A Sense of Destiny

This is a story I have been wanting to write for ages and I really wish that I had started this before Max Damage.  The concept of the swords, the 6 sword names and powers belong to Fred Saberhagan, a great author who captured my love of the swords and their stories from the first chapter of the first of his books I read. Since his death in 2007 and my first forays into writing this was always a story I wanted to put down and I hope that anyone who has read Fred’s books will understand the love I have for them in the stories I will write and anyone who hasn’t read them will go out and find them and enjoy them as well.

The Gods must have some twisted sense of humour he decided.  Sam was clambering across the rocks away from the volcano where he had spent the last 6 weeks, the heat here would have cooked the flesh off a normal human, but to him it felt almost pleasant.  The time spent in the caves had been arduous and only the power of the gods had allowed him to survive in the toxic atmosphere, he had been made to work hard, gathering rocks which the Gods had identified, never questioning why they couldn’t use their own powers to gather them faster than he could.  The effect of the work  had toned his body and now there appeared to be no excess fat on him and he was now a significantly more muscular and chiseled form.  The strength in his frame was clear to any who looked and the way he moved through the boulder field with the burden he carried proved his stamina.

Sam  was dressed in a rough smock, his previous clothes had worn quickly and the Gods had been only willing to provide him rudimentary clothing.  The smock was held in place by the belt at his waist, however the contrast between the belt and smock could not be more marked.  The belt was made of the finest leather and 4 inches wide, 6 scabbards hung from the belt and in each sat a short sword.  The swords swung as he moved, each seemingly attempting to trip him up and send him to the floor however given their length the most that they were able to do was to make him stumble.

He could not understand why the Gods made him leave with the swords, 6 of the Gods, 4 of the Lesser Gods and 2 of the Greater had been with him in the cave for the 6 weeks, each had contributed something to a sword he had seen the glow flash across each blade as the power was transferred he had memorised the words that each God had told him.  Yet at the end of the 6 weeks the Gods presented him with the belt and once it was buckled round his waist had placed each sword in it’s scabbard. He did not understand why they would give him these priceless swords any more so than the fact that each of the 6 swords had quite clearly been a long-sword when forged, yet each slid snugly into a sword sword sized scabbard barely half the length of the sword when drawn.  They had pushed him out of the cave so suddenly, he had felt like a guest who had suddenly over stayed his welcome, he turned around to say something yet where the cave entrance had been there was now a rock face that was as solid as it appeared.  He had no idea exactly where he was, his transport to the cave in the first place had been by magical means and he had no idea which direction to head to find any town or village.  In the end he simply turned his back towards the wall where the cave entrance had been and began to put one foot in front of the other.

That had been an hour ago and he was only now coming to the end of the rock covered crater.  His instincts had apparently been correct as directly in front of him a set of rude steps had been carved into the rock face, as far as he could tell, looking left and right, this was the only route up the short wall of the crater and he suspected they had been created just for him.  His new muscular legs made short work of the steps and he now stood at the top of an incline looking down towards a large wooded area.   He could see no signs of human life, except for a small plume of smoke some miles away, drifting up through the trees and into the sky.  He could tell from the landscape that nothing was familiar and whilst he was relatively untraveled prior to this event, he knew the area surrounding the village and farm he lived in and this meant he would have to travel long distances to get back to the life he had known if he could even complete the task he had been given.

The only son of a farmer his early life had revolved around avoiding his parents and the long list of jobs they always seemed to have for him and playing with the other children in the village.  He was always in the middle of any trouble going on and this eventually led his parents to put many restrictions on his activities and to put more and more jobs on his shoulders.  He spent time apprenticing with many of the workmen in the village as well as working on the farm, he could turn his hand to ploughing, milling and baking as well as a number of other trades, however it was his experiences with the Blacksmith that he was most fond of. Time spent  in the forge beating metal into shapes, for a village Blacksmith this was not the warrior tools of swords, shields and daggers, but scythes, horse shoes and other metal work that the local people required.  When the Blacksmith had an accident and died, Sam was the one person the village as a whole turned to and he went from working on his fathers farm one day to owning a Forge and working for himself.  If was the making of Sam and the responsibility changed his outlook on life, his days of gallivanting around dodging as much work were behind him and the villagers became used to Sam being at the forge before many people were up and about and still working away long after most other workers were retiring for dinner.

He enjoyed life and was not averse to the pleasures of food, drink and young women, as a man of some means, now he owned the forge, a number of fathers were allowing him to court their daughters, something which mere months before would have been the last thing on the fathers mind if Sam had come calling for their daughters.

It was late one evening shortly after the mid-summer celebrations and Sam had been just closing up the forge when a stranger approached him and asked if he was available for some work.  Sam looked at the fire in the forge that he had been about to rake out for the night and said “Yes” to the stranger, as he turned back around to question the Stranger about the manner of the work, the world seemed to shimmer around him, his forge had disappeared, yet the smell of fire and heat of the furnace began to overwhelm him.  He fell to his knees struggling to breath as the fumes began to burn his throat.  A hand dropped to his shoulder and suddenly the heat seemed to fade and he was able to catch his breath, his lungs filled with fresh air and he rose from his hands and knees.  He looked around him at the 5 figures before him and the stranger who had spoken to him at his forge now released his shoulder and helped him stand.  “My son” the tallest figure said “we have need of you help and require you as a witness.  The world has fallen and the old ways of peace and unity are lost, a new power for good must be forged and you are the key.” Sam fell back to his knees, the voice echoed through his body and soul and he had no doubts that he was in the presence of a number of the Gods.

In the weeks ahead it became clear that ,Bane and Cabal, the 2 Gods of Chaos, as normal people had termed them had begun taking a direct hand in the affairs of man, causing wars and famine across the land.  The 2 remaining Greater Gods along with the 4 Lesser gods were un-willing to face their brothers directly, but were willing to pass to the humans they deemed worth tools to help them defeat the agents of the Chaos gods.

Sam now carried those tools around his waist, he had some idea of the capabilities of some of the swords from the names and words spoken by the God, Coinspinner, Farslayer, Shieldbreaker, Townsaver, Wayfinder and Woundhealer were the names and as his mind rolled over the names he realised that now was the right time to use one of them.  He reached down and ran his hands over the hilt of the first sword on his right and moved his hand round, he didn’t need Farslayer at this time.  His hand passed over Townsaver and Woundhealer before he reached Wayfinder and drew the sword out into the light.  Like it’s brothers the blade was flawless, even though the gods had tested the blades against other normal weapons, not a mark appeared on their surface. The only distinguishing mark was a small symbol at the hilt which in the case of Farslayer was a white arrow, Sam confirmed this by finally looking down at the sword in his hand, the first time he had even looked at the sword since he had seen the smoke rising.  He still was not sure how he managed it but he could identify any of the swords by touch alone even just a brush of a hand over the hilt would be enough for him.  Sam thought about the task the Gods had given him and slowly swung the sword across in front of him.  Nothing happened until the end of the sword pointed towards the smoke and then the blade began to tremble.  Sam continued to swing the sword past the smoke and the trembling stopped.  He made a complete circle and only when the sword again pointed towards the smoke did the trembling begin again.

“Oh well” though Sam, “that’s pretty conclusive”.  He returned Wayfinder to her scabbard and taking a final look behind him at the volcanic lava field began the walk down the hill and into the forest.

Chapter 7 – Is it her?

A bit of a wait for this one as my current writing schedule slipped, however I am back on the writing kick and currently pushing through Chapter 12.  For those of you new to the game, check the top right for the link to the Main Page of  “Max Damage” where you will find all of the previously published chapters. Enjoy.

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Max woke to the sound of his Dad knocking on his door and jumped out of bed, well at least that had been the plan, in fact his progress out of bed was somewhat less of a jump and more of a struggle as he suddenly realized that his muscles were still recovering from the try-outs the previous night. Max remembered that he had forgotten to warm down after the exhausting skills and physical trials and was now suffering the consequences. He knew that he needed to perform a basic warm down, his brother had explained it to him not long after he had begun training under Coach Carter. Apparently the Coach’s brother was on the training staff of one of the Football teams up in the Merseyside area and as such he was up-to-speed on all the new fitness regimes that the clubs brought in to get the best out of their players.

“Oh well” thought Max, I’ll have to do some streches to warm myself up today he thought.

As he stood in his room perfoming the warm-up exercises that Chris had shown him, his eyes wandered around his room taking in the familiar surroundings, the posters on the walls, the shelves in the corner where his small collection of books and other oddities were stored and then to the window outside. As his gaze went out his window it inevitably fell onto the house next door and almost instantly on the window that mirrored his own.

“Sarah” his mind thought and he was unsure as to why she stuck in his mind quite as much as she did. From his view point he could clearly see that her curtains were firmly closed and as he moved through the various stretches, his eyes would wander from the window opposite and then suddenly be drawn back as if some movement had caught his attention.

5 minutes later and with muscles no longer complaining quite as much he took one last look out the window and then entered the bathroom for a quick shower before dressing. When he came back into his room he immediately spotted that the curtains opposite now stood open but even though he spent another 5 minutes looking for any sign of movement in the room he saw nothing. Eventually he finished dressing and headed down to breakfast. Breakfast in the house tended to be a do-it-yourself affair with the 4 of them rushing in and out grabbing a bite to eat or a drink and then getting on with their day, however today seemed to be an unusual occurance as the whole family ended up sitting down together. The conversation over breakfast was somewhat rushed as none of them had a great amount of time to spare, but even so the subject of conversation was still Max successfully making the reserves team. Chris updated his parents on the schedule for the reserves training that now affected Max as well as him. Thankfully the training was only one evening a week for the reserves on their own then either a light or full training session with the first team on a Saturday morning depending on whether there was a match that afternoon. Max and Chris eventually left the house a few minutes later than they normally should and started to jog towards the school thankfully by the time that they met up with Adam they were back on time and wandered into the main school building just as the warning bell rang.

Adam and Chris walked into the classroom and took their seats and waited for Mrs Hawkins to arrive for registration as his classmates wandered into the room, many of them asked about the tryouts from the previous day and all were happy to hear that Max had made it into the reserves. The discussion moved onto football in general and given the diverse team support among the group, it inevitably became rather heated and in the end somewhat loud, so much so that when Mrs Hawkins walked in, she slammed the classroom door to get their attention.

“That is enough, I could hear you from down the corridor. This is not the kind of behaviour I expect when I arrive at my class and you know it. I don’t mind you talking but shouting is not acceptable, I’m not going to say anything more about this, however if there is a repeat incident then I may have to take steps.”

She looked round the room, her eyes alighting on various faces who’s voices she had picked up from the din and made sure that they knew that she knew.

“Ok, now we only have one announcement today, there is a new student joining the school today in Mrs Dawsons class, Sarah Hardcastle is her name and she will obviously be in some of the classes you are in. I trust you will make her welcome.”

Max sat at his desk, his mouth dry, “Sarah Hardcastle” he thought, “It has to be her”, he couldn’t remember if her mother had mentioned her surname but surely it was too much of a coincidence if another Sarah happened to join the school. He wondered whether they would have any classes together or if he would see her in the halls.

As the bell rang to send them to first period, Max stood up and turned to Adam, “I think the new girl lives next door to me.”

“Huh”, said Adam, “what new girl?”

“The one Mrs Hawkins told us about in the announcements”

“Oh” he answered, obviously dis-interested and Max let the subject drop as they joined the throng in the corridors.

Max was constantly looking around to try and see if he could see Sarah, and it seemed that everywhere he looked he could see flashes of blonde hair and yet when he was able to get a clear look, each and every time, it was not her. When the two boys finally made it to the English class, Adam had picked up on Max’s mood and was just about to question him, but as they walked in the door, Mr Bransbury was already quietening the class down so he didn’t have a chance to ask him and the two of them reached their seats and sat down.

Max spent most of the class thinking about Sarah and as such missed much of the work covered, thankfully for him Mr Bransbury did not pick on him when it came time to ask questions, although it did drag Max back to reality and he managed to pay attention and at least managed a basic understanding of what they were being taught. By the time the class had ended Max had managed to put Sarah out of his mind and was no longer quite so distracted, Adam had forgotten about his earlier distracted behaviour and the inevitbable questioning never occured. They walked out of the classroom and headed down the hallway chatting away normally, but as they rounded the corner and headed towards their Maths classroom Max stopped suddenly as he caught sight of a flash of blonde hair disappearing into the classroom ahead of them. Adam didn’t notice the blonde hair, in fact it was a couple of seconds before he even realised that Max had stopped, the 2 boys behind Max also did not notice him stop and by the time Adam turned round all three were on the floor in a heap of tangled arms and legs. Adam rushed back and helped all 3 boys up, Max apologising for stopping and thankfully the two younger boys, not wanting to make trouble with senior students begrudingly accepted the apology and went on their way, muttering under their breath.

As the bell rang to indicate the start of the next class the two of them rushed the last few meters and in the door and went to take their seats, Max was already scanning the room as he went in, looking for that blonde hair he had seen, hoping it was Sarah. It seemed to him that he had been scanning the room for hours looking at every person maybe hundreds of times and then as if he had missed her on every one of those passes across the room, his eyes finally found her. Sat at the back of the room she was just pulling books out of her bag, the blonde hair that had caused him to stop in the corridor was cascading down over her shoulders covering the majority of her face, however as she finished delving into her bag her familiar face came up and those blue eyes met his and she smiled in recognition. Max, caught staring at her, felt himself blush and he quickly made his way to his seat a couple of rows in front of her, where a questioning look from Adam went un-answered, in fact completely unnoticed by Max.

He sat there, breath held, eyes glued to the board, unable to look behind him to see what Sarah was doing, he actually though he could feel her eyes on him, probably wondering why he had been staring at her. Eventually he let loose a breath and slowly focused back on the subject whilst trying to put the thought that Sarah was in the same room to the back of his mind. He was distracted through the whole of the class, thankfully though he did manage to answer the problem when Mrs Trehearn picked on him to come up to the board. When he walked back to his seat, he received another smile from Sarah and this time he did manage not to blush although his feet seemed to have a mind of their own and he struggled to avoid tripping over before he made it to the safety of his seat.

When the bell finally rang to end the class, Max was not really sure whether to be relieved or fearful about the fact that he might have another chance to talk to Sarah, he did know that he had no idea how to open the conversation, after all two nights ago he couldn’t even get his name out without a superhuman effort. In the end a chance to worry about that awkward moment never came up as Sarah appeared beside him and thankfully began the conversation.

“Hi Max” she began brightly.

Buried Treasure

As she drew her trowel across the soil at the bottom of the trench she had no idea exactly how the next few seconds would change her life.  Her eyes were drawn to a sliver of metal appearing out of the dust and mud at the bottom of the trench.  She had spent the last 3 days on her hands and knees in this and other trenches across the lawn, she was one of the group of 3 amateur archeologists working a private dig.  The phrase it’s not what you know but who, 100% true in this case, the team leader of this dig Jane was the daughter of the family who lived here and they were the first team to dig this site.  This was hardly a site of any national importance and there was little other interest, however Jane had a number of small items that had come out of the various flower beds over the years and did suggest that there may be something under the grass that would be worth spending this time.

Jane was her professor at University and for some reason had picked her to be part of this team, what she didn’t realise was that Jane had spoken to many other people at the University and in the end only two of her students were interested enough in her personal investigation to come and spend time helping her.  Debbie was in the 2nd year of her studies at university and her interest in archaeology that began whilst watching TV programs on a Saturday afternoon had grown into an academic focus.  She had been out scouring fields with metal detectors at 14 and had managed to join a local amateur archaeological group at 16 and had been on a number of digs.  However in all of these she was just a single member of a large team with little importance upon her shoulders.  Now with Jane her professor, Liz another student and her they were trying to cover all aspects of an investigation with three people.  They were taking turns digging, making details notes of any finds and then cleaning, identifying and cataloging them with the same level of professionalism that any larger dig would have achieved.

In general the finds were nothing spectacular and she was slowly giving up hope of finding anything to make these three days worthwhile.  Sure they had discovered a small wall , but after some further investigation they had decided that it was a small outhouse less than 200 years old.  There had been a few bits of pottery that had been discovered and a couple of rather nice broaches that had come out of Liz’s trench, but Debbie felt as though her trench was really giving up nothing. She had been taking back the surface an inch at a time for the last hour and had found little, as she drew back her trowel one more time something caught her eye.

It was a glint of metal that drew her eye to the find, she immediately reached to her kit and drew out a brush to allow her to clear the surrounding dirt without risking damage to the find.  As the dirt cleared she could now see that it was a ring with a gold band it appeared to have some kind of decoration on it, but at this point she could not make it out.  She managed to lift the ring without damaging it and with it now clear of the surrounding sould she could make out some kind of inscription around the outer edge in a language she did not recognise.  She continued to brush off the dirt and it was clear that the ring was in very good condition, which was unusual when compared to the other finds they had made.  She went to place the ring in one of the plastic holding boxes, however at the last moment she paused and drew the ring back towards her in her right hand.  As she held the ring up  it caught the sun and she almost felt a warmth pass through her body and her left hand seemed to move up towards her right without consious thought.  She sat there for seemingly hours fixated on the ring as her right hand moved closer, however it can only have been a second when Jane sat down beside her and started gushing over the ring she had found.  She managed to pass the ring over to Jane for her to look at it, however Jane had it in her hand for only a brief second before she handed it back complaining about how cold and evil it felt.  Jane beckoned Liz over to look at the ring and she also took it off Debbie but again she handed it back complaining that she didn’t like how if felt.  Debbie held the ring in her hand and again the warmth began to flow through her, she managed to place the ring in one of the holding boxes, but it took her some effort to break contact with the ring.

Christmas Morning

He awoke slowly, his brain focusing on the warm cosy feeling that being wrapped in the duvet gave him.  In turning over his foot left the confines of the duvet and he could feel the cold in his bedroom. The snow that had started last night and he along with his brother had spent some time outside racing around enjoying the excitement that the snow had generated, his mother and father stood at the back door, arms around each other, watching their two children enjoying themselves with the rare abandon that they did not see too often.  It had taken a momumental effort to get the two boys inside and then into dry clothes, the excitement coursing through all of them.  Eventually the two boys had been tucked up in bed, although it had been some time later when he had finally fallen asleep.

He lay their luxuriating in the warmth, no need to worry about getting up for school, it was the holidays after all and he didn’t have to go back for another couple of weeks.  He was close to dozing off when his brain finally pieced things together and he lept out of bed.  “It’s Christmas Day” he said out loud.  Even with the excitement levels rising, he could not ignore the cold and pulled his dressing gown on and tucked his feet into his slippers, combined with his pyjamas it went some way to keeping him warm.  He pulled his bedroom door open and stepped out onto the landing, then taking the two steps across to his brothers bedroom, threw open the door.

He could see the still sleeping form of his brother in bed, he contemplated his options and decided that the simplest approach was the best, running across the room he lept onto his brothers bed, landing on his brothers legs.

“Wake up, Wake up.  It’s Christmas” he called.

“Wzzat” his brother voice came from under the duvet.

“Wake Up, WAKE UP” he shouted.

“Ok Ok OK” his brother’s voice rising in volume as he continued to bounce up and down.

“It’s Christmas” he said

“It better be” his brother growled ” anything less would not allow me to forgive you for bouncing on me.  Do you know what the time is?”

“Err No” he replied glancing round at the clock.  “6:42″

“Oh well at least it’s not as early as last year” his brother said.

Last year he had woken before 5am and waking his brother up they had decided to sneak downstairs and look at the presents.  However the two of them had become somewhat noisy and woken both of their parents up, words had been exchanged, well mainly from their parents to the boys  and they had all returned to their respective beds.   The bad feeling from the early hours had however soon melted away and everyone had enjoyed the rest of the day.

This year they both recognised that it was late enough to go downstairs and maybe even do something nice for their parents.  However all thoughts of making breakfast left the boys minds as they walked into the lounge, the christmas tree which had been put up last night had been fully decorated now and with streamers and tinsel criss crossing the ceiling, their was no mistaking the festivities being planned.  The two of them paused in the door way drinking in the splendour and it wasn’t until his brother spoke that he snapped out of his daze

“Presents!!”

That one word half whispered had the same effect as though someone had shouted “3…. 2…. 1…. Go” and fired  a starting pistol, the two boys glanced at each other, looked at the base of the tree, glanced and each other again and threw themselves down within reach of the pile of presents.  The two of them began sorting them with each of them now or then handing a present to the other with a simple “Yours”, they also created two additional piles, one for each of their parents, however these piles were significantly smaller than the mountain of presents that each of them had been given, Santa had been generous this year.

“Having Fun??” a voice said and both heads turned towards the door seeing their parents standing there, their father with his arm around their mothers waist.

“We weren’t up too early” his brother said as they both looked guilty.

“That’s ok” father said, “a much more reasonable hour than last year I seem to think”

“Let me put some coffee on” mother said “and then you can start opening your presents”

The two boys quickly finished their sorting out of the piles of presents and before long their mother returned with a mug of coffee for herself and their father.

“Ok boys” she said “Lets open some presents.”

Phew that was little bit longer than I planned

Ok, so I’ll be honest that I have no idea whether this chapter will relate to the book at all, it was just something that I started writing another way and the more I thought about it after the first few hundred words the more I wanted to change it’s direction and setting. I may expand on it with another story, Is there a third party and more importantly who are the first two, or I might nudge the books final direction a bit further, who knows. For those of you who are reading it, this is going to be a 2 book read, although I am not sure where I am going to split it. Anyway keep reading and I hope someone is enjoying it!!

Behind the lines

The cloud moved across the face of the moon and the darkness deepened, this would be his last chance tonight, sunrise was barely 30 mins away.  He stood in the shadows, watching, clenching and un-clenching his muscles, as he had been taught, so that he would not cramp.  His eyes were fixed on the target, as they had been for the last 6 hrs, the window across the street showed a figure moving in the house, something that was somewhat un-common at this early hour of the day, however for the target this was a sign of their nocturnal hours that the seemed to follow.

A final glance around him assured him that if someone out there was watching him or on the lookout at all, they were both more patient and also better than he was and that he knew was highly unlikely. He slowly drew up to his full height, moving individual limbs and joints slowly to make sure that nothing was going to cause him to be at less than 100% efficiency, even after the long period of enforced in-activity.  His path followed the wall and it’s shadow, even though he was confident that there were no observers around, this was no excuse for him to not follow his normal procedures.  He reached the corner of the wall and paused, listening for any alarm, anyone moving or any noises out of place that might signify someone else hiding.  He reached into the pouch of the front of his webbing and pulled out a small mirror and using it along with his bowie knife he was able to see round the corner.  After verifying that the way forward was clear he slowly peered directly round the corner before moving across the open space to the alcove in the wall opposite. He paused once again as a dog barked in the distance but after a brief moment or two the silence resumed againg. He turned around and for the first time was able to get a close look at the door that stood in his way, he had observed the target returning some hours earlier and knew from his actions that the door had some kind of lock on it, however he did not know whether he would be able to defeat it.  In the darkness he had to rely more on his touch to ascertain his options and it didn’t take him long to realise that whilst the lock was fairly old he would be unable to use the tools he had on him that were aimed more towards the modern locks.  He turned around still merged into the shadows and surveyed the surrounding landscape, the wall with the door in it should be climbable but it didn’t really want to climb it here on the roadside even at this hour.  A glance to his right showed him the edge of the property and the alley that led to the next road over, he moved forward from the doorway and jogged the distance to the alley entrance, he glanced carefully down the alley and although the darkness prevented him from seeing anyone hidden their, his earlier surveillance deemed it unlikely and the darkness would now also hide his own activities should anyone appear on the street.

Moving down the alley he kept his eyes moving, scanning the ground at his feet for anything that would trip him, looking at the wall to his right that he would have to climb and repeated glances towards either end of the alley for any observers.  Once he felt he was far enough in the dark to be hidden he ran his hands along the wall looking for any kind of handhold that might assist his climb.  Whilst the wall was old it’s plaster style facing offered little assistance and his only choice was to attempt to leap and get a hand hold on the top of the wall, less stealthy however he was now faced with time running short and he knew that his window of oppotunity would close for tonight and he did not want to have to find another spot to hide in during the daylight hours.  He reached into his webbing and withdrew a pair of gloves, these were very hi-tech, with high levels of grip due to some new material NASA had developed, however they were also embued with a new Kevlar style residue that actually gave the glove a higher level of resistance to cutting edges.  This would prevent his hands being damaged if the walls were topped with glass shards or anything else designed to deter climbers.

With the gloves how in place he stowed as much of his kit in his small rucksack and attached a lightweight rope to it.  This he measured out 10 feet and then tied it round his waist, he could now get to the top of the wall and then pull up the remainder of his equipment.  He tensed his legs and then flinging his arms up to give him momentum and also reach he lept for the wall top.  One hand grabbed the top of the wall and the other missed getting a purchase, he hung from one arm for a second before he was able to grab again with his second hand and get a grip.  He hung briefly listening for any sounds of alarm and when it was clear that he was still undetected he pulled himself up and was able to see the top of the wall.  It was only a few inches thick and thankfully it was clear of anything that would have hindered his progress.  He hooked his right arm over the wall and pulled himself up so that his body was now flat on top of the wall with an arm and leg hanging down either side.  He reached down and slowly pull his rucksack up,  taking care to not disturb the wall surface any more than necessary, the fewer traces of evidence of his presence the better.   With his rucksack now also on the top of the wall he withdrew the nightvision goggles and surveyed the grounds of the house for the first time.

The house was surrounded by a lawn with a few trees and bushes and some areas that may have originally held shrubs and flowers, but the relentless had dried up all but a few stalks.  This did mean that whilst he had little cover should someone be observing from inside the house, there was little to prevent his descent from the wall.  A quick roll of the shoulders and he was off the top of the wall, he landed slightly heavier than he would have liked, however there was still no signs of any alarm and he jogged towards the house, scanning his surroundings as he moved forward.

He reached the wall of the house and flattened himself against it just as the moon made a brief appearance from behind the clouds, lighting the garden up.  He hesitated briefly taking an advantage of the increased lighting to survey his surrounding, before moving towards the back of the house whilst hugging it exterior wall.  He turned the corner and was quickly at the back door which appeared to open into a small unlit kitchen, he could see a light further towards the front and he assumed that this would be where his prey would be.  For the second time that night he examined a lock, however this time his tools would be perfect for the task and retrieving them from his webbing, in fact the moment he reached for the lock to  attempt to pick it, he realised that the door was in fact unlocked.

That immediately set his mind on alert, the information about the target had all suggested that he was meticulous in his routines and this un-locked back-door did not fit within the profile they had built of the man.  He immediately reached around the back of the webbing and pulled out his silenced pistol, if the users profile had changed, it was entirely possible that he might not be able to acheive his objective without leaving some residual evidence of his presence.  “Oh well the best laid plans etc” he thought.

He gripped the pistol in his right hand and gently turned the handle with his left, feeling for the bite point of the lock and attempting to minimize any noise caused.  He pushed the door open and entered the room, closing the door behind him but not allowing the locking mechanism to engage.  In the event of an emergency egress this would save him precious seconds if he simply had to pull the handle.

He spent several seconds once again listening to his surroundings, all was quiet and this again was a concern, the target would normally still be up at this time but at the moment there was no sound of any movement.  He moved through the door from the kitchen into the downstairs living area, a desk on his left showed signs of recent use with a half drunk glass of water sat near the edge, condensation still clinging to the side, suggesting that it had been poured within the last few hours.  His scan of the room showed no other evidence and he moved forward towards the entrance hall and the stairs.  The rug in the hall muffled and slight noises he might have made and he reached the bottom of the stairs.  With no obvious noise in the house, the stairs now presented the biggest obstacle for him to pass without creating any noise.

He put his foot gingerly on the first step and slowly transfered his weight to it, ready to reverse the process if the stair felt like it was going to move and make any noise.  He continued up the first few stairs repeating the process all the while his pistol trained above him anticipating some kind of attack from the target.  By the time he was halfway up the stairs he could clearly see much of the floor above him and of the three doors leading off from the open landing, one was closed and one of the two open doors lead to a lit room.  He reached the landing with barely a squeak of the floorboards and moved forward his eyes moving constanly surveying his surroundings and attempt to spot an attack before it came.  His attention was focused on the lit room as it was more likely where the target would be.  He moved forward and was now at the side of the door, he slowly moved his head around, all the while tensed for an attack or the chance to take out the target.  He had around half of the room in view when he spotted it, lying on the floor, not what he had expected at this point.  The body was clearly dead, the head did not normally sit on the shoulders at quite that angle, although it did not appear to have been dead long.  He moved forward now with a little more speed, the target was down, although he had not been the one to effect the kill, he needed to quickly sweep the upper floor to make sure that it was clear and then get out of here before the sun had risen.  Questions were running through his mind as to who had taken out the target, but that would be up to his bosses to determine.  He moved with speed and determination now clearing the upper floor, there were signs that someone had been in here searching, a number of drawers had been cleary opened and not pushed back completely, he had no idea what they had been looking for but this was not part of his mission.  He retraced his steps downstairs and to the backdoor which now stood open.

Sometime since he entered the house he had passed another killer, someone he had not spotted, someone who had been calm enough to let him pass and not attempt to kill him.  Someone who had managed to get in and kill the target whilst he had been outside watching the property.  Someone who had realised that any kind of incident between the two of them would have alerted someone close by and this was certainly not something he would have wanted to do.  It would have most likely lead to his death, dragged through the streets by a population that hated his country.   Too many questions and too few answers, he moved out into the garden and across to the wall the gate to the street now stood ajar, he moved into the alcove and closed the door behind him hearing the clunk as the lock engaged. He looked up and down the street as he had 10 minutes ago, once again there was no sign of any movement, yet he knew that somewhere in the darkness of the surrounding streets another expert was moving away from the property, the question was  whether this was simply a case of crossed lines sending two operatives after the same target or was their a third player involved.

Were you sitting comfortably

As I am sure you all (well the 3 of you who looked) noticed yesterday was “Post 3 chapters” Day. So today I thought I would give a quick update on the story. Well Chapter 6 is my latest “published” Chapter, with 3 side chapters also published. Chapter 11 has gone for proof reading and Chapter 12 is in progress and currently I plan to have that chapter and possibly one more proof read by Christmas. Come the New Year I am aiming for 2-3 Chapters per month and you should start seeing more Chapters posted here. I will also be looking to upload this to one of the many Online Story websites and will publish the details of that here. For the time being thanks for reading.

Chapter 6

Coach Carter gathered the boys round him, “Ok we are going to rotate through all three sets of disciplines, each of you will get marked by myself and my two assistants, we will grade you on a scale of 1-5 for each of the 6 disciplines as well as the physical and also how I think you will fit into the team. After all of the marks are collated, the top 6 boys will be offered a spot in the reserves team. We are looking for balanced players to play in the midfield, you need the skills to be able to drop back into defense when needed but also the ability to push forward and go for goal when you have a chance. I am looking for team players, someone who will put the team first, I do not want people who will hold the ball and always get the glory themselves. You may be in reserves team, but that team is there to allow us to move you up to the first team if needed, remember that”.

“Ok now I want each of you to pick a partner and I want you to spread out about 15 meters away from each other and passing back and forth to start with.”

#

After another hour spent kicking, passing, heading, tackling, dribbling and shooting Max was so glad to hear Coach Carter call everyone together and tell them that the trials were over. Max had spent the last hour concentrating on perform to the best of his abilities and consequently had not actually been able to see how well everyone else had done, he hoped he had done enough to make the team, but deep down new that he had given his best.

“Ok guys” started the Coach, “that’s the hard stuff over with, for you at least. My assistants and I now need to sit down and go through our scores and work out who has made the team. If you will all head to the changing rooms, shower and change and we will post the names on the notice board in about 20 mins. Off you go.”

The group of boys who headed back into the changing room certainly looked different from the group who had left it 90 mins earlier, this time round they were all tired and muddy, whilst the earlier silence had been due to nervousness, this time the obvious cause was exhaustion. They all trudged into the changing rooms and this time as they all showered and dressed the banter came back. Wise-cracks abounded as one of the players was describing how another had attempted a bicycle kick from a pass towards the goal and the resulting effort was a set of flailing legs that got nowhere near the ball and final result was one player down in the box winded and 4 others trying to keep standing whilst laughing their heads off.

After they had all dressed the boys slowly wandered out into the corridor outside the gym where some of the people who had hung around to watch the tryouts were waiting, among them Chris and Adam who were talking rather animatedly, with arms gesturing in all directions.

“Oh I can’t believe I missed that” said Adam, “he completely missed the ball?”

“Yes and ended up flat on his back” returned Chris who was laughing out loud.

Chris began once again to describe the incident with a few derogatory comments and the skills on display.

“Come on guys” said Max “give the guy a break, the whole point of these tryouts is to find out who has what skills, not everyone can do a bicycle kick like you Chris”.

“True True, but it was still funny” said Chris who reduced his laughing to a giggle and then simply a smile. A commotion down the corridor drew Chris’s who looked back over Max’s shoulder, “Here comes the Coach with the list, come on Max.”

Chris had Max turned around and pushing through the mass of bodies that were already clustered round the board, it was a mass of moving bodies and Chris and Max moved separately through towards the noticeboard. In the end, with his extra height, Chris was able to get a look at the list before Max was close to it he watched Chris scan this list and then turn towards him. From the glum look on his face Max already knew the news, but even so the simple “Sorry bro you didn’t make it.” that Chris spoke really brought reality home.

“Oh” said Max, who whilst still not too confident about his skills felt that he had done enough to get on the team and was disappointed. He never even resisted as Chris turned him round and they moved back through the throng, they reached Adam a few seconds later who asked the inevitable question.

“Did you make it?”

Max was just gearing himself up to give some self confidence inspiring comment to Adam when Chris butted in. “Of course he made it, it looks like the Coach is going to put him into the right side of midfield.”

“Well maybe if I practice over the summer then I can try out next …. ” began Max and then he trailed off as realisation dawned on him as he processed the comment that Chris had made. “I’m made it?”

“Of course you did, I thought you were the best player out there! Coach would have to have been blind to not put you in the squad” said Chris.

“You…. You….. YOU…..” began Max, who then simply tackled Chris, attempting to take him to the ground to pay him back for the joke. There scuffle whilst not particularly frantic drew attention from down the corridor.

“YOU TWO STOP MESSING AROUND!”. The voice boomed out down the corridor, the boys quickly separated and turned to see the Coach standing there looking at them. “Now is not the time for high spirits, you have made the team Max, but you now need to prove your worth. It’s the first time I’ve had two brothers on my team and I hope that you are not going to cause me problems and make me regret my decision?”

“No Sir” they both answered sheepishly, grins just about successfully hidden.

“Ok” he said to them with a small nod in their direct, he then addressed the wider group. “Well done to those of you who made the reserves squad, to those who didn’t thank you for coming and trying out. Some of you only just missed out on the squad so please tryout next year and you never know. Well that’s it, time for you lot to be getting home, I will see squad members on Friday for our first practice session.”

The three boys then turned and headed out of the school and turned towards home, the good natured abuse passing between them as they walked down the road towards home.

#

The mood in the house that evening was celebratory, Sue and David were very pleased that Max had made it into the reserves team, they knew he was interested in football but until now had shown no inclination to play it seriously and they had been concerned that Max would always see himself stuck in his brother’s shadow if he couldn’t find some area to excel in. In the end after Max had related the events of the tryouts, at least 3 times, preparations for dinner had been long forgotten and David nipped out for Fish and Chips, something the family did not have that often. Adam stayed for dinner after a short phone call to his parents letting them know he was still at Max’s.

The talk continued into the evening as both boys began to elaborate on their future within the football world. It began with each of them describing their move into the School First team and eventually to scoring the goal that won them the School league cup. Chris then talked about playing for the local Amateur side, Max upped the ante to running out in the Dark Blue and Light Blue quarters of Wanderers, Chris then told the story of how he scored the winning goal in the last minute of the FA Cup Final, Max then capped it all off with him hoisting the World Cup as England Captain. Adam spent much of the time laughing at the wild exploits the two brothers were describing, however Sue and David sat on the sofa quietly enjoying watching the two brother describing so passionately their ambitions on the football pitch and wondering how far either might go. David eventually drove Adam home as it was getting late and when he arrived home despatched the two brothers to bed as it was still a school night. Max lay in bed that night for some time before he fell asleep and his mind was full of the thoughts of football and the future.

Chapter 5

Max ran out of the changing room in his football kit, like the rest of the boys at the school he had one set of the schools prescribed kit but they all wore the replica shirts of their favourite teams, after all whenever they played in teams they had blue or red bibs that covered the shirts anyway. So Dark blue and Light blue quarters were the order of the day with Cousins 7 on the back. As he arrived at the pitch he could see a small group gathered round the imposing figure of Coach Carter and after a quick sprint to the center circle he joined the throng as Coach Carter began to talk.

“Ok this is going to be a standard set of tryouts for the reserves team. We will start off with a number of physical tests, those of you not making the level will be allowed to continue, however it will count against you and you will be expected to come up to the required levels to keep your place in the reserves. First we are going to start with a little run, 4 laps round the pitch, thats outside the goals and the corner flags, no cheating, for those of you who are interested that’s 1.5 km and you need to do it in 10 mins, then I want 100 star jumps and finally 20 push up and then we’ll see how good you are with a football. Any Questions??”

As Max looked round he could see that it was groans that were on everyones lips rather than questions, whilst this shouldn’t be too bad for him, having to prove his soccer skills after this run would be tough. The faces around him were mostly familiar, some boys from his year that he knew well and others that he at least new their names, a number from the year above that were obviously trying out again after failing at the initial test at the beginning of the year and a few faces he didn’t recognise at all. In total there were about 25 boys all vying for what Chris had told him were really 4 spots in the team.

“Ok lets get this started then” said the Coach “Edge of the pitch at the halfway line please.”

Everyone jogged over to the edge of the pitch and formed a small group, some at the front getting ready to start their watches so they could monitor their time, Max mentally slapped himself on the head, he had left his watch in his locker, too late to worry about it now.

“And go” said the Coach.

With that they were off, Max gave everyone a second to get a move on before he set off, he could already see ahead of him the pushing and shoving as people tried to manoever to get some free space, in fact as he watched there was a clash of ankles and suddenly one of the runners went down. Max didn’t even think about it but bent down and helped him up.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“Yes I think so”

“Can you go on?”

“Yes, lets go”

It was only a few seconds but when the two of them took off again the rest of the runners were spread out, some already running behind the goal. Max knew that the pace he would run would see him inside the 10 minute mark and also that many of the others were starting too fast, so he didn’t panic. He quickly realised that the runner who had fallen over was easily keeping up pace with him so thankfully there was no obvious injury, it would have been unfair to lose this oppotunity in the melee that had been the start. As Max rounded the second corner flag on the first lap he upped his pace slightly to push himself and see if he could make up the lost time at the start. Coming down the far side of the pitch he settled into his comfortable running style and slowly began to catch the main group of runners ahead of him.

He drew level with the main pack of runners half way round the second lap and slowly moved past them, he could see that many of them were already running along with their mouthes opening trying to get as much air into their lungs as possible. This gave Max a real confidence boost and he moved past the group and began to look to the people left ahead of him. There were now only 4 people ahead of him, 2 of whom had obviously gone out too fast too early and he could see them starting to struggle already, the other 2 were obviously good runners and Max didn’t expect to catch them.

By the time Max began the final lap he had only 2 runners ahead of him, in fact the two leaders and he had already lapped 5 runners who were obviously well off the pace. The gap between Max and the 2nd runner was only a few meters and Max knew he would catch him, although whether he could kick on and away from him was another question. The final runner was about 10 meters further down the run. Max pulled up on the should of the 2nd place runner and then past him he kept running for a few seconds more and when he looked back he could see that the runner was not keeping up with him, but falling behind him. Max could easily see the back of the runner ahead and he was determined to catch him, he picked up his pace again and slowly drew closer, however as they rounded the final corner and headed back towards the end of the run the leader glanced over his shoulder and saw Max coming and also increased his pace. Max pushed himself further and he was catching him, however in the end it wasn’t enough they both crossed the end of the run, Max only a couple of steps behind the other runner and they both dropped to the ground side by side.

“Well done lads” the Coach piped up “Rest for a few minutes whilst the rest finish the distance.”

Max looked up and saw some of the lapped runners only now beginning the final lap and could see the look of resignation on their faces as they realised that they probably would not make the required time set by the Coach. Max glanced over to his rival and extended a hand.

“Max” he said.

“David” David replied, “That was a tough run, I thought you were going to catch me there at the end”

“Me too, though exactly why we were racing like that, at the end of the day we just needed to beat 10 mins rather than each other”

“True True” David said, “although we do get a bit of a rest before we have to start again”.

As the two of the then sat there getting their breath back, more and more runners finished and slumped down on the grass next to them. As Max looked round he spotted the runner who had fallen at the start lying down, he was glad that he had finished and from the way Coach Carter suddenly clicked his stop watch and then started noting down the names of the next set of finishers, it was obvious that everyone up to that point had made the cutoff time the Coach had set.

“OK up you get time for some star jump” called the Coach, this time the groans were audible as everyone dragged themselves to their feet. “Now 100 star jumps as I call them out, if you can’t keep up sit down”.

The Coach gave them a couple of seconds to space and then began to call out.

“1″

“and 2″

“and 3″

The speed at which he called out made it easy for him to keep an eye on the boys, not too fast at the end of the day this was a game that demanded endurance more than short speed and with that in mind he kept the pace slower than the usual pace that a more aerobic workout would demand.

“98″

“99″

“100 and rest”

Max slumped to the ground tired but not overly so, he could see that most of the other candidates were struggling, at least 4 that he had seen hadn’t finished the star jumps. He was confident that he could finish the push-ups and then it was just a question of showing off his skills with a football.

5 minutes later with the push-ups behind them the boys were split into 3 groups, Max looked around him and could see the obvious groupings that the Coach had made, he was among the other boys who had finished first in the run, the second group contained the next set of runners and the final group contained all of those who had either failed to finish the run, the star jumps or the push ups.

“Ok we have you in three groups, Group 1″ as the Coach indicated the group containing Max ” will go over to that side of the pitch and will begin with dribbling and passing, Group 2″ the group who had Max though had all completed the required physical stuff as well, “far corner of the pitch, heading and volleying and Group 3 over by the goal for tackling and shooting. Off you go”. With that the boys all headed off in the required directions, Coach Carter seemed to following their Group, whilst 2 of his assistants followed the others.

Chapter 4

It was a small matter of 3 classes and 1 mid-morning break later that Max and Adam were now sat at the table in the school dining room eating, what the school liked to call lunch. However the discussion that had started with the announcement before school was still continuing.

“Come on Max, you know that you should do it”

“I don’t know” said Max “I play football with Chris all the time and he’s better than I am”

“Yes, but he’s older, you really need to try for the team, no one from our year has made it into the first team ever.”

“I’m not trying out for the first team” Max pointed out, “this is just the reserves.”

“Once the Coach sees you, you will get picked”

This argument had been going on all morning, Max had never bowed to peer pressure before, but the concerted efforts of Chris and Adam along with the fact that deep down he loved playing football, were certainly battling against his fears that really he wasn’t good enough. However for once he insecurities were losing and in the end driven off long enough for him to make the decision.

“Ok Ok give it a rest will you. I’ll try out for the team and we will see, but I really don’t think that I’m good enough.”

With that the conversation returned to the more mudane matters of homework and whether they were going to get together that evening to study after the football tryouts. A few minutes later the bell rang and the two of them threw away their wrappers from their lunches and headed off towards their maths class.

#

“So x + 2y = 6 and 2x + y = 9″ said Mrs Trehearn, “how are we going to solve this problem class?”

She stared out across the see of faces searching, looking for the spark that someone might actually be able to solve this one, however as she looked all she could see was a mass of blank expressions and that was never a good sign. She had been teaching maths for over 20 years and whilst some of the methods of teaching had changed the general principles were unchanged, some years it seemed that the students she taught “got it” other years it was a struggle, this class were certainly not the worst she had ever taught, however she had yet to see any really make any great leaps as yet, she was still hopeful though. As her eyes swept to the far left of the class they alighted on the face of Max and suddenly she dared to hope, she could see the spark, could see that he was almost there, could see his brain working. Her experience alone moved her eyes on, she had made the mistake in the past of jumping on a student when she could see he was close to a breakthrough, the sudden pressure of the whole of the class looking at them as they were trying to make that final connection was usually too much and the whole process was disrupted, she would give him a few more seconds and then see if he could get it without an prodding. As her eyes moved again over the see of faces, this time not searching but simply observing, a sudden movement from the left turned her head and she saw Max with his hand up, although the nervous look on his face was plain to see, in fact she couldn’t remember if Max had ever put his hand up before this time.

“Yes Max” she said “do you know how to do it?”

Max couldn’t believe it, he was looking at the expression and he was sure that he had done something similar before, whilst he was trying to rack his brain, Mrs Trehearn’s eyes met his and for a second he started to panic that she might ask him for the answer, but her eyes moved on after a split-second. He looked back at the problem and then suddenly it clicked and he realised he knew how to solve it. He had never before put his hand up in Maths, he had never had the confidence in his answers and this was no different, however as he debated whether to put his hand he suddenly realised that Mrs Trehearn was looking back at him and asking whether he knew how to do the equation. It took Max a few seconds to realise that she hadn’t just picked him at random, hadn’t decided to drag him to the front to see if he could do it, as he glanced up the fact that his arm was raised surprised him.

“Err I think so Mrs Trehearn” Max stammered.

“Ok Max, come up and put your answer on the board.” Mrs Trehearn responded with a smile.

Max arose from his seat with some nervousness, he was sure that his answer was right, however that didn’t mean anything and the last thing he needed was to get this badly wrong. He arrived at the board and Mrs Trehearn handed him a piece of chalk and he started writing and talking.

“If x + 2y = 6 then x = 6 – 2y” he started.

“If we replace the x in this equation here”

“Subsitute” Mrs Trehearn interjected.

“Sorry, If we substitute the x in this equation we get 12 – 4y + y = 9. So if we simplify that we get -3y = -3?”

Max suddenly looked confused and thought he had got it wrong, but it was only a brief second before he saw it.

“So y = 1 and if we substitute for y = 1 we get x + 2 = 6 and x = 4?”

He turned his head towards Mrs Trehearn, half expecting her to tell him that he had got it wrong, but when he saw the smile on her face his confidence returned as he knew he had the answer right.

“Well done Max” she said and then as Max returned to his seat “Does everyone understand how Max solved that?” she asked. With that comment, the smile on Max’s face grew and as he sat down and looked around at the number of people who still looked confused his confidence was in full flow. By the end of the class Max felt his arm should have been tired from the number of times he raised it to answer questions and had returned to the board twice to put up answers. At the end of the class as she dismissed them, Mrs Trehearn asked Max if he would stay behind for a moment.

“Max” she began, once the rest of the class had filed out, “well done today, you really seemed to grasp the concept and thank you for raising your hand.”

“Thanks Mrs Trehearn, it just popped into my head and I could see how to solve the problem, once I had worked out the first one, the rest were obvious.”

“Excellent, well keep it up and you will do fine and make sure to raise your hand more often, if you think the answer is right then it probably is right, don’t worry if you get it wrong, most people aren’t right all the time, but if you don’t put your hand up and try you won’t know and the other teachers and I don’t know that you are understanding.”

“Ok” said Max, somewhat embarassed at the attention, “I’ll try more often.”

“That’s all anyone can ask, now run along and get to your next class”.

Max grabbed his bag and headed out the door and into the corridor, where he found Adam waiting for him.

“What did Mrs Trehearn want” he asked.

“Oh just, some stuff about me putting my hand up if I know the answer and not being afraid to give a wrong answer.”

“I thought you were getting more homework or lines or something, that doesn’t sound too bad”

“Come on we haven’t got time to hang around, double History is next and it’s the other side of the building”

With that the two of the them moved off down the corridor, not exactly running as that was forbidden inside the buildings, but more of a quick march which managed to get them to their destination just before the late bell rang. They hurried to their seats, dragged out their books and began to listen to their history teach drone on about the American war of Independence.

History had never been one of Max’s strong points, he could never hold all the dates and events in his head, but for some reason today, his confidence was still on a high following Mrs Trehearn’s comments that he raised his hand for a couple of the questions the teacher posed and eventually he was asked and he was happy to discover that his answer about the Boston Tea Party was correct. He raised his hand a number of other times during the class, but each time someone else answered, however he was surprised to discover that aside from one answer he had, all his other were in fact correct. When the final bell of the day rang Max actually found that the double History lesson had been interesting when in the past it had dragged whilst he daydreamed about getting out of school.

As he left the classroom, Adam clapped him on the shoulder and said, “So off to tryouts?”

“You bet” Max responded with a self confidence that had built all day and probably would have suprised him another time. “You coming along” he asked.

“I don’t know, I really ought to get started on the History assignment. Although I do want to see you putting the coach in his place. I’m coming.”

“Adam, I’m not going to be making the first team here, they are only looking for some backups for the reserve squad anyway.”

“Well I still think that you are better than you give yourself credit.”

“Ok Ok, I get the message” said Max,”anyway I need to go get changed, I’ll see you later”

Max turned and left Adam standing at the entrance to the changing rooms and went in, it seemed strange to him and initially he couldn’t put his finger on why, but as he started to change into his gym  kit it hit him. He was in here with only a few other people changing, usually the room was packed with people laughing, joking and making a racket, now there was silence with an obvious nervous under-current.  Max immediately put it out of his mind and started to focus on the try-outs.

Chris had met him in the afternoon break and had managed to give him some details of how the tryouts who go, firstly there would be a set of physical tests, star jumps, push ups and running.  Everyone who made it that far would go through to skills tests, dribbling round cones, crossing, shooting and penalties among them.  Adam was happy that he could cope with the physical aspects as he had a habit of of practising with Chris and also doing the training he did as well.  He knew he could do the skills they were asking him to display, he simply wasn’t sure that he was up to the level that the coach was going to ask for.  As he ran out onto the pitch along with the 20 or so other boys trying out for the team he could feel the familiar sensation of butterflies in his stomach, however for the first time in his life he shook his head and just thought to himself, “Why am I worried, this is something I want to do for fun, if I’m not good enough then I’ll just go on playing football with Chris, it’s not something i need to worry about.” With that a sense of relief washed over him and the nervous feeling left him.