Chapter 10: Distances In-between

Daniel’s POV

Wednesday morning; a late coach still lying in bed – fast asleep, no worries in the world whatsoever; the warm rays of the sun shone directly onto her eyes from her window.

“Oh, good riddance!” She sprang from her bed as if springs spread all through her mattress. Late for cheerleading flash rehearsal before lectures. She arrived on campus and immediately went in search of her girls.

“Look who decided to show up finally,” said one of the girls sitting in the court where they all waited.

“Don’t kill me bitches, I overslept. What did I miss? Who pulled a hamstring filling in for me?”

“Funny! You got jokes. Pull me up!” Victoria stretches a hand to team leader Jane.

The girls wasted no time after Jane arrived, but Jane and Rebecca seemingly had a bad tension spiraling between them; many of the other girls were beginning to notice, gossip silently spreading

Between their eyes and the tapping on the legs that were followed by a point of the lips – proved that observations were keen and only fire could follow smoke. Nevertheless, they ignored them and carried on with their formations; meanwhile, the boys’ locker room was deathly quiet as Coach Miles stared them all down.

“Jerome…” He said, sharp and hard in the mind.

“Coach,” Jerome answered, focused, and eyes fixed on him

“Today you become the permanent replacement of Daniel,” Miles stated, uncertain of the outcome

“Roger that. Coach.” Jerome said, thinking hard

“Any objections?” Coach Miles asked.

The room fell quieter than before, as if no one had the heart to break to the Coach, seconds past, and nothing, then an entire minute… Oscar breaks the silence.

“But Coach, Jackson would have been a better decision.”

The locker room fell ill with laughter, so much laughter – even Coach Miles Jerome could not hold themselves together in calmness – and laughed too.

Breaking his laughter to add more to the joke, Oscar… “The boy is better off plaiting braids at the solon; we’re doomed.”

The room laughed another time.

“Looks like you’re approved for the end, knock em dead,” said the coach, still with a sharp, uncertain look. He looked at every player in the room; he couldn’t decide what was missing. He smiled at Daniel’s locker. The players stared at him, except for Timothy; he was busy twisting his heart repeatedly with his finger, seemingly lost inside his own world. Coach Miles began to give his pep talk…

“We have a friendly match today; playing away means that competition will be stiffer than Oscar’s jokes… Play like you mean it. Remember Jerome exists; force passes onto him; make sure he is used to his opponents before half-time; do not let him beg; remember that you can’t get the job done without him; print the thought inside memories, and don’t forget. There’s all of us, and there’s one of him. And what do we say?”

“It’s all for what, and one for all.” The boys jointly responded.

“I didn’t hear that.” Coach Miles insisted with confidence.

“It’s all for one! And one for all!” They shouted back at him.

“Good. All in.” He reached out his hand.

All the players gathered their hands in the circle and chanted their signature team phrase.

“Now let’s go play some football.” The coach last added.

In that same beat, Daniel was already in therapy, and nothing was stopping him; he endured the pains of the minor exercises of his first session like it meant everything to him. The therapist noticed that he had a strange hint of focus and determination that patients from his past never truly portrayed; so much that it made him worried that Daniel would eventually push himself too hard.

Daniel was always the type of kid that his father would constantly take notice of; he was never the type to give up on anything that carried challenge. Signs of his determination started at just 5 years old; he was much a football enthusiast then, but he definitely enjoyed cricket. His main issue was that, when the ball came in a straight line, he got so mad himself, to the point of crying himself back inside, until one fine day he got mad at the ball and he didn’t bother to throw it another time; instead, he walked it as close as 1 foot away from the wickets, and then he threw it. He must have figured that playing his own game with no umpire watching meant that it was his rules to apply.

The problem was that he never stopped kicking the wickets until all three of them were scattered in the backyard, and he never asked his father to play cricket with him ever since. Mr. Whitman carried home a soccer ball the following evening, and made him a mini goal to score in. It became his newfound love, but it also became his newfound drug, because Daniel began to take soccer to heart. He wanted to be like his favorite soccer idols. By age 8, he started taking home posters of random soccer players and would forge their autographs before gluing them to his bedroom wall.

He swore to become like Ronaldinho and rule his soccer team’s striking line; he never flinched for a second about his dreams. All he knew was how to score goals; he had never had any opponents – as his parents had only one child at the time. They lived only in remote rural areas where houses mostly stayed distant from each other, where noise pollution was less likely to disturb their livelihood. By age 13, he played starting striker for his high school soccer team, scored the most goals, and was hailed as the Messier. Yet he was quite a shy guy towards girls, and never formally went on his first date until he got to 15. Miranda, her name was, was short and curvy with long blonde hair. They were inseparable, or so they thought.

Daniel became a chick magnet in his senior high school years after constantly leading the soccer team to consecutive victories – home and away. Miranda was never granted the freedom of a fair relationship, even as a loyal girlfriend; Daniel had goals, pressure of attraction, constant love-bombing, and spotlight, so much that he didn’t have the time to remember that sometimes Miranda waited for him just across the lunchroom or even right across the hallway; the typical high school soccer star traits plagued his accurate decision-making abilities. He graduated at the top of his class nonetheless, but as for Miranda, she called it quits out of fear that he would choose the crowd over her someday.

By the time Daniel arrived at Holloway, he already knew the one place he wanted to be: on the starting striker list of the soccer team. He made it to the team as a new member, but was not accepted to the starting 11. His talents were overlooked, and he was shunted off to the side by the coach the college had at the time, but it never deterred him; he knew his day to shine would finally dawn one faithful morning. Daniel kept training alongside his new college mate, Dane, and kept on preparing himself for the day that he would be called upon.

It never came, but still he remained vigilant about being a member that was ready to be called into action unexpectedly, never missed a training session, and would rather to be late for his lectures and do late night studying. He met Jane through Dane’s friendship; they fell for each other in silence and finally got together one fine day when nothing else mattered but falling in love out loud, and though he was still on the bench, she still made him feel seen while she performed her cheers.

“You shouldn’t put too much pressure on your injuries just yet; they’re still fresh injuries, and you could make them worse by accidentally rupturing them while being anxious to heal. Soccer matches are only 90 minutes of your life, son. Don’t let them ruin you forever.”