What if...

Chapter Fifty-Three~

For the next few days we practiced soccer. Nali was getting better at it, and we started teaching her position rules.

"Soccer has four main positions," I told her around a mouthful of sandwich. We had spent the morning practicing and now we were having lunch. "Forward, Midfielder, Defender, and Goalie."

"Forvards stay in zhe ozher side of zhe field," Ludwig explained. "Zhey're not allowed on zheir team's side of zhe line."

She nodded, her attention turning to Prussia who started talking about Midfielders.

"Midfielders get to go evervhere! Zhey don't have to stay on one side of zhe line or zhe ozher."

I grinned. "Middle midfielder is my second-favorite position to play for that reason."

Ludwig moved on. "Zhe drei group ist called zhe 'Defenders'. Zhey protect the ball from getting into zhe goal."

I leveled a finger at her. "Now don't think that just because you have a goalie doesn't mean that you don't have to protect that goal until the fighting end."

She grinned. "I've heard you gripe about your fellow teammates enough to know that."

"Zhe last position ist zhe Goalie," Gilbert continued. "Zhey can touch zhe ball, und as soon as zhey touch it, du can't."

I grinned at her. "It's a foul if you kick the ball out of the goalie's hands."

She nodded. "Okay... So..." She stood and walked to the middle line. "If my team is over there.." she pointed to the left, "...and I'm a forward, then I have to say on this side?" she asked, pointing to the right.

I nodded. "That's right."

She nodded. "Okay, so if I'm a midfielder I can go from goal to goal?"

We nodded.

"And if I'm a defender and my goal is over there..." again she points to the left, "I can't go past this side of the line?" she asked, still pointing to the left.

I nodded. "Not a smart thing to do, going right up next to the line, but yes, you can go up to the line."

She nodded. "And the Goalie sticks close to the goal."

I nodded, standing and scampering out, uncovering the Goalie Box from the slight dusting of snow. "You have to stay in this area here. No farther."

She nodded. "Okay..."

I grinned. "How about we play like elementary schoolers?"

Gilbert and Ludwig grinned while Nali looked confused. "Wha?"

I grabbed the ball and started bouncing it on my knees. "When you first start playing soccer, you have no midfielders and goalies. Just Forwards and Defenders. Then goalies are added, and then midfielders." I kicked the ball higher than I had intended and bounced it on my head, then the inside of my foot when it feel before going back to dribbling it on my knees.

She frowned. "Okay... So one's going to be Defender and the other Forward?"

We nodded. "Hai," I confirmed. "And then when Japan and Austria get here we can have a mini-scrimmage."

Nali raised a brow. "You invited a pianist and a ninja to help us play."

Ludwig chuckled. "I vas zhe von vho invited zhem over. Und zhey are good players."

I nodded. "Soccer in Japan is actually fairly big. And Austria is higher than Japan in the rankings."

"Barery, but higher arr the same," spoke a quiet voice. We looked over to see Japan walking to us next to Austria, who was wearing contacts. He actually looked quite attractive without them.