Project Mbappe

"Fuckkk!"

Jeremiah nearly smiled when he saw Jerry's reaction. After Jerry finished screaming, Jeremiah tapped his forehead.

"Now that you've got all that out of your system, get a move on". After saying those words Jeremiah walked out of the room.

"I'll be waiting at the car so don't take too long". Jerry heard Jeremiah's shout from outside his room.

'People are still fucking sleeping for fuck's sake'.

Jerry lazily got up from his bed after Jeremiah's statement. He walked over to his bathroom and after washing his face a couple of times, he stepped out and wore his training kit. He didn't forget to pick up and football.

"Oi! I'm still waiting, you know" Jeremiah screamed from beside the car, causing Jerry to hurry up quite a bit.

Two minutes later, Jerry stumbled outside, somehow managing to lock the door while holding on to a training bag, a football and his cleats. When he got to Jeremiah's car, he managed to pull open the back door and immediately dropped everything he was holding into the car.

"Alright then". Jerimiah said as he started up the engine of the car. "Let's start our jug".

Jerry groaned quite a bit when he heard Jeremiah's statement. He watched as Jeremiah's car started moving and after a few moments, he started running after the car.

A bit over an hour later, Jeremiah's car pulled up in front of a football training center. The parking lot was deserted and it didn't look like there was anybody inside at all.

Jeremiah and a very sweaty Jerry got out of the car and walked towards the entrance of the building.

"Do you have a football everything?" Jerry asked with a scoff. He was made to jug round thier estate twice so he wasn't in the best of moods, and seeing a giant poster of the person who put him through that advertising a football training center didn't really appease his mood. Especially since the name of the person was written boldly and in bright colors.

"When life throws you an early retirement, you can either sulk about it or milk it to the best of you abilities". Jeremiah said with a shrug. "I chose the latter".

There was an awkward silence between helakr as Jeremiah opened the training center and they walked inside it. As soon as they entered, they were greeted by a collection of medium sized football pitches, like the size junior high schoolers would use to play a match.

Jerry who had carried the football, as well as his football bag with him dropped everything he was holding. He was already wearing his cleats so he immediately started to play around with the football.

"Pass me the ball". Jeremiah said suddenly and almost immediately, he had the football on his feet.

Jerry almost smiled when he saw his dad playing around with the ball. Whenever they were playing football together, it was almost as if he was a different person entirely. He seemed... Almost likeable.

"Volley that!"

Jerry looked up and saw that his dad floated a cross towards him, he took a step back and hit the ball one time, watching as it entered a medium sized goal post placed at the middle of the far end of the medium sized pitch.

"Meh, you could've done better". Jeremiah said, then signed shortly after. "If it wasn't for this goddamned knee, I would've showed you how it's done".

"Excuses, excuses". Jerry muttered under his breath. Even though it was meant to be a joke, he didn't dare say it out loud. He was scared that his dad's behavior would suddenly change or something, and it was quite nice when the two of them were 'having fun'.

"Alright, I've just been in though with Jerkyll and Jude, they'll be coming over in about thirty minutes so get down and give me a ten". Jeremiah said. He didn't scream though, he just said it leisurely.

Jerry sighed and started doing pushups on the field. He remembered how poor his physicality was when the system showed him his stats and wondered how it could've been so low when he was subjected to torture like this almost every week. He should be recovering since he just played a match the previous day, but he was just beating his body up further.

Jerry was midway through his set of pushups, his arms burning and his breath coming in heavy bursts. He hated every single second of it, but the thought of Jeremiah yelling at him if he stopped kept him going. The field was quiet except for the sound of his grunts and the occasional scrape of his cleats against the turf.

Jeremiah said he should do ten reps but Jerry knew him too much to believe that. He would have to do at least thirty to satisfy him.

"Done already?" Jeremiah's voice broke through the silence. Jerry looked up and saw his dad leaning casually against a post, scrolling through his phone.

"Yeah, done," Jerry managed to mutter as he finished the thirtieth rep, his voice laced with exhaustion. He pushed himself to a sitting position and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his training kit.

"Good. Now sit tight. They'll be here any minute," Jeremiah said, slipping his phone into his pocket. His tone was unusually cheerful, which immediately made Jerry suspicious.

"Where exactly are the?" Jerry asked, still sitting on the turf and eyeing his dad warily.

"Close," Jerimiah said with a shrug.

Before Jerry could press further, the sound of a car pulling into the parking lot reached them. Jeremiah's face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. He walked briskly toward the entrance, leaving Jerry to groan and pull himself to his feet.

Moments later, two figures strolled into the training center. One was a tall, lanky guy with an easy grin and a head of curly hair that looked like it had never seen a comb. The other was shorter and stockier, his serious expression contrasting sharply with the other's laid-back demeanor.

"Jerkyll! Jude!" Jeremiah's voice boomed across the field as he jogged over to greet them. He clapped the taller guy—Jerkyll—on the back before pulling Jude into a quick, one-armed hug.

"It's been too long," Jeremiah said, his grin wide. "Glad you could make it."

"Wouldn't miss it," Jerkyll replied, his voice as easygoing as his appearance suggested. "Though, if I'd known I'd have to wake up this early on a weekend, I might've reconsidered."

"Stop whining," Jude said, rolling his eyes. "You needed the workout anyway."

Jerry stood awkwardly off to the side, watching the exchange. He vaguely remembered meeting these two before—Jeremiah's old teammates in the youth, if he wasn't mistaken. They came up together all from the under nines up until they made debuted for Manchester Red. Unfortunately, Jerkyll and Jude didn't do as well as Jeremiah and got sold to smaller club.

"And this must be Jerry," Jerkyll said, turning his attention to him. He gave Jerry a once-over, his grin widening. "Kid's grown since I last saw him."

"Still scrawny, though," Jude added, his tone deadpan.

Jerry bristled at the comment but bit his tongue. He wasn't about to start arguing with his dad's friends.

"Alright, enough chit-chat," Jeremiah said, clapping his hands together. "We've got work to do. Jerry, get ready to have some fun."

The way he emphasized the last word made Jerry's stomach sink. If his dad's idea of fun involved running laps around the estate, he could only imagine what kind of nightmare he had planned with backup.

"Fun?" Jerry echoed, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Jeremiah said, his grin turning almost mischievous. "It's not every day you get to train with legends like Jerkyll and Jude. Consider this your lucky day."

Jerry sighed, already regretting his decision to get out of bed that morning. "Lucky, sure," he muttered under his breath, but he knew better than to complain out loud.

Jeremiah caught the look on his son's face and laughed. "Don't worry, kid. By the end of this, you'll be thanking me."

Jerry highly doubted that.

A/N: another chapterr

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