Adrian wasn't in a rush to answer the question and just stared at the ground thoughtfully as if he was thinking about the appropriate answer to give.
He raised his hand and was about to point at Noelle when he saw her fierce glare.
That look was enough for him to understand that she probably didn't want the others to know that they knew each other.
Adrian was a bit stumped, but he quietly put down his hands and quickly reorganised what he wanted to say in his mind.
"The general reason is that it has something to do with my Dad's work, the personal reason is that I came back for someone." He glanced at Noelle as he said that.
Noelle froze for a moment the second they made eye contact, and with an unnatural expression on her face, she quickly turned away.
"Came back? Does that mean you were originally from Sendan?" Oscar quickly grabbed onto this point.
"This guy is unusually sharp at the most random moments," Henry muttered as he shook his head.
"That's correct," Adrian said in response to Oscar's question.
"I see. And what about this person….."
The high-pitched sound of a whistle suddenly cut Oscar off, and following that, everyone quickly turned to Noelle, who had a stern expression on her face.
"That's enough chitchat."
Her gaze hovered between Henry and Oscar for a while as if trying to make a decision. She ended up stopping her gaze on Henry.
"Henry, you introduce him to everyone, we'll start training soon."
"Alright."
With her instructions received, she turned and walked away, toward the other end of the pitch.
Henry knew that Noelle just needed him to give Adrian a quick walk-through of who was who, so he wasted no time starting the introductions.
The first person he introduced was obviously the captain of the team and the person who stood out the most among the rest given that he was the only blonde one.
"This is our captain, Eric Norton, he's the team's first choice goalkeeper."
Adrian looked at Eric and the latter only showed him a polite smile without saying or doing anything else.
Adrian took a careful look at Eric's face as he had heard some of the boys saying his looks were comparable to Eric's.
He had never been someone who paid much attention to what people looked like but he really thought there was no comparison here.
In comparison, it would be better to use beautiful to describe Eric instead of sullying the word handsome.
Since Eric didn't say anything, Adrian didn't bother interacting with him either, and so they moved on to the next person.
The next person to be introduced was their first pick striker, Leron Kell.
Adrian had realised that he was the one who whistled the moment Noelle arrived earlier.
He seemed to always have this playful look in his eyes as if he was always waiting to watch a good show.
He reached out his hand to shake Adrian's hand, his fox-like eyes brimming with an enchanting smile.
Looking at those eyes, Adrian could tell that it would be very easy for people, especially girls to get pulled into them.
Probably a sly fox, that was Adrian's evaluation of him at the moment.
Then there were the two midfielders, Savi Mort and Mendez Perez.
Among the people introduced, Mendez Perez was the only second-year student so far and the only one in the starting team at the moment.
After those two was the defensive midfielder Noe Sentes. The quietest person in the team as he would only speak when spoken to, while trying to say as few words as possible.
The next to be introduced were the two centre-backs, Nomer Lino and Fredines Ramsey. Of course, their roles weren't confined to just being centre-backs as is with the other teammates.
The fullbacks were twins named Leo Metes and Nino Metes. They were identical twins, and if it wasn't for the fact that they were wearing different clothes, Adrian could not tell them apart.
He also got to know that Leo, who was the older one, played on the left while the younger brother played on the right.
The last two starters in the team were Oscar Tez, who played on the right wing, and Henry Melon himself, who played on the left wing.
Other than the starters, there was also the second-year backup goalkeeper, Aaron Hernandez and a few others who were there just to make sure they had substitutes. There had been no use for them so far, though.
"There's someone else, a second-year student, but you won't get to see him for a while. You two can just introduce each other." Henry said.
"Mhm." Adrian nodded.
It didn't matter to him either way.
"What about you?" Oscar suddenly asked.
"Huh?" Adrian turned to him with a confused expression.
"What position do you play?"
"Well….I usually play as an attacking midfielder, but I can also handle myself well upfront, be it as a striker or winger." Adrian answered.
The moment he finished speaking, his gaze turned to Noelle, who had a lot of balls on the ground surrounding her and about five free-kick mannequins behind her.
'Free kick training?'
He was still thinking about that when Henry spoke up.
"I see. In that case, you're quite similar to him."
"Him? You mean the second year who's not present?''
"Oh."
Adrian could tell that Henry admired this second-year student, which he felt meant something at least.
However, he would have to see him for himself before making any judgment on how good he actually was.
With the introduction now done, Henry turned to the rest of his teammates and spoke.
"Alright everyone, just as always, four laps around the pitch before stretches."
As soon as he finished speaking, the boys quickly lined up.
Adrian was satisfied that they at least had this level of discipline and he didn't have any trouble fitting in and joining them for the jog.
He had already changed into a set of school-provided track pants and a shirt earlier, so there was nothing in the way of his joining this training session.
The run took them close to fifteen minutes to finish running the four laps, and soon afterwards, they also finished their stretches.
Now, they were all lined up in front of Noelle who was standing there scrolling through the tablet in her hand.
The boys were very quiet, like a group of soldiers waiting for their commander's orders.
It wasn't like he wanted the world to be in chaos, but Adrian was quite surprised by how well-behaved they were.
Given the fact that she was a girl who was also their classmate even if they respected her ability, there should at least still be a few who refused to take her that seriously.
Adrian was still thinking about this when Noelle looked up from her tablet and began speaking.
"We'll be doing a different kind of free-kick training today. Everyone gets five balls and within fifteen seconds, you have to shoot all five balls past the mannequins. You will be graded according to the number of goals scored, the number of shots on target, regardless of whether it's a goal or not, the number of shots off target and the number of times the mannequins are hit. Of course, you will also be graded on how many shots you complete in fifteen seconds."
She paused for a moment to glance at her tablet before continuing.
"Eric will take the goalpost until it's his turn to shoot then he'll switch with Aaron."
"I understand everything apart from the timer. Why exactly do we need it? Nobody gets to shoot five different balls in fifteen seconds in an actual match."
Adrian was standing beside Oscar and Henry so he heard everything Oscar said.
"It's not exactly about the practicality of the current situation when compared to an actual match," Adrian spoke up before Henry could respond to Oscar.
He had more or less figured out what Noelle was trying to do.
"Huh?" Oscar turned to him with a confused expression.
"Have you ever watched a free-kick training session of any particular professional football team?" Adrian asked.
"Yes."
"Then what do you think about their accuracy?"
"They seem to get the ball on target almost all the time," Oscar answered.
He had actually just watched FC Barcelona's free kick training just that one time and this was just his honest observation.
"Then what do you think about their accuracy when on the pitch?" Adrian continued to ask.
"Much worse," Oscar answered truthfully. "Even the free kick specialists miss more times than they get it right."
"Exactly, they don't miss because they don't know how to shoot or anything. It's the pressure that comes with the surroundings, the players in front of them and the fans either booing or trying to rattle them in some other way. A player's psychological strength has a lot to do with how well they do on the pitch regardless of how talented they are."
With Adrian's explanation, Oscar would be a full-blown idiot if he couldn't understand what was going on now.
"Oh, I see. So, the time is to simulate pressure."
"Mhm, but this type of pressure is still nothing compared to the actual pressure you face on the pitch in an actual match."