Back at Montem school in front of the school gate, there was a small group of people. Hershal had just arrived at the school two hours earlier than expected and the students of Montem were excited to see who their opponents were going to be.
The coach from Hershal stepped forward and walked over towards Alex. The presence of the man was suffocating. Just by looking at the man Alex thought if he said one wrong thing, that the man would eat him alive for it.
When the Coach arrived, Alex was surprised to see the coach offering his hand for a shake.
"Nice to meet you, the names Burney."
Alex looked at Burney's hand before shaking it, as well as Hershel's team who were still stood in a line behind him.
"Alex," Alex said as he shook the man's hand.
"I was hoping that we might be able to start the match earlier than planned, you see our students are very busy."
This was what Alex was afraid of. The fact that Hershal arrived two hours before the scheduled time most likely meant they had planned to start the game early. Alex didn't know this but this was actually all deliberately planned by Burney.
He wanted to put pressure on the enemy team by doing something unexpected and if Novis and the rest where there, Alex would have most likely said yes anyway.
"I'm afraid the rest of our team members haven't arrived yet so that's not possible."
Burney kissed his teeth making a tutting sound. Burney thought that Montem would have taken this match and tournament more seriously. What players would turn up just as the game was about to start.
"I can't believe how unprofessional you guys are but if that is how it is, then so be it. Guide us to the match hall please so we can prepare ourselves."
Alex didn't like the man's tone of voice or attitude. He could clearly see that Burney felt like him and his school were above them.
Alex then led the Hershel team to the school Gym. The Montem students were surprised that the VSW members of the Hershel team were the only ones to get off the bus. Usually, when playing an away game, they would at least bring some supporters to cheer them on.
Montem didn't have any when they went to Eton but that was because of Mac as well as the fact that everyone thought they were going to lose.
Burney had made this decision though because he didn't want anything distracting his team. They needed to perform the same no matter if they had people cheering them on or not.
Finally, Alex and the Hershal team had arrived at the school Gym. The other students had kindly set up the VR headsets and projector for them and there were already many students in the gym waiting for the match to start.
"You can practice in here until the game starts if you want," Alex said.
In truth Alex himself had wanted to practice a few more times before the match had started, it was always good to play a warm-up game before heading off into the real thing but then the incident with Scarlett happened.
"Thank you, we shall take you up on that offer."
The Hershel team started to put on their VR headsets as the coach instructed them to. The plan was to play a game or two before the upcoming match. Alex wanted to stay to see if the Hershel team had made any changes even though that was unlikely.
In every game that Alex had watched of theirs, they stuck to an almost similar routine. Alex thought it was insane. If a team was to lose the tournament every year, then usually they would need to change their tactic but not Hershal for some reason.
Alex then started to leave the gym as he wanted to wait by the gate for his teammates but just as he was about to leave Burney called out to him.
"Oh, by the way, I'll be checking the time, if your team is even late by a minute the rules state that it is an automatic win for us."
Alex turned around with his fist clenched hard, if he could, he would have punched the arrogant coach in the face by now. Just before Alex left the gym though he said his last few words.
"Don't worry, they'll be here and when they do come, we'll kick your arse and your team with it."
Alex then quickly left the gym room.
"Did you hear what Alex just said?"
"Yeah, he sounded so goddam badass, was he always like this?"
"No, he was always a little bookworm."
The students of Montem couldn't believe what they had heard come from the mouth of their shy little VSW captain. It raised the morale of the school greatly.
At the next turn down the hallway away from the sight of everyone else. Alex lent up against the wall and had his handheld on his chest. He could feel his heart was beating incredibly fast.
Alex himself couldn't believe what he had just done. For some reason, Burney had just hit a nerve with Alex.
While Alex was currently busy waiting outside for Novis and the others, the rest of the school slowly started to gather in the Gym as the time for the match was drawing closer and closer. The school's morale started off high and hopeful, that was until they saw Hershal's practice games.
Hershal had played 3 practise games while waiting for Montems team and in those three games, they had one each match at a lightning speed. Not only that but they hadn't lost a single player. The Montem students had witnessed their amazing teamwork and their unique defensive style of play for the first time.
While watching the match they could only think of one word for the team. "Strong." Nearly all the students who were watching the match had played VSW themselves but they had never gone against something like this.