Chapter 1

“Here we are, what do you think?” James asked the half asleep figure in the back.

“Huh” said Ex tiredly rubbing his somewhat bloodshot eyes. After 8 hours on a plane, an hour getting through customs and baggage claim, followed by a further 4 hours in the car, all he could really think about was crawling into bed. He’d never been able to sleep on planes, and had for the first couple of hours of the drive been too wired with excitement and nervousness to sleep.

“What do you think?” His dad said again whilst looking over to his wife and son and gesturing to their new home?

Ex looked over to a typical American suburban 4 bed house in the town of Cazenovia in Madison County. It was in good condition or looked so from the outside. “Looks good Dad.” He said, thinking about how his current life and future had changed once again in a little over 3 months.

Ex was 15, his full name was Exthereon Michael Warriner (his mother had been obsessed with mythology and was a huge affectionardo of Tolkien coming up with an Elf like name for her only progeny) born in England and having lived in both the UK and America growing up (the UK from ages 0-8 and 13-15 whilst spending the ages of 8-12 in America. ) His father was originally from the US but had moved to the UK as a technical officer in the Airforce where he met Ex’s Mother. The move to the states was precipitated by the passing of his fraternal grandfather, whom he had never met and who was estranged from his Father. Upon the opening of the will everything his grandfather owned had been left to Ex but was predicated on him completing a US high school diploma and completing a degree from a US college. His fathers 20 years had been literally round the corner when the Warriner family were contacted by Ex’s grandfathers lawyers, and the family had agreed now was the right time for his father to get out of the airforce and for the family to bed down some proper roots. James, Ex’s Dad, had already invested in a garage with the plan to open up his own car rebuild and repair shop with the money he had saved in over 20 years in the airforce whilst Estelle, Ex’s mum, being a qualified teacher of special needs children had easily secured a position with a local special school for the new academic year and enrolled Ex at the local High school.

Ex was just shy of 6ft 3 and would probably grow another inch or so before reaching his final height. He had an athletic build with a strong muscular frame, honed through 9 years of playing rugby and football (depending on if he was living in the UK or the US) up to 5 times a week with school and club training and games and throwing around a football with his dad and various other families as well as some friendly scrimmages on the base they were stationed at in the UK. (Ex’s dad held a serious passion for football having played himself to a decent level in college). He was 92 kilos or about 14 and a half stone with piercing blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He was in excellent shape, and combined boyish good looks with an easy charm and good manners. He was also bright and had previously attained top scores in both education systems.

“Let’s get in and show you around quickly then you can get a quick bit of shut eye before we have to do dinner.” His dad said breaking into his reverie.

...

Ex woke the following morning slightly disoriented, taking a moment to remember where he was he dragged himself out of bed, showered, threw on some shorts and an old t-shirt and headed downstairs.

“Hey sleepy head, we were wondering when you’d emerge today” said Estelle as Ex walked into the kitchen. Looking at the clock and seeing it was already 10 he mumbled something about his body clock still adjusting.

“I’m only teasing honey, how are you feeling?” She asked.

“I’m ok mum” said Ex “What times Dad home and what do we have to do today?” He asked?

“Dad will be home around 6.30, IV got to get some errands to run so I’m afraid your on your own today. We’ll be busy tomorrow though we have to go and start getting your school bits amongst other things and then the day after we have a meeting scheduled with the lawyers. Will you be ok entertaining yourself?”

“Yeah no problem, I assume I have some keys? I want to go running later and maybe just have a look around.”

School was out for the year until late August/September so he had no pressing issues and wanted to try and get a handle on the area he would at the very least be spending the next three years before University, or College he thought.

“Okay honey well there’s fresh bread if you want some and fruit in the fridge, I have to run, I’ll see you later.” Said Estelle

After a breakfast of toast and a whole grape fruit with a sprinkling of sugar, it was too bitter without, Ex relocated back to his room to spend an hour or two studying old football footage and some old playbooks his dad either had hidden away or had tracked down to try and further get back to grips with his chosen sport. Rugby was still very much small time this side of “the pond” and Ex had decided to focus back on football now he was back in the states. He had been throwing a football around with his dad since he was big enough to hold one and had been a stand out player at quarterback playing pee wee football and then in middle school when aged 8-13 and living in America, it wasn’t a difficult choice. Having not played the game properly in over four years and having grown considerably and changed shape he wasn’t exactly sure where he would fit in, though he still wanted to play as a quarterback he had no idea of whether this would now be his best position. He had played as a centre in rugby. He had blistering acceleration and good speed, excellent hands and according to his dad who threw with him a golden arm, he had a step that could leave people grasping at air but his real skill across all the sports he had played was his ability to read the game, seeing what was developing and reacting instinctively to it, often seeing him burst through gaps that weren’t there even half a second previously or putting a teammate through a gap. This had also seen him as the defensive captain for his rugby team, reading what was happening and getting himself into position to put a crushing hit on the ball carrier. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about only playing offence or defence rather than doing both as he had been able to when he was younger but thought his ability to potentially fill a number of different roles might serve him well in getting a chance to be involved in High School football and who knows maybe he could get on both sides of the ball ... He couldn’t imagine not playing competitive sport and was determined to give himself every chance. Ex’s real passion, outside of his growing interest in girls anyway was sports. He was a sports nut, having played just about every sport you could name. He was a natural sportsman, good at almost everything even when first starting. He seemed to naturally pick up sports but gravitated towards team sports, where he felt he could be part of something bigger. He was determined this move would not impact on his sporting future. His second passion (though girls were currently in third in his desires but rapidly catching up to the other two) also developed through his dad was engines and specifically American muscle cars! Whilst his dad worked on airplane engines for work at home they almost always were working on a car project together and had since Ex was 12. He was looking forward to getting his own car and maybe spending some time in his Dad’s shop over the coming years.

After pouring over the books for an hour or so and having watched a couple of old football games that were on to to try and see if he could see in practice some of what he had read about Ex was going stir crazy! Time for a run he thought, grabbing his trainers and heading out the door.

As he ran Ex zoned out thinking back to his life in England and how quickly life had changed, feet pounding along the sidewalk. He came across a park, and started to run the perimeter, noticing a group of about 7 guys all around his age or older throwing a football round practicing a scrimmage all be it short a number of players. As one of the guys punted the ball to what looked like a whippet quick skinny young man 20 yards away from him Ex suddenly realised if he didn’t do something he was going to end up with a ball in the face. Reacting instantly his hands flew up to pluck the ball out of the air about a foot in front of his nose.

“Sweet hands man” said a the smiling speedster who had followed the kick pulled up a couple of feet away.

“Cheers” said Ex, “hey where you from bro?” asked the stranger. “Just moved here from England, we moved into a house on stone quarry road over near the country club.”

“Cool, hey man are you going to go to school here?” He was asked as the rest of the young men trotted over to find out what was going on.

“Yeah I’m starting at Cazenovia in September.”

“Sweet, you look like you could play, you wanna join us we’re just getting in some practice for next season?”

“Yeah, sounds good” said Ex who turned and fired a bullet back to the guys who were still a good 40 to 50 yards away, putting it directly into the hands of the guys who was facing him holding his hands out as if asking for the ball. “Don’t know where you want to put me though.” He tailed off.

“Holy shit” came the expletive from next to him in an excited voice. “Can you do that every time? You got a gun there!”

“Er, yeah” said Ex slightly haltingly. “My dad taught me, but I haven’t played a whole lot recently, well we had a junior team at the base but didn’t play many games and I played in a few scrimmages the last year or two with the men. My Dad was in the airforce and just got out.” Ex explained.

“Man we need to introduce you to coach and get you practicing with us over the summer. You might be the answer to our prayers. Your gonna play football right?” He said as if it was unthinkable Ex would do anything else.”

“I was hoping too, sure” said Ex

By this time the rest of the guys had jogged over. “Hey man, that was a sweet throw” said a towering black guy who must have been 3 inches taller than Ex and looked to be twice as wide.

The speedster turned to the rest of his friends and launched into a brief synopsis of his conversation with Ex before the rest jogged over.

The 6’6 behemoth turned to Ex, “definitely man with that arm we might be able to use you. By the way I’m Levon, this speedy runt that can’t stop talking is Matt, and the rest here are Josh, Luke, Demari, Andre and Darryl. We all play for Cazenovia.”

The now eight young men gathered together and threw the football around for another hour showing Ex various plays they run during the regular season and the various routes of the receivers he should look for. As they ran the drills and Ex regularly made the reads and hit his runners there was a palpable sense of excitement from the other players.

“Ok guys I have to head off but can I get your digits and a number for coach so I can call him?” Said Ex after completing another 40 yard perfect spiral throw right into the hands of the sprinting receiver.

Levon turned to him saying “I’ll give him a call for you man, see if he can come down watch us practice tomorrow. Maybe he can do one day as long as he just watches. Your ok to come down right?”

“I don’t know” Ex said “I have to go and get my books for next year and stuff tomorrow, what time?”