He was rarely given above 30 minutes in a match, and would regularly sit out whole games. However, if he performed well now, he could hopefully get more time on the luscious green pitch.

  The match began, with a defender of their miniature team passing the ball up. It arrived at the midfielder beside Leo, Blake Brusco. Blake showed off his dribbling skills in front of the man ahead. He didn’t have amazing pace, but had notable agility.

  Leo was in an open position, waiting for the ball to head his way, but was directed past him and to Gustavo, who was already being defended by one of the opposition. It was as if they were trying to play a 4v5.

  Leo continued to move into open space, and struggled to get a single touch on the ball, almost as if he wasn’t even there.

  “Use Leo when he’s open! Keep your eyes up and get the ball into open space when you can.” Mr Kilbourne ordered.

  Almost out of reflex, Gustavo who had been pressing up along the wing passed the ball back to Leo. Finally.

  Taking a deep breath, he focused on slowing time but just couldn’t get it to work. The time never came to a slow and in this time he took a brief pause, the ball was swept straight from his possession.

  The opposition’s main striker, Keagan, was a 6’3 bruiser and fired the ball straight into the net past their keeper.

  Gustavo kissed his teeth with anger upon seeing this. Even Mr Kilbourne looked away to watch the other 5v5 game that was taking place.

  Leo cursed himself for what happened. Why wasn’t it working? It worked like a charm in the shadowrun, why wasn’t it working now?

  He’d have to try again but was he even going to touch the ball now? His only touch had been abysmal, leading directly to the other team’s goal.

  Gustavo pressed down the right wing, as he usually did. He was slightly taller but still had magical feet, that were almost impossible to read. Beginning with a flurry of stepovers, he cut straight past his defender, now running along the box.

  He lifted his eyes to give a quick glance to the pitch, seeing an opening. Stepping past his defender, he used this small space he was given to curl in a shot using his left foot. It fired off and was not just precise but powerful. It whipped around his defender and headed toward the top corner of the opposition’s goal, but ended up being saved.

  An opponent took the ball, now holding onto it to try and find to space to work with.

  “Take your time, Lonzo, don’t be rash.” Mr Kilbourne said from beside him, having come back to watch their match.

  This was Leo’s chance. He wasn’t the best defensively, but had to try and get the ball. That would be his only shot at showing off to his coach. He was positioned in the centre of the pitch, around the back half of it.

  Playing as a central defensive midfielder, it was only natural that he adopted this position. However, Lonzo was all the way toward the left of the pitch and well away from him.

  However, Leo began to scan the pitch and could see a passing lane that he could close. He wasn’t the most athletic player but what kept him in the squad was his vision and game IQ. He could read the games and find the most optimal paths of play.

  The player with the ball was looking in that general direction to the defender, where he would

  Rushing forward, he blocked the lane and just as he predicted, the ball was headed his way. It was go-time. He intercepted the pass at the perfect time, and focused hard as he received the ball.

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  The man he was blocking from the pass headed his way to try and defend him but he noticed that he was approaching in an awkward and sluggish manner. Time had slowed.

  Performing a simple ball roll, he easily managed to rush past the person and pushed straight forward toward the goal. With time slowed by 2x, it made him twice as fast compared to the others around him.

  The speed at which he moved at almost brought his teammates to a stop. It was like they were in a trance as he advanced. Performing a step over toward his left, he swiftly kicked past the second opponent to enter the opponent’s box. He could kick the ball lighter with time moving twice as slow and still kick it at high speed.

  This allowed him to focus completely on accuracy, and he curved the ball straight past the last defender just as Gustavo had done. Firing it into the edge of the goal near the middle, he whipped it right in.

  The players couldn’t help but applaud him, and they looked around at each other with surprise at this feat of skill. Leo began to smile almost out of reflex. It always felt so great to score a goal.

  “Good job, Leo!” Mr Kilbourne said, expressing the first emotion that he had done the entire day.

  Surprise. It was short-lived, as his neutral face returned but when Mr Kilbourne’s face changed, that meant something very significant had just happened.

  Their match continued, with Leo managing to acquire another goal and finishing it off with a long pass to Gustavo, finished off by a header.

  Their team won 4-1, with Leo not just providing offensively but cutting off the opposition’s offensive play. His mind now had a capable body to apply more control over the game.

  He could not just see passes from the opposing team but get into the action and actively shut down the link up play.

  After this one game, though, Leo could already feel the fatigue creeping in. He hadn’t spent enough time honing his skills with his time slowing abilities, so he couldn’t use them recklessly.

  With Mr Kilbourne were the team’s assistant coaches, and they couldn’t help but huddle around Leo’s games to see what he was up to.

  He was now using his powers in short bursts, a second or so at a time, mainly to beat defenders and be a nuisance defensively.

  It meant that he wasn’t scoring as many wild goals as he was doing before, but it allowed him to transform his game. He was now a very impactful player for his 5-man squad, providing assist after assist, along with breaking down the opposition.

  After a long few games of football, everyone was spent. Huffing and puffing, they began to take off the bibs that they were wearing, and getting ready to end the session.

  The students were going one-by-one, as parents came to pick them up while others headed to buses and trains for public transport.

  As Leo prepared to catch his own bus, he was stopped.

  “Wait.” Mr Kilbourne stated, making him freeze up.

  It was never good news when somebody was stopped by Mr Kilbourne. It made him think back to the previous sessions and he struggled to find anything that he could’ve possibly done.

  He made sure to never get into trouble during games, was he going to ask about why Kam was gone? How did he end up finding out about that?

  He overheard it from one of the players during the session. This wasn’t going to be good. How would Mr Kilbourne react to him being the reason his best player was gone with an injury.

  “Leo. You were spectacular today. Keep that up and you’ll be a solid starter. Just keep it up.” He stated, with his hands behind his back as usual.

  “Yeah, man, you’ve got quick feet. Keep up the good work!” One of the assistant coaches commented.

  “T-thank you. I’ll try my best.” Leo replied, going red from the compliment that he’d received.

  It felt almost unreal. He was actually going to be a starter!

  “Keep it up, now get yourself home.” Mr Kilbourne stated.

  “Okay, see you later Mr Kilbourne. Thanks again.”

  “Of course.”

  Leo headed all the way back to Blim Square with a smile on his face. He just couldn’t believe it.

  He navigated the narrow, tight halls of the apartment city with great joy, even skipping at certain points. It looked odd, to seem so happy in such a dark, grotty place but Leo didn’t care.

  These powers that he had, they were really starting to change his life.

  He took this evening to just rest, and reward himself for the success he’d achieved today. It felt weird to have something to actually attach to his name besides just his grades.

  Those felt emptier though – only teachers really praised him for being smart. But this, his agemates would value success like this, making it feel so much better.

  Maybe, he wouldn’t remain that outcast to be picked on and ostracised from everyone else but then he thought back to Kam. The way he hurt him with that punch, he was sure that he wouldn’t let that happen. He’d always be there as the shadow to keep him in the darkness.

  Even if that was the case, that’s how he’d been living for all this time, right? A small step forward was a step nonetheless. He’d take any win at this point.