Chapter 119: Final Tryouts

Chapter 119: Final Tryouts

Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Terra; Imperia; FBC

Friday goes by without much happening, as my taxi courses are still in their early stages where I’m not necessary. We all go out in the evening though, and even Tim joins us after his long absence. I decide to ignore my suspicions about his identity for now though, and we just have a good time. When we’re back in our dorm, Lucy takes me aside and asks if I’m really that blind.

“What do you mean?” I reply in confusion.

Lucy groans loudly and facepalms. “You’re hopeless! Haven’t you seen all the subtle advances Tim made throughout the evening? You acted like you didn’t see them at all…”

Subtle advances? “Uhh, would you believe me if I said I didn’t notice a thing?”

Lucy groans even louder. “Hopeless! Absolutely hopeless. Next time I’ll point it out right away, or this is never going to work.”

I blush a bit embarrassed. “Okay, thanks, Lucy…”

She just shakes her head and lets me enter my room. In there, I pretty much fall asleep as soon as I lie on my bed.

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“Morning, sweetie!”

The words barely arrive in my ears, and I turn to the side to continue sleeping. That is until my bed sheets start floating away, leaving me lying there in my pajamas. I have to blink a few times to get the sleep out of my eyes. When I finally manage to open them again, I think I’m still dreaming.

“Mom?”

I sit up straight and stare at the woman in front of me. She’s changed her hair color to a dark brown, but it’s still unmistakably my mother.

“What are you doing here?”

She sits down on my bed and grins. “Oh, I’m just dropping by. I take it you slept well?”

I find myself nodding, I still can’t believe it. What is she doing here? What about the risks of exposing me? Sure, Alina already knows, and Lucy and Lydia have known for so long… But still. “Just dropping by?” I ask in a very disbelieving tone.

“Yep, Dan and I currently have to deal with some things up on Benson Moon. You should come by for a visit.”

I shake my head. “Not that I’m not happy to see you… I am! But I don’t believe that’s the reason for your visit. Hell, you could have called or sent an invitation. This doesn’t make sense.”

Mom sighs. “Fine, you’re no fun. Yes, I’m not here to talk about dinner plans or anything. Let’s talk about Lisa Song.”

Oh… Of course, it’s that. At least I’m awake now.

“Okaaay… What about her? Dad said everything was okay.”

“Yeah, you’re not in trouble or anything. Lisa can be trusted. I just want to know what gave you away.”

I get up and sit down next to her. “Well, mostly it was because I declined both her and Bernd Schmidt’s invitation to join their entourage… Lisa said no one in their right mind would decline such an offer if they didn’t already have something close to it. That’s why she thought I belonged to the family of a Marquess.”

“Ahh, that’s unfortunate… I should have thought about this. Your magical talent makes you desirable. I’m sorry about that.”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “So it was you who got me into that class? And don’t worry, Lisa is nice. I actually don’t mind that she exposed me.”

Mom nods. “Yes, I thought it would be good for you to get to know your peers. Xin even warned me that this might happen, but I didn’t believe her.”

“It’s okay, Mom. I don’t mind. I think I’ve even made friends with Lisa.” I stop and look at her. Then I realize something. “You’re upset because you couldn’t stop yourself and bet on me, right? And now Xin Song is smug about it.”

I can read it on Mom’s face that I’m right and start laughing. She blushes in embarrassment.

There is a knock on my door, and I hear Alina’s voice. “Hey Sara, everything alright in there?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine!” I call back.

“Okay, can I come in? I wanted to ask you something.”

I glance at Mom, and she just shrugs, basically telling me “It’s your decision.”

“Sure, come in. But don’t freak out, alright?”

The door starts opening. “Why would I freak out? Are you naked or someth… Holy shit!” She stumbles and stops. “Err, I’m sorry…” She starts bowing. “Lady Valterion! Greetings.”

Mom stifles a laugh. “No need to bow, Alina. It’s alright. You can call me Jasmine.”

Alina starts stuttering. “I… I, okay. S… Sorry for intruding. I… I’ll be on my way.” She starts to turn around.

“Hey Alina, wait! You’re not intruding. Everything’s fine. Just come in.”

That does it, and Alina somehow composes herself. She takes a deep breath. “Alright, I’m good now. Sorry for the awkwardness.” We both wave her off. “What I actually wanted to ask is can we join your Gravity Ball tryouts in the afternoon as spectators or is it a closed event?” She then turns to Mom. “And uhh, can I take a picture with you?”

I start snickering when Alina blushes deeply. “As far as I know, spectators are fine, so sure, you can join!”

Mom also grins. “Of course, we can take a picture. Let me just change the background to something more realistic.” She waves her hand, and the wall of my dorm room suddenly looks like a lecture hall. Mom stands next to Alina, and it looks like they’re both next to the lectern. A small camera drone floats before them and takes a picture.

“There we go. Now it looks like I held a lesson and stayed for a picture afterward.”

Alina grins broadly. “Thank you so much, Lady Jasmine!”

“You’re welcome, and just Jasmine is fine. Anyway, I’ll leave you girls alone. Good luck with your tryouts, Sara. And let me know if you’ll manage to join us for dinner tonight.”

I tell her goodbye and promise to give her a call later on. Then she teleports away and leaves me alone with Alina.

“Holy shit!” Alina calls out and sits down on my bed. “I just met a Duchess! Can you believe that?”

“Sure,” I grin at her.

We look at each other and start laughing. The whole situation is a bit surreal.

I talk a bit more with Alina, but we soon join the other two girls for breakfast, courtesy of Lucy, then I already have to rush to meet up with my teammates before the tryouts. The others tell me goodbye and that they will all be watching when I’m doing my tryouts later today.

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I’m the last one to arrive at the small café, Alec arranged for us to meet. He, Drew, and Amanda already have some mugs standing before them. I join them at the table, and we exchange greetings. I quickly order a mug of coffee myself, then we start talking about our plans for the tryouts today.

“Did you manage to find our remaining three players to form a full team?” I ask Alec who will probably be our team captain if we all manage to get selected for the team.

He shakes his head. “No, I’ve already told the others… We have to take what we can get. Everyone who has been at least decent during the first tryouts has already formed up with others for the tryout. There are a lot of goalkeepers looking for squads, but we don’t need one. The coaches will probably assign one defender and two attackers to our team when we have our match.”

Hmm, not ideal… But if we can still pull this off, it will be even more impressive. I shrug at him. “Nothing we can do then, I guess. But we can do this!”

“Hear, hear!” Amanda chimes in, and even Drew smiles slightly.

We finish our coffees while continuing to talk about how we plan to enter our matches today. After that, we head off toward the Gravity Ball fields.

There is already a big crowd of spectators around one of the fields, and a large group of students are doing their warmup exercises on the inside. The four of us look at each other and shrug. We might as well join them.

On my way to the changing room, I notice Alina, Lydia, and Lucy. They all give me cheerful waves and I grin back at them. Then I almost stumble over my own feet when I recognize our Improvised Combat instructor Olivia next to Lydia. Are they actively dating now?

Anyway, after changing, we all walk toward the entrance of the field which is on the opposite side from where the changing rooms are. Actually, that’s pretty inconvenient!

On my way, I even notice Tim and Nick standing around the field. It’s crazy, everyone is there to watch me play!

“Hey Tim!” I call out and he turns around. Upon seeing me, he grins broadly. “The others are over there,” I point toward the changing rooms where Lucy stands right at the waist-high fence surrounding the field.

“Thanks, Sara. We’ll probably join them before the matches start. Good luck, not that you’ll need it.” He winks at me, and I roll my eyes. Then I hurry to catch up with Amanda.

The boys were faster and are already doing some warmup exercises when we enter the field. We are quick to join them.

It doesn’t take long until coach Zero and coach Dalton arrive together with their assistants. Zero is the one to speak up with a loud bellow. “Alright everyone, let’s get this show on the road! Welcome to the final tryouts for the new first-year teams of FBC. If you’ve already formed teams, please form up to my right. If you don’t have a complete team form up to my left. And lastly, if you’re alone, go to coach Dalton over there.” She points at the opposite end of the field just when coach Dalton teleports there.

We students are quick to follow her orders, as no one wants to make a bad impression. My squad finds itself at coach Zero’s left side shortly after. After she talks a bit to the complete squads, she comes over and starts talking to the incomplete teams.

She must be using a Communication spell with coach Dalton, as every time she finishes talking with a team, a few people from coach Dalton’s group walk over and join them.

Then she stops before us and tilts her head. “Alright guys, please state your roles so that I can fill up your team.”

Alec speaks up. “Amanda here is a hybrid, Drew’s our controller, Sara is the jumper, and lastly I’m the boring defensive player.”

Coach Zero nods and flashes a grin. “There’s nothing boring about being defensive! But that means you’ll need one offense, one defense, and a goalkeeper, right?”

I shake my head. “No, actually, we’d like two offensive players and another defensive player.”

She raises an eyebrow, and for the first time looks at us in interest. “Is that so? It’s been a while since I saw a team that bold. I look forward to seeing you on the field. Make sure to include your new teammates in your tactics!”

We all nod at her and she continues to the next squad. I turn around and notice three people walking toward us. They have various expressions on their faces. The boy in the front looks hopeful, while the two in the back have slight frowns on their faces.

They stop before us. The blonde, hopeful young man holds out his hand. “Hi, I’m John, like the Emperor,” he winks before continuing. “I’m an offensive player and I’m very excited to try out your tactics. You do have a plan, right? Coach Dalton said you’re playing without a goalkeeper?”

Alec grabs his hand and shakes it, then continues to introduce the four of us. “… and yeah, we do have a plan. The four of us even trained it successfully against a training program that the Terran Spartans are using.”

That washes the frowns off the faces of the boys in the back and they introduce themselves as well. The broad and tall guy is called Ivan and the smaller one’s name is Jackson. Surprisingly, Jackson is the defensive player and Ivan is the attacker.

“Did you really play against a simulation of the national team? And did you win?” Jackson asks in slight disbelief after introducing himself.

Alec grins and nods. “Yes and yes. Hey, Sara, do you have a recording to show them? This might be easier to introduce them to our tactics.”

“I have a recording, but it might be better to show the others on a tablet,” Clara replies in my ear.

I cast a fragment of my newest Utility spell and send her a feeling of gratitude. I can’t do more than slight feelings right now, but it’s progress!

“Does someone have a tablet? I do have a recording, but I think it’s better to use a tablet instead of our interfaces. That way we can point out the details much easier.”

Drew opens his bag and pulls out an extra-large rolled-up tablet tube. “Here you go,” he says and hands it to me.

I roll it open, and it comes alive. It’s like fifteen steps above the one I had back in the Estriduros Republic, but luckily, Clara has no problem with it. Seconds after powering up, it now shows a recording of our training game back on Monday.

We watch the recording together and our three new teammates get wide eyes. “That might actually work!” Ivan calls out with a smile on his face.

“Yeah, let’s do this,” John says.

It still takes a bit until our team is up for playing. We watched the other games together and there were some impressive players already. Especially one girl who played as an offensive player. She completely wrecked her competition with her unconventional moves and fast gameplay. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want her on my team.

Then it’s time for us, and coach Zero calls out Alec’s name. We follow him onto the field and take a look at our opponents. They’re a mixed team consisting of three men and four women. They’re also in the classic lineup with one goalkeeper, two offensive and defensive players each, one controller, and lastly one jumper.

Our missing goalkeeper causes more than one raised eyebrow from our opponents, and the spectators outside are loudly commenting on our lineup. Some are curious while others practically dismiss our team. I block them all out and concentrate on the game. Coach Zero whistles, then we’re off.

In the end, everything worked out as planned, and we completely wiped the floor with our opponents. Drew and I defended our goal perfectly, and even Amanda had a short episode where she jumped in as our goalkeeper. With one additional offensive or defensive player courtesy of Amanda switching, we’ve always had our opponents outnumbered. Add in my expert jumping and Drew’s exceptional catchers, we steamrolled the opposing team.

When coach Zero calls for the match’s end, we win with a comfortable ten to four and a lot of cheers from the spectators. After that, we watch the remaining matches and I’m almost getting restless until the coaches tell us their decisions.

Finally, the last whistle sounds, and the final game ends. Coach Dalton calls everyone together, and we line up before the coaches.

“Alright, that was some impressive gameplay, everyone. You can all be proud of yourself for getting this far. Unfortunately, there are only 36 spots on the team which means we have to cut your numbers down.”

What follows is a brutal cut of young sportsmen. More than half of the players on the field are cut. Their heads hang down when they leave the field and join the spectators. I look around and estimate that there are now about 70 students remaining. I gulp as that means there is another big cut coming. Only half of us will make it into the team!

Surprisingly or probably not that surprisingly after our performance, our whole team is still standing on the field. Alec gives us all a reassuring nod. Then coach Zero takes over and explains the next phase of the tryouts: We have to show our skills directly against the coaches! And that all alone! No more teams, just one player against the coaches and sometimes the assistants, depending on our role.

One after the other, the remaining students pair off against the coaches and obviously, they get completely wrecked. Not a single one of us manages to either score or defend against them. There are a few promising showings, and I almost manage to outplay coach Dalton before he does a weird move and outplays me instead.

After each match, the student who had just played gets a short feedback and is told to wait at the side. Then, finally, Alec is the last one to play and obviously loses as well. After that, the coaches tell us they’d need an hour to make their final decisions. We’re free to do what we want in the meantime.

I’m too excited to do anything and so I walk toward the edge of the field where my friends are waiting. “Sara, you were so close! Matching up against the coaches was so unfair,” Lucy cries out as soon as I arrive. “Yeah, that was brutal, but you still almost had it. I think you made it on the team,” Tim tells me with a big smile.

I continue to chat with them and before I know it, the hour is over and the coaches step back on the field.

“It is time,” coach Dalton starts before coach Zero picks up.

“To decide on our final team for this year.” She waits till every noise dies down and everyone waits in anticipation. “Our first team slot goes to Sara Green who did a splendid performance and almost managed to win against coach Dalton.”

I miss the rest of her praising me, as I’m cheering out loud and my whole team is congratulating me.

“Miss Green, please come up and join us.” Coach Dalton interrupts my celebration. I grin sheepishly and walk up toward the coaches.

Who would have guessed that I’m the first one to be called up? That’s amazing. I glance at my interface and silently read the congratulations message I’ve just got from my friends. I smile and enjoy the moment.

The coaches call out the next name. A woman named Frieda Breno. I notice someone celebrating. It’s the woman who I noticed earlier. The one who plays offense. After her, the coaches call out Drew who is quick to join me. I give him a high five.

The coaches continue to call out names until finally the 36th name gets called out. It’s John from my team, which means that except for Jackson and Ivan everyone from my team made it. With five spots on the squad, we’re the biggest group who played together in the first matches today.

I can’t wait to start playing for real!