Harbinger Of Glory

A boot hit the floor somewhere across the dressing room, right as the players returning from their session invaded their lockers.

"That’s a foul, by the way," Jake announced from his bench while trying and failing to pull off a shin pad.

Around him, bags were being zipped up, tapes were being peeled from ankles, and the showers still hissed behind the far wall.

Leo had his phone to his ear near his locker, turned slightly toward the wall the way you turn when you want some privacy in a room that doesn’t really offer any.

"Yeah," he said. "Let’s just go with that one. I do not want us to waste any more time on it."

While he spoke, the room didn’t go quiet exactly, but several conversations paused, recognising that something more interesting might have just presented itself.

Noah’s voice continued on the other end, and Leo listened and nodded.

"Alright, sort it," he said and then put the phone down afterwards.

The moment he turned around, several sets of eyes were looking at him with varying degrees of subtlety, which is to say none.

Jake had his arm slung around Leo’s neck before Leo had fully processed that he’d moved.

"What car?" Jake said as Leo pinched the former’s arm and tossed it over his head like something that had gone bad.

"You’ll see," Leo said, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hide it forever.

"OOOOOOOOOOoooh," the players mouthed, with some rubbing their hands and arms together like Leo had said something goosebumps-inducing.

Jake smiled at Leo with the smile of a man filing something away.

"I cannot wait," he said, "to hate it."

At that, the players began tossing their training kits at Jake, with some booing him and others telling him to hit the showers.

A moment later, the door to the locker room swung open and stepping between it was Dawson, who looked like he was already dreading doing so.

"Tomorrow’s session is pushed back a couple of hours," he said.

"This means that we are going to get a late start tomorrow, but it doesn’t mean be late. I am looking at you, Reyes and Jake. Now, go home and get some rest."

After that, he left, and the room went back to packing up, and within approximately an hour, the locker room began emptying.

The days that followed had the shape of a squad that was trying to make sure that their wins didn’t come off as coincidences.

There were 5 days till the game, until that became 2 days.

And on the third day, Jake caught Leo during the afternoon session and immediately began harassing the latter.

"The car," Jake said as Leo passed the ball away into the back of the net, looked at Jake.

"Follow me," he said, genuinely tired of the latter’s harassment and began walking away.

He had meant to be a small thing, directed at Jake, but the locker room had ears and within thirty seconds approximately half the squad was also following, boots still on, cleats tapping against the concrete as they moved out of the building and onto the gravel of the parking lot.

Jake was still talking as they walked, already having a monologue and practising how to hate in advance.

A second later, Leo stopped, and then pointed towards a matte black Golf GTI, specifically the 2023 model, sitting in a corner away from the main lot.

At that, Jake stopped talking, gaze settling on the car before he looked at Leo again.

Soon he found himself looking back at the car, before coming to Leo’s face, running a search for signs that this was a joke, but there were none.

"That’s it," Leo said. "That’s the car."

Jake opened his mouth and then closed it and then opened it again.

"A Golf," he said.

"A Golf GTI," Leo repeated before turning to look at the car again with a smile.

"A childhood dream of mine. One that got reignited after seeing a Hotwheelz version of it, some time ago!"

"A Golf GTI," Jake repeated, in the tone of someone saying a thing out loud to confirm it is real.

"You had us walking out here for a Golf GTI."

Leo said nothing and looked at the car with the satisfaction of someone who had made a decision they were comfortable with.

"It’s clean actually," Ezra said.

"I like the colour too," Carlo said.

"Good size," Whatmough offered, from somewhere at the back where he had appeared without anyone noticing.

Jake turned to face them with genuine disbelief.

"You lot trolled me for the GLE," he said.

"But the Golf gets good size and is clean actually?"

After receiving a round of nods, he gestured at the car.

"If I had brought a Golf GTI to this parking lot, you would have had my head."

"It’s different with you," someone said.

"HOW," Jake said.

"It just is," the same voice said.

Leo laughed at that while Jake shook his head.

"How much?" Carlo said, quietly after drifting closer to Leo.

"Twenty-two grand," Leo said.

"I got it slightly used. Noah made me buy it outright. Said financing it would cost more in the long run and that there was no real need since I had the money."

Carlo nodded slowly in the way of someone who finds the logic reasonable and the number surprisingly modest for someone on Leo’s wage, and said nothing further, which was its own form of approval.

Before the conversation could go any further, Whatmough clapped his hands together loudly enough to make a few heads turn.

"Right. Let’s start going back before Nolan gets on our asses."

At that, the group began moving back toward the building, all while Jake still shook his head at intervals.

-------

Gianna had just about reached the end of her patience as she huffed and puffed through her walk.

She rolled her suitcase through arrivals, weaving around a family that had stopped directly in the middle of the walkway for reasons known only to them, before finally making it through the gate.

Then she stopped, then turned around and waited.

Three seconds later, she sighed.

"Do I have to drag you too?"

A laugh answered her as Vittoria emerged from the flow of passengers with a bag over one shoulder and absolutely none of the urgency Gianna felt they should both be operating under.

"That won’t be necessary."

"Good," Gianna said as she resumed walking.

"Because I’m already carrying enough. I came to see my boyfriend, not babysit you!"

Vittoria fell into step beside her, still smiling to herself.

3 days ago, she was tired to death, but after making the abrupt decision to come with her best friend to the UK, she started feeling better all of a sudden, or maybe due to the anticipation boiling in her.

The automatic doors slid open ahead of them, letting in a gust of cool air.

Beyond the glass sat rows of cars, moving traffic, and a stretch of grey English sky that looked exactly how she’d imagined it would.

Gianna glanced sideways, smiling slightly at her friend.

"Ready?"

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