"Hmm."
Savi scrutinised the two people in front of him with a look of suspicion on his face.
The reason for his suspicion was that the two of them had walked into the school at the same time.
Normally, this wouldn't really be the cause of any alarm, but he had noticed something weird about these two from yesterday.
It was a nagging feeling, and when Savi had this kind of feeling, he was always desperate to get to the bottom of it.
"Did you two know each other in the past?" Savi finally asked the question that had been in his mind.
"Yes."
"No."
The two answered at the same time, and just after he finished speaking, Adrian turned to Noelle with a confused expression on his face.
He had answered no because he assumed Noelle didn't want anybody to know that they were acquainted so he was a bit shocked when she gave an affirmative answer.
Now he was starting to believe that her silence when he asked to walk to school together was actually silence acquiescence.
No matter what caused the change in attitude, it had caused a positive boost in Adrian's mood; regardless, the corners of his mouth lifting a little was the best evidence.
Savi, on the other hand, was quite confused as he kept shifting his gaze between the two.
"So, did you know each other or not?"
Noelle didn't respond to that. She glanced at the smiling Adrian from the corner of her eye before tightening her grip on her backpack strap.
"I have things to do."
That was her only response to Savi before walking past him.
"Hey, hey, coach, you can't just leave without making things clear."
"She already answered you," Adrian said at that moment.
"Huh?"
"Just go with her answer," Adrian said with a smile before dashing past him to catch up to Noelle.
"Go with her answer."
With his hand on his chin, Savi turned around to stare at the backs of the two who were getting further away from him.
"I knew it."
When Noelle said she had things to do, she wasn't saying it just to get rid of Savi, she really had things to do.
From yesterday till now, she had been working on the game plan and formation for their match tomorrow and she still needed to polish the whole thing a little before talking about it with the players. She had her hands full with that so she didn't have time to supervise the players.
However, that wasn't a problem as her players were disciplined enough to at least carry out their basic morning training which usually started with running a few laps around the pitch.
Adrian obviously joined them for the exercise and given that he had already shown the rest of the team that he was at least quite competent when it came to shooting, he didn't have much trouble integrating into this new group.
After completing their run, the players would rest for five minutes on the pitch before doing stretches.
Adrian had just found a spot to sit down when someone sat down beside him.
He turned to the person to see that it was the blonde-haired goalkeeper and the captain of the team, Eric Norton.
Adrian found the subtle smile he always had on his face to be quite patronising and annoying, but he didn't let any of his inner feelings show and just nodded at him.
"Captain."
"Mm." Eric, on the other hand, gave a perfunctory response.
Given the way he responded, Adrian decided to just ignore him since he didn't look like he wanted to talk. However, just as that thought reached his mind, Eric spoke.
A minute later, Eric stood up and left with a satisfied smile on his face. Adrian, on the other hand, looked calm on the surface, but his left hand, which he had hidden behind his back, was clenched so hard that his nails would have been digging into his flesh if they were any longer.
'Stay cool, Adrian, he's just trying to mess with you.' Adrian said inwardly. 'One look and you can tell he's the scheming type.'
He knew all of this but the way that guy spoke was just so infuriating.
After calming himself, Adrian got up on his feet and flashed a very brilliant smile.
Leron Kell, who was just passing by, was so blinded by the smile that he almost tripped.
"Yeah, there's no way I don't like women, absolutely not." The striker muttered to himself.
By the time the players were done with their stretches, Noelle appeared on the pitch with her tablet.
The players quickly gathered and formed a circle around her, they were sitting while she was standing.
"For tomorrow's match, we'll be sticking with the four-three-three formation." She announced.
Nobody was really surprised, that it has been their go-to formation since she took over as coach.
"Now, before we move on to the more important things, here are the players that will be starting: For forwards, Oscar on the right wing, Henry on the left and Leron as the striker.
"In midfield, we'll have Savi, Mendes and Noe. Mendes and Noe will play mostly as holding midfielders while the majority of the responsibility of supporting the midfield will fall on Savi."
With the roles in attack and midfield all filled up, the players couldn't help but glance at Adrian whose name wasn't mentioned.
Given the level of skill he showed yesterday, most of them expected Noelle to include him in the starting lineup, especially considering how their star midfielder was absent.
However, Adrian wasn't surprised in the slightest; he had only trained with the team for the first time yesterday, which means that Noelle might have already chosen her starting lineup before he arrived. She had already started picturing a strategy, a system and the players to make it work for the match and he was never in her consideration before he appeared.
There was no reason to completely change the map she had drawn for a player that showed exceptional talent in a training session because she still had no reference for how he would actually perform in an actual match and how well he could work with the other players.
No one knew how great a player Adrian was better than Noelle.
He was a player with the capabilities to change the tune of the game by himself, but his play style also had the potential to wear out his own teammates.
So, for now, Adrian could only sit on the bench and slowly integrate into the team. Coming on from the bench was a much safer approach toward that because, at the time, he would have already observed how they play in an actual match and have an idea of how to adapt to their play style.