The bliss that came with the fifteen precious minutes of their break was soon swept away by the piercing screech of Coach's whistle, never to be seen again for another long and strenuous hour of whacking balls with sticks. There was a look on Coach's face when the team had gathered around her that Olly had seen before. It was the expression of guilt, a sneaky son of a bitch who only appears after you devour a whole can of Pringles or when you are about to say something that will undoubtedly be met with nine angry teenage faces. Coach cleared her throat, clearly hesitant to announce whatever was making her so uneasy. "I will probably come to regret this by tomorrow but..." she paused. This had to be bad if it made Coach fearful to say it. "I'm switching up the defensive partners for the Championships and-" 

This time she was cut off by the uproar of voices, including Olly's, who usually preferred to just accept changes and get on with it. However, this was almost blasphemy. Coach Anderson silenced the riot with another clap of her hands. She could cause bullshit but she wouldn't take it. "As I was saying before you all leaped to conclusions," she hissed, "I know that it's an idiotic move a fortnight before the Championships begin. The fact is that all of the teams that we'll be going against know how you all play, especially with your defensive partners." 

She has a point Reasonable Olly thought. Which was true, Vincit was partly reliant on its unpredictability and keeping the same defensive partners for yet another Championship was a bit of a contradiction. But you can't split up the dream team argued Difficult Olly. Actual Olly decided to lean towards his stubborn side's opinion on the matter. At this point, the Squirrels' protests were powerless and they remained quiet, the irritation radiating off them in waves, waiting to see who their new partners would be.

It was only the strikers and defenders who were partnered up in the game. The goalkeepers worked alone and the substitutes were paired with whoever's partner they had replaced. In total there were three pairs in the game. Olly was with Kathleen (made of muscle as well as internet memes), Ivy Nicholson was with her twin brother Theo (which proved to be a sneaky yet intelligent technique because often the opposition couldn't tell the two apart) and Matty Ramirez, the captain, was with Yaminah Hadrami (who was as terrifying as she was tall). Separating these partnerships would be as effective as putting fajitas in front of Olly and expecting him not to eat them, knowing fine well that he would happily eat fajitas every day for the rest of his life. In other words: this wasn't going to work.

Coach Anderson began her reign of terror by changing Matty's partner from Yaminah to Kathleen. She and Olly split apart like a dramatic reenactment of Titanic, arms stretched out and hands trying to cling on as if their lives depended on it. Coach paired together Ivy and Yaminah which brought Olly to a sudden realization. His new defensive partner was Theo Nicholson. Large eyes, plunge pools of sparkling green shadowed by long eyelashes. Flame coloured curls and a constellation of dark freckles splattered across his pale face like a Jackson Pollock painting. All of these features seemed to stand out more to Olly when they were stood face to face, glaring and unhappy with the new changes. 

Fan-fucking-tastic.