The Kick Off

Despite Sally promising herself to start working towards finally getting together with Andreas, the next days were as busy as they could possibly be, with no time left for romantic planning, or anything else. Voigt mostly overseer the repairs of the gate as well as some new devices that would help protecting his house and everyone inside. That mostly included the new alarm system, and hooking up more security cameras, outside the house. Also, both Sally and Andreas instructed Illy on how to use a phone and call the authorities, should anything suspicious happen in the future. And they almost instantly grew to regret that since Illy called the police demanding an intervention due to unsettling auras gathering around the house.

As for the short elf stay at his house - nothing was vocally agreed upon, but Voigt slowly accepted the fact that he had an extra room mate from now on, and Illy was essentially bribed with unrestricted television to not bother him all the time. Sometimes too unrestricted, since both Andreas and Sally often caught her watching channels that were less than suitable for any moral viewer. In the end they all accepted her perviness and just let it go.

The police visited a few more times, but this time only the generic uniforms with no good looking officers in sight. Andreas kept the detective Malone’s number, still indecisive whether to give her a call or not.

Ex soccer player noticed how his leg and overall form is improving every day, but he thought it’s the therapeutic result of having two individuals at his house that he could focus his mind on, no longer lingering and reliving the past mistakes and injustices. He did decide to buy a proper, netted goal and even painted a penalty area next to his house.

“What’s that?” He heard an ever so slightly annoying voice behind his back when he was putting the balls near the penalty spot. He hoped that Sally would come over and talk, but he also knew she was busy at that moment with cooking lunch for all of them.

“A goal.” Andreas responded in his usual manner, with an almost grumbling voice.

“I can see that.” She ran straight into it and tried to reach the top bar, but was just too short, even when jumping as high as she could.

“It looks smaller on the TV.” An elf commented after giving up and just taking a sit near one of the posts.

“You watched some games?” Andreas asked, curious.

“Yes.” She admitted. “I’ve been trying to find out what’s so good about it since you were once a player.”

“And what did you come up with?”

“Nothing.” She shrugged. “I don’t find your worlds competitions appealing.”

Andreas set the ball on the ground, and kicked it without a run up. It flew a few inches below the bar, on the opposite corner from where Illy was. He smiled, the familiar numb feeling in his right foot brought back some nice memories.

“You had sports in your world?”

Illy picked up the ball that landed near her.

“Not sports. Competitions. Real tournaments!” She said with pride.

“Alright, what were participants doing there?”

Illy approached, while holding the ball.

“Mostly fought with weapons. Sometimes without them, sometimes they just fired arrows at things.”

Voigt nodded.

“Makes sense. We also had those, like a few hundred years ago, but we moved on. Of course, there are still fighting sports, fencing, archery, but it also changed compared to whatever we had in the past.” He explained.

“I saw, the fights you have now are weird. Like, how much body oil do those so called fighters need?”

“I don’t know.”

This time he took a run up, and with a lot of power on the ball, he hit the net down the middle.

“Can… Umm…” Illy tried to say something, but didn’t know how to ask.

“Just spit it out.”

“I want to try as well. The kicking thing.”

Andreas somehow suppressed the chuckle.

“Sure, go for it.”

Illy set the ball on the grass and tried to give her best while looking at the goal, but ended up barely touching the object, losing her balance and falling to the ground.

Andreas gave her a hand to get up.

“First of all, lose the shoes. You are better off kicking the ball bare footed than with those slippers.”

She didn’t respond verbally at first, just did what she said. Voigt noticed that she had very small feet.

“Now, your legs are weak and…”

“Hey, that’s mean!” She interrupted him and pointed a finger at him.

“Sorry.” Andreas raised his hands. “Your legs are not as well developed as they should be for kicking the ball properly. Is that better?” She gave a nod. “You need a proper run up, three steps at the very least. Ideally you should set the ball in front of the foot you are going to strike with and then take three steps backwards. Yes, just like that.”

“Okay, what now?” She asked him.

“Look where you want to shoot before running. For now, just pick the middle of the goal. And during the run up, just focus on the ball while remembering where you want to place it.”

She did all that, but the ball landed far off from her target. Illy came to one knee and started to massage her foot.

“What did I do wrong?”

Andreas approached her.

“Nothing. The rest is just choosing the site of the foot you want to kick the ball with, and then practice.”

“Practice?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Practice. Noone becomes the best without it. You need thousands of kicks and touches to become at least familiar with the ball. Then, you’ll be able to send it wherever you want.”

He extended his hand to help her get up.

“Come on, let’s see what Sally cooked up. I’ll buy you football shoes later, if you’d like.”

Illy was quiet for a second, and then decided to take his hand.

“I would very much like that.”