That was your move? The classic minimum bet? You are even dumber than you look. Ok, I will teach him a lesson:

"Sure, as you know we can pay with the first match winning. If the amount is not enough then you can contact the client to ask for money. Don't tell me you don't know that?"

He was shocked but quickly said "Of course, of course! But the interest of waiting for payment is gonna be a hefty one since we need to wait until the first match to pay the amount. 25% per month waiting!"

I nodded and said "Okay, but I have a couple of requisites here. The amount to bet is the start of $200 for the first match, after the deduced amount of payment for the money borrowed I want to put the rest of the money on the next match and continued doing that until the end of the Champions League. If I lose any bet I will pay the double of the amount required, for EACH match."

Oh he's thinking it, it was really a good deal, not only have a payment of the $150 + interest but also $200 for each match lose. It was 13 total matches for the quarter-finals. That was $2600! A lot of money!

"Okay kid, but we need to sign some papers with that written down. Let's get started then"

I quickly said "Not so quickly, I want to make an additional bet and discuss the total odds you are going to give me. The other bet I want to make is about the Ballon d'Or. And the odds you are going to give me is 200.000/1 for the matches (2M profit) and 50.000/1 for the Ballon d'Or (500k profit). The commission you are going to take is a total of 5% for all the gains. But first, let me choose the scores and players that will make them! Pass me the bracket and the names of players!"

He was frozen in place hearing about all the terminology that a kid of 6 years old wasn't supposed to know and just obeyed. When he regained his composure he was seeing an image of a mother reading some last names and telling him which number was higher than the other.

Suddenly a thought was on the mind of

"Oh, I get it! It's all a rouse to make me lose my composure and made me afraid so they can make a fool of me! WHO THE WELL SEND IT TO ME? I BET IT WAS THOSE CLOWNS OF COWBOYS UNITED ACROSS THE STREET! Hmm, I will not let them afraid of a little kid, they will see!"

He waited for a while for the kid and the woman to let them choose they bettings. After waiting for a while the BETS WERE THE FOLLOWING:

"Real Madrid winning against Manchester 1 point difference.

Juventus winning Barcelona 1 point difference.

Milan winning against Ajax 1 point difference.

Internazionale winning against Valencia but winning because of the away goals rule.

After that Juventus win against Real Madrid 1 point difference.

Milan winning against Internazionale because of the away goals rule.

Milan winning the cup with a penalty shoot-out."

Under each result was a detailed description of the scores of each match and who made them. Even on the final result he even put who would score the penalties. Even a cute image of Pavel Nedvěd with a golden ball beside his name and with a little cheer saying "This year is your year!"

It was a huge contrast to he was seeing earlier, it looked so messy but now it looked so organized on the paper. Are they doing this to mess with me right? Fuck them! Don't play their mental games! Increase the amount of money if they lose!

Gunter smiled and said to David "Sureee, I can make this arrangement. But remember this is a huge deal so if you don't win all the matches you have to pay the total amount of debt plus a 50% for all the trouble!"

David smiled and nodded "Oh that's fine! We can also increase the winning bet by a 50% if we win all matches right grandpa? Or are you afraid of my mighty predictive powers?!" I said that while doing a mighty power ranger pose!

I touched a nerve it seems he went running to his desk and searched for a prepared contract and only modified a couple of things we already discussed and urged us to sign it if we are brave enough!

I calmly read it before passing it to my mother who was looking at me like I was dead meat walking. She wasn't one of those mom's that would make a scene of the street. But if you take an advantage of that ... Oh boy, you are gonna be on a Hell on earth. She agreed because I knew that we had about $3000 in saving for my college already. Why did I know that? Is easy, maths. Take the expense of living to deduce her year winning and divide by 12. Now you have all the free money available. Deduce a percentage of unexpected things like repairs, deduce the birthday gifts and Christmas and now you have the whole saving per month. Now when she started saving? Easy, after my father accident...Now add each saving per month, and you have an approximate figure. Math is your friend!

She only said a single thing after reading all the document 2 times "You are betting your future on this, why?"

I looked at her determined and said: "For a future of my choosing, this is my starting point, please, as a mother, trust this one time in your son."

He was quiet even with all the shouting of Gunter and after 5 minutes she signed and walked out of the room. I stood up and took the document and the bracket and said "Give me 2 copies of each one, so you can't go back your word"

Gunter smiled and took a photocopy of both and gave it to them. My mother was waiting for me near the exit. We walked without saying a word during the whole trip.

She was clearly displeased with me, it was worth it? To damage my relationship with my mother for money? I don't really know, but it was a necessary step for having more chances to succeed at my dream. I hope I don't reach a point where I have to choose between my mother and my football career. I will not know what to do at that point.

Go away evil thoughts! Stay positive, this is just a temporal mood because of the heavy situation, we only need to endure it a few more weeks and she will see that all my predictions are true and get better on time!

After we arrived home we had a simple chicken and rice meal, did the dishes and cleaned the table, I insisted. After that I went to practice football for 1 hour on the obstacle course, we only had a dim light outside so I had to rely more on the feeling of my foot and my hearing for dribbling, it was a cool method of training some athletes used in the future.

On the weekend I mostly stayed at the library reading, since the environment in my house was not the best, to say the least. I went to the Thompsons house as always with my mother and made a fake smile, but they notice it and made thing awkward.

Anyway, my week was consisted of waking up, going to the Thompsons house, have breakfast with Rachael (Ms. Thompson) and then go with my mother together to the school. At school, I was mostly bored and while going I tried to complete my book about new training methods. It was a slow process.

On the recess I would often practice and made mock matches with other grade students, it was fun. But no other mission showed up.

After that, I would wait for my mother at the exit and come in silence to our house. We would eat and made small talk, not like before. After helping her, I would go to practice football outside for 1 hour, or 1-hour and a half depends on my mood. After that I would take a quick shower, go to my bedroom and read about old strategies, even I began to read about how to lead people better.

Not only about football but in general, I notice that the teams that are most consistent about winning they aren't relying on a football star. They depend on the whole team, football is a team sport, sometimes people forget about that.

After doing that routine for 1 week I was playing football outside my house at night as usual but for my surprise, a voice from the porch of the Thompsons called me:

"Hey, you stinky brat! Stop playing with that rug of a ball and come over here, we need to talk."