Become A Football Legend

[*I already feel sorry for this poor girl. Don't think about it too much, just say it how you practiced. Nothing wrong with dinner.*]

After a few more minutes of practicing the speech in his head, forming the replies he would give depending on her answer, he gathered up the courage to open his mouth and tried to sound as natural as possible.

"Hey, Jo."

"Yep?" She raised her head from her phone.

[*Remember, "do you want to have dinner with me?" It's only eight words long.*]

"Do you wanna be my girlfriend?"

"Huh?"

* * *

[*You have to be kidding me. After all that practice, you couldn't say a simple 8-word sentence?*]

"I PANICKED."

Lukas was sitting in Javi's car riding home from the match after confessing to Joanna.

Luckily for him, he didn't have to hear her response — the rest of their families joined them before she could say anything.

"You think her having more time to think would be a good or bad thing? Maybe she was gonna say yes, but after thinking about it, she changes her mind."

[*It's always a good thing. It's better she changes her mind before accepting than to change her mind a few weeks into the relationship.*]

"That's true, I guess," Lukas responded to TT as he closed his eyes and tried to calm the nerves that racked up during his talk with her.

Meanwhile in Mr. Gimenez's car...

"Hey, Joanna, stop fidgeting so much. You're distracting me," João said as he pushed his sister who had been restless the whole ride.

Joanna didn't respond to his antics as she usually would and just lay her head on the headrest and closed her eyes.

"What's the matter? Did something happen?" he asked.

"Nothing happened. I'm just tired."

"Hmm... I see."

A lie, of course. She wasn't tired. Just stunned — and speechless.

Lukas's confession had caught her off guard and she was looking for the words to say to him.

"Thank God the others joined us at that moment, 'cause what would I have said? Yes? No? I'll think about it? I'm not even sure he was being serious. He looked serious, though. It could have been a prank. He's never pulled a prank on me before — and this would be a hell of a weird way to start.Who even asks someone to be their girlfriend out of nowhere?"

Her thoughts were all over the place even as they got home. She went straight into her room and locked the door behind her. Then she plopped down to the bed, and decided to give serious thought to Lukas's question.

She knew she was feeling something for Lukas — ever since she eavesdropped on his call with her brother, she had been thinking about him a lot. But she also knew the probability of things working out between them, was quite low unless one of them would make a major sacrifice.

She would be graduating high school in about nine months, and was still thinking if she should apply for university already from her final year, or take a one-year break.

DING*

She picked up her phone and looked at the notification.

Message from Lukas.

She peeked at the message through the notification bar, careful not to open the chat.

Lukas: "Hey... I'm sorry for saying something like that so suddenly, but I meant it."

She threw the phone back on the bed after reading the message and buried her face in the pillow.

"What am I even supposed to say now?"

About thirty minutes later, Joanna was still drafting and deleting a response to Lukas's message in the notes app.

Lukas finally got a response. He had been checking his phone almost every minute since he sent that message.

When he heard his phone chime, he surprised Javi with how fast he stood up to go get it. They were having a late dinner while his phone was charging.

He grabbed it, unplugged it, and unlocked it.

Joanna: "Hey Luke... It's alright. There's no need for you to apologize. I was surprised, but there's nothing wrong with what you said. As for the answer to your question, can you give me some time to think about it?"

He read it with a pounding heart, then carefully typed, "Sure. Take as much time as you need."

* * *

"I never knew how funny that story would sound to you. Not very funny for me, though," Lukas said as he stared at Joanna who was stopping herself from laughing.

"No, no, I'm sorry, but you gotta admit, that was kinda funny," she replied as she sipped her drink.

When Lukas was telling the story, they had gone to the school's canteen, gotten snacks and drinks, and were currently sitting in the cafeteria talking.

He had told her the story of the day he asked her out, but he left out the parts containing conversations with TT.

"If it's just dinner you're asking me to, we could do that," she said trying to sound casual as she sipped her drink.

"Yeah?"

"Uh huh. It will be nice. When will you be free?"

"Hmm... I'm busy most times with training. And I know you're busy too with your final year exams preparations, so no rush."

"How thoughtful of you. Yeah, we'll keep in touch and pick a date we're both free."

"That's great."

"Also, I don't have to remind you not to tell João any of this, right?"

"Why not? He's known I like you for a very long time."

"Yeah but I don't want him to know that I know. Not for now, at least. He'll start bugging me about it."

"Alright then. I won't say anything if you don't say anything."

"Good."

RING*

The bell rang to signal the end of the break and they both stood up and headed to their separate classes.

* * *

About a month later.

18 December, 2024.

At the men team's training ground in ProfiCamp.

"Ayyy! Luke! Over here!"

"Go go go!"

"Behind you"

"Omar! On your right!"

Calls for the ball and instructions were being screamed all over the pitch. They were deep into the day's training session.

It was a 7 v 7 half-court match.

Lukas received the ball, and immediately started getting calls from several players on his team.

Hugo Larsson was coming to mark him from behind, but Lukas didn't even let him get close.

A twist of the hip in one direction and a turn in the other direction fooled Larsson.

"Nice, Luke. I like that!" Coach Topmöller applauded from the touchline.

After the turn, Lukas threaded a pass through the legs of the defender, into the path of Ekitike who buried the ball in the net with one touch.

It was a smooth attacking play.

"Beautiful!" Topmöller said as he blew the whistle to signal the end of the training match. Lukas's team had won 3 - 1.

Lukas had been training with the first team ever since his first session, and only went to the reserves on the last training before a match and on match days.

The Regionalliga were currently on a two-month break, though, and they hadn't played a match since 7th December.

"Bro, how do you even make passes like that? Are you De Bruyne's secret son?" Marmoush asked laughing as he nudged Lukas on the back with his elbow.

"Hahaha... I wish," he responded.

"Although I should probably summon him next for training. If Ozil could make me this good, how much better would KDB make me?"

He had only finished his training with Ozil's summon a few days ago and was now spending time doing basic training to make sure his stats don't regress.

After freshening up, Lukas headed up to CEO Krösche's office.

KNOCK KNOCK

"Yes, come in."

Lukas opened the door and saw a bunch of familiar faces — everyone present during his first contract negotiations, and Krösche. He stepped in, greeted the men, and sat beside his father.

A few days ago, Marco had informed Javi that the contract was ready to be reviewed, so he came with Lukas to Frankfurt that day.

"How are you finding the first team training sessions, Lukas?" Krösche asked.

"It's great. I can feel myself getting better day by day."

"That's great to know. At this club we prioritize steady growth over everything. And this contract will serve as the proof."

Timmo Hardung, the sporting director, slid the draft of the contract over to the side of the table Lukas, Javi, and Marco were sitting.

Marco opened the contract and handed it over to Lukas, he had already been sent a softcopy of the contract, so he knew all of its details.

"Considering your sustained performance since we started the discussions, we decided to keep your salary at a million for the first year as your agent initially suggested. We also increased the yearly increment to €300,000 per year. The appearance, goal, and assist bonuses are also quite good for a first professional contract."

"Hmm... That's nice," Lukas thought as he skimmed through the contract while listening to Hardung.

"The good-faith-negotiation fee, though, was set at €75M."

A/N: It's a beautiful day to be alive.

Have a wonderful day/night everyone.

Love y'all.

-Writ