”Hey, so how’d you do?” The words come from a brown-haired young woman sitting on a couch with a sympathetic smile.

“Screw you miss green” I said with a scowl. Before the young woman has time to protest, I grin in smug satisfaction. “I passed this time!” I make a show of spreading my arms wide as a true conqueror should.

She suddenly jumps up from her seat and showcase her patented beaming smile. “I knew you would, sis” The chair she sat on wobble, threaten to fall backwords if not for the support of the wall behind her.

Based on her expression I highly doubt she expected anything of the sort. She has already been made to console me from the two previous failures so she probably thought this would be another night of black out drunk and perhaps some crying.

“I’m just a bad test-taker, I had an oral exam this time so I nailed it”. I already eyeball the somewhat pricey bottle of wine my dear sister has prepared as a constellation price.

“Congratulation! This calls for some wine” She paused mid-sentence with a thoughtful expression. “mind you, a moderate amount of wine. You don’t want to forget finally being a licensed FIF coach.”

Ahh that sounds so good. I’m finally a licensed FIF coach ready to kick the world in the face. Full Immersion Football has been a thing for the last decade continuously growing in popularity. It even overtook real football a couple of years ago due to the popularity of virtual reality. Two years of hard studies are finally-

“World to Alicia, do you hear me?” Emma, or green as I jokingly call her waves a wine bottle in front of me while smiling. The label has an image of a rustic looking vineyard and in bold print beneath it has the date 2045. An idle thought wonders if vineyards like that still exist.

“Sure, I hear you” I nod slowly, awoken from my reverie.

“Common take a seat already and I’ll prepare the glasses” Emma waves her arm in the direction of the couch. I take a seat while watching Emma grab two wine glasses from a cabinet and make her way back to the couch. The glasses she produce can hold a significant volume, much to my own satisfaction.

“So, tell me about it already.” She pours the wine while giving me expectant gazes.

“Well I passed so there’s that”

“God” A groan accompanied with an eyeroll that borders on the impossible made it clear that was not an acceptable response.

“Details! Tell me all about it already” She held on to both the glasses of wine in an ill-concealed attempt to threaten my access to the red liquid.

“Fine” I relent and snatch a glass from her hand and take a big gulp. The warm sensation slowly filters through my body in a satisfying manner.

“Marcus posed a great deal of questions about attributes and how to train to improve those attributes. Most of the test was actually different variations on how to improve individual players while taking care to avoid injuries. Injury prevention is an important facet to FIF so the subsection of the test concerned with injuries represented 20 % of the final score.”

“That those sound important?” Emma has never cared much for sports, real or virtual so she has a hard time following along. “But it’s a game right? Can you really get injured in a game?”

I can’t help a small sight from escape my mouth. “Its not just a game, miss green, it’s a virtual version of a competitive sport so of course things like injuries would be a part of it. If you train poorly or get tackled you might get injuries mirroring what would happen to a real world human. The game avatar is painstakingly developed to mimic the human physiology.”

“Ok, yeah that makes sense, kind of? But that doesn’t sound to fun you know; shouldn’t VR utilize the fact that it is not an actual human but an avatar?”

Despite the many previous discussions on this topic Emma clearly fail to se the brilliance of it all. With VR football a true meritocracy is born where everyone has an almost equal chance of becoming good, probably. There are different theorise about that, some even speculate about hidden attributes and dormant potential based on unknown triggers. Where was i? Oh, right Emma is looking at me.

“Yes?”

Emma takes a respectable gulp from her glass. “You mentioned a score earlier?”

“I got 93 out of a 100, a passing grade is 80.”

“That’s pretty good” She clearly looked a bit surprised.

“I told you I know these things it’s just that I suck at taking test” I can’t keep my annoyance at my sisters’ lack of faith in me out of my voice. “The eery silence only broken by the constant tapping at their screens. Somehow the questions bleed together and I get anxious making it worse.” I complain while sounding a bit petulant.

“Hey, common I’m just happy you did well Alicia.”

Emma pats my shoulder in what I presume to be a comforting manner but more than anything it’s annoying. Emma is 24 years old and will soon finish her 4-year architecture program. Obviously, she already has a fancy job with UniTechture all lined up and waiting for her.

“Thanks.” I almost whisper. Truth be told I’m quite reliant on Emma’s good graces for if not for her I would be unable to even study. A taste of the wine reveals a hint of what I believe is peach, well sweet anyhow. Emma maintain her silence, a silence probing me to go on.

“We had a section on psychology and group dynamics. It was a bit tricky, why must people insist upon being difficult?”

“Haha” Emmas delightful laughter burst out, almost spilling wine on her shirt. “That certainly sound like you Alicia. People aren’t that complicated from my experience but I’ve never studied any psychology so what do I know.”

Easy for her to say, she is a natural people person and always have been. She is certified green, hence my creative nickname for my dear sister.

The apartment we are sitting in belongs to her for the durations of her studies. It really is a lovely apartment close to her school with stylish wooden décor and plenty of flowers decorating the interior. If you ever wondered what subject she studies then simply gaze upon the walls and the answer will present itself. Images of buildings of varied size and beauty, some are drawn by hand, an oddity to be sure. Behind the couch hangs a huge drawing of an imposing building, one I recognize as EU:s affiliate in Stockholm.

“I’m still all ears, what else did they exam you on?”

“My favourite part was tactical theory. What kind of players tend to work in certain systems and the like, rather subjective on occasion but you must prove yourself adept at reasoning and arguing for different variation and application of theory.”

I take another mouthful of my wine and poured myself another glass. Emma matched me by finishing her own and had me fill her glass too.

“Lastly, we have to memorize rules. You’d be surprised by the sheer quantity of rules in a game about kicking a ball about” I try to emulate Emmas sparkling smile, successful in so far that Emma reciprocates it with a smile of her own.

“You haven’t smiled like that in a while sis, you should do it more often.”

It must be my good mood because I can’t help but wonder if she is right. Would I be more like her if I smiled more? Not even my wine can delude me to think so, we are different on a very fundamental plane. My contemplation is disturbed by a persistent ringing coming from Emmas pants.

“Ahh sorry I have to take this call” She offers an apologetic expression quickly followed by the appearance of a hologram. It’s a hologram I know well, a classmate of Emma.

I make myself more comfortable on the couch and close my eyes to consider the events of today and all there is to do in days ahead. A smile, a sincere one, captures my face while I slowly let my mind drift away.