The Long Journey

Practise and Girls!

( I don't want to bore you readers so I m not going to bore with football but will add a few chapters about problems which a teenager like me has to face.)

Harshil's POV

Well there a lot happened in school between the arrival of the form and the final form being filled.

The worst of all that I being mostly with girls and due to the football could not cope up with them , so they started ignoring me! Which was the worst side effect of being a captain of a football team .

My best friend Reva Hadens also noticed a change in me from a ladiesman to a responsible person which gave her quiet a shock. She could not even imagine me running around the foyer without girls around me .

And so out of amazement she asked me if I was free that day for lunch. I was and so we decided to go to Mcdonalls near the school after school. I had my phone and so informed my mom that I would be late in coming home. She was used to getting these calls from me and so she teased me not to overeat ( moms sometimes do irritate a lot)

So over 2 burgers she asked me all about the team , and what was the reason for ignoring her. After a lot of pleading for mercy she forgave me with her usual blessing " thatastu ( may your wish come true ) , you will win the tournament with the help of my blessings."

And all that I could reply was a thank you and then gave a sigh of relief . And after that we went home walking so that we could have sometime more to spend together before I go crazy with football again.

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Back to the football

Well the logos submitted to me were good but the most of them were practically impossible to make as they did not go with the jersey or was to complex for the machine to print on the jersey. I called the entire team together to solve this problem. After a lot of brainstorming we finally found a good logo which suited the jersey .

But another problem came up at the same time. In the logo we planned to write the name our team which wasn't decided yet( every year we liked to keep new names). So after another round of brainstorming all we could end up with names like Black Shadows, Stupa Strikers , Heaven 11 , etc

And with no other choice we called it a day. We practised for sometime before deciding to go home to our comfortable beds.

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The next day

Harshil's POV

Well the day had a great starting as I woke up late and missed my van.

Reaching school late, our art teacher caught me and made me , along with some other boys, take 10 rounds of the school playground. On a winter morning like that , exercise made all my sleep go away, which usually is very difficult to get rid off.

Back in the short break I told Reva about my new headache. And asked her If she could suggest some name for the team. And as always she had a solution for every problem

Reva " I think you should name your team .....Red Devils"

She had hit me in the soft spot as Red Devils was another name of my favourite football club Manchester United. And it also suited the jersey colour as it was also red.

And the team had no argument regarding this point for the first time.

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That evening at the playground

We all had just started warming up when all of a sudden someone shouted from somewhere behind me from the benches " Go, Harshil "

I turned to see Reva and Jennie( Reva' best friend ) sitting on the benches. I started blushing as I knew what the outcome of this shout was going to be. TEASING!

Yash nudged me in the ribs and Shlok pushed me from behind towards the girls.

Reva as always was casually dressed in jeans and a t- shirt saying 'I LOVE FOOTBALL'
( which should be worn by me ) while Jennie was dressed in a similar manner.

"Hi" was all that I could manage to say .

"Hey" they replied in unison.

" Go back to your practise we'll talk later" said Reva.

"Ok"

After 2 hours of intense practising

I walked up to the girls who had been jogging around the ground. I asked the, if we could sit down for a while.

"Don't you have something called STAMINA?" Jennie taunted me

So in order to prove my stamina I had to keep on jogging even though I was totally exhausted. We finally sat down and before having a seat , I sprayed the deo I always carry to avoid being pushed away from girls after practise. And with that I sat between the girls and we started chatting on random topics.

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This schedule was followed by me for many days and most of the days if not Jennie then atleast Reva would come to meet me. One day out of the blue she asked me if she could come to watch my match.

" Is that a thing to ask. I have also booked tickets for you and Jennie. And don't worry about the money as each team gets 30 tickets free and as none of my parents are coming you both are to come" I said a bit taken aback by her strange question which had an oblivious answer.