Family
Chapter Two: Pact
Chapter Two: Pact
Stefan Rakocic was a man of many hats. He was the agent of several big name athletes; Hakki Ojala and Allie Vacek from Anglatia, and Ash Volland and Jeremy Jensen-Fletcher in Redvale, but that managing contracts for athletes wasn’t the only thing that Stefan was good at. He liked to say that his agency was more of a family than a business, and he helped his players out off of the field accordingly. Sometimes, that meant helping them with their personal lives. Other times, it meant going above and beyond his normal duties as an agent and helping them chase career ambitions that other agents wouldn’t want to risk touching. He’d done that for Allie by negotiating better deals for her in the music industry, and now, he was doing her a favor by helping out her sister, for free.
Sive Vacek was getting into the news because of her cocky attitude and her blend of swagger and confidence that was making her the most well known player in the Sporting Ceneisis academy system, and she was trying to translate that into a music career similar to her half-sister’s. Except, because she wasn’t as much of a top footballer as Allie, she could focus on music even more. She’d already released some rap videos that had over a million views each, because of her popularity back home, and she was trying to sign a record deal under her new rapper name, Young Siv. Though, she was also known at times as Little Santana, a reference to her friendship with the Santana sisters, Jenna and Zahara.
Now, she and Stefan and her brother, Junior, were sitting in a radio studio for an interview that Stefan had managed to set up with one of the biggest music sites in Anglatia, Imperial Beats. If she did good with this interview, her career would likely soar. Not only that, but it was also being broadcast on one of the biggest radio stations on the island, giving her some exposure in Ross. At first, she’d been upset at her suspension from the Ceneisis youth team, but now that she was sitting across from the radio host and getting more and more comfortable with the interview as it went on longer, she realized that the suspension had been a blessing in disguise. It gave her the freedom to travel to Ross without missing anything that she needed to be at for the team, like practices and matches.
The show was returning from commercial, and the main host, a man known as DJ Ro$$, held up three fingers and then two and then one to show that they were coming back from the break. “Alright everyone, this is DJ Ross here with Imperial Beats correspondent Brigid Mairen. We’re in the studio, broadcasting live from beautiful downtown Ross, and we’re interviewing Sive Vacek, AKA Young Siv, AKA Little Santana. We’ve also got her agent in the house, Stefan Rakovic, and her brother, Christian Vacek Junior. When we left off, we were talking about the subject of record labels and balancing football and music. Now, we’re going to ask some questions about team chemistry, the national team, and address the rumors that have been floating around.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to ask me some hard questions,” Sive chuckled, though her tone was much more relaxed than it had been at the start of the interview. She’d taken the advice of the producers to relax for the cameras, since the segment would be posted online afterwards, and during the commercial break she had smoothed out her hair and outfit. Her appearance wasn’t too much different from her half-sister’s, even though she had a stereotypical Anglo-Saxon face and Allie didn’t. Still, she had dyed her brown hair pink to contrast with the blue that Allie had, and they had the same dark grey eyes that were associated with Nordskanians.
However, she dressed with a bit more ‘swag’, wearing an outfit that had been picked out by a few of Underfell’s well known fashion designers. She had a plain black shirt, but the leggings that she was wearing had a black and grey camouflage print, and she had a pair of shades sitting atop her head that had been adorned with rhinestones that couldn’t quite be told apart from actual diamonds. She had a pair of designer sneakers too, that hadn’t yet been released to the public. One of the perks of being related to Allie was that sometimes, she could get things from Allie’s sponsors for free. Even though the designer clothes that she wore weren’t cheap, she hadn’t paid a cent for them. Allie’s friends in the clothes business had no problems paying for them, as a favor to Allie.
“The people wouldn’t watch and listen to us if we didn’t ask the hard questions,” replied Brigid, before laughing. “We’ll let you have a compromise, though, because you’re young and you’re still getting your career off the ground. I know you don’t want bad press, so if there’s something that you can’t answer because it will mess things up for you, you can say you don’t know and we won’t push it. Okay?”
“Yeah, sounds good. I’m a pretty open kind of person, it doesn’t bother me to talk about personal stuff and you guys know I don’t shy away from controversy, I just don’t know what Allie will think if I say certain things. The Ross media… I mean, not you guys, but the really big media groups-”
“You calling us small?” joked DJ Ross, making Sive chuckle again.
“No, no, I’m just saying the big papers like the Ross Star and the Ross Independent have been against her recently and I don’t want to give them any more stuff to go after her with. If they want to come after me, then I’m one hundred percent fine with that, because I don’t shy away from conflict or controversy, but I don’t want to screw up Allie’s career,” Sive explained. “I’ve done enough damage to her reputation so I’m kind of trying to separate my reputation from hers, even though we’re still as close as ever and even though I still love her more than anyone. If the Ross Star comes after me, I want them to just come after me and not after Allie.”
“We totally understand that. And I’m sure you’ll develop your own reputation in time. As you know, you’re already gaining infamy because of your escapades at the Sporting Ceneisis academy, which led to you being suspended, among other reasons,” said Brigid. “Do you want to shed some light on what happened at the academy leading up to your suspension? Most sources have said that it was because you punched a reporter while you were with your sister with the Imperial national team, but you’ve told us that the suspension also came because of things that you did while with the academy.”
“I’m not going to lie and act like I haven’t had some problems with my teammates. Some of them don’t like me, they think that I’m a rich brat that’s only here because of who my sister is, and I don’t like them very much either,” Sive admitted. “I was suspended because I… I got into a training ground bust up and my coaches weren’t happy with me after that. Let me be clear, I’m not the kind of teammate to start shit, but if someone starts something with me, I’m going to finish it real quick.”
Everyone in the room chuckled again. “What did someone do to start shit with you, then?”
“Well, it was near the end of practice, and this bitch tried to break my ankles by sliding into me with her studs up while someone one of my other teammates held me up from behind while she was trying to win the ball from me. The coaches said it wasn’t a dirty tackle, but they missed how the other girl was twisting my arm behind my back to keep me from jumping out of the way of the tackle,” said Sive, gesturing to explain the motion that her arm had been twisted in. “If I jumped out of the way, it was going to break something in my arm, so I stood in there and let her hit me with her studs and then I elbowed the other girl away and went after the girl who tackled me.”
“What did you do to her that got you suspended from the squad?”
“I ran that bitch off of the pitch and into the locker room, and I was about to go off on her before the staff came in and broke us up. They blamed it on me and called me the instigator even though the two strikers tried to break my arm and my ankles, and I ended up getting suspended for it not long afterwards while the others received no punishment. There’s no pictures or videos to back me up, but I don’t have any reason to lie and act like they came after me if they didn’t,” Sive continued, sounding angrier and angrier as she spoke. “They started shit and wouldn’t finish it and I can’t stand people like that. Next time I see them, and there’s no staff members or other teammates around to intervene, you better believe that I’m going to finish what they started and beat both of their asses. And if I ever see that striker that tried to break my ankle, when she’s alone, I’m going to grab her by her fake ass hair extension and personally make sure that she’s on the next injury report.”
“Are you going to give us a name, so we can know who to look out for?” asked DJ Ross, grinning as his show received the best sound bites that it had gotten in months.
“Ciella Castro. I’m going to use this as a chance to give her a warning, because it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t. Ciella, next time we’re alone, I’m going to beat your ass unless you apologize. I don’t want any trouble with my squad, so consider this to be me extending the olive branch and asking to put this behind us and be friends, but unless I see an apology before I get back in Ceneisis, I’m coming for you. I don’t even care how long that gets me suspended, this was never the club I wanted to play for anyway,” Sive replied, also smiling from the attention that she knew was on her. “Everybody thinks that I won’t be good at fighting because I’m skinny, but I’m still a purple belt in Jiu Jitsu and I can still snap someone’s arm in half with my wrestling if they decide they want to fight.”
“Is that what you were going to do to that reporter, in Turori? I should mention that all of us were rooting for you in that fight. While we’re on that subject, we should ask what did the reporter say to set you off? Did she really say something about your sister?”
Sive nodded. “She asked me about a rumor and she tried to make it like Allie’s mom committed suicide because of how Allie acted. I told her to shut her mouth and she tried to say that my not answering meant that the rumor was true, and then I went after her. I don’t hate all of the press and Allie doesn’t hate all of you either, but the Ross Star and the Ross Independent are a group of snakes that need to be exposed for their bullshit. Some of the stories they run, especially the ones about Allie, are complete lies. Now, I don’t know if she wants me to tell everyone this, but her mother actually did kill herself by taking a bunch of pills. But it was the other way around, she felt guilty about all the stuff she did to Allie over the years and she couldn’t take it. This story that they’ve been running, saying that Allie caused it, it’s a complete fabrication. All lies. It’s all nepotism, because she pissed off one of the bigwigs in Ross that has contacts in the media.”
“Could you tell us what Allie’s side of the story is, in regards to her conflict with Dan Drysdale and his family?”
“Uh…” started Sive, unsure about if she wanted to tell the whole story. “I don’t know… Let’s just say she got on the bad side of her youth national team teammate, Katie Drysdale-Fox, who’s also Dan Drysdale’s daughter. He’s overprotective cause she’s his only daughter, and he used his media buddies and his position as a tactics coach on the national team to try to get her removed from the team. The rest of the coaching staff with the national team shut that down really fast, but the Ross press never quit. I think most people really don’t know what Allie is actually like, she’s one of the best people I know and yet everyone I meet seems to think that she’s either a thug or a bad influence on me, and she’s neither. Even her own club is attacking her and trying to force us apart, but I’m never going to let them do that. The press spreads so many lies about her too, just because of how she got on the bad side of a former Ross United player.
Like, it’s not even just the rumors about her mom, Drysdale made sure that the press put out all kinds of other rumors to damage her reputation.”
“What kind of rumors have they been spreading about your sister?” asked Brigid.
Sive paused again, because she was still trying not to slip up and reveal something that Allie didn’t want her to reveal. “They took the stories about her not getting along with her club teammates and ran with them, and tried to say that she fights with her national team teammates too. That’s not even true, she’s friends with a lot of the players and nobody seriously has a problem with her. In the locker room, she’s one of the leaders, one of the ones who gives speeches to the team after they win or lose, and she’s good friends with a lot of the stars and important players like Jace Votto and Zahara Santana and Darren Harbin. She used to fight with the national team coaches, at least with the youth team, but not anymore. She’s made peace with Zach Drauss after they had their disagreements at the U-18 level, and she’s made peace too with Yanick Martins before he left the team. I think that at first, those rumors would have been more accurate, but things have changed. She has an understanding now with the coaches, and they both make concessions to each other to get along. The media didn’t just attack her for team related stuff though, they had other rumors about her life off of the pitch that were designed to make her look bad in certain parts of the Empire.”
“What rumors would those be? There’s been a lot of them about her, you know. I assume by certain parts of the Empire, you mean in the area around the capital, where the papers hold the most sway,” said Brigid, having somewhat of an idea of what Sive was referring to.
“They try to say that she’s lesbian, and that she’s dating Blaze Chrzanowska, because that kind of thing still has a stigma around it in Western Anglatia and other areas where the Church of Anglatia has a large influence. Like… They tried to say that because she and Blaze are roommates every time the national team takes a trip somewhere, and that because they do certain things like hold hands and take a ton of pictures together, they’re dating. Doesn’t matter that Blaze is pregnant, the press just started saying that Blaze is bi and Allie is lesbian, because they want the followers of the Church to turn on her. They don’t even care that they’re going to hurt Blaze’s reputation, too. Fortunately, the Church doesn’t have that much pull in Valeria, but it’s already pissed off some of our capital based fans and damaged her reputation in Anglatia itself even if it hasn’t hurt her throughout the Empire,” Sive sighed. “She’s just really good friends with Blaze, and she’s also sensitive about her sexuality and so they went after her for that-”
“Wasn’t there a video of her dancing with strippers in a club with Hakki Ojala and a couple of Redvali basketball players? She doesn’t seem like the type of person to be closeted, and… With all due respect, that video certainly makes those rumors look like they might be true.”
“It’s complicated, okay? But she’s definitely not dating Blaze Chrzanowska, and the fact that the media came up with that rumor shows that they don’t give a shit about hurting the reputation of players who aren’t even involved in this beef, because they want to make people dislike Allie. Blaze used to be one of their darlings because she was a good underdog story and she led the U-15 team to third place in their World Cup, but they weren’t afraid to throw her to the wolves as soon as they had a chance to sling mud at Allie by using her,” said Sive. “But that’s alright, because me and her, we aren’t alone. We have the Underfell papers helping to expose some of the slander, and we’re going to have the Santana sisters helping us out pretty soon. I’m sure you know that I’m very close with both of them, and they’re both like older sisters to me. We haven’t known each other forever, but we kind of clicked when I traveled with Allie on international duty.”
“Of course, the Ross papers have used your friendship with the Santanas as a way to start rumors too,” said Brigid. “There was some controversy after the second Brenecia match during World Cup qualifying, because Emily Hakkarainen was supposedly stabbed in the team showers by three teammates who threw a pillowcase over her head and fled the scene before she could identify them. However, further reports have come out saying that you may have been involved, and that the two players are the Santana sisters, who were not present with the rest of the team at the time that the incident happened. Since you were traveling with the team at the time, and in the locker room, do you want to shed some light on what happened that night?”
Sive took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts and figuring out how much truth she wanted to reveal. One of the reasons why she’d agreed to this interview was to take the heat off of her friends, who were taking a lot of flak from the press about the true rumors that they had been involved. She had also realized that if she admitted to being involved, and took most of the blame, she might be able to get herself cut from an academy that otherwise wasn’t planning on letting her leave, and she would be able to follow Allie abroad in the future. She knew that Allie was planning to force a move away no matter what happened regarding her deal with her manager, and she wanted to make sure that she was able to follow her. “Well, as much as I hate to say it, there’s some truth in these rumors… But it didn’t happen exactly as the papers said.”
There was a short but dramatic pause before Sive spoke again. “You see, it was never supposed to turn out like this. Emily really wasn’t supposed to get hurt, but… There’s this guy on the team that you all know well, Jace Votto. The wonderkid who carried us into the finals. And obviously, since he’s a cool personality off the pitch and because he’s good looking too, a lot of the female players including myself have been competing for his attention. He said that he liked Emily Hakkarainen the best, as sort of an offhanded comment that wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously, but some of us really didn’t like that because we wanted him for ourselves. The Santanas asked me if I thought we should rough Emily up as a hands off message, to get her to leave Jace to us, and since I wasn’t actually on the senior team and I have nothing to lose, I said that I would volunteer to go into the showers and rough her up.”
“And you roughed her up by stabbing her?”
“No, no, it wasn’t meant to happen this way,” Sive said quickly, before taking a deep breath to keep her tone even. “I was just going to put the pillowcase over her head and then push her around a little bit to scare her, and I was going to tell her to keep her hands off of Jace, but what I didn’t know was that she was going to fight back and that she was going to make noise and get me busted. I had a shank tucked in my waistband as a last resort and I pulled it out and told her that if she wasn’t quiet, I was going to use it on her, and she started wrestling with me. I tried to pull away, but she tried to push me into the wall and my hand slipped and I cut her side open. I really didn’t mean to hurt her seriously like that, I was just going to push her around and scare her a little bit. She still didn’t have the pillowcase off of her head, so she didn’t see me, and I dropped the shank and ran and left through the back door before anyone came to check out the noise. By then, I looked for Jenna and Zahara and they weren’t in the locker room, which is how the rumor that they’re the ones that stabbed Emily started.”
“I want you to know that you’re very brave for coming out and admitting this instead of letting your friends take the fall for what you did. I know there’s going to be backlash, but we here at Imperial Beats aren’t going to judge you and write you off because of what you did,” Brigid replies, as Stefan and Junior looked around the room nervously when Sive went off script and revealed something that she hadn’t told to either of them. “You’re young. You’re only… What, eighteen? You just turned eighteen, and a lot of us have done stupid things at that age that we go on to regret. That’s not what matters. You didn’t let your friends take the fall for it and that shows that you’re more mature than any of the papers are saying. Everyone is going to make it like what you did is really bad, but I don’t think it’s that uncommon for things like that to happen… It just usually doesn’t get public attention. I’ve seen far more cutthroat things happen in the music scene between rival artists, especially in the capital. Now… You’ve told me that you did this because of Jace Votto. You said that you wanted to get Emily to back off so you and the Santanas could get his attention. You’ve got a crush on him?”
Sive’s face went red after being put on the spot like that, with an off script question, but she nodded her head and nervously brushed her hair back. “Eh…” she started, looking for the right words. “Yeah. At first I thought he was just someone who looked nice, but he’s a really cool guy off of the pitch and in the locker room, and I think all of us girls are thinking the same thing and trying to get his attention. He knows, but I don’t think he quite knows how much we all like him. I’m not going to let him get in between me being friends with Zahara and Jenna or with my half-sister though, I’m going to be at peace with it if he ends up with one of them. There’s more than one fish in the sea, I guess.”
“Right. Changing subjects, but not entirely, you said before this interview that you wanted to make your own legacy in music and step out from Allie’s shadow. You said that you have similar styles but that you don’t just want to be known for being related to Allie Vacek. What plans do you have for your music career to help you make your own path?”
Sive’s blush disappeared, and she returned to being her composed self. “Well, our styles are similar when we rap, but she has less of a singing voice than I do and I also have more time to put into music because my football commitments aren’t as big as hers. I think that music is always going to be a side thing for her, behind football and acting, but I think that one day it could even be the main source of income for me. I haven’t always played football but I’ve always done musical stuff… I’ve sung, played the guitar a little bit, wrote songs for some local rappers and other groups. Allie will always have football to support herself, but I’m not sure that I have her talent and I might need something else. I’ll always have music to fall back on, because that’s my thing and that’s been my thing since before I was a footballer. If I end up getting released from Ceneisis because of the things that I’ve said in this interview, I’m not crying about it. I’ll actually take it as a blessing in disguise, because it’s going to give me time to work on this debut album that I’ve told everyone about.”
In reality, she’d be practically throwing a party after being released. She didn’t quite want to say that though, in case it would hurt her chances of being able to follow Allie abroad. “Can you tell us a bit about what that album is going to be about?”
“It’s still under wraps because I’m not done writing it, but it’s going to stir the pot back home and where I’m playing now, I can tell you that already,” Sive said with a grin. “The lead single on the album is called Stir the Pot, in fact, because that’s what me and my sister are good at. You can expect her to feature in it for a song or two… Oh, and the second single, the one that I’m releasing next week, that one is going to be kind of about her. I’m sure that one is going to stir things up even more, because it’s about her career and there’s an announcement about that in the lyrics. I won’t say what it is. Just wait, and you’ll see, because it’s obvious once you see the title of the song.”
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The Allie Vacek experiment had only worked in Ceneisis with mixed success. The staff had allowed Allie to play wherever she wanted on the pitch, and even though she started out on the wings, she ended up dropping into every open space that was available and shredding a Rosenpfelblatz City defense that didn’t know how to deal with someone that moved and switched positions as much as she did. She’d played on both wings, played up front in a pivot with Allison Torres, and even spent some minutes at left back, winning the ball and then moving up to create chances for her teammates. Her high motor really showed in the match, and that led to her getting both of the Ceneisis goals. One had been from the top of the box, when the defense failed to close down on her and she punished them with her range, and on the other one, she had gotten in between the center back and wing back and sliced the defense open down the middle after getting an onside through ball from Allison.
But they had still lost that important match, practically eliminating them from the title race. Their two second half goals weren’t enough to match up with the three goals that Rosenpfelblatz had scored, including two in the first half. Allie had really done everything, and left everything on the pitch that night, but she couldn’t lead the team to the one thing they needed the most, a win over their title rivals to jumpstart their hopes of winning the championship. Even as she wanted to leave this club and had already began making calls to other clubs to judge interest, she still couldn’t bring herself to give up on playing well. She’d fought as hard as she could out there, and walking back through the tunnel into the locker room, she was just as frustrated as anyone. Even though the management had lost their ‘bet’ with her, and wouldn’t be retaining her for next season, Tullio Zorzalo had informed her that she would still be able to keep her newfound freedom, because she had played so well and scored both goals.
That wasn’t any consolation to her, because for as much as she wanted to leave and go somewhere where she felt like she could fit in, she was a competitor who hated losing as much as she loved winning. “Get your hands off of me,” she told Allison, when her teammate put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her as she followed the others through the tunnel. She wasn’t in a good state at all… She was talking to herself under her breath, breathing as if she was having an adrenaline rush, and clenching and unclenching her fists. She never responded well to losing, but especially not in big matches like this.
“Are you going to be okay? I know the last few weeks have been rough for you… With the club stuff, and the thing with Eshe, and-”
“Why does everybody keep asking me that?” Allie screamed, getting the attention of every player and staff member and journalist in the area. Her frustration was finally boiling over and causing her to snap, and she pulled her shirt overhead and threw it to the ground angrily as she continued to storm off. “Not a single one of you actually gives a shit about me! You only care about Allie Vacek the footballer, not Allie Vacek the person! You guys could care less what’s happening in my personal life or what I’m going through off of the pitch, the only thing that you care about is me scoring goals for you and staying controversy free, and we all know that only one of those things is actually going to happen! Stop trying to pretend that you care about what happens to me when I walk out of the doors of this stadium, because you’re doing a pretty shitty job at acting like you care!”
Allison was taken aback, the others were too, and the staff were looking between each other to figure out who was going to handle this. “I do care about what happens to you off of the pitch, Allie. I’m the one that comforted you when you came to me in the middle of the night, when everyone else was sleeping, remember? And you might not agree with all of it, but I do try to give you advice-”
“Fuck you, Allison!” Allie shouted, giving her a shove to keep her at distance. “I’ve had enough with this bullshit! If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t be shilling for Tullio and helping him plan to keep me here by keeping my siblings at the club, no matter where I go. This deal, this agreement that I made with him, it’s a complete farce! It’s just more bullshit! He knows damn well that I’m not going to walk at the end of my contract and leave Sive and Junior in this hellhole to fend for themselves. I signed a one year contract so that I’d have options to get out if things got bad, not so I can be held hostage by a manager that’s using my siblings for leverage! You don’t fucking care about me and you never have! You’re either friends with this staff or you’re friends with me, and you’ve proven multiple times that you care more about your friends in management than you care about me! And that’s not even my problem with you, my problem with you is that you pretend to care, but you really don’t when it matters-”
Everyone had heard about Allie’s ballistic temper, but this was the first time that the entire team had witnessed her go off about something. She’d managed to hold her anger and frustration in ever since she had left the Lane Jets, and now, it was all coming out at once. “Allie, this isn’t the right place to discuss these things,” Tullio started to say, before she turned to him and directed all of her anger towards him.
“Hey, fuck you too, Tullio!” she shouted, turning red in the face from her rage. “I hope you’re happy that you ruined my fucking career! Now you can tell all the board members that you were right and they were wrong about me, and you can go tell the team owner that he shouldn’t have cut a big check for me, just like you said. That’s what matters, right? Your pride. Not the fact that you ruined my career before it could even get off of the ground by mismanaging me and trying to make me into just another cog in your machine. You always harassed me about drinking vodka all the time and smoking weed sometimes, but you never gave me any help with stopping! When I was alone and sober and depressed because of it, you never sent anyone my way to comfort me or to help me get through it! You just expected me to get over it and show up at training the next morning, and to perform well in it… That’s all you’ve ever cared about. Again, none of you have ever cared about me outside of the matches.”
There was a long pause, and Allie looked between Tullio and Allison and the other players, noticing that there were also a few reporters standing at the back of the tunnel and recording everything. She didn’t even care anymore, however, and as soon as Allison tried to move closer to her, she lashed out at her with a warning shot of a punch that came just short of striking her in the face. “Stay away from me,” she snapped, like a wounded animal that was up against the wall and surrounded by hunters. “Just… Just leave me alone.”
By now, the Rosenpfelblatz players were also in the tunnel, and they had stopped to see what the commotion was about. All eyes were on Allie, and as she was standing with her back to the wall, she looked up to avoid making eye contact with anyone. She also wanted to make it harder to see the tears that were welling in her eyes. “I hate all of you,” she said, in a lower but still sharp tone. “All of you expect to reap the benefits of the way I play when I’m at my highest, and not a single one of you is around for me when I’m at my lowest. Hell, the fact that the only real friend I have in this league is on the other team is really telling. Blaze Chrzanowska plays all the way in another city, for our title opponents, and yet she cares far more about me than any of you do. That says a lot about this club.”
Nobody knew what to say about that until Blaze herself pushed her way through the crowd of players, and she was the only one that was able to touch Allie without getting struck or shoved. She put her arm around Allie’s shoulder, and switched languages to the Underfell dialect of Lower Valerian to prevent the others from hearing what they were talking about. “Let’s get away from these idiots,” she said, speaking in a low tone into Allie’s ears. “If you head to the garage and wait by my car, I’ll try to get out of the locker room as soon as I can and we can go out for drinks or something. Well, I can’t really drink now, because I’m pregnant, but I can still buy some for you…”
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Allie replied, and she gave Blaze a tight hug before breaking away and leaving without saying another word to the others. Everyone just stood and watched her leave, with some looks being pitiful and some being dismissive and others being unsure. But despite opinions being split about her, there wasn’t a single person that was ignoring her now. Somehow, as she stepped out of the locker room with her shirt on the floor behind her, with her just wearing a purple undershirt and her shorts, everyone had the feeling that this may have been the last time they would see her in a Ceneisis kit. Everyone also realized how vulnerable she really was, as she left with her head down and her eyes welling with tears. On the pitch, she had played larger than life. Now, off of it, she looked even smaller than usual. For better or worse, everyone in Ceneisis now knew what she really thought about them and the club. And, as she walked down the hall towards the garage where the bus was waiting, they also knew that her time with the club was ticking away faster than they’d thought it would. The question wasn’t if she would leave, but where she would go when she did.
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At first, nobody at the quiet little restaurant at the edge of Ceneisis noticed anything special about the two girls who had gotten out of the silver lowrider that had parked out front. Both of them were wearing hoodies, with the blue haired girl’s saying ‘EXPLORERS FOOTBALL’ on the front and the black haired girl’s one having no markings at all on it. They both had their hoods pulled up, too, so it wasn’t too easy to judge their faces because of the shadows. Even though they were both athletes, their baggy clothes made it hard to see that they had athletic figures, and they looked like two regular, college aged girls.
Most of the staff at that restaurant assumed they were a couple at first, with the way they came in holding hands and with the way they really seemed to enjoy each other’s company in a way that only a couple could. It wasn’t until they approached the front desk to order that the workers of this restaurant realized that these two girls were anything but ordinary, and that they were both well known footballers. They were Blaze Chrzanowska and Allie Vacek, and if the most recent radio interview by Allie’s sister was trustworthy, they weren’t actually a couple. Still, they asked for privacy when they were deciding on a table, and they ended up sitting all the way in the back of the restaurant, where they wouldn’t have the attention of the other guests.
As they waited for the food, they went straight to talking about the future. Allie had done that with Blaze and had likely saved her friend’s life, and now Blaze was returning the favor and letting Allie vent her frustrations to her. “You see, I found out the hard way that Abanhfleft wasn’t for me. I knew that you were playing there and so I assumed it would be a decent option for an Anglatian, and it turned out that I was dead wrong and that this league is an even worse fit for me than it is for you. You might be an outsider to your club, but you had an easy time adjusting when it came to… What kind of substances are allowed here, versus Valeria,” explained Allie, speaking in a low tone so only Blaze could hear. “I didn’t realize that the everything goes culture of Valeria doesn’t exist everywhere, and I never really realized that in Lane because people bent the rules for me, because of how I was a star there and because Lane treats their stars better.”
“And now you want to leave because you realized that you made a bad choice, but they’re making that hard for you by trying to keep Junior and Sive here,” Blaze said, knowing where Allie was going with this. She’d heard some of the conversation from earlier, so she had a decent idea of what had went down. “They told you that they aren’t renewing your contract, so you can go wherever you want, but they’d have your siblings staying back with them. I get why you don’t want to leave and let your siblings stay here. Have you talked to them about this and told them that you want to take Junior and Sive with you?”
“Yeah but I still ended up agreeing to a deal where they wouldn’t renew my contract if we lost, but that my siblings would have to stay. I didn’t expect us to lose, I was sure that we were going to win and that we wouldn’t get split up. I really don’t want to leave them behind, but at the same time, I already found a new club that’s going to take better care of me and that’s in a better country… I started looking as soon as I heard that I would have a chance to walk at the end of my contract. I think… I think I’m going to play for Saint John’s Arsenal next season. Quebec is a better fit for a Valerian, as you know,” Allie said, and then she took her phone out and started scrolling through all the unanswered messages she had from national team teammates and people she knew back in Lane.
Apparently, there was a lot of concern for her after her outburst, which had been partially revealed on the press because of the way that she hadn’t calmed down in front of the cameras. She checked social media, and the video of her almost striking Allison and telling her teammates to get away from her had been released. It was in grainy quality, but it was still out there and there would be no doubting the legitimacy of the video. There were also hundreds, maybe thousands, of concerned comments from fans back home. Some of those comments were asking if she was alright, others were saying that she should leave the club and head back to somewhere where the team cared about her.
“Hey, can you hold the phone for me? I’m going to try to do a stream to address some of this,” she said, handing Blaze the phone. It wasn’t the first time that she’d done an announcement like this, but this time was especially important because of the radio silence that she had maintained in the hours since the incident had happened. She pulled her hair back and adjusted it a bit for the camera, and then gave Blaze a thumbs up to tell her to start streaming. As soon as the livestream started, the view counter rose into the tens and then further into double digits, reaching almost a hundred very soon after it began.
“Hello, everyone,” Allie said, after taking a deep breath. “I know that there’s been a lot of concern about me recently, after my… Outburst, after the last match. I’m thankful that I have more people who care about me than I initially thought, and I want to tell all my fans and my friends that I’m doing okay right now. I’m with a friend and I’m feeling somewhat better after spending some time away from my teammates. But after earlier, I don’t think that I can go back. I’m announcing right now that I’ve most likely played in my last match for Sporting Ceneisis. I don’t even care if they mutually terminate my contract and let me leave early without paying me the rest of the money that’s due. If the club will do that, then I’ll go through with it and announce my next move as soon as I sign off on the termination forms, but I don’t know if they will. Still, after today, I don’t think I can play again for Sporting. I think this chapter of my career is over, and that the next chapter is going to take me to Quebec.”
The stream was flooded with surprised comments as Allie announced that she was heading to Quebec, but Blaze kept holding the phone and Allie continued speaking. “I can’t say which team I’m going to play for next, because I don’t know for certain yet and I don’t want to commit to a team completely yet, but I believe Quebec is a good fit for me as a person and I’m hoping that there’s a club there that can be a good fit for me as a player, unlike this place, which was a poor fit on both counts. I’m going to talk with my family, or what’s left of it at least, and figure out our next move, and we’re going to announce it together. So keep an eye on my sister in the next couple of days and weeks, because you might get the news from her. I’m also going to be talking with my sponsors to figure out which location is going to be the best for my career trajectory, and talking with them has already narrowed down the clubs to a smaller group to pick from.”
She paused and sighed, glancing away from the camera. “I’m sorry for how things in Ceneisis went. I really am, and I don’t know what else to say. I rushed there because I had a friend playing in the same league without really looking at the whole situation and it didn’t work out as I planned. I thought that I would be happy here, but this is maybe the worst place for me to be with the kinds of problems I’ve had. I don’t think I can rebound from this and come back with Sporting next season… The only thing I can do at this point is restart everything from square one and work my way back up to the top in a different league, and after a lot of research, I believe Quebec is the right league to do that in. At least, I think the culture of the country is more compatible with my own background, and I think I’ll fit in with my teammates better.”
Looking back at the phone again, Allie forced a resolute expression onto her face and continued. “I think that, while I definitely have some fans who have an understanding of what I’m going through, a lot of people really don’t know how bad my time here has been. They don’t realize that every morning I wake up and immediately get reminded that I’m an outsider, and they don’t realize that I genuinely don’t have any real friends on this squad. Half of the players stay away from me because they think I’m a problem child and the other half look down on me because of those… Problems. Some of them don’t like me because I’m from Valeria, because I’m from a part of the Empire of Anglatia, and others don’t get along with me because they think that I’m arrogant and that I’m a rich brat. They really don’t know the real story, but with the way the Ross media has been laying it on hard with their attacks on me, I don’t blame them for not having a very high opinion of me. I’m close to my half-brother and half-sister, but the club doesn’t even want us to be together much because I’m supposedly a bad influence for them.”
She paused dramatically, staring hard into the phone’s camera. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. I practically rescued these kids… They didn’t have enough to eat when they were in Bathgate with their father, and they never would have had a chance to have a decent quality of life if I hadn’t stepped in and taken them here with me. Look, I know everyone says I’m a bad influence, but no matter what I do around them, I’m a better influence for them than their own family is, and I’ve still done my best to care for them to the best of my ability. But the club, they don’t see it my way. They even sent one of our star players to talk to me and basically tell me to back off from them, because the club wants to step in and raise them for me. It doesn’t matter that they’re my blood relatives and that there’s nobody else related to them in the club. It doesn’t matter if this club is from another culture, one that’s alien to them. They want to mold them into their perfect little Fleftic academy members, with no regard for how they’re cutting them off from their family.”
After another pause, Allie took a deep breath to keep herself calm and composed. “I guess what I’m trying to say, is that you need to look at the full story before you condemn me as a bad teammate and a bad influence on my siblings. Am I a bad teammate? Maybe, but my team hasn’t done much to help me in that regard and make me feel like I’m not a total outsider. Am I a bad influence? Probably somewhat, but at the same time, I’m doing more for Junior and Sive that the club ever will, and both of them still look up to me more than anyone at the club. I guess I should also admit now what my inner circle has known for awhile now. I’m pretty depressed, partly because of my past and partly because everything in the present has gone wrong, and I feel like being in Ceneisis isn’t a very good environment for that. I’m holding up okay right now, but… I think if I stay here for too long, I’m going to snap and I’m going to end it. Permanently.”
She chuckled, but it was a sad laugh that was very obviously filled with sorrow. It could be called one of those moments where the only options were laughing or crying, and Allie decided to laugh this time. “I’m sure everyone knows by now, because of how nosy and dedicated the Imperial media is, that Blaze tried to off herself because of how her career was going. Well, I’m never going to get credit for it from anyone in Abanhfleft or in Ross, but I’m the one who talked her out of it. Still, my situation is pretty similar and is almost just as bad, and there’s nobody here to comfort me when I’m at my lowest and nobody here to talk me down when I’m about to break. There’s Blaze, sure, but she’s in another city and she has her own problems. My half-siblings might love me, but they’re younger and I just want to let them be teenagers instead of burdening them with my problems. Besides, they don’t exactly come from a great background either, and it would be unfair to throw my problems on them in addition to what they already have to deal with because of their family. My other friends are all an ocean away, and…”
Allie had to stop, because she was going to get choked up if she continued without stopping. “Ah, you get what I’m trying to say. I’ve never felt as alone as I’ve felt in this goddamn country, and I need to leave for the sake of my health. I can’t say what’s going to happen, but nothing good is going to come out of me staying here,” she said, finally, after the longest pause of the stream. “That’s all I wanted to say. It took too many words to say it, but that’s the message I’m trying to convey. I have to leave, or I’m going to go insane here. I’m leaving to Quebec, and I have a team or two in mind, but nothing is final. You guys will see eventually, when me and Sive do the announcement in the special way that we’ve been planning… That’s all, everyone. I’m out.”
Blaze pressed the stop button, and watched as Allie’s phone started buzzing with comments and messages. She slumped back in her seat afterwards, grabbing her blue hair in a frustrated gesture and letting out a long sigh. “That’s all I can do to explain myself, Blaze,” she said. “I don’t know how that came out, but that really is the only thing that I can do. Now, I wait and hope that the club offers mutual termination, and that I can survive till the contract is up if I don’t. The next stop is Quebec… I just don’t know when I’m going to get there.”
“Everything is going to be okay, Allie. That’s what I’ve been learning. Look at me. I’m in a foreign country where I’m not the most comfortable, in the same situation as you, and I’m also going to have a baby to care for soon. The situation isn’t good, but I don’t really have a choice but to keep dealing with it. Just take it one day at a time, and no matter how bad the situation is, you’ll be able to take it on. Day by day. The days will pass by and they’ll turn into weeks and eventually, it won’t be as bad,” Blaze said. “Or maybe this is shit advice and I’m wrong. I don’t know. Like I said, I’m in the same boat as you, and it’s not like I’ve solved any of my problems.”
“I suppose you can’t solve everything, sometimes you just have to deal with it and push through it,” shrugged Allie, slumping in her seat and taking her phone back. “Reminds me of something Darren Harbin told me. The only way to fail in life is to die… Other than that, there’s no win condition or fail condition. According to him, sometimes you just need to roll with what life throws at you and stop trying to put high expectations on yourself. Can’t be disappointed if you expect nothing, right?”
“Yeah,” Blaze nodded, and then she gave Allie a hard and serious look. “Oh, and one thing. Don’t even think of doing what I did. If you go ahead with what you said, and you off yourself, then I’m going to try it again and I’m not going to fail this time. Just remember that before you do anything. Maybe it’ll give you an extra incentive to not do something like that-”
“Did you just make a suicide pact with me?” Allie asked, raising an eyebrow. “Look, I was just frustrated, I don’t think I’m ever going to do that. At least not until I have a family, since the one thing I’ve always wanted but never had a chance to have is a family of my own. That’s fine with me, Blaze. I’ll keep it in mind. And I’m sure that if I move to Quebec and things work out there, I won’t ever have to think about this shit again. I have the feeling that in the next few weeks, I’ll be done in Ceneisis. Then, the next chapter can begin.”
