Regardless, he continued to shine in the sport. He had led his team to several local and regional championships before the organizations themselves had to institute new rules. One was that the leagues were only for pureblood humans. Another was that any player that was suspected of being a hybrid would need to submit to a blood test to see if they had ancestry of another race. That kicked Henri out. It was only then at the age of 10 that he had noticed that there were people that did not like him for being half Z'lanthrax. As a young child, his mother and grandparents did their best to shield him. Racists were not welcomed in the coffee house. He was kept close. Due to what had happened, Henri was homeschooled. Esme was getting money from the government to ensure he was raised properly. It was self serving on the part of the government. It no doubt was great for the small business family to have the funds. It also was an excuse to keep him away from the public school system. He was the best player on his team, so they had to accept him in. Henri was a big team player too.
Due to his Z'lanthrax instincts, he was very protective and had a high affinity for his teammates. If they did anything praiseworthy, he was the first to point it out and give them the tongue bath of a lifetime. If they got hurt, Henri was the first to pick them up in a princess carry to someone who could do first aid. If there was a big dispute with someone not on the team, he would simply take the side of his teammates blindly. One one hand, it was a nice stroke to the ego to have the bigger boy be a one man hype squad and bodyguard in one. On the other, some found it incredibly annoying or creepy. Obviously, this was exploited. Some of his teammates were all to quick to sic him on those they had personal grudges against. None of them had any consideration for him. This got Henri in trouble frequently. Esme and her father would have to go after him to bring him back. Explaining why it was wrong did not work. Henri just felt compelled to do that. When he held back, it made him feel bad. Still, he learned to control himself with enough counselling and discipline from all of his family members.
When he managed to restrain his more base urges, people began to pick up the pressure instead of lessen it. That was surprising to Henri and his family. It turned out a lot of people just hated the Z'lanthrax. If he was not going to be convenient, they did not want him around. Henri had outlived his usefulness. He was no longer able to carry his team to victory on the field. He was not going to be baited into beating up random people that they did not like. It was simple. The people did not want those with Z'lanthrax around. It was also true, but now it was too much to ignore. The most vain members among his former team still liked the unending praise but, even then, it was getting more and more unpopular to be around him. The isolation was not good for his mental health. That was when he saw an ad for the UN army. They were recruiting for pilots. He was 13 years old at the time. They only took boys for the piloting program at 14. Shine pilots were heroes. He wanted to be a hero. When he told his mother and grandfather, they backed him 100%. Henri began new muscle training.
