Chapter 1:

After tennis practice I went and got some pizza at a kebab stand and then went home. I was home just after 8. I did my homework for a couple hours and then I went to bed. That was what my Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays were like. My school schedule was the same every day from Monday to Friday.

A few days passed since Maarten transferred to our school. It was a Friday. I had watched Maarten scrimmage with his team at his football practice and I scrimmaged with other tennis players from my club.

Maarten was a great defender. He appeared to play as a center back defender most of the time. He was also picked to be the starting captain on the team. He had an eye for strategy and had good communication with his team. They appeared to have some one-word signs for plays. That seemed to work pretty efficiently. The coach had agreed to his 3-5-2 formation plan. The midfielders would have five where the left and right wing backs would play defense or assist the two strikers when they were on the attack.

Since Maarten’s position was usually center back, he had an excellent view on the field in front of him making him a good captain. It wasn’t just his knowledge of strategy or excellent view though. He was strong and fast.

After practice ended at 17:30 we agreed to go get some food somewhere with my friends Amelie and Elisa. Two of his football friends also came along.

At 19:00 we went to the movies to catch a movie at 19:25. The movie was fun to watch and after it ended it was a little bit after 22:00.

Since we had two of the football players on Maarten’s team with us, we had them buy some beer for us all. Jasper was 16 and the other was Dominik, 17 years old, so they were old enough to drink and purchase beer.

We went to a skate park. Only Elisa and Dominik had skateboards. They both were pretty good. We had bought enough beer to get us a little tipsy.

“How come you're not buzzed, Maarten? You already had three cans of beer.”

“I can’t get buzzed off of beer.”

“Huh?” Everyone shouted in unison at Maarten’s explanation.

Jasper didn’t buy it though. He said, “Prove it!”

“I’m not paying for that beer, Jasper.”

“Don’t chicken out on what you said.” Dominik replied.

Maarten couldn’t lie. That is something I learned about on Monday after tennis practice. But how could he not get even a little tipsy off of beer.

“Jasper and Dominik, you can buy me more beer if you want me to prove it.”

They went and got three more cans of beer. Maarten chugged all three of them.

After some time of waiting for any lapse in Maarten’s judgment, we had found no change in his speech or anything. There was no physical change.

“Wow, are you even human?” Asked Amelie.

“I’m a beast.” Maarten said, raising a voice as he chugged the last can that the guys bought.

He still didn’t slur his words. That was definitely not normal. He said he was a beast. He never used figures of speech from the time I had met him so far. It would be weird to believe he was using one now. His physical enhancement in sports, his supposed immunity to alcohol, him referring to himself as a beast; that would mean there was definitely something inhuman about him.

But what was it? It had to be related to why Maarten used a pseudonym. I wasn’t going to ask him in front of these guys. If it was related to the secret he is hiding, then it would be best not to mention it.

My friends and I only shared one beer. We didn’t want to get caught by our parents smelling like beer when we got home.

“We have a football game tomorrow at 14:30.” Maarten said to his teammates, “So we better get home and get the proper rest.”

“You’re right. It’s already 1:00 in the morning.” Dominik said.

“Amelie and Elisa. You can come over to my house if you want. Let me call my parents and confirm though.” I said.

“Sure.” They said in unison.

“Dominik and Jasper, I need to take a call now so you don’t have to wait for me.” Maarten said.

“You sure? Okay.” And Dominik and Jasper called a taxi for them to go back.

I walked a bit outside the skate park to call my mother. But no one answered, so I left a text message.

“Hey mom, we ended up watching a second movie and just got done. I’m going to bring my friends Amelie and Elisa home with me since it is a Friday.”

After I sent the text I noticed Maarten from a good distance and he took something out from his pocket. I could hardly see his mouth moving as he spoke. I was too far away from him so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. He was probably speaking in another language anyway.

Then I noticed something, and I had to double check if my eyes were just seeing things, but I swear I saw a little warp whole open up and Maarten just walked in it and he disappeared. Was this related to his real identity? I was so confused. I knew that Maarten must have known what he was doing and I was at a loss for what I should do. I decided to just get back to my friends and go with them to my place. It wasn’t wise to dwell on this situation.

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***

When my friends and I got home it was after 2:30 in the morning. Both of my parents were up with the lights on. I had a bad feeling about this.

“You’re home extremely late. You shouldn’t be out in public this late at night.” Said My father.

“Sorry. We wanted to watch a second movie at the theater.” I said.

“You can’t fool me, Leonie.” Said my mother, “You all smell like booze and you did not watch a second movie. You lied to me. I will deal with you tomorrow since it is so late. Oh, and I will call Elisa and Amelie’s parents about this. You three are underaged. So many things could have gone wrong. I am very disappointed in you, Leonie!”

“I’m sorry mom.”

“You are not getting a lesser punishment just by apologizing. For now, go to bed you three.”

My friends fell asleep real fast. I had my eyes closed but my mind was wide awake. I thought back to how Maarten disappeared through that warp whole or something like that. I decided to not tell him about what I saw and continue to observe him. What is he if he is not human?

My friends and I woke up around noon on Saturday and we found the parents of my friends down stairs. Yikes. My mother really meant it when she said she would deal with it later. My friends went home with them and they were not allowed to go to the football match that Maarten was playing today.

My parents had also grounded me this weekend. I wanted to go watch the match but my parents locked me in my room and my dad even put up temporary boards on the outside of my window preventing me from escaping through the window.

After an hour of nothing to do, I could hear my father whisper to me.

“Leonie,” My father said from the other side of my room. “I will take you to the game but you have to promise to not wander off. Your mother doesn’t know of this and she would scold both of us if she found out.”

Wow. Sometimes my father was the best. “Thank you so much dad! The football match is at 14:30 and we would need to leave soon. How do you intend to hide this from mom?”

“I sent her on a few errands to get stuff for our Sunday afternoon meal. She will be getting a lot of stuff and if we are quick to return then we can get back before your mother is back.”

“Mom took the car for her errands, though, right? Are you sure we can get back from the match in time with public transit?”

“Ha ha, I have a Porsche Taycan in a secret garage. Don’t tell mother this either.”

“You’ve had a cool sports car this whole time? What do you even use it for?”

“Sometimes I go on stress relieving drives on the bundesautobahn. I especially like driving across the border into Germany at high speeds. Ha ha.”

Wow. I never knew about this crazy side of him. So when my dad says he goes on lengthy business trips he does this? Does he even have a job that pays this kind of money to be able to afford a Porsche? Anyways, I was a bit relieved to know we could get back to the house sooner than with the buses.

We drove to the match and made it before they started warming up. Maarten was playing center back as captain of the team, as you’d expect. They implemented the 3-5-2 formation. The whistle blew for the match to start.

I was excited. My father was excited to watch this match too, apparently.

The other team had a good defensive structure in place. Getting past that or having any chance to shoot was proving to be difficult for Maarten’s team. However when the other team was on the offensive, Maarten was reading their strikers like a book. He was clearly communicating with his teammates. From those skills alone, I could tell he was an excellent goalkeeper to have for penalty kicks. His awareness on the field was amazing and he relied a lot on his peripheral vision, sometimes more so then on his regular vision.

“Maarten, your friend there is a great player, but he seems a bit arrogant to me.”

How did my father come to a conclusion like that? He hasn’t even talked to Maarten before and all he is seeing is this match. Where did all of his excitement go?

“Why do you say he is arrogant, dad?”

“Because, ignoring the fact that he divides up the work well between his teammates, he is underselling himself and for some reason arrogance is the vibe I’m getting. It’s almost like he is playing with weights strapped around his calves, figuratively, of course.”

My father realized how Maarten was playing, holding himself back. He figured it out way sooner than me, and I passed it off as a joke until Maarten spelled it out for me on Monday

“Don’t call him arrogant Dad. I think he’s a humble person, letting others take the glory of their efforts and avoiding the spotlight himself.”

My father looked away from me to the match and then just sighed. “Whatever.”

The match was going well and at half time it was 2-0 for Maarten’s team.

In the second-half one of Maarten’s teammates tackled a striker. It was a penalty kick for the other team.

When the chosen shooter was picked and was getting ready to take his shot. I saw Maarten make a hand gesture to the goalkeeper.

“Oho, looks like Maarten signaled to the goalkeeper saying the shooter will shoot to the left side.” My father said the moment the shot was taken. Father was right about the ball going to the left side.

Maarten couldn’t have known the direction before the kick. He must have deduced the most probable side that this particular shooter would choose.

Anyway, the goalkeeper reacted on time and saved the penalty kick. Even if it was a hundred percent accurate prediction skill Maarten had, it would be meaningless if the goalkeeper reacted too soon causing the shooter to switch in the moment. In either case, the goalkeeper reacted and showed promising skills.

By the end of the game it was 3-0 for Maarten’s team. The match was a fairly even game. Anywhere from 6 to 12 games were the average match scores in the clubs around here. I also noticed that each goal Maarten’s team made was from outside the penalty box and penalty arch which show some level of skill in the other team’s defense. Unfortunately for them, our team, well Maarten’s team, had good long shooters on the team.

***

On the way back from the match, my father talked to me less.

I broke the silence. “What did you think? Great game, right?”

“Yes. That kid’s team is great.” He said, murmuring under his breath.

“What was that?” I said. I couldn’t quite hear him there. Though, I’m pretty sure he called Maarten “that kid”.

“Leonie, I don’t want you getting attached to that boy.”

“W~what do you m~mean get attached? He’s not like that to me.” I said trying to compose myself from that out-of-the-blue statement.

“Whatever… Regardless of your relationship, I need you to limit your time spent with him. Afterall, he was also drinking with you on top of being underaged.”

“I wasn’t hanging out with him. I was with my friends Amelie and Elisa.”

“You think I’d buy that crap? You told your mother that a boy invited you girls to see a movie together. Of course he drank when you were.”

“Oh right.” I said. I forgot I mentioned that detail to my mother.

“Your mother has good reason to ground you. Just as I have good reason for you to stay away from this boy.”

“Dad, his name is Maarten. Stop calling him “that kid” or “boy”. And you know I could just get us both in trouble by telling Mom you drove me to the Football match. “

“Leonie, you think you are so clever. I have ways to cover this up so you would be just getting yourself in trouble. Even though I know you are in your rebellion phase and probably won’t listen, this is my final warning: Stay clear of Maarten”

None of us spoke the rest of the ride home. It was completely silent. I had a feeling that my father had a way to cover up today’s events if I snitched. It was better for me to just zip my mouth shut about this.

I was home before my mother got back and she never found out about me sneaking out. I decided to obey and stay in my room while I was grounded. I had no choice anyway. No way to escape. I was in my room for the weekend. For the weekdays for the next couple of days, my mother took my phone away when I got home. For now I would behave like a good teen but I definitely wasn’t going to avoid Maarten.

Why did my father change his attitude watching Maarten's football match?