Back when he was at Ravenwood Academy, Adrian had to work his way up right from his first year of joining the Academy.
He climbed the ladder slowly, proving himself to be the team's undisputed leader and most important player that they couldn't do without.
Before he got there, he had to fight his teammates for the spot to prove that he deserved it. It wasn't easy, but his persistence paid off.
Hearing Noelle say that he had to fight someone for a spot in the starting eleven at least made him feel like he was suddenly back to square one except this time he had all the experience from a previous conquest.
"So, you're the one who tied with Noelle in a crossbar challenge." The younger Adrian said as he walked closer to the person he had already identified as his opponent.
"Mm." Adrian nodded.
"I can't say that's not impressive. However, being able to shoot the ball well and being able to play in an actual match are two different things." He articulated, his tone rather condescending.
'Is he lecturing me?' Adrian thought. 'I see, he's the condescending one.'
"I'm very much aware of that," Adrian responded, forcing a smile to hide his annoyance.
With the two facing each other, Leron couldn't help but continuously glance back and forth between them.
Noticing this, Adrian turned to him.
"Is something wrong?"
"Uhhh, not really, I was just wondering how to address both of you without causing any confusion." He said, scratching his head with his left hand. "Maybe, Adrian and Adrian junior."
Hearing that last part, the younger Adrian shot him a fierce gaze.
"Don't you dare."
"If you feel like it's going to cause problems then just call me Nero," Adrian suggested.
"Nero," Leron muttered with his left hand on his cheek.
"Nero," Noelle called before turning to Adrian.
"Here." He responded with a smile.
She returned his smile with a subtle smile before returning to what she was doing on her tablet.
Adrian Eston seemed to have noticed that, and he couldn't help but huff before walking away from the area.
Watching him walk away, Leron couldn't help but sigh as he shook his head.
"Someone's attitude needs serious fixing."
Just after saying that, he slowly made his way to Noelle.
"You just said they had to fight for the number ten position but you've already made your choice, right?" He asked in a low tone just to make sure Adrian, who was standing a few steps away, wouldn't hear him.
"In terms of experience and maturity, our new classmate is the better choice. However, there are still other important factors to consider." She articulated. "Firstly, there's durability. Someone who holds the ball most of the time to find chances to create something should be durable, otherwise it's very easy to get seriously injured.
"The second factor is teamwork and chemistry. Anyone who plays in a position that focuses a lot on creating chances should know how to connect and work well with his teammates. If not, there will be a lot of problems on the pitch.
"Finally, there's stamina; the person with the better stamina can last longer in a match, so naturally, he gets to play more minutes."
"So, you're saying…."
"Nothing has been decided yet." She interjected.
"I see, but I still want to say all of this will be pointless if you don't find a way to officially replace Mr Noe Sensikaal as the team's coach," Leron uttered.
"Don't worry, I'll definitely make sure his connection to the team is completely cut off."
"Hey, Adrian!"
Adrian suddenly turned to where the voice came from to see Oscar waving at him.
He seemed to have just entered the pitch alongside everyone else.
The other Adrian also turned to the voice after hearing that to see that he wasn't the one being called.
"This is annoying." He huffed before turning away.
Dropping the bag he was dragging along on the ground, Oscar quickly made his way to Adrian.
"I can't believe you actually came." He said just after stopping in front of him, a bright smile on his face.
"What? Did you think I was going to run away?"
"Of course not." He shook his head before putting his arm around his shoulders.
Being the hyper extrovert chatterbox that he was, Oscar went ahead and introduced Adrian to everyone, making sure they all got familiar with him.
That was the last moment of freedom they had before they had to run several laps around the pitch.
As instructed by Noelle, they were required to run ten laps around the pitch, and by the time they were done, most of them felt like their breath was being sucked away along with their heart.
After an intensive warmup like that, their bodies were fully awake, if not dead from exhaustion.
While they were warming up, Noelle took the initiative to set up what she had planned for the first order of the day.
As it turned out, the bag Savi was carrying contained quite a lot of cones, and with about fifteen of them, she set up something in front of the goalpost.
He placed the cones in a line, spacing them well enough for a ball to at least fit through the gaps.
'Looks like we're starting with a dribbling drill.' Adrian said inwardly.
He thought it was just a dribbling drill until he noticed something else.
On both of the top edges of the goalpost, he could see two targets that were meant exactly for a ball to pass through, any slight mistake in accuracy, and the ball wouldn't be able to go through.
"Interesting."
After resting for a little while, they were all called over to the area to kick things off.
"What are we supposed to be doing here?" Noe Sentes asked, his gaze fixated on the line of cones.
Noelle wasn't too quick to answer that and slowly scanned around to make sure that everyone was present, and once she was sure of that, she cleared her throat.
"This is a dribbling drill meant to test your ball control in tight spaces, speed in manoeuvring tight spaces and your shooting accuracy under pressure." She explained.
Confused about a certain part, Savi quickly raised his hand.
"Yes?" Noelle said, nodding toward him.
"I understand the first two parts but how does it test how we shoot under pressure?" He asked.
"Oh, that's because you have just five seconds to shoot and get the ball through either one of those targets on the goalpost." She disclosed. "You can choose not to shoot within those five seconds, but that means you won't get any points for that criteria."
"She takes this way more seriously than I expected," Adrian muttered.
"So, who's going first?" Noelle asked as she was done explaining.
"Here." Adrian Eston responded quite abruptly as he didn't want anyone to get ahead of him.
Now confirmed as the first person to have a go, he picked a ball from the ball pile and placed it on the ground in front of the cones.
He turned to Noelle after that and just after she nodded, he took off with the ball.
He controlled the ball nicely, getting through the cones as fast as he could.
It was almost like the ball was stuck to his feet the whole time and as soon as he made it past the last cone, he flicked the ball toward the left with his right foot.
The ball flew toward the left target, seamlessly passing through it to complete Adrian's perfect run.
The first thing he did just after completing the drill was to shoot Nero a piercing gaze, a gaze that served as an invitation to a challenge.
"That's exactly twenty seconds," Noelle muttered as she noted down on her tablet.
While she was doing that, Adrian walked past her toward the cones with a ball in his hand.
"Can I go next?" He asked just after dropping the ball on the ground.
He looked up at that moment to see that dark clouds had started gathering in the sky, it was only a matter of time before it started raining.
"You can start now," Noelle uttered as she was done with what she was doing on her tablet.
Responding with a nod, Adrian suddenly took off with the ball.
Everyone expected him to play it safe, like the younger Adrian, not knowing that he was in the mood for taking risks.
His first move to get past the first two cones was interesting, he had to utilise a dribbling move known as la croqueta.
The move focused on pushing the ball at speed using the inside of one's dominant foot across the body towards the non-dominant foot.
A lot of people would end up pushing the ball quite far away and maybe even knock down a come after attempting something like that but Adrian impressively kept close control of the ball.
"Woah!" Oscar and Leron couldn't help but exclaim in unison.
Using that skill gave him a speed advantage over his opponent and he played well to that, getting past the other cones at a steady pace.
However, he didn't seem to be satisfied with the little speed advantage he got at the beginning and decided to try something as he got to the last two cones.
Quickly turning around, he grabbed the ball and spun past the cones with it, drawing an S with it.
This was a move called a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree spin, and considering he had his back against the first cone, an accident could have very easily happened there.
Getting past the last cone, Adrian wasted no time striking the ball with the side of his left boot, sending it toward the left target.
Unfortunately, his target seemed to be a little off as the ball ended up hitting the post close to the target forcing out a gasp from anyone who seemed to have gotten invested in what they were watching.