My Goalkeeping System

Dave was getting dressed in his room when Clark popped up at the door with an apple in his hand.

"Are you here to ask me those questions?" Dave asked before picking up the red polo shirt on the bed.

"Yeah, but let's talk about work first," Clark said before walking closer to him. "I looked into both clubs, the players that are going to be out of contract and the players that are going to get sold potentially and it turns out none of their first-choice goalkeepers will be leaving."

"So, they just want me as a backup goalkeeper." The goalkeeper said.

"Definitely," Clark said.

"I knew that was going to be the case with Manchester United, Patti Moreno was one of the top goalkeepers in Europe last season and he's just twenty-six years old, there's no way I'm going to bench him."

"Yeah, and although Villareal's number one Gerrad Puado just turned thirty-one, he's still performing well and it's going to take a while before you start ahead of him," Clark said.

"One of the reasons why my father never wanted me to be a goalkeeper is because the second-choice goalkeeper can go a whole season without stepping foot on the pitch for an official match and I don't want that to be me." The goalkeeper said.

"So, it's settled then, you'll continue in Unique FC next season, and maybe after that, you can move to a club that needs you as a first-choice goalkeeper but then you'll be doing that as a free agent because you'll be out of contract," Clark said. "I'll tell the clubs that you're not interested later but they may still go on to submit their bids to the club to know their reaction, the good news is that you're not a big shot player yet so they wouldn't go to any extra length of trouble for you."

"Yeah, I'd like to make my mark in my boyhood club before leaving," Dave said.

"Good luck with that," Clark said before taking a bite from the apple he was holding. "Now, let's talk about the matter at hand."

________ ________

With everyone downstairs now, it was time for them to enjoy the meal together and that was what they were doing now.

Emilia and Clark were sitting on the right side of the table with Dave sitting near the edge and Emma sitting on the left side beside him.

"Breakfast when it's almost noon," Dave said with his gaze on his phone's screen which displayed the time as 11:50 AM.

"You haven't had anything since morning?" Emilia said.

"It's all your fault, you were the one that disappeared for three hours," Emma said.

"Yeah, I guess so." He said before turning his attention back to his food.

They all had a lot of things to share at the table, all of them except Dave, the goalkeeper's main focus was to fill his belly so he wasn't really paying much attention to what they were saying.

"So, Emilia, I never got your place of origin," Clark said.

"Place of origin." She muttered. "I'm from Audzin."

"I guess that's obvious and since you're living in Supreme, that's your city right?" Clark said.

"And you're from Unique, right?" She said,

"Yeah, I grew up with Dave here in Unique."

"Yeah, those years when I used to destroy you in FIFA," Dave said before turning his gaze to the play station console in the living room.

"I don't think destroy is the appropriate word to use because I also beat you a couple of times," Clark said.

"Yeah, by luck."

"Now, they're arguing about childhood games," Emma said before taking a sip from her glass of water.

Dave was the first to leave the table as he had gone to set up the play station.

Emma returned from the kitchen to find Emilia and Clark in the dining room still talking to each other.

"Um…Is anything wrong, Emma?" Emilia asked after noticing that she had been looking at them for quite a while now.

"Oh, it's nothing." She said, shaking her head.

She had a bright smile on her face as she quickly made her way to Dave who was done setting up everything and had just inserted the FIFA 24 disc into the console.

"Hey." She said before sitting down beside him on the couch.

"Hey," Dave said with his gaze still on the screen.

"I see everything is going just as you planned." She said,

"Huh?" He said before turning his gaze to her to see that she was looking at Emilia and Clark. "Oh, you mean that, I just wanted them to meet, I didn't plan anything."

"Seriously? I'm not that easy to fool, Dave." She said, "If you just wanted them to meet then why did you have her create time for a day that she was supposed to be working, they could have met during the weekend and it would still be meeting."

"Okay, fine, I had something in mind in having them meet today but if it's not going to work, it's not my problem." He said with a shrug.

"It's definitely going to work." She said with a vivid smile on her face.

"Yeah, I've seen that already." The goalkeeper said before raising the other controller toward her. "Can you play?"

"You want me to play with you?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind playing with the computer but just like a certain someone said, playing against someone is better."

<And that certain someone went on to destroy you>

"Okay, if you insist." She said before taking the controller from him.

"Finally someone I can destroy just like Mateo has been doing." The goalkeeper said.

"Mateo," Emma said with a little chuckle.

"What's funny?"

"Nothing."

It didn't take long before the team selection page came up and Emma didn't hesitate to choose Manchester City.

"Manchester City huh, don't expect me to go easy on you." He said before he went ahead to choose Barcelona.

<You've brought a lot of shame to this club's name, hope it won't be the case this time>

'Of course not, there's no way she can beat me.'

The first half of the game had ended goalless and Dave kept on complaining about the chances he missed while Emma just kept on smiling.

The second half was a different thing altogether, Dave could believe what he was seeing, and at the end of the match, he was staring at the screen with a stunned look on his face.

<Wow>

"What's going on?" Clark asked, he had entered the area with Emilia."Woah! That's a brutal scoreline. Did you have to go all out on her, Dave? But you hardly use any other team apart from Barcelona."

"Yeah and he's still maintaining that," Emma said.

"Wait, you're saying that you're…"

"Yeah." She said with a nod and the smirk on her face wasn't going to go away until she had gotten on Dave's nerves well enough.

"You were going easy on me throughout that first half. How are you so good?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She said, "I used to play with Mateo and I was always on the winning side."

On the scoreboard which was being displayed on the screen was a score that gave you the idea that the match was totally one-sided, it was Manchester City six, Barcelona nil.

****

New year mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.

Mass release for goals met last month will still be rewarded on the due dates.