THE BOY WHO COULD FLY

15 | holiday

"You ready?" Gary asked Olivier after he was strapped into the anti-grav. Olivier looked back at the machine that was consuming his lower half and grew nervous. He was honestly more scared of the machine than running itself.

"I guess so? Just go for it before I talk myself out." Olivier decided and so Gary turned it on at 90% decrease of pressure. Olivier began running and it felt shocking to him. He hadn't run in almost two weeks so this was crazy for him.

"It feels really weird." He exclaimed to the ACL crew who were cheering him on.

"Now imagine you haven't run for five months and then you do that." Leah chuckled and Laura smiled at her. Leah was already back to full in running on the grass, as she was farthest ahead.

"I couldn't." Olivier admitted. He didn't notice that the pressure was slowly increasing and making it harder.

"Do you feel any pain or disturbance at all?" Gary asked and Olivier thought.

"Not really. The stitches feel weird to be moving this fast but the rest of me is unbothered." Olivier replied. Gary wrote something on his clipboard. The kid kept running for half an hour until he heard the gym door open and voices like in. At this point, he was at 30% without noticing.

"Olivier!" Martin shouted and walked quickly over to his side.

"Look at him go!" Aaron joked and clapped for him.

Everyone who entered told him words of encouragement until Gary decided he had been on long enough. The boys all cheered for him as well as his ACL crew.

"What was I at?" Olivier looked over to Gary as Gary was unstrapping him.

"20%. We'll keep you at that for a while but let me just tell you, your first run is going to be in Dubai." Gary smiled and everyone whooped at the words. Not only was Olivier making record recovery, but he was even breaking the doctor's predictions.

"Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" Olivier asked Gary and dapped him up. He finally realized that Gary was only trying to help so they made friends.

"See you tomorrow." Gary confirmed and everyone left the gym together.

The boys now had a game to play at five and decided to just mess around together until then. Eventually, they all headed back to Colney to pile on the team bus.

Aaron was starting today so he was busy bragging about it to David. Rightfully so as well. Aaron was just ranked the world's most valuable keeper and still only had played five matches so far this season.

"Alright guys. Go in there and prove to them that we're better. Good luck!" Mikel yelled and with that everyone stepped out of the lockers and into the tunnel. Jurrien, Olivier, and the Arsenal staff were waiting at the back because the players always went out first.

"Just smile and wave." Mikel put a hand on Olivier's shoulder. Jurrien had done this before, but it felt scary for Olivier. First he wasn't in line with the players, and he had never actually sat on the bench. Except after his stitches of course. Even then, he was pacing most of the time.

"Thank you Mikel." Olivier whispered as they made their way out of the tube and everyone was pointing at the boy in crutches. Arsenal wanted his recover to be miraculous, so they kept him in crutches for today.

The whole crowd erupted in cheers when they saw him. Even the Liverpool fans which was shocking. He appreciated the love and support but he put a hand around Jurrien who was going through the same thing with him. Jurrien chuckled and put his arm back round the kid.