The next morning, Tyler woke up very early in the morning. It wasn't really by choice, he had woken up to pee and then all of a sudden he was too excited to fall back asleep. Left with nothing else to do, Tyler decided to do a bit of exercise to pass the time.
By the time Tyler finished his exercise session and had his bath, James knocked on the door and told him that the representative from Monaco was back and the two of them were to have a meeting.
James once again went to James's office to meet with Argent, but this time Janai went with him. The meeting was mostly between Janai and Argent who convinced the latter to make a few tweaks to the contract.
One of the tweaks was that if Tyler turned eighteen and he felt like he wasn't getting enough playtime, then he had a clause that allowed him to demand a leave on loan. Argent tried to convince him that it wasn't necessary but Janai wouldn't budge. In the end Argent could only yield and promised to add it in the final draft of the contract.
They also talked about a few other concepts like performance based bonus and giving Tyler a progressively increasing wage based on the progress that he showed. There was once again an argument on the subject but Janai came out on top once more.
At the end of the meeting, Argent left expecting to prepare the final draft of the contract and fly Tyler to Monaco in the next few days so that he could sign his contract and be unveiled as a new AS Monaco player.
Tyler was very excited after they had agreed on a contract with Monaco. He went to find Jason to tell him the good news but when he went to his room, he found his friend packing his things.
"I guess this is it," Tyler said.
"Yeah," Jason nodded. "Tomorrow, I'm off to Middlesbrough to sign as a member of their under eighteens."
"So this is it."
"You said that already," Jason said with a smile.
"Could you give me a call before you leave tomorrow?" Tyler said. "I want to say goodbye before you go."
Jason nodded. "No problem. Now what did you want to tell me? I can't imagine that you'd come all the way here for nothing."
"Yeah, I wanted to tell you that I'd be leaving for Monaco in the next few days," Tyler said. "I've agreed a contract with them."
Jason grinned. He was happy for his friend. "That's good. That's very good," he said.
The two of them remained and talked for a while, with Tyler eventually leaving Jason's room around eight in the evening. He went to his room and forced himself to fall asleep.
Early the next morning, Jason called him and the two of them said their goodbyes with Jason leaving shortly after. A couple of hours later, Tyler was called by Janai and was told that she had been given the final draft of the contract. They had a flight scheduled to leave for Monaco the next day so Tyler was told to start packing.
Throughout the rest of the day, Tyler met with most of the teammates that he interacted with and said his goodbyes. Of course, some like Moses and their starting goalkeeper had already left.
In the night, he made a couple of phone calls and managed to convince Janai to put in a special request with the people arranged to come and get them tomorrow. They managed to book another flight for Tyler's grandma and arranged for her to come to Monaco for Tyler's contract signing. She had supported Tyler and taken care of him ever since his parents' death. It didn't feel right for him to have this kind of success without her being there.
The next morning, Tyler woke up early and wore the best clothes he had with him. Thirty minutes later, James knocked at his door and came in after Tyler's invitation.
"Are you nervous?" James asked, walking inside the room and sitting on Lenny's empty bed.
"Yeah," Tyler said. "It's just happening so fast, you know. I haven't even been here for up to a month and I already have to go."
James smiled. "That's how it is in football. Everything happens so fast. Both on the pitch and off the pitch."
Tyler nodded slightly. "I guess so. I'm excited to leave but then at the same time I don't want to leave my friends behind."
"It's a necessary evil," James said. "You can't always go everywhere with the people you love. At the end of the day, due to whatever circumstances you will be separated. But it's not forever, because you're going to meet again. But things change, and it's your choice whether to make sure the change is for the better or for worse."
"Thanks coach," Tyler smiled at James.
"Now, I was told to inform you that the driver would be here in thirty minutes, so you might want to start taking your things outside."
Tyler nodded and walked up to James and hugged him. "Thanks for everything coach. And goodbye."
James was stunned for a couple of seconds before hugging Tyler back. "You're welcome. I know you're going on to bigger things so don't make me wait too much until it's time for me to tune in to watch you play week in week out."
Tyler smiled. "I won't."
Tyler pulled away and started taking his bags outside, and waited until the driver got to the Academy's facilities. After loading his things into the car, the driver drove off leaving Tyler lost in his thoughts.
'The path to conquering football, it begins now' he thought to himself with a sigh.
A/N: 40 powerstones! Thank you to everyone who voted, and as promised two chapters will be released today