2026-04-29, 05:11 PM - Word count:
September 22nd, 2025
“Are you ready to give your first try at the academy?” A scout was talking over the phone with Homme, who was beaming with excitement. “I couldn’t be more ready” Homme responded. He was still sitting in his law firm’s office, just trying to hear over the commotion next door. As he watched, clicking the pen on his desk, waiting for the clock to hit 6:00 so he could finally get home. The hand of the minute pointing at the twelve, and he beams out of the door. He was speeding down the highway, just waiting to get home through this rush hour traffic. “Fuck this” Homme said to himself, and he turns off the highway, speeding down to his home.
“14 minutes, I got home 9 minutes early. Not bad.” Homme rushes straight to his room, grabs out his suitcase. On the shelf hung his Sunday league jersey, his shorts, and his cleats on the floor beside them. He stuffs them in the suitcase at the bottom. Above them, he puts in some of his workout shirts, shorts, and some suits that he wears regularly to the firm. After grabbing the rest of the chargers and other stuff he needs, he bolts out of the door, zipper not fully zipped up behind him.
June 3rd, 2025
Homme stands up next in line, his degree from law school is finally ahead of him. Something his parents have wanted for him his entire life. Over the loudspeaker, “Valedictorian, Joshua Homme!” Applause around his close family, but his parents were both missing. Where the hell could they be?
After the ceremony, his little cousin Bucket Sennecke runs up to him and congratulates him. “Congrats big bro!” He says enthusiastically. “Thanks little guy” he responds, giving him a piggyback ride. Bucket… What kind of name did they give him? “Wheres mom and dad?” Josh asked his uncle. “They went to the desert this morning,” he responded. “Jauan sent his congratulations too. I’m proud of ya buddy.” Josh gave him a big hug before heading for his car.
“2 hours, 27 minutes” a little robotic voice told him in his ear. “Not bad” Josh said to himself, and drove off the campus without a celebration. The trip from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree was always a difficult one, the first hour and a half always happened because of the traffic. After a few near crashes on the freeway, and a long 2 hour 45 minute trip later “god damn liars” Homme told himself. All the stars in the desert were bright, the night sky was so dark but also so bright, it is always a sight to see. Homme opens the door to his parent’s cottage. Smoke starts to pour out the door.
“Ohhhhh” a long pause, “heyyyyyy Jawwsh” his mom was in the living room, the smoke all around her. Eyes red, barely sitting up, large eyebags. “Are you sto– you know what I don’t even need to ask that. Do you want some water?” Josh asked his mom. “Nahhh nahh, I just need a nap. Your dad is somewhere over there I think.” and she falls asleep in her lounge chair. Josh is looking around for his dad, and finds him with headphones on producing a song. “Hey champ” he said to Josh, the room was clear enough for Josh to see his eyes growing increasingly red under the light. “Sorry we didn’t make it to your graduation, work has been super busy.” He reaches out for Josh, and Josh begrudgingly lets him. “Super busy that you and mom needed to get stoned tonight?” A stern tone in Josh’s voice startled his dad, “I graduated from law school dad, and you weren’t there. That’s the career you wanted for me my ENTIRE life and neither of you could be there. Now I find mom laying stoned on the couch. Your eyes have gotten more red in the 5 minutes I’ve been here. Where were you for the moment that mattered most?” Josh walked out before his dad could give him a relative answer, and he went to pick up a hotel in a nearby town. Applying to any law firm that would take him, before he headed to bed for the night.
June 18, 2025
A little over two weeks after the incident with his parents, and he has not been looking to talk to them. He prepared himself in his most fancy suit, brushed his teeth longer than usual, and made sure to slick his hair back for the interview with his first law firm. Even whilst driving, he makes sure to drive and park with extra precision, the last thing he would need is to get into an accident. He arrives at the firm, adjusts his tie in the car, and makes his way toward the office.
“You’re a little young to be in here, aren’t you?” The receptionist asks him. “Well I'm 19, so maybe a little young.” They share a laugh as he sits down in the chair closest to the door. He sits there for a bit, messing with his thumbs when he receives a text. ‘REMINDER: New Season begins TOMORROW 4:00pm, Falcons FC vs FC Stealers. Be there or be square!!’ Joshua puts down his phone, you best believe he's going to be there for his Falcons. As soon as he puts his head up from his phone, “Joshua” someone calls out his name from the door, and he walks inside to a lawyers office.
“Good to meet you Josh, you might be the youngest I’ve had in my office” The two share a laugh and the lawyer gets to the point. “I see you’re applying to be an attorney here at Morgana and Parker” Morgana says to him with a deep serious tone, he was not playing. “That is correct” Josh responds. He starts to go through the interview process, and after a long hour process, he is finally done. “Well Josh, you definitely have impressed me here today. We’ll reach out to you in a couple days about our decision, and we’ll get back to me.” Morgana’s tone is slightly more happy, and that gave Homme the hope he succeeded. Once he exits the firm, he washes his gear for tomorrow’s game.
July 8, 2025
Third game of the season, Joshua Homme has been dominant at LWB this season, with his 2nd assist of the game and 5th on the year, he has been strong on the attack. “Homme! You’re getting a call” his coach shouts on the pitch, and he subs off to answer the call. “Hello?” Homme answers with confusion. “Glad to hear from you, hope I'm not interrupting, but we hope to see you tomorrow. We would like to bring you on as an attorney for Morgana and Parker!” Morgana tells him enthusiastically over the phone. “Of course, thank you for the opportunity!” Homme responds, and gets back to the game. Running up the pitch, he is alone with their striker to stop a goal as the clock expires. The remainder of the team rushes the pitch to celebrate their commanding 3-0 start to the season. Homme takes home his 2nd team MVP of the season, and has been dominating the league so far, leading the league in assists. After his on-field celebration, he gets back to the locker room, packs up his stuff and gets to the car. Someone walks up behind him. “Excuse me, you’re Joshua right?” the figure asks him. “Yeah, that’s me” Josh responds, “Do you need something?” The scout reaches out in his pocket and pulls out a card. “I’m with the SSL Academy, the season started recently. I think next season we can really get you the development you need in the big leagues.”
“I appreciate that” Homme lets him know as he walks off. He puts his gear in the car and drives off.
July 28, 2025
“Morgana and Parker” Homme answers the phone. He has not gotten many opportunities on big cases, only small cases and advising people on what and what not to sue for, most people want to sue for something that would not hold up in court anyway. It has been a boring few weeks, but the paycheck comes nicely with it. Tomorrow is matchday for Homme, and he has been anticipating this one for a while. After his 5th game, he is officially up to 2 goals and 7 assists on the year, continuing to absolutely dominate his league.
Additionally, Homme has started talking to his parents again after a kind of long hiatus. It's hard taking the hit of your parents abandoning your graduation, but he's just glad to resolve things.
“Jeez, when does this job actually get interesting” Homme asks himself, he's starting to wonder if maybe taking the attorney job was a bad idea. The SSL Academy card was starting to collect dust, he knew that this was maybe his only chance.
After he gets off his shift, he heads straight to the pitch. Every ounce of practice that he could get would count. He needs to impress the SSL scouts enough to at least make the academy, something he had been dreaming of since he was a child. The escape when his parents would bury him deep in his schoolwork, and for what? Two hours full of dribbling up field, shooting from deep, and suicides. The most gruesome workout he has had for this sport was finally over. As the lights to the pitch finally go dim, he packs up his stuff and gets ready to do the same thing tomorrow.
August 15th, 2025
“Jeez Homme, you look tired” Akira Morgana told him as he walked into the office. “Thanks” he responded, "It's been an exhausting week, but I'm doing good.” Homme walks by approaching his office, when Morgana interrupts him “Actually stay here real quick. We had somebody coming in looking for you.” He has a stern tone in his voice. “I can’t recall his name. Something Gibson, that's what I remember.” Homme realized what he was talking about. John Gibson, the name on the SSL business card. He goes in to his office, gives the number a call and checks up to see what he could be looking for him about.
“Hello?” Gibson answers the phone. “It’s Homme, the player from that Falcons game a couple months back.” He responds, and Gibson answers with a slow tone in his voice. “Well, the Academy tryouts are about to open up. It’s a bit of a ways away. If you want to get some reps in, I recommend you start driving up tonight.” and the line goes silent. His Friday shift was almost over before he got some time off this weekend, a ton of time he hasn’t really gotten to have due to all the work as a beginning attorney. The most boring time of his life.
“Hey Akira, I need to take the day off. I need to drive up to see my parents” a lie, Homme had always been good at lying, “I’ll cover Saturday next week if I have to.” Morgana is a little disappointed. “We are a bit backed up Homme, but if you come in Saturday then yes you should be able to go just fine.” Homme grabs his suitcase and rushes out the door to start the drive up to the academy tryouts.
Seven hours of driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Homme finally makes his way near the academy building to check in. “Name.” the receptionist asked him firmly. “Joshua Homme III” Homme responds, and he is directed to take a seat. The moment felt oddly familiar to the very first time he applied for an internship with Morgana and Parker. The room felt formal for such a sport, the water dispenser beside him, and the patterns on the walls beside the receptionist with a giant SSL logo in the middle. Something about this felt truly familiar to him for the first time.
“Homme” a person called out to him. When he looked up, It was John, the scout that brought him through it all. “Glad to see you buddy, ready to get started?” He asked. “Yes sir, I couldn’t be more excited to get this chance.” Homme responds enthusiastically. This moment was so surreal to him, and it almost did not feel real. “Well, glad you managed to get here. Here's some new practice clothing”, the SSL logo stared at him on the front, and his lucky number #37 sat below his name on the back of the shirt. “Let me know when you’re ready, go put that stuff on and I'll meet you on the pitch.” John directed him to the bathroom down the hall.
The walk down the hall never felt more awkward to him. The pitch was directed straight down the stairs that stood on the other end of the hall. People were outside, whistles occasionally going off. A lot of noise outside. It was nerve-wracking to Josh, but to prove that he was worthy of putting up with the groups, he had to go out and do his best. As he steps outside, there is a pickup game going on. 11v11. Joshua subs in for the Left Wing Back that was in his place, and he went out there and played like his life depended on it.
Play after play, Joshua set his forwards up for countless passes, rarely missing and rarely failing. Players that came up toward him managed to shut down with takeaways and blocks to go with it. By the time he spent 45 minutes out there, he had managed to secure 2 assists, 3 takeaways, and 2 blocks. John jogged up to him, giving him some of the early news. “I gotta say Josh, that was a spectacular performance you had. Tell you what, we’ll get you a hotel in the area, you did get here pretty late so get some rest, report back here tomorrow at 10am.” John laid out the base, and Homme was ready to keep building. He thanks John, hops into his car still dressed in his practice clothing, and drives to the hotel about 10 minutes away. “Room for one please” he asked the front desk. “Room 118” he was told in response. He walks to the hotel down the hall, changes out of his practice clothes into some sweats, and passes out on the bed immediately.
August 16th 2025
The alarm rings beside Homme, and keeps ringing, and keeps ringing. Homme, disgruntled, hits the snooze on the alarm clock and gets out of bed. The clock shined 9:20am on it. “Shit, that's a little later than I would’ve liked” Homme told himself, getting into the shower for a quick rinse before another day. The 10 hours of sleep he got is really gonna help today, he gets out the shower with his practice clothing on. Bringing his water bottle and towel with him. He runs to his car and gets down to the facility. “Just in time” Gibson said, the time on the wall clock marked to be around 9:58am. He gets on to the pitch, where people already waited for him.
He started with about a 30 minute scrimmage of 11v11. His statline consisted of 1 assist, 3 turnovers, no blocks. Not the best outing, but you can only get so far in half an hour, so it was nice for him. Then he had to do his least favorite exercise ever, cardio. Joshua has always had weak pacing, it never worked out well for him.
After running a bit for cardio, he finished off his run with another scrimmage, this time 6v6 where he got to play left wing. His statline after 90 minutes was 1 goal, 1 assist, 3 takeaways and 1 block, his best statline so far. Something felt off about him tho, all of a sudden he felt like a new person. Before the actual soreness hit his leg. It wasn’t injured, but he could barely walk and he had no idea why at first, until he realized that it was just soreness. “Maybe that's something to work in the offseason too” Homme thought to himself. He walks over to Gibson as his night is now over. Thanking him a ton for the opportunity he was given.
“Thank you so much John, it means a lot.” Homme told him heartfeltly, the experience was life changing. “Glad we could find someone as deserving as you” John responded, “I’m glad you got to enjoy it. I’ll reach out to you near the end of the season to let you know what happens.” Gibson and Homme handshake goodbye, and Homme heads for the seven hour drive back to his home, waiting for when the call might reach him.
September 22nd 2025
Another day at the office for Homme. He was discussing a small court claim with a client when his phone started ringing. He excused the client to make the call. “Hey Homme, It’s John. Glad to see you’re still doing well for yourself. We have finally made the calls to let people in the academy, we think it would be silly not to bring you in to join us here at the academy.” Homme began to get a bit emotional, was this the moment he had finally been waiting for? “With that being said, are you ready to give your first try at the academy” Gibson asked him. Homme with absolutely no hesitation responded “I couldn’t be more ready.”
“Perfect, we hope to see you down at the academy soon. Get ready for the experience of a lifetime Homme. Good talking to ya, and congratulations!” He says before he hangs up. Homme begins packing his stuff in his briefcase. The client outside “Sorry, we will have to reschedule, a bit of an emergency going on”. Homme shakes his hand goodbye, and runs out the door of Morgana and Parker. The clock had just hit 6pm, and he was officially off his shift rushing his way home. It was a 23 minute drive, something he remembered specifically in his routine. Practice gear still in the trunk, he rushes home to grab some of the necessities he needs. Speeding down the highway. Cars honk at him continuously, as he shifts from lane to lane, taking new side roads his GPS would recommend just to get him there slightly faster. Anything he could do to get down to the academy as quickly as possible, he would do. He ran into his house, grabbed anything he could find. Sunday league jersey, cleats, shorts, even when he didn’t need him. In a span of 10 minutes, all his toiletries, messily organized clothing, and any food that he could carry to his car. Everything he could carry for the time being he would hold on to, and as he finally finished his very short packing trip. He ran out of the door of his home, and sped off on his way toward the SSL academy.
“Are you ready to give your first try at the academy?” A scout was talking over the phone with Homme, who was beaming with excitement. “I couldn’t be more ready” Homme responded. He was still sitting in his law firm’s office, just trying to hear over the commotion next door. As he watched, clicking the pen on his desk, waiting for the clock to hit 6:00 so he could finally get home. The hand of the minute pointing at the twelve, and he beams out of the door. He was speeding down the highway, just waiting to get home through this rush hour traffic. “Fuck this” Homme said to himself, and he turns off the highway, speeding down to his home.
“14 minutes, I got home 9 minutes early. Not bad.” Homme rushes straight to his room, grabs out his suitcase. On the shelf hung his Sunday league jersey, his shorts, and his cleats on the floor beside them. He stuffs them in the suitcase at the bottom. Above them, he puts in some of his workout shirts, shorts, and some suits that he wears regularly to the firm. After grabbing the rest of the chargers and other stuff he needs, he bolts out of the door, zipper not fully zipped up behind him.
June 3rd, 2025
Homme stands up next in line, his degree from law school is finally ahead of him. Something his parents have wanted for him his entire life. Over the loudspeaker, “Valedictorian, Joshua Homme!” Applause around his close family, but his parents were both missing. Where the hell could they be?
After the ceremony, his little cousin Bucket Sennecke runs up to him and congratulates him. “Congrats big bro!” He says enthusiastically. “Thanks little guy” he responds, giving him a piggyback ride. Bucket… What kind of name did they give him? “Wheres mom and dad?” Josh asked his uncle. “They went to the desert this morning,” he responded. “Jauan sent his congratulations too. I’m proud of ya buddy.” Josh gave him a big hug before heading for his car.
“2 hours, 27 minutes” a little robotic voice told him in his ear. “Not bad” Josh said to himself, and drove off the campus without a celebration. The trip from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree was always a difficult one, the first hour and a half always happened because of the traffic. After a few near crashes on the freeway, and a long 2 hour 45 minute trip later “god damn liars” Homme told himself. All the stars in the desert were bright, the night sky was so dark but also so bright, it is always a sight to see. Homme opens the door to his parent’s cottage. Smoke starts to pour out the door.
“Ohhhhh” a long pause, “heyyyyyy Jawwsh” his mom was in the living room, the smoke all around her. Eyes red, barely sitting up, large eyebags. “Are you sto– you know what I don’t even need to ask that. Do you want some water?” Josh asked his mom. “Nahhh nahh, I just need a nap. Your dad is somewhere over there I think.” and she falls asleep in her lounge chair. Josh is looking around for his dad, and finds him with headphones on producing a song. “Hey champ” he said to Josh, the room was clear enough for Josh to see his eyes growing increasingly red under the light. “Sorry we didn’t make it to your graduation, work has been super busy.” He reaches out for Josh, and Josh begrudgingly lets him. “Super busy that you and mom needed to get stoned tonight?” A stern tone in Josh’s voice startled his dad, “I graduated from law school dad, and you weren’t there. That’s the career you wanted for me my ENTIRE life and neither of you could be there. Now I find mom laying stoned on the couch. Your eyes have gotten more red in the 5 minutes I’ve been here. Where were you for the moment that mattered most?” Josh walked out before his dad could give him a relative answer, and he went to pick up a hotel in a nearby town. Applying to any law firm that would take him, before he headed to bed for the night.
June 18, 2025
A little over two weeks after the incident with his parents, and he has not been looking to talk to them. He prepared himself in his most fancy suit, brushed his teeth longer than usual, and made sure to slick his hair back for the interview with his first law firm. Even whilst driving, he makes sure to drive and park with extra precision, the last thing he would need is to get into an accident. He arrives at the firm, adjusts his tie in the car, and makes his way toward the office.
“You’re a little young to be in here, aren’t you?” The receptionist asks him. “Well I'm 19, so maybe a little young.” They share a laugh as he sits down in the chair closest to the door. He sits there for a bit, messing with his thumbs when he receives a text. ‘REMINDER: New Season begins TOMORROW 4:00pm, Falcons FC vs FC Stealers. Be there or be square!!’ Joshua puts down his phone, you best believe he's going to be there for his Falcons. As soon as he puts his head up from his phone, “Joshua” someone calls out his name from the door, and he walks inside to a lawyers office.
“Good to meet you Josh, you might be the youngest I’ve had in my office” The two share a laugh and the lawyer gets to the point. “I see you’re applying to be an attorney here at Morgana and Parker” Morgana says to him with a deep serious tone, he was not playing. “That is correct” Josh responds. He starts to go through the interview process, and after a long hour process, he is finally done. “Well Josh, you definitely have impressed me here today. We’ll reach out to you in a couple days about our decision, and we’ll get back to me.” Morgana’s tone is slightly more happy, and that gave Homme the hope he succeeded. Once he exits the firm, he washes his gear for tomorrow’s game.
July 8, 2025
Third game of the season, Joshua Homme has been dominant at LWB this season, with his 2nd assist of the game and 5th on the year, he has been strong on the attack. “Homme! You’re getting a call” his coach shouts on the pitch, and he subs off to answer the call. “Hello?” Homme answers with confusion. “Glad to hear from you, hope I'm not interrupting, but we hope to see you tomorrow. We would like to bring you on as an attorney for Morgana and Parker!” Morgana tells him enthusiastically over the phone. “Of course, thank you for the opportunity!” Homme responds, and gets back to the game. Running up the pitch, he is alone with their striker to stop a goal as the clock expires. The remainder of the team rushes the pitch to celebrate their commanding 3-0 start to the season. Homme takes home his 2nd team MVP of the season, and has been dominating the league so far, leading the league in assists. After his on-field celebration, he gets back to the locker room, packs up his stuff and gets to the car. Someone walks up behind him. “Excuse me, you’re Joshua right?” the figure asks him. “Yeah, that’s me” Josh responds, “Do you need something?” The scout reaches out in his pocket and pulls out a card. “I’m with the SSL Academy, the season started recently. I think next season we can really get you the development you need in the big leagues.”
“I appreciate that” Homme lets him know as he walks off. He puts his gear in the car and drives off.
July 28, 2025
“Morgana and Parker” Homme answers the phone. He has not gotten many opportunities on big cases, only small cases and advising people on what and what not to sue for, most people want to sue for something that would not hold up in court anyway. It has been a boring few weeks, but the paycheck comes nicely with it. Tomorrow is matchday for Homme, and he has been anticipating this one for a while. After his 5th game, he is officially up to 2 goals and 7 assists on the year, continuing to absolutely dominate his league.
Additionally, Homme has started talking to his parents again after a kind of long hiatus. It's hard taking the hit of your parents abandoning your graduation, but he's just glad to resolve things.
“Jeez, when does this job actually get interesting” Homme asks himself, he's starting to wonder if maybe taking the attorney job was a bad idea. The SSL Academy card was starting to collect dust, he knew that this was maybe his only chance.
After he gets off his shift, he heads straight to the pitch. Every ounce of practice that he could get would count. He needs to impress the SSL scouts enough to at least make the academy, something he had been dreaming of since he was a child. The escape when his parents would bury him deep in his schoolwork, and for what? Two hours full of dribbling up field, shooting from deep, and suicides. The most gruesome workout he has had for this sport was finally over. As the lights to the pitch finally go dim, he packs up his stuff and gets ready to do the same thing tomorrow.
August 15th, 2025
“Jeez Homme, you look tired” Akira Morgana told him as he walked into the office. “Thanks” he responded, "It's been an exhausting week, but I'm doing good.” Homme walks by approaching his office, when Morgana interrupts him “Actually stay here real quick. We had somebody coming in looking for you.” He has a stern tone in his voice. “I can’t recall his name. Something Gibson, that's what I remember.” Homme realized what he was talking about. John Gibson, the name on the SSL business card. He goes in to his office, gives the number a call and checks up to see what he could be looking for him about.
“Hello?” Gibson answers the phone. “It’s Homme, the player from that Falcons game a couple months back.” He responds, and Gibson answers with a slow tone in his voice. “Well, the Academy tryouts are about to open up. It’s a bit of a ways away. If you want to get some reps in, I recommend you start driving up tonight.” and the line goes silent. His Friday shift was almost over before he got some time off this weekend, a ton of time he hasn’t really gotten to have due to all the work as a beginning attorney. The most boring time of his life.
“Hey Akira, I need to take the day off. I need to drive up to see my parents” a lie, Homme had always been good at lying, “I’ll cover Saturday next week if I have to.” Morgana is a little disappointed. “We are a bit backed up Homme, but if you come in Saturday then yes you should be able to go just fine.” Homme grabs his suitcase and rushes out the door to start the drive up to the academy tryouts.
Seven hours of driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Homme finally makes his way near the academy building to check in. “Name.” the receptionist asked him firmly. “Joshua Homme III” Homme responds, and he is directed to take a seat. The moment felt oddly familiar to the very first time he applied for an internship with Morgana and Parker. The room felt formal for such a sport, the water dispenser beside him, and the patterns on the walls beside the receptionist with a giant SSL logo in the middle. Something about this felt truly familiar to him for the first time.
“Homme” a person called out to him. When he looked up, It was John, the scout that brought him through it all. “Glad to see you buddy, ready to get started?” He asked. “Yes sir, I couldn’t be more excited to get this chance.” Homme responds enthusiastically. This moment was so surreal to him, and it almost did not feel real. “Well, glad you managed to get here. Here's some new practice clothing”, the SSL logo stared at him on the front, and his lucky number #37 sat below his name on the back of the shirt. “Let me know when you’re ready, go put that stuff on and I'll meet you on the pitch.” John directed him to the bathroom down the hall.
The walk down the hall never felt more awkward to him. The pitch was directed straight down the stairs that stood on the other end of the hall. People were outside, whistles occasionally going off. A lot of noise outside. It was nerve-wracking to Josh, but to prove that he was worthy of putting up with the groups, he had to go out and do his best. As he steps outside, there is a pickup game going on. 11v11. Joshua subs in for the Left Wing Back that was in his place, and he went out there and played like his life depended on it.
Play after play, Joshua set his forwards up for countless passes, rarely missing and rarely failing. Players that came up toward him managed to shut down with takeaways and blocks to go with it. By the time he spent 45 minutes out there, he had managed to secure 2 assists, 3 takeaways, and 2 blocks. John jogged up to him, giving him some of the early news. “I gotta say Josh, that was a spectacular performance you had. Tell you what, we’ll get you a hotel in the area, you did get here pretty late so get some rest, report back here tomorrow at 10am.” John laid out the base, and Homme was ready to keep building. He thanks John, hops into his car still dressed in his practice clothing, and drives to the hotel about 10 minutes away. “Room for one please” he asked the front desk. “Room 118” he was told in response. He walks to the hotel down the hall, changes out of his practice clothes into some sweats, and passes out on the bed immediately.
August 16th 2025
The alarm rings beside Homme, and keeps ringing, and keeps ringing. Homme, disgruntled, hits the snooze on the alarm clock and gets out of bed. The clock shined 9:20am on it. “Shit, that's a little later than I would’ve liked” Homme told himself, getting into the shower for a quick rinse before another day. The 10 hours of sleep he got is really gonna help today, he gets out the shower with his practice clothing on. Bringing his water bottle and towel with him. He runs to his car and gets down to the facility. “Just in time” Gibson said, the time on the wall clock marked to be around 9:58am. He gets on to the pitch, where people already waited for him.
He started with about a 30 minute scrimmage of 11v11. His statline consisted of 1 assist, 3 turnovers, no blocks. Not the best outing, but you can only get so far in half an hour, so it was nice for him. Then he had to do his least favorite exercise ever, cardio. Joshua has always had weak pacing, it never worked out well for him.
After running a bit for cardio, he finished off his run with another scrimmage, this time 6v6 where he got to play left wing. His statline after 90 minutes was 1 goal, 1 assist, 3 takeaways and 1 block, his best statline so far. Something felt off about him tho, all of a sudden he felt like a new person. Before the actual soreness hit his leg. It wasn’t injured, but he could barely walk and he had no idea why at first, until he realized that it was just soreness. “Maybe that's something to work in the offseason too” Homme thought to himself. He walks over to Gibson as his night is now over. Thanking him a ton for the opportunity he was given.
“Thank you so much John, it means a lot.” Homme told him heartfeltly, the experience was life changing. “Glad we could find someone as deserving as you” John responded, “I’m glad you got to enjoy it. I’ll reach out to you near the end of the season to let you know what happens.” Gibson and Homme handshake goodbye, and Homme heads for the seven hour drive back to his home, waiting for when the call might reach him.
September 22nd 2025
Another day at the office for Homme. He was discussing a small court claim with a client when his phone started ringing. He excused the client to make the call. “Hey Homme, It’s John. Glad to see you’re still doing well for yourself. We have finally made the calls to let people in the academy, we think it would be silly not to bring you in to join us here at the academy.” Homme began to get a bit emotional, was this the moment he had finally been waiting for? “With that being said, are you ready to give your first try at the academy” Gibson asked him. Homme with absolutely no hesitation responded “I couldn’t be more ready.”
“Perfect, we hope to see you down at the academy soon. Get ready for the experience of a lifetime Homme. Good talking to ya, and congratulations!” He says before he hangs up. Homme begins packing his stuff in his briefcase. The client outside “Sorry, we will have to reschedule, a bit of an emergency going on”. Homme shakes his hand goodbye, and runs out the door of Morgana and Parker. The clock had just hit 6pm, and he was officially off his shift rushing his way home. It was a 23 minute drive, something he remembered specifically in his routine. Practice gear still in the trunk, he rushes home to grab some of the necessities he needs. Speeding down the highway. Cars honk at him continuously, as he shifts from lane to lane, taking new side roads his GPS would recommend just to get him there slightly faster. Anything he could do to get down to the academy as quickly as possible, he would do. He ran into his house, grabbed anything he could find. Sunday league jersey, cleats, shorts, even when he didn’t need him. In a span of 10 minutes, all his toiletries, messily organized clothing, and any food that he could carry to his car. Everything he could carry for the time being he would hold on to, and as he finally finished his very short packing trip. He ran out of the door of his home, and sped off on his way toward the SSL academy.
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