But I’ll confess: at first I didn’t think they would at all. I thought she’d still see me as the bratty, egotistical kid she used to babysit, and I would have to live out in Villeneuve with Yazid. And my mom and dad…well, let’s just say it took a bit more than a few days, and I had to make some big concessions—mostly about Orford—to get them to sign the permission forms and not fly over to drag me back to Montreal. The first two weeks I commuted up to Villeneuve, and I had some pretty good practices. It felt great to be suited up and zipping passes! The level of play was really uneven though—more so than I’d imagined. Guys like Moose and Sidi—Aïda’s brother, the one Moose got into trouble protecting—stood out, not for their skill but for pure athleticism. Others looked the part in pads, even if they were a little clumsy. Jorge was bigger than my center back home. But a lot of it was kind of comical. I could see why US Football magazine had ranked the team so low.
