, but they said they already had enough staff in those areas." She mumbled.

'Help me out here Catherine, I don't exactly know what to say.'

<Are you asking for my help to talk to your girlfriend>

'Of course, I'm asking for your help.'

"I don't think I'll be able to last one week working with that woman," Emma said.

"Who?"

"My boss." She said, "She's something of a perfectionist, I was terrified by the way she was talking to her staff."

"Don't worry, you'll certainly survive for more than one week, two or three weeks maybe." He said causing Emma to quickly shoot a cold stare at him.,

"Seriously."

"Listen, babe, everyone gets challenges in aspects of lives like this, but those challenges don't mean the end of the world," Dave said. "Do you remember when you told me that?"

"Yeah." She said with a nod.

"You got assigned to a niche you didn't want, your boss seems to be mean, those things are challenges that I know you will waddle through because you are a strong woman." He said, placing his hand on hers.

Hearing him say that to her was enough to put a smile on her face.

"And besides I can't understand why you are sad about becoming a sports reporter, I think it's a great niche to be assigned to."

"You're saying that because you're a footballer," Emma said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, football isn't the only sport in the world is it?"

"I was assigned specifically to football." She said,

"Well then, I'm saying it for the love of the sport." He said. "Seriously, I think you'll love gathering information about players, matches, coaches, and many other things relating to the beautiful game."

"I know but I don't think I would love it as much as I would love gathering information about governmental affairs and health." She said,

"That sounds to me like it's going to be boring."

"It's not." She said,

There was a little moment of silence between the two before Emma decided to say something.

"So how was training today?" She asked.

"It was okay," Dave replied.

"You guys will be playing against Spree City tomorrow right?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'll have to book a flight tonight then." She said,

"Flight?" Dave said with a confused expression on his face. "For what?"

"I'm going to be at the match tomorrow as a reporter to get the full match report, that's my first assignment." She explained.

"Okay, that's nice," Dave said with a nod.

"You think?"

"Yeah, my girlfriend's now a sports reporter and she's going to be at my match tomorrow as a sports reporter."

"Stop," Emma said, hitting him on his shoulder.

"Aww."

"I think I need to go change and get some rest now." She said before slowly getting up from the couch. "It's been a long day.

"Yeah, me too," Dave said, getting up from the couch. "You're not the only one who's had a long day."

Emma didn't reply to him as she slowly walked to the staircase and began to make her way up it.

'Tomorrow's going to be a nice day.'

<And it will go from nice to terrible if you guys lose against Spree City>

'Catherine.' He grumbled inwardly.

****

Hope you enjoyed the chapter?

If I get up to a hundred golden tickets before the end of the month I will release six chapters on the first of December.