My Goalkeeping System

Emma was really glad to have Emilia visit her because unlike Karen she actually had a lot in common with her.

Sure Karen was her childhood friend and the two had attended the same school up to high school but they never really had anything in common.

She had met Emilia at the university as the two happened to be in the same department, the department of journalism, and from the first day they met during a lecture, they had bonded.

Right now the two women were sitting on the couch in the living room as Emilia was helping her paint her nails.

"So how did the interview go?" Emilia asked.

"Huh?"

"The one you told me you had this week, that\'s the reason why you\'re still here," Emilia said.

"Oh, the interview was rescheduled to next week because of what happened to me," Emma said.

"You called them to reschedule it and they said yes," Emilia said with a surprised expression on her face.

"No, I wasn\'t the one that called them," Emma said, pulling up her right hand in front of Emilia after she was done with her left hand.

"Who called them then?" Emilia asked before dipping the small brush in the tiny container filled with pink nail paint.

"Clark," Emma answered.

"Who\'s Clark?" Emilia asked as she started painting from her thumb.

"Dave\'s friend."

"Dave\'s friend?"

"He\'s also his contract agent and a lot of other things that I don\'t know," Emma said with an awkward expression on his face.

"And you\'re sure that he convinced them to reschedule the date for your interview," Emilia said.

"Yeah, I got an email from them confirming that the interview had been moved to Monday next week," Emma said. "I was just as shocked as you are now."

"He sure has some skills."

"Huh?"

"I mean Clark, the one that helped you reschedule your interview," Emilia said.

"Yeah, he does," Emma said with a nod. "So how did your interview go? It\'s crazy that we both got job opportunities the same week and then mine had to be rescheduled."

"I….got the job," Emilia said with a smile.

"You did?"

"Yeah, I\'m starting next week," Emilia said with a nod.

"You got the job and you didn\'t even bother to tell me."

"I wanted to tell you in person," Emilia said.

"So, what did they give you?" Emma asked.

The happy expression on Emilia\'s face quickly vanished as soon as Emma asked that question.

"What\'s wrong?" Emma asked.

"I wanted sports Emma, you know how much I love sports reporting, it was all I wanted," Emilia said, biting her lower lip.

"Hey, calm down, just tell me what niche they assigned to you," Emma said.

"Education," Emilia stated with an unpleasant look on her face.

"You wrote an article project about the education system that won the best project award, you will clearly do well in that area," Emma said.

"I know Emma but I wanted sports, I also write good sports articles."

"Why did they refuse to give you sports?" Emma inquired.

"She said they already had enough sports reporters and the reason why they were hiring me was to fill up the education reporting unit," Emilia explained.

"Oh," Emma said.

She was about to say something when the door was suddenly pushed open for Dave to walk into the house.

"Hey, where have you been?" Emma asked as she seemed to have gotten him off her mind for the period she had been with Emilia.

"At the garage," Dave said, quickly making his way upstairs.

He didn\'t even turn to her to answer that question and judging by the look on his face, Emma knew that he was upset over something.

"Is he okay?" Emilia asked after he had gone upstairs.

"He usually has these mood swings, it\'s definitely something about football." Emma articulated.

"Oh."

"Don\'t worry, I\'ll talk to him later."

Dave had gone straight to his room with anger still burning in his heart.

He had called his father immediately after that call with coach Norman but for some reason, he didn\'t seem to be picking up his call.

He had his phone in his hands now as he was calling his father\'s number again but after ringing, there was still no response.

He dropped the phone on the bed and let out a deep sigh before crashing on the bed.

<Instead of lying here wailing in your sorrow, I will advise you to go outside and train more, you don\'t have to throw yourself on the floor anytime you experience a setback. Is this even a setback? It\'s just one match Dave>

\'One match that I am supposed to be part of because I am clearly not down with any form of injury.\'

<Why don\'t you go train and during training today, you can show your coach that you\'re physically okay and don\'t need the rest they are suggesting, the match is yesterday so the decision can be overruled>

"Yeah, you\'re right?" Dave muttered sitting up on his bed.

<Now go outside and train, you can\'t get anywhere by slacking off>

Dave let out a sigh as he got up from the bed and quickly made his way downstairs.

He didn\'t want to disrupt what the women were doing as he quickly made his way toward the door but before he could open it Emma had called him.

"Yes, Emilia can sleep over." She turned to her and said before she could say anything to him.

"I wasn\'t going to ask you if she could," Emma said with an awkward expression on her face.

"You weren\'t?"

"Yeah, she\'s from Supreme City so she can make it back early even if she leaves late in the evening," Emma said.

\'That explains why she arrived that early.\'

"Oh."

"What\'s up with you?" She asked, keeping her gaze on his face.

"What?"

"You looked quite upset when you entered the house and I can still see it on your face although you\'re trying to cover it up." She said,

"There\'s nothing wrong babe, I\'m okay," Dave said, giving her an assuring smile.

"Sure."

"Yeah," Dave said with a nod. "I\'ll be outside"

"Dave…"

She wasn\'t able to say what she wanted to say as he had already left the house and slammed the door shut.

The goalkeeper\'s training idea now was the ball blaster as it seemed to be the only relevant thing he could do as he didn\'t want to spend any more time in his personal gym.

He pushed the ball blaster into the lawn and left it within penalty range in front of the goalpost.

He quickly filled it up with the balls before putting on his boots and gloves and now it was time to start his training.

Looking at the controls on the blaster\'s back he could see that it had levels one to six.

<I suggest that you start with the lowest level>

"Yeah," Dave said as he clicked the button labeled with one and then clicked the red start button before quickly running to the goalpost.

Level one of the blaster was too easy, it was too slow and predictable as the goalkeeper was able to keep out all the balls.

"That was too easy," Dave said after punching up the last ball which had proven to be the trickiest shot out of them all as it had been placed in the top right-hand corner but still, he didn\'t dive to keep it out.

<Well, that was just level one and your dexterity seemed to have gotten quite the boost from last night\'s match>

"Yeah," Dave said as he began to kick the balls around him back to the machine.

[ Physical Status ]

[ Strength: 16 ]

[ Dexterity: 13 ]

[ Endurance: 11 ]

\'They are all double digits now.\' Dave said subconsciously as he fitted the last of the eight balls into the tube and closed it up.

<Double digits is a good thing now you just have to keep going to get to better double digits>

Level two also wasn\'t that hard for the goalkeeper as he had efficiently kept out all the balls until the last one which had gone straight for the top left-hand corner.

He was glued to the spot as the ball hit the crossbar and fell into the net.

\'At least I kept out seven of them.\'

<Yeah, but if more of those balls had gone toward there, then I\'m sure you wouldn\'t have been able to keep out more than four of them>

\'Every goalkeeper has a weakness.\'

<True, but you\'re not every goalkeeper and you should find a way to deal with this weakness>

Dave had quickly filled the blaster with all eight balls and now it was time to see how well he was going to do in level three.

[ Quest received ]

[ Keep out at least six of the balls ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +2 boost to all stats ]

[ +15 exp ]

He had been expecting that and seeing it now, a smile had suddenly appeared on his face.

\'Now we\'re talking.\'