This is a peace offering from me...

Special Participation

In that afternoon, Jack Bolton had left his team to the supervision of his assistant. Normally, for others, it was a sign for the coach softening up. But to Coach Bolton, it was the opposite.

He was strict and rigid with his players, yes, but his assistant was much worse. The basketball fanatic twenty-two year old assistant was stricter, more rigid and pure torture.

Nevertheless, Coach Bolton kept his word when he said the team would grovel in the afternoon practice.

Meanwhile, he stood behind the small gathering of soccer players in the field. Carlo Montez had yet to show up beside him.

The reason for such was that the school soccer team had been performing poorly. The two out of five wins that they held were very close calls and Coach Mario Gonzaga was frustrated at them. He had arranged the small workshop of some sort with Jack.

Halfway into the coach's little pep talk, Carlo appeared beside Jack cursing under his breath about pesky cheerleaders that kept coming on to him slowing down his walk.

"About time you showed up," Jack said as he grinned at Carlo.

"Yeah, sorry about that uncle. I just had a…run in."

Jack nodded and gestured to Mario that the star player had now arrived.

Mario brightened up. "Okay, enough of my speech. We have right now as our guest a school legend. I am so happy that he is here today to somehow help me straighten you chickens up. So here he is – Juan Carlo Montez!"

The players were dumbstruck as they turned and Carlo made his way to the front. As he reached the coach, the players seemed to regain their consciousness and cheer. It was unknown as to who cheered louder – the soccer players or the cheerleaders who had followed Carlo to the field at that point and were now seated at the sidelines.

The newcomers were obnoxiously waving at Carlo and blowing kisses in his direction. The soccer star, on the other hand, was shaking his head and rolling his eyes. He threw his bag to the side and removed his cap before speaking.

"Good afternoon. As Coach Gonzaga earlier mentioned, I'm Juan Carlo Montez – alumnus of the soccer team here in East High. Coach Gonzaga was also my coach before and he has helped me so much for me to be where I am now. I owe a lot to him and I really hate to see him disappointed and/or frustrated. Both of which is now. The main reason? You."

Carlo paused to let his words sink in. he gave the team before him a hard stare and they in turn gulped and looked up at him anxiously.

"And that makes me hate all of you in general. Now, who's the captain?" he asked in a tight voice.

"I am dude," Ethan Lichtenberg answered as he raised his hand.

Carlo turned to him. "Don't dude me. We're not friends."

Ethan quickly nodded his head and murmured an apology.

"How many wins has the team had this season?"

"Um…uh….we got two wins in five games."

Carlo raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"Uh…we got stronger…opponents?"

"Or you're just getting weaker," Carlo shot back.

Before he could continue, a Gothic song had blasted all of a sudden and Carlo dug in his pocket to retrieve his phone.

"Excuse me," he managed to say before answering. Turning to the side, the players admired the iPhone that was in his hand.

"Hermana! Yeah, I'm here…okay…see you. Te amo," Carlo ended the call and turned back to the team. "Sorry about that. Anyway, moving on. How many hours do you practice?"

"Three hours a day on school days and about seven during weekends," Ethan took the liberty of answering for the team.

Carlo nodded his head. "Who among you has the highest GPA?"

A sandy-haired guy raised his hand. "I have a 2."

"The lowest?" Carlo asked again and the team looked at each other nervously. "Never mind, I think I have an idea on how low it is.

"Such a shame. In my batch of players, the highest we GPA we had was one. I believe it was Josef Clayton. The lowest was 2.8."

Carlo turned to Coach Gonzaga. "I guess they don't value academics as high as we did, huh?"

The coach snorted and shook his head.

"Really such a shame," Carlo reiterated as he faced the team again. He eyed them momentarily before asking them to stand up.

Some players, as he noted, stood there nervously but the majority were standing in an unmistakable cocky stance.

"Why are you standing like that? Stand up straight!" Carlo barked an order to them and immediately, the players did as what they were told. "Weren't you taught the proper way to stand?"

Carlo picked up a soccer ball and tossed it form one hand to another. "Now, I want you to run and catch this ball. After, of course, I kick it. Understood?"

"Yes sir," the players had mumbled.

With out any warning whatsoever, Carlo kicked the ball. And as it soared through the air, the players scrambled to get to it. The ball landed nearly on the other end of the field as the players were running halfway through. First to get to it and pick it up was a redhead wearing a #2 jersey. He turned to go back but was met by hands pushing him back and taking the ball from him.

Ethan Lichtenberg now had the ball and sprinted back to Carlo. He proudly offered it to the soccer team alumnus as the rest of the tam caught up with him. Carlo gave the captain a glare and gestured for him to place the ball on the ground.

"Did I say that you specifically bring back the ball?"

Ethan's grin faltered. "No…"

"Then why did you have to rip it from the other player's hands?"

"I…uh…"

"Just because you're the captain, doesn't mean that you should be the first and representative in everything, claiming all the glory. Do you even understand what a captain's duties are?"

"Yes…"

"And they are?" Carlo pressed on.

"To…um…represent the team. To lead, to tell them what they need to do, to, uh…"

"He's supposed to guide the team. Be the better example. Understand the points of strength and weakness of the whole team and work around it. He's supposed to motivate his teammates to do their best. The captain is to be responsible for seeing to it that every member is given due recognition. No one is underappreciated or over appreciated.

"As I've heard and as far as I can see, you barely understand and carry on the role of a captain. I am ashamed to be calling you my predecessor," Carlo spat at the Ethan and the latter trembled slightly not because of the words had caused guilt but because the tone of voice had the edge that made him need to tremble.

"I've reviewed all your games this season and I'm very much disappointed. Soccer is a competitive sport governed by rules and regulations not an all-nonsense wrestling match. The main problem with you people is that you don't know how to separate the game and your own individual grudges against the other team. When you're on the field, play the game as a game. Settle whatever scored you have past game time and away from the grass.

"You have tainted the game I love and made it into something we, the past batches, never thought would happen. Especially to East High.

"Go sweat out my words. One lap around the oval."

The players quickly did as they were told. Carlo turned around as he hear Mario chuckling.

"Wow. I've never seen them this quiet and on their toes," the coach mused. "You sure know how to set things straight. Even before with your own teammates. I'm proud of you son."

"I try coach. This is some group you have now."

"I don't even know what has gotten into this group," Mario said.

"They spend more time partying and with the cheerleaders than in the field or the classroom," Jack said as he entered the conversation.

"Really now? I didn't think about it like that uncle," Carlo sarcastically said. "These guys make me sick. They don't like the game purely. Most of them are here to show off what they got."

Moments later, the players arrived one by one and gathered again in front of Carlo and the two coaches.

"You took longer than expected. What else did you do?"

As Carlo said that, he noticed three players focusing theirs eyes to the squad of cheerleaders who were still at the side.

"Hmmm…openly flirting with the cheerleaders," his words brought back the attention of the three players to him. "As great and as beneficial as that is for you, you have got to separate completely your social like from your practice. Concentrate on your practice for now. Is that clear?"

The team nodded mutely.

"Now I'm going to give you a challenge. You will be selecting your two best players to go against with two special persons I've requested. One of them, you fondly call the nerd, the social outcast who badly wants a transplant. Gabriela Montez."

Carlo held out his arm as Gabriela came to the front and stood beside her brother. "Otherwise known as my sister."

As Carlo had started his little speech earlier, Gabriela and Troy walked up behind the group. Only a few of the cheerleaders noticed their arrival as the rest were busy gawking at Carlo and some of the soccer players. But still, the few that noticed the pair only recognized Troy for Gabriela had her hood up, shielding her face.

"Oh no, she was not the one who told all about your taunts and the name calling," Carlo spoke up once again as he saw of the players glare at Gabriela. The some others looked at Gabriela not quite believing her connections and that she was there standing before them.

The cheerleaders on the side were the same story with added shrieking, hyperventilating and oh-my-gods.

"It's your coaches here," Carlo nodded to Mario and Jack, "who told me about all those pathetic things you do. And of course, my sister's boyfriend – Troy Bolton."

Troy made his way to the front with the sound of collective gasps and even more shrieking, hyperventilating, oh-my-gods and now with added select curses.

"Now select your best players and come up here."

The captain and assistant captain were unanimously chosen and stood on the other side of Carlo.

"For me to determine how much work you need, your captain and assistant will have to play against Troy and Gabriela here."

"What?!" the soccer team exclaimed in a chorus.

"You heard me. It's your captain and assistant versus Troy and Gabriela," Carlo smirked. "Or are you scared already?"

Ethan's face hardened. "No, we'll play."

"Alright then."