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Due to the humiliating display put upon his team by the others, Mike finds himself lost as his team drops their gear and walks away from the field.
“Welp, some are just not made for the big leagues” Mike hears from behind him, he doesn’t need to turn around to recognize the obnoxious voice of the goon. The boy disgustingly slurped away at a mug with a crappy printing of his team's massive mistake. Mike resented him. He resented all of them.
Though the words of the young adult repeats in his head, even after the boy had left.
Made for the big leagues…
For the big leagues…
Big leagues…
Oh my god.
“Guys! Guys! Stop moping around!” Mike yells as he flies the door open to the musty 60s house that is the fraternity. All of the boys looked up, you could tell just by the puffiness of their eyes and the dark shadows that hung over their faces how badly affected they all felt. “We're going on a road trip.” Mike grins his signature (I have an idea) face as he holds up Squishy’s mom’s car keys.
With a lot of persuasion and maybe a bit of magic, Mike is able to pile them all into the car begrudgingly
He had to sneak the keys while squishys mom was at a bingo game. Mike knew If he told any of them where they were going, they would leave just like the left at the field. So he stayed silent to all of their questions, even to Sully's quiet whispers to him to tell him what the hell is going on.
The night gets late and they still continue driving down the freeway. Mike knows more than anyone the direction of the big league stadium, ever since that fateful moment from when he was a boy.
“Alright children, we will stay behind the fence to watch the big boys, it could be incredibly dangerous for a kid to be on the field with the professionals! They might not see you and could injure you or them!” Karen Graves says as she holds hands with little Mike Wasowski, who couldn’t find a partner on his own.
All of the largest kids piled up around the fence as they got to it, leaving the few stranglers to squeeze through to see the players train. Mike let go of Karen’s hand to run to the fence like all the others have done, but he finds once he gets there that he can’t see anything!
“Hey guys! Guys!” Mike yells over the kids yelling and cooing at the moves the men played, the moves that Mike can’t see!
“How about tallest in the back!” Mike continues to yell as he crams his little hands between two big kids and tries to pull them apart so he can squeeze in
The big kid then turns around and pushes him roughly out, which with Mikes small stature sends him flying to the dirt floor
“Get out of here Wasowski, you don’t belong here. If you played you would just get crushed.” The kid sneers and the other chuckles at the joke, they turn their backs to Mike who lays on the floor with a scrapped knee and a broken heart
“…I’ll show them..” Mike whispers, looking around to see the teacher is preoccupied with trying to pry a kid off from climbing the fence
The pros of never being seen is you can get away from pretty much anything!
Mike walks to the edge of the fence, out of view from the others and starts to climb it. Sticking his little Velcro sneakers into each hole.
Once he gets to the top, he jumps and his knees buckle under his weight and trips. Mike frantically looks around to see if anyone had seen him sneak in, but like he is everyday of his life, he is invisible.
There he can see them for real. God how it was beautiful.
To see the guys who knew how to play! Have the physique to play!
It was so much better than behind that stupid fence!
He starts to run back down the fence along the back to get a better view of the players train when he sees a rogue football fly through the air to near his direction.
This is his chance!
Mike runs as fast as his little legs can go and jumps in the air to catch the ball. The football feeling huge in his little hands, he ran with that ball, never looking back till he reached the line at the end.
Finally he reaches it and throws the ball down in triumph before looking over and seeing EVERYONE staring at him. 5 of the players right next to him, as if they were chasing him…
“Jesus kid you could’ve gotten hurt!” One of the players yell next to him, a signature blue hat standing him out from the others
“I mean, if we caught up with you then you could’ve gotten trampled!” He continues out of breath. “…If we caught up to you..” The man stares at little Mike Wasowski who was both awestruck and completely terrified
“Heh… Not bad kid.” He ruffles the boys hair, did a thumbs up to his team who then left to continue training. But he stayed.
The player then takes off his hat and drops it on Mikes head, it completely dwarfed his little head.
“Keep playing kid, you’ll do great one day.” He says, pulling up the cap to see the boys eye looking at him in completely childlike wonder. “Though try to not kill yourself to prove it, like today” He laughs, before grabbing his helmet off the floor and walking off.
Mike stood there, in complete amazement.
“MICHEAL.” A strong female voice yells from the side of him. “What do you have to say for yourself!” She says to him in disappointment.
“How do I become a football player..?” Mike looks up with a huge grin.
Mike grins thinking about this moment, the moment that had completely changed his life. The moment that has caused him to meet all of these wonderful players and go to the university of his dreams
But a nagging voice reminded him “Not for long. If these guys won’t play then you’re out.”
He can’t let this happen.
It is long past sunset when they arrive at the stadium, if he had to guess it was somewhere around 4 in the morning.
The car was parked right outside of the fence, it was one of the fences that would be opened with a security guard but Mike made sure no one would be here.
“Uhhh so where are we?” Art asks, looking around in his hippie way.
“The Big Leagues.” Mike looks back at him with a smirk.
“Wow Mike this is really cool!” Squishy says obliviously, thinking all they would do was see the stadium from afar. The others agree with him.
“We’re not stopping here.” Mike grins, holding up bolt cutters
They all squeeze through the small hole that Mike cuts within the gate, sully had the hardest, with him being the largest so he climbed over instead
They reach the top of the stadium, all hanging over the edge to look down. The freezing early morning air hitting them with no mercy, but there in excitement bubbling in all of them.
“Take a good look fellas, see what they all have in common?” Mike points to the players getting ready for their early morning practice. The cold wind nipping his ears, he is red from the cold and Sully looks at him.
“No.. not really..” Squishy responds. He was right, all of them men had such drastically different physiques for their position on the field.
“Exactly!” Mike exclaims, creating a aura of undivided attention from the others
“The best players use their differences to their advantage!”
And Mike was right.
“…Terry look” one of the twins says, looking onto the field to see two skinny tall boys come out. They stare at each other with hope and big grins.
Each person finding someone who had a quality they previously thought to be bad.
Sully stares at his companions in complete silence, he finds himself completely shocked to see the joy on their faces. A feeling of guilt for ever doubting these guys fills his body, but something fills his chest even more.
A deep admiration for Mike.
It blew his mind. Every goddamn day where they feel like they’re at the bottom. Thinking they’ll never get up again, there comes Mike.
A pep in his step and a plan in his mind.
And it always worked! God! He wished he could have even a quarter of the small man’s brilliance.
Mike has taken a worthless team of nobodies and has been shaping them to be the people they never thought they would be.
He was shaping him as well! Sully found himself doing the routines that Mike trained him, even when the boy wasn’t even around. He found himself genuinely enjoying the company of his fraternity instead of being constantly angry and miserable.
He found that he was liking himself more and more. How does Mike do it?
The wind bashes their backs, tickling their ears with frost. Sully stares as Mike does his magic as he does time and time again, his ears to his nose completely frosted red from the cold. But it doesn’t stop him, nothing stops that boy.
God.
He is so fucking admirable.
Everything about him. He’s the most resilient, hard working, and brilliant man he’s ever met or will meet.
Sully believes that he will never in his entire life, will meet someone as unique and special as Mike.
And… Somehow he’s not upset about this…
As he watches the man joke and it somehow brings the entire team together again, it’s incredible. Sully wouldn’t mind following Mike to the ends of the earth if he got to see him do what he does best forever.
A blush dusts Sully's cheeks but it blends in with his cold blush, he finds himself shocked to be so emotional. Sullys entire life has been a nepobaby daydream, with his father being a famous football player so he always got what he wanted without a care for others. But now he stands here, as dejected as the people he would have hated, and not caring at all for reputation or fame. All that he finds his heart longing for, is to follow Mike.
But somehow, he also doesn’t feel angry about this. It fills his stomach with butterflies that he has never felt before.
With any situation of love, Sully doesn’t feel much. But here he stands, on the top of a fucking stadium they broke in at 5 in the morning. Staring with complete and utter love to the leader of their team.
Sully can’t find it within himself to want to change.
“Hey hey! Look at that old feller! He’s destroying them!” Don exclaims, pointing to a beefy man in his 50-60s, absolutely demolishing the younger guys
“Don that old feller is Earl the Terror Thompson!” Mike excites the older man with his extensive knowledge, knowing just the right words to make someone hopeful.
“..What?” Sully knocks out of his trance hearing that
“It’s really him..?” Sully says in pure shock. There stood one of his childhood stars, right in-front of him.
“He brought the team to championships for 3 years!” Mike exclaims
“Oh! Look look there!” Sully points excitedly to the end of the field where the coolers were. Completely swarmed with excitement as all the other guys, Mike had that talent.
“Carmela ‘killer claws’ Benitez!” Mike points to the same person as Sully, both in shock to see the most famous trainer in the world. A woman known for shaping up a team of losers into heros. Almost like Mike.
“Look!! It’s screaming Bob Gunderson” Sully yells, pointing to the player known for his large screams during game, often to confuse and distract the other team.
“Heh, I still have his rookie card” Sully smiles, with no care for anything but this moment
“Me too!” Mike pips in
“Doesn’t have the speed anymore, but his technique is flawless”
“technique is flawless”
Mike and Sully say in unison.
They both stare at each other with soft smiles, almost like the rest of the world doesn’t even exist outside of their little bubble
No one is paying attention to them, the rest is all pointing and exclaiming.
Mike and Sully share a moment, their eyes meeting, barley seeing each other behind the grins
Sully finds himself in completely admiration and love to this man. The man who stands right in-front of him with frosted cheeks and is looking at him like he is finally speaking his language. This is their moment, nothing can break the serenity of it.
Sully almost feels like he should lean in and kiss him, but backtracks because he knows of the other fellas here, and also he would never in his life make Mike uncomfortable.
And if that means hiding how he feels, then would he do it…
“You collected rookie cards?” Mike asks, his grin is teasing but loving. Just how Sully loves it.
“Yep 450 of ‘em” Sully smiles back
“Huh impressive” Mike raises his eyebrows with a grin “I have 6,000 still in mint condition but yaknow 450 is pretty good” Mike teases
Sully laughs goodheartedly, he doesn’t ever mind being out done by Mike. If it was anyone he would throw a fit and get angry, but he doesn’t seem to mind when it’s Mike.
They look over to their fraternity brothers joking and yelling to their hearts content, completely rejuvenated from their horrible day from before. As if it had never happened, they are back up again and hopeful.
Mike and Sully stare back at each other, grinning.
Sully finds himself full of guilt for his doubt on the team. For his doubt on Mike.
“I’ve been a real jerk” Sully looks back to the field. He’s never been good with expressing his feelings
“So have I…” Mike admits in the comfort of his friend. “But it’s not too late.” He looks back to Sully, getting his attention like he always does
“We can be a great team” Mike stares hopefully at Sully, with complete confidence in the humble way that Mike does it.
“We just… need to start working together.”
Anyone with a brain and eyes could see the long bubbling feud between the two boys. One that has completely thrown their lives upside down
And Sully wants that more than anything. He wants to bridge the gap between them. Anything for him to continue following this man.
Then the lights beam on them, the guards!