"AT LEAST IT'S FINALLY OVER WITH." SAYS CHUCK T. CHIPPERSON

Kristie

Despite Technicali getting absolutely obliterated in their last game against Iron Tank, with the scores being 0 - 3, they didn’t let that—nor the controversies with their coach—waver their spirits! Toni Vern surprisingly stuck true to his word and didn’t bring gadget, robot, or contraption onto the field, but he also didn’t bring any team spirit, as he was seen sitting on the bench for the entire game. Without any ’enhancements’ nor coach helping them tonight, Technicali only had themselves to rely on.

All that hard work and determination ended giving the men in spandex 3 points, while Supa Strikas got 6.

While they didn’t win, they didn’t get completely destroyed again! In fact, the lack of crazy cheating helped the players’ skills shine through, especially for Chuck T. Chipperson, Marcus Mason Magnus Martinez, and Kyle Kowalski. These three players pushed themselves past their limits to fight off the opposition.

The first half of the game was tense! Technicali managed to keep up with Supa Strikas, and didn’t falter when El Matador got the first goal in under 10 minutes! A lot of teams would’ve taken that as a sign that they were destined to fail, but Chuck prevailed. He kept their spirits high as they stuck with their plan; Rocky George and Marcus stayed close by his side, allowing them to execute crosses flawlessly across the field.

With the trio constantly on the move and passing the ball perfectly between the legs of the opposition, it eventually lead to Rocky scoring. Not only that, they even managed to get the attention of Cool Joe, the Crossing King himself, who was rather impressed with their skills, and decided he too wanted to show off.

As the match progressed, Cool Joe distanced himself further and further from his teammates to see just how far he could cross, and while Dancing Rasta seemed less than enthused by this change in formation, El Matador played along, and managed to get almost every shot that was sent his way.

Almost.

During one of his attempts to send the ball back to the midfielder, Kyle slid between them and intercepted it right before it made contact, then sent it off to Rocky who dashed to the other side of the pitch.

With two of Strikas’ prominent, offensive players left in the dust, it was up to Shakes, Rasta, and Twisting Tiger to stop the opponent—but with their original position dismantled, and an unexpected pass to Chipperson, Supa Strikas could only watch as the Technicali captain swung his leg back and earned his team another fantastic goal.

El Matador and Cool Joe didn’t back down after this, if anything, it motivated them to get even riskier. However, the moment they stood even further apart, their captain must’ve picked up on their scheme, and proceeded to stay in the middle of them, keeping a keen eye on the ball, and swooping in to control it whenever it seemed it was about to miss either of the receivers.

At certain points, El Matador was arguing with his captain that he was ‘Ruining a good performance’, and that he ‘Needed to have faith in his own teammates’.

On one hand, El Matador was providing a fantastic show for the fans with each kick of the ball, on the other hand, he definitely wasn’t getting his team anywhere closer to the goal! It didn’t help that Cool Joe was feeding into this behavior, sharing quips and striking poses along with him. As soon as both teams realized they were only going to be passing to each other, Rocky made it his sole purpose to steal the ball from El Matador as the pass was made.

The constant interruptions made him increasingly frustrated, and demanded his teammates keep an eye on Rocky so he and Cool Joe could continue ‘their game’, to which North Shaw said: ‘Can you two just like, maybe not keep passing to each other?’

Unfortunately for North Shaw and Blok, that wasn’t advice the striker was going to heed. They had to do much more work than anticipated with Rocky constantly getting onto their turf, and unfortunately for Technicali, it seemed Rocky had picked up on El Matador and Cool Joe’s bad habit, as he broke away from his team’s plan to try and score the goals himself. Unlike their teammates, Supa Strikas’ defenders took their positions seriously and thwarted all of Rocky’s attempts.

When Blok managed to steal the ball from Rocky and sent it flying halfway across the field, hope could be seen on Strikas’ faces that perhaps, maybe, they could go back to playing the game normally… Only for Cool Joe to catch it, and going right back to his long crosses with El Matador… Though this time the duo did manage to score, with Cool Joe getting the goal.

For the rest of the match, the teams were tied at 2-2. El Matador and Cool Joe kept getting disrupted by Kyle, Rocky was stopped by North Shaw and Blok, while the rest of the teams watched as the three players acted like they were the only three players in existence.

Once the first whistle was blown, Chuck T. Chipperson and Dancing Rasta were both seen scolding their teammates. Supa Strikas’ coach joined in on the critique, dragging his boys into the locker room, while Toni Vern remained seated at the bench, sulking.

Throughout the break, fans wondered if the criticism would fall on deaf ears, and if they’d be stuck watching the same three people try to one up each other for the second half of the game… So imagine their shock when as soon as the whistle was blown, El Matador and Cool Joe surprised the crowd by doing the exact same thing they were doing earlier!

Their passes were somehow more exaggerated and drawn out, with their fun quips now turned into jabs against the other team.

Technicali tried to stick to their original strategy, but it didn’t take long for the men in red to get to Rocky, and before his team knew it, he went back to targeting the player closest to him: El Matador.

Chuck was seen shouting at Rocky multiple times to snap out of his brash decision making, but it’d all get drowned out by El Matador’s gloating.

Any attempts Rocky made to snatch the ball was cut off by either Shakes or Tiger swooping in and kicking it back to Cool Joe. The Crossing King even tricked the Technicali midfielder with a couple of fake outs!

With Technicali completely disorganized, El Matador was able to score two more times, as was Cool Joe! An absolutely glowing improvement compared to earlier!

Rocky kept up the chase, his rage further fueled by these points, and his desperation to ‘get even’ with the glasses-wearing striker could be felt all throughout the pitch. He was so focused on trying to get the ball out of El Matador’s control, he completely neglected the fact he was moments away from scoring another goal until Kyle Kowalski charged between the two and shot it away, and ran deep into Supa Strika territory!

Chuck quickly adapted to the situation, ordering his teammates to surround and protect Kyle from the opposition. They were able to maintain this plan for just long enough for Kyle to shoot and score, giving the technological team their third and final point.

With less than 15 minutes on the clock, Strikas didn’t seem satisfied with the 3-5 on the scoreboard.

El Matador and Cool Joe continued their crossing, when suddenly, Cool Joe had made a terrible pass with hardly enough ’oomf’ to get it halfway across the field. The ball sat out in the open, several feet away from the goal, with El Matador practically frolicking towards it.

Despite Chuck, Kyle, and Thaddeus all yelling at Rocky to remain put, he left his position and ran straight to the ball, giving Dancing Rasta just enough room to weave through the players and kick it past Benedict B. Bradley and into the net.

The final whistle was blown, and Supa Strikas had claimed yet another victory!

While they were off celebrating, I pulled Technicali to the side for their thoughts on the game.

“At least it’s finally over with.” Chuck T. Chipperson had told me through heavy breaths, “And that it was friendly.”

He didn’t seem upset, but there was no way he was happy either. He was probably too exhausted to change his face.

He hunched over, his hands on his knees as his breaths got heavier. I’m sure that tight suit of his wasn’t making anything feel any better. At least there was a nice breeze tonight, but what good is that if the only thing uncovered by your tacky uniform were your hands and face? I could spot a few of the players taking off their hoods to relieve themselves and fix their hair. Some looked much better without it, others should’ve kept it on. Not that I was going to tell them that after they lost.

“That’s three more points than our last game.” Thaddeus Tharrington the III said as he got closer to Chuck and gave him a few pats on the back before letting it rest on Chuck’s shoulder, just as out of breath as his captain.

The rest of Technicali gathered around, all talking over each other about the game. Everyone was totally exhausted.

A couple leaned against each other, others sat down and complained about the soreness of their legs, then there was Rocky George, who laid across the grass, his breaths shaky and his mouth curled to a scowl. He was like that as soon as I got here, though.

He made a few attempts to speak, but they came out as nothing but shoddy sounds before he finally punched the ground and forced himself up.

He was on all fours now, his blond hair a mess and his cheeks red. It was like looking at a filthy, wild animal.

“Those stupid, insignificant—!” His words devolved into a growl as he punched the ground again. Now he really was an animal. He gripped at his hair, “Doing nothin’ but playing games and messing with us! And we just took it.”

“You.” Kyle muttered to himself, but my recorder was close enough to catch it, and Rocky was close enough to hear it.

His eyes widened and he whipped his head around,

“Y”wanna speak up, flower boy?”

That twinge of anger was apparently the push he needed to get back onto his feet. He stumbled back before stabilizing himself and getting into Kyle’s face, making the defender fold his arms and shrink back.

“You—I was just saying—they were messing with you. I didn’t mean it like—“

Rocky cut him off, “Yeah, I know, and you wanna know why they were targeting me the most?”

Kyle barely moved his lips, “Rocky, I was just—“

Chuck straightened his posture and reached out, “Rocky—“

“Cause I’m the only out there doing stuff with Chuck, trying to play the game, instead of stopping to smell the ro—“

“Rocky.” Chuck raised his voice.

We all looked over and watched his expression quickly change from disappointment to embarrassment. He brushed the black hair out of his eyes and attempted to hide the red on his face.

“Chuck, c’mon, I’m just frustrated!” Rocky turned away from the defender and to the captain.

“I know. I get it. It wasn’t our best performance, but we’re not going to be taking it out on each other. Not gonna fix anything.”

“What would you say frustrated you most outta that game?” I asked, not wanting to let a golden opportunity slip away, “I mean, like, I was just watching it and even I got totally angry, but if I was out there? In your position? I’d be even madder. You were really trying hard out there, and those two were messing with you the entire time, it was super obvious.”

Kyle, Chuck, and Thaddeus all gave me a look of various discomfort, but the only face I cared about was Rocky’s. His scowl was more than enough to tell me I was about to get some real good insight. He got nice and close to my little, silver voice recorder I had decorated with an assortment of stickers.

“You wanna know what gets me?” Rocky jabbed a finger into his own chest, “Chuck, and—and Marcus and I are out there running around like crazy, actually trying to win, then you got the people who do nothing but pick the weeds outta the field, or wait until the last minute to do something!”

He didn’t say any names, but he didn’t have to. The moment those words left his mouth, I saw Kyle’s curl down.

Thaddeus and Benedict rushed past me and to their teammate’s side.

“Hey now big guy, it’s over with.” Thaddeus wrapped an arm around the striker, “We got three whole points without having some weird robots attached to us, no artificial body enhancements, no built-in laser system that gets set off by movement, just us.”

Rocky mouthed a ‘Yeah, yeah’, his scowl faltered, “Just be nice to win once in a while, y’know?”

“Dude, you and Kyle got us points!” Benedict said as he gestured to the mentioned defender, who looked away, “Against Supa Strikas outta all teams too! We usually do terrible against them, but lookit you!” He shook Rocky playfully, “Keeping up with them—outrunning them—you were crazy out there!”

A smirk cracked across Rocky’s face, “Trying to spoil me, I see what you’re doin’.”

“Oooh, Mr. Humble over here trying to deny it?” Thaddeus ruffled his teammate’s hair.

Rocky let out a laugh, “You’re lucky you don’t got any hair, you know that? Best I can do is this!” He tore off Thaddeus’ hood and noogied him, making the defender yelp before falling into a fit of laughs.

“Your efforts tonight didn’t go unnoticed.” I heard Chuck say.

I looked up in time to see the captain take his hand off Kyle’s shoulder before looking back at the rest of the team.

“Not just Rocky, but all of you as well. Would’ve been better if Toni was helping us, but—“ His eyes flickered over to the bench, “He was dealing with other stuff. S’fine.”

I hadn’t paid that old guy much attention. What was there to pay attention to? I glanced to the side to catch a glimpse of John J. Johnson Jr. talking to the grump still pouting, arms folded and everything. Couldn’t help but wonder what it must’ve been like for the agent babysitting a full grown man. Though, I couldn’t help but wonder…

“Did your coach help you with any training leading up to this match?” I asked.

Chuck opened his mouth—

“No.” Kyle said.

“Nu-uh.” Thaddeus shook his head.

“I m-mean, he was… H-he was standing th—by…” Marcus shrunk down.

Chuck tried again, “Now hold on—“

“Awh, you poor things!” I strutted past him and to his teammates, who were surprised by my tone, “You’re already training so hard, you probably had to deal with Supa Strikas’ crazy fans, and now I’m hearing about your coach not doing his job on top of everything? Isn’t that, like, the bare minimum?”

Chuck got in front of me, “Hey, you can’t go talking about our coach like that! You weren’t here during our workouts, how can you possibly know he ‘wasn’t doing anything’?”

He seemed offended. Like, genuinely offended.

Not a reaction I expected, but it was something.

“But your teammates are saying he didn’t help, unless you’re like, saying that they’re lying, and they weren’t paying attention or something.” I pointed my voice recorder at him but kept talking, “I mean, maybe that’s the case, since Rocky did say it felt like it was only you and him actually doing things out on the pitch—“

“Exactly!” Rocky practically leapt away from his friends, the brightest smile he’s had this entire night plastered across his face.

Chuck whipped his head around, “No, not ‘exactly’!”

Rocky threw his arms up, “Chuck, c’mon—!”

I swayed my hips and let out a little hum, “I mean, either way, you guys like, super lost because of your coach not doing anything, and then you had Cool Joe making fun of you—“

“You get it.” Rocky said through his teeth as tore himself further away from the group, his tone a mix of genuine relief yet barely constrained anger. The combination of his wide eyes and furrowed brows made the concoction of emotions all the better, “You get it.”

He craned his neck down just enough to look me right in the eyes, and I got to see the smile he wore that stretched out a little too big to come from a place of pure joy, with lips parted slightly ready to spit venom. I got to see just how messy his blond hair was, the specks of dirt and bits of grass within it, the strays that stuck to his sweaty, peachy-orange skin, the red of his cheeks from the constant running, and the way his dirty, teal eyes were so fixated on my recorder… It just made made me smile all the more.

“You know what they were saying to me in our locker room?” He started, his breaths like empty laughs, “That I needed to focus, more that I was the one not sticking to the plan, even though the only guy who actually broke away from his formation was Kyle during the second half—“

It was Kyle’s turn to have frustration flash across his face, “You were the one wh—!”

Rocky cut him off.

“You know how much it sucked? To be one of the few guys working themselves to death and everyone thinks you’re doing nothin’? And then you’re getting mocked by the oppositions cause they got an ego bigger than the size of our dang stadium?!”

I watched as Kyle, Benedict, and Marcus started to mouth a conversation with each other, probably so it wouldn’t get picked up by the recorder. I couldn’t make sense of much, save for the occasional angry gesture Kyle made towards Rocky, but by the looks of it, they couldn’t understand much of each other either. It was cute watching their faces drop and their brows knit in confusion, admittedly, as they tried to have a discussion none of them could decipher.

I tuned back into Rocky’s rant.

“…I scored, and I probably could’ve scored more if those two weren’t treating the pitch like it was some playground…!”

I had no idea if he was talking about El Matador and Cool Joe, or his teammates, but I didn’t want to stop him from going. Speaking of the opposition…

I peered past Rocky’s shoulder, and felt my grin grow as I saw a familiar figure with a red comb make his way over. With a flick of a wrist, I brought the recorder right back to my face, surprising Rocky and making him shut up for a second.

“Actually, that like, reminds me: Is there anything you have to say to Supa Strikas? Anything to Cool Joe or El Matador after their little performance today? Or, like, the fact they’re throwing a party about beating you?” I tried my best to put on a concerned expression—no—sympathetic, no—a mix of the two, if that was even possible. Anything to hide my excitement.

“What I’d say? You wanna know what I’d say if Joe showed his mug around here?!”

I nodded eagerly and brought my recorder even closer.

Marcus turned and jumped when he saw who was mere feet away, “Uh, R-rocky—?”

“I’d tell that chump if he wanted to do nothin’ but show off his tacky moves and dated style, he can lock himself up in that clu—!” Before Rocky could finish Cool Joe swooped in and swung an arm around him and Chuck, pulling them in as he laughed. It was probably the liveliest thing I’ve heard all night.

Rocky’s hand immediately shot onto Cool Joe’s wrist—

“Man, you two were crazy out there tonight!” Cool Joe said with his head constantly darting between the two. Their sputtered responses only made him all the more giddy, “I mean wow, quick on ya feet, keepin’ up with us, and Rocky, brother, where has all that energy been hidin’?!”

The arm around Chuck slid off so Joe could hold onto Rocky’s shoulders, who could only stare back with wide eyes and mouth hung open.

“Like, shoooot, the way you were zippin’ around, always tryin’ to stay on top’a everything? And don’t get me started on that crossin’ you ’n your captain did, how long’ve you been keepin’ those skills secret?” Joe said.

“…Yeah?” Rocky finally mumbled. His mouth turned into a wavering grin, then, a prideful smile, “Yeah, yeah! Well, usually we follow Toni’s plans—and he likes to base ‘em around whatever dang robot he’s made that day—but this time? It was all us, baby!” He flexed. His arms were toned enough to make it work, but not nearly as impressive as when someone like Dancing Rasta or Uber did it.

“He should get in trouble with the Board more often, man!” Joe laughed again, “Y’all were killing it out there!”

“It’d—it’d be nice if—to have more time away from Toni.” Marcus mumbled, though most of his words got overpowered by Rocky speaking again.

“Y’know, I was just tellin’ Kristie over here bout how you were puttin’ up a good fight! Really gave us a workout!”

“Like always.” Kyle rolled his eyes.

The mention of my name brought Cool Joe and a couple of the Technicali guys’ attention back to me. I noticed instantly and struck a cute little pose, hands clasped together and a bright smile on my face, rocking myself back and forth by the tips of my toes as I gave a little wave.

“Kristie—? Oh!” Joe snapped his fingers , “Dang, girl, you usually interview me at the parties. What, was the show that good you hadda snag one early?”

“Oooh, don’t you know it!” I said, “But I’m actually here for these little tech-heads tonight!”

Embarrassment crept across some of the faces of the spandex-wearing players. I dunno why, I thought the nickname was fun.

“You two know each other?” Rocky asked.

Joe nodded, “Yeah, she—“

“His club is one of the best places to get the real juicy gossip.” I flicked my wrist, “Lotta fun, lotta rumors that spread, and a lotta starts to a lotta stories, like that time he showed off his, like, little personal shoe brand or whatever that totally failed out on the field—“

Cool Joe frantically waved his hand over my face a million times as he sputtered.

His smile was crooked as he forced out a chuckle before it dropped.

“That’s old news.” He pointed at me, “Old.”

He breathed in, his expression softened before he said: “Buuuut speaking of parties, I was wondering if you guys wanted to tag along! Y’played well, and you look like you could use the break after all that scientific nonsense your coach puts you through!”

“Th—the party?” Marcus asked.

“The party you named specifically after beating us?” Chuck said.

He frantically waved his hand about again, “You’re fixated on the tiny details, brother!” He reached over to give him a pat on the shoulder, making the captain’s blue shoulder pad rattle in response. “Yeah, that’s the name, but it’s just that, a name! Shoot, if I hadda be more precise about it, I would’ve called it: ‘Beating up another one of Toni’s crazy robots again’!”

That only made Chuck’s face grow more sour. He let out a small scoff and rolled his eyes, “Well, it’s a great offer—“

“So we’re going, obviously.” Rocky said with a smile, his arm still around Cool Joe and his head leaning against his shoulder.

Chuck opened his mouth—

“Duh! I already bought the tickets, I’m not letting them go to waste!” Thaddeus hopped onto Rocky and gave his hair another ruffle.

“You bought tickets—!?” Chuck exclaimed—

“It would be nice to party after all our training, right, captain?” Benedict said in a playful tone as he circled around Chuck, a little smile on his face, “Good music, good food, no Toni—“

“Guys!” Chuck said, “You think Toni’s gonna be okay with us going to the opposition’s club? About beating us?”

“Who cares what he thinks, he’s not our dad!” Thaddeus shot back.

“He doesn’t even care we lost. He’s still on the bench.” Kyle said as he stayed by Chuck’s side.

Thaddeus nodded, “ ‘Sides, I’m not letting my $70 go to waste, I got a special outfit prepped.”

A couple more Technicali players shot over to Cool Joe’s side and gave pleading looks to their captain, hands clasped together, beady eyes, and little pouts to top it all off.

Chuck stared at his team. He glanced over to look at Kyle, one of the few remaining players who had yet to give in—but immediately look away when he spotted me, probably realizing how ridiculous this all looked. Cool Joe just stood there with a grin, his posture radiating confidence and his afro amazing as always.

Joe chuckled, “You’re all more than welcomed to come along, but Chuck—“

Chuck raised his head.

“—If y’wanna turn in for the night ’n chill, or help your coach clean up, or whatever, I get it.”

“Yeah, but it won’t be the same without you.” Benedict said.

“We’ll be sooo alone and lost without our captain…” Thaddeus sighed.

The grimace on Chuck never faded. If anything, it was like the mere thought of a party made him miserable. Not that I totally blamed him, his team did just lose by three points.

Chuck sigh.

“Alright, fine.”

His team cheered.

“But I’m going to be giving Toni a heads up. I don’t want him finding out and getting upset.”

“When isn’t he upset?” I heard Kyle whisper next to me, making me jump and let out an ’Oh!’, which scared him right back.

“Right on, brother.” Joe pointed at Chuck with a snap of his fingers. He began to wiggle out of Technicali’s clutch; the opposing players released him. He fixed himself up, patted his afro, and readjusted his red power comb before he spun around and struck a pose, fingers still pointing at Technicali’s captain.

“Clean yourselves up and dress your best, everyone! I’ll be seein’ you guys later tonight!”

As soon as he and Chuck went their separate ways, everyone started talking over each other. I could hardly make out much besides the ‘See you!’s and the asks about meet up times, but I wasn’t worried too much. I knew I’d have plenty of opportunities to get even more stories and drama later on at the club, it was one of the few things that made it worth going to, right next to the cute guys and the free drinks I get when I look at the bartenders pretty.

I swished the hair out of my face and started to walk off, fiddling with the little buttons on my voice recorder as I thought about the party.

I glanced up and caught Chuck already speaking to Toni. He really didn’t look interested, but John J. Johnson Jr. definitely looked excited.

I watched just long enough to see Toni’s expression shift from aggravation to… Acceptance, like he was actually glad to hear his boys were going onto enemy turf. Maybe he wanted them out of his sight or something.

He got up from the bench and gave Chuck a pat on the arm, I could see him mouth the words: ‘Have fun!’ Before Chuck went back to the group with a small smile on his face, and John following along.

Boo, I was hoping for a little something extra, but I guess it’ll have to wait till tonight…

I’ll get a change of outfit, something fun, something colorful, something that’ll make me look good, touch up my make up, make my hair look perfect, and I’ll get the stories I want. It might be fun to talk to Cool Joe and get his side of things, even though Maci kept telling me I had to interview the spandex fanatics because of some ’promise’ they made to them during their last game or whatever. Not that I was totally against the idea, Rocky was fun to talk to—

“Hey, Kristie!”

Speaking of who…

I spun around and made sure my smile was extra-big when I saw Rocky.

“You’ll be at the club too, right? Could give you some personal insight about what it’s like bein’ on the team.” He said as if they were the most interesting team in the Super League.

“Of course I am!” I said, “Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”