Sapnap heard the whistle blow and leaned over, hands on his knees, panting.

Finally, a break. I need a drink.

They'd been at practice for an hour. Sapnap was exhausted, and his feet were tired.

Tommy sprinted past him towards the water cooler.

Sapnap walked because he didn't want to waste energy running. Most of the other guys did too, but Tubbo was trailing Tommy.

By the time Sapnap got to the orange jug Tommy had already used half of it, pouring it either in his mouth or on his head. As Sapnap and the other guys took their first sip, Tommy turned his head away from the field and said, "Who the hell are those guys?"

Sapnap felt the others' attention perk up and followed Tommy's gaze to the bleachers, where an unfamiliar gang sat watching them.

Also there were two randos hiding underneath the bleachers.

"I don't know." Fundy said.

"I've seen them somewhere but I don't think they go here." Wilbur said, "Let's go talk to them."

Some of the other boys murmured agreement and chugged their water. Sapnap followed suit and they walked over to the five guys. They saw them coming and moved down the bleachers to talk.

"HEY" said Tommy aggressively.

"Hey." responded one of the strangers; he had a beanie with some kind of animal print.

"Yo Tommy chill." Wilbur brushed Tommy aside and held out a hand to the guy that spoke. "I'm Wilbur."

The guy took his hand. "I'm Zelkham."

He pointed to a guy on his left. "That's Mega." Mega looked bored.

"Finn." The third guy introduced himself.

Wilbur patted Tommy's head, "This is Tommy." He scowled and pushed his hand away.

"I'm Tubbo!"

"Sapnap."

Fundy, Techno, Philza, Clay, blah blah blah.

"Who are those guys? And what are they doing?" The questions were asked by Fundy and answered by Zelkham.

"They're with us, and being dumb."

"SHHHHH! ZELK!"

"You SHHHHH, we're supposed to be spying."

"Don't poke me, Beaver."

"OW"

"Oh my god, you guys are so embarrassing." Finn covered his face with his hands as the two guys under them kept fighting.

Mega just stamped his foot on them; they came out from under the bleaches, rubbing their heads and glaring at Mega. He glared back, and Sapnap noticed he had vitiligo on some of his face.

"K, now that you guys are done canoodling down there or whatever, say your names." Zelk said.

"Toes."

Zelk facepalmed.

"Spifey." The second one pushed his glasses up his thin nose.

"UGH, fine. Vurb."

"Vurb?" Tommy looked at him dubiously.

"Yeah. Just Vurb."

Tubbo bounced on his feet. "It's kinda weird how we all go by random nicknames, innit, Tommy?"

The other guys shrugged. "Not really Tubbo, no." Tommy said.

"WAIT A SECOND" Tommy burst out. "Why were you guys spying on us?!"

Zelk opened his mouth to answer but Techno spoke before him.

"Isn't it obvious Tommy, they were scoping out the competition."

"Competition?" Clay asked.

"You guys are soccer players?" Tubbo asked excitedly.

"Yeah, we're the school playing you on Friday." Zelkham said.

"Oh yeah," Vurb said. "I forgot we have a game Friday."

"Wait then why did you think we came here?" Spifey said, turning to him.

"I don't know, I don't question the stuff we do anymore." Vurb shrugged. "Why are you guys having practice on a Saturday anyway?"

"They say practice makes perfect." Wilbur said.

And then the well-timed whistle called them back to the coach. He held up his hand and signaled for only Clay and Techno.

"Here we go." Said Wilbur as the two top players left the group.

"Cross your fingers, Tubbo."

"I am, Tommy."

"What's happening?" Asked Spifey.

"Scrimmage" said Tommy, "obviously."

"I don't see how that was obvious but ok."

Wilbur explained, "Usually at the end of our practices the couch pits the top two players against each other with three or four random teammates each. That's definitely those two. Clay just thinks of it as practice I think. But Techno, Techno lives for it."

"The Dream versus the Boar." Tubbo said.

A freshman, Ponk, came up and said, "Me, Philza, and Wilbur and with Techno. Clay has Tubbo, Fundy, and Sapnap."

Shit.

"Well, bye guys." Wilbur jogged off with Fundy, Ponk, and Philza and Sapnap followed, but he heard Tommy encouraging Tubbo.

As they walked into place and got ready Sapnap asked Techno how he knew those guys were from the other school.

"'If ignorant of the enemy and yourself, you are sure to be in peril.' Sun Tzu, The Art of War."

"Yeah I should have guessed it was something like that." Sapnap knew his friend was really into that tactical stuff, but he wasn't really interested.

The scrimmage was long. Or it felt long to Sapnap, who was already a little tired beforehand. He was impressed, as always, by Clay's stamina and speed and Techno's strength and precision.

They were both clearly tactical experts, good at predicting where the ball would go or seeing through the other player's bait. They seemed almost evenly matched. But Clay was teamed with people he didn't know very well, and Techno had the advantage of being close friends with Wilbur and Philza, but he also had the disadvantage of inexperienced, overeager Ponk. The difference was Clay was a quick thinker whereas Techno preferred to plan.

Sapnap wasn't as much of a strategist. He played moment to moment with his head up and feet moving.

Clay won it for his team, just barely. He pulled a 1-2 with Fundy to slip past Techno and shot a perfect goal.

That was the end of practice. The Dream snuck another win, and The Boar bided his time.

(1k words)