The stadium was filled with cheering of students. Apparently their were more students than expected in a Junior high vs. Senior high basketball match.
Seniors have 3 selected students in their team and so does juniors. The whole croud is appearing to be blue to represent junior high. The Reds were squeezed in a corner by blues.
Apparatus seniors were struggling, it's heads on heads match. The ball passed from one hand to another.
"Here" Sebastian jumped in air and catched the ball. He spun around and started dribbling, a boy tried to snatch the ball but slipped instead, Sebastian threw the ball high.
A pair of hands grabbed the ball , Lucas ran the half court while playing with ball as if it's nothing it's just a piece of cake , it is indeed piece of cake. His messy hairs mixed were little wet with sweat , it was making the girls loss their mind.
He was about to basket it but two students stood in his way. The best player of senior high. He threw the ball high. A girl jumped and grabbed the ball. She dunked the ball while being in mid hair.
And
BASKET.
"Point goes to Junior high" refree shouted from a corner. The stadium shook by the intensity of sound."Timeout".
Seniors were struggling, they never lost from their juniors , nor from their seniors when they were juniors.
"We can't win like that"a boy said while drinking g the whole water bottle in one time.
"Let's play one on one" Duke , a senior and also a selected student said.
"But with whom?" A boy said.
"The new girl " Duke said with a smirk. He is tall and athletic, is very well know for being competitive, he can't stand losing.
A boy ran to refree , he whispered something in his ears and refree nodded. Refree came to Junior high team.
"This game is being so long." He said and paused for some seconds "They want to play one on one. Is it ok to you "
"It's fine but who will play " Lucas said while looking from one face to another.
"Grace. Duke want to plate ith Grace " Refree said. Lucas froze for a second. Everyone froze , the students were getting crazy , and wanted the match to start again.
"I'll play " A voice said , Grace walked from behind while tieing her hairs ina half pony tale. It revealed her sharp jawline.
Lucas was about to say something but refree walked to other side. He turned to Grace "You can't he is so good in this"
"You are doubting me " Grace said in a sarcastic tone.
"I am sure you can play well but he is not a type of guy to play with rules. He will do anything to defeat you "
"And i can do anything to win"
Lucas was about to say more but refree whistled for the players to come back. Duke and Grace both walked inside.
"Trust her bro , she will okay well " Sebastian said while placing his hand on Lucas's shoulder.
"I know she can but her neck is injured."
"It's been 6 days "
"Still it was blue that day "
"Just chill"
Refree whistled again and Botu the players stood face to face. Refree bounced the ball. Duke jumped higher and deviated the ball on his side , he was sure to win this game. But to his surprise Grace was not in front of him.
Grace never jumped for the ball she was behind him already dribbling the ball. He quickly turned and tried to snatch the ball from her. She spun and threw the ball higher. He jumped for it again but she threw it much higher than expected, the ball came in her hands directly, she was dribbling it to the basket.
Duke came in front of her , he snatched the ball , but Grace took it back , he tried several times , but he never wanted to have the ball.
I'll just corner her
Grace suddenly became concious she was standing on the corner. She need to act fast , she faced her back to Duke.
She was coming backwards , Duke took a step back and Grace got a chance to break free from his trap. He was so tired , but he still ran for the ball. Grace jumped and dunked the ball in the basket. Students screamed lowder than before. It must be audible from kilometers away.
Grace turned to face Duke , he was on his knees , breathing heavily.
"Nice game " Grace extended a hand towards him. He looked at her in disbelief, but instead grabbed her hand and stood up.
"You play well " Duke said with a smile.
They both shook hand and walked towars their respective teammates.
"What a game Dude" Sebastian raised his hand for a high five.Everyone congratulated Grace for creating the history, that team was never defeated before. Never.
Grace walked withe other girls who centred her.
After sometime she was finally free from their group.
They talk so much
She walked to cafeteria and asked the cafeteria lady for a juice can. She took her can walked to the garden.
She was sitting alone , enjoying the light breez flowing. She opened her can and was about to take a gulp but saw Olivia coming towards her. She stopped and waited for her to come.
"Hey " Olivia said in a awkward tone.
"Hi" Grace greeted back. Olivia stood their silently for seconds and seconds.
"You need something" Grace asked.
"Yeah , actually -" she paused mid way "Nevermind"
She walked away like that just like that.
It was Sunday and no classes were scheduled.So the Sports teacher just announced a match before lunch. It was still half an hour for lunch. Grace walked back to her apartment and changed to casuals.
**
Seniors were not present in lunch , they were asked to practice half an hour more because they were defending by juniors. Grace and Kai stood from their table as they were done eating.
"Let's go to library" Grace said.
"Are you crazy, what about Librarian"
"She is not in school today "
"Really, let's hang out their than "
His expression changed quickly, his hand wrapped around Grace's shoulder. They both entered the library by the key they had (Grace had).
Grace started to look for some books and Kai just turned the pages of a random book , he changed the book every now and than , he was more in art and music than books.
Two girls entered the library.
"It's closed now " Kai said without looking up to the person.
"You are here as well " A familiar but annoying voice said.
Hazel
Who can it be , she is a pain in ass , like the one you want get rid of.
"We have permission " Kai snapped back.
"So do we " Hazel said more in sarcasm than anger.
"Just get your stuff and Get lost " He said.
He watched Hazel drag Olivia by the sleeves of her button up white shirt.
Olivia is know for controlling others. Strange
He quickly wiped out the thought and continued to search for a nice book.
**
*Olivia's POV*
Kai was surely annoyed by the way Hazel talked , she grabbed my hand Harshly and dragged me towards the rack of reference books. She has been struggling in science recently to be specific Chemistry. She is not a bright students but still managed to score higher than average.
I just walked around on different staks of books when a thought slipped in my mind.
Grace must be here.
Obviously if Kai is here , Grace must be here as well. They are basically best friends. I need to talk to her. I want to apologise for what happened.
I searched for her and spotted her in the mystery novels section. It suits her asthetic, she usually wears black , grey , white or brown of beige, but rarely. I never saw her wearing bright vibrant colours. It's just not her thing.
'Its your last chance '
Principle Mam's words came in my mind , probably i should talk to her.
Finally getting myself together , I took some steps towards her. I was about a meter away from her , when her she turned to me.
"Yes?" She said as if she knew I was coming. I was taken by surprise.
"H-hey , I had something to t-talk to you " it was hard to take the words out of my mind.
"Proceed " she said in a serious tone ,what i wanted to say is serious as well. But my words were being trapped inside my throat by the gaze of her dark brown eyes.
It created a serious aura around her , that she always carried.
"Ac-actually I-" I was about to say more a hand grabbed my arm aggressively.
"See you later we have something to do " Grace said with a forced smile. And dragged me out of the library.
"Leave me " I yanked her hand and she finally turned to face me.
"What do you think you were doing their. " She said angrily.
" I was just going to talk to her "
"No you were betraying me and the girls , why were you talking to her when she took your man away. And don't forget you have friends because of me you can just lose all of your friends if you will betray me. So be in limit." She shouted and walked out.
Tears started forming in my eyes when the last memories flashed in my mind.
I walked in the school for first time in 5th grade. I studied in a other school but my father got promoted to this branch of Eden academy of excellence, it's one of the best branches.
But I was bit nervous. I took a test and the principle selected me in academics, martial arts and dance. I wore the batch proudly. I walked in the class , the class was welcoming , the teacher was nice , environment was nice but one thing that I felt weird was.
The girls were mean , no one talked to me for 3 days. I was sitting at a corner one day during lunch , when a short girl with blond hairs and brown eyes approached me.
" You wanna be in the girls group " She said what she wanted.
"Hey , I am Olivi-" I was about to introduce myself but she didn't let me complete it.
"You wanna be in girls group or not " She said again.
I nodded slowly, she grabbed my arm and started walking towards the corridor.
"I am Hazel , the leader of girls group " she stared introducing herself " You are probably new , but I never saw you in our dorm , where do you live "
"Staff quarters "I said silently.
"Wait ,what ! Who are your parents "
"My father is the head science teacher of this school he just got promoted last week and we shifted here."
" oh that's grate "
*
( After a year)
" Hey I should probably get going i need to help other selected students " i said before leaving the lunch table.
Haz grabbed my arm and slipped me a note.
Meet me in classroom after 5 minutes.
I quickly passed her a confused look but she glared at me.
She just controls what happens in our class. All the girls listen to her and those who don't just gets kicked out of the group. But they don't treat me normally, all the girls respects me more probably for 2 reasons , first that I am a daughter of a teacher and second I am a selected student.
I quickly ran to classroom after using the rest room.
Hazel was already their.
"Sorr-" I was about to apologise but she grabbed my arm and yanked me on a chair.
" Who do you think you are , you just flex with your little badge in front of everyone. Just get this inside of your fucking head , either get rid of your fucking badge or just fuck off from our group."
She didn't let me speak , that day cried for the whole night just tossing and turning on my bed.
The best day I gave my badge to principle saying that I am capable of it. But she instructed me to take the test again , this time i perform badly, she sighed and even talked to me for hours but I never said anything.
She knew I was not going to say anything, so she just let me go.
Few more memories started to flash in front of my eyes but i just yanked them away. Wiping the tears from my eyes i just headed home.
I know Hazel you like Him more than me. You want Lucas not me
(End of Olivia's POV)
**
Grace opened her eyes to the bright sun and slowly got off the bus. She dozed off in sleep while having a ride to town. It was Monday and the field trip , they are going to visit a nursery for sken knowledge about how they grow plants in such a large number , lunch and then zoo.
It was partial picnic partial field trip.
She tried to raise her head from Kai's shoulder but he was sleeping as well. So she just stayed like that. Their bus was standing at a Gas station, she raised her hand to see time , it was 9 am , and according to time table , they have to wait for whole 2 hours to reach the nursery.
3 hours of drive , 110 km. It's tiring and for Grace and Kai it's even more tiring. Both of them stayed awake painting a big potrait of Sebastian because his birthday is coming. A big , really big potrait , to be exact 1.5 m by 1 m. And after hours and hours of work , they just completed the face , but it was still a week. So they have plenty of time.
Grace closed her eyes to feel the slow wind on her face as bus started to take speed on highway. And slowly the warmth of sun and wind worked like a soft bed and the music in her ear phones as lullaby. She was sleeping peacefully.
Around 10:45 , Lucas walked to Kai and Grace and saw them sleeping. He knew that Kai was their friend indeed but Lucas and Sebastian were close , he always felt lonely. But now he had Grace.
He slowly patted on Kai's other shoulder , and he woke up. But stopped mid way seeing that Grace was sleeping.
"It's 15 minutes until we reach. Get up and wake her up as well." Lucas with a smile and walked back to his seat where he sat with Sebastian.
Kai just mumbled a Okay before closing his eyes again. But he realised Grace is sleeping on his shoulder. He saw her sleeping peacefully and smiled on her.
You worked for hours on that painting.
He slowly moved a strand of hair from her face and caressed her cheek.
"Hay , Grace wake up " he said in a soft tone.
Grace realised her head but her eyes were still closed. Kai giggled a bit on her cuteness. Her duality she can be the cutest and the coldest.
It took her 5 minutes to recover from her sleepy state she quickly ran a hand from her hair. Her hairs were in a half pony tale and the rest were opened. Thr bus stopped and they were instructed to come out. All of them got off , atlast Kai and than Grace.
Lucas saw Grace's outfit for the first time as he was late while boarding. She wore a beige colored parallel pants and matching sneakers with Black and white crop top and a jacket over it. It looked more like a cropped t-shirt to him. He is nice but is so bad with fashion.
She is always asthetic , always. How can you be so perfect.
Her outfit was completely different to his outfit today. He wanted to match her aesthetic so he wore a black button up shirt with a pair of black pant and paired it with black shades and a wrist watch.
Both of them changed their asthetic to match each other's.
Grace saw him and smiled. She walked to him with a smile.
"Hey "
"Hi their. You slept well?"
"Yeah. "
"You two look each other's opposite today. Probably swiped your soles." Sebastian said and they both looked at each other's outfit. It was awkward now.
Kai came up to them but he was wearing a outfit that can be a mix of them both. He wore a white shirt with black pants and paired it. His outfit was looking good with Grace.
"You look cool " Sebastian said while looking at Kai. He smiled to himself. Before wrapping a hand around Grace's shoulder.
"And now you two look like a couple." Sebastian said again , but instead of friendly laugh , he got a deadly side eye from three of them.
I am dead now.
**
Around half an hour all the students were divided in groups of 3 to study different plants.
Grace , Olivia and Deric were in a same group to study the pitcher plant. And beside them was another group Eric , Hazel and Sebastian.
Remember Deric and Eric (the twin brothers from chapter 1).
They had 2 hours to write down all the basic information they can find.
Hazel was constantly taking glances on Olivia.
Olivia hesitantly approached Grace but took a step back when Found Hazel giving her a side eye.
I need to talk to her.
She tried to talk to Grace but each and every time found Hazel glaring at her.
The observers started wondering around to see the work they did till now. Once checking their Group they headed towards Hazel's group , she was busy in showing that she did nothing.
Olivia found her chance and grabbed Grace's arm.
"Not here , let's go to restroom" Grace said , and Olivia froze in her place.
What? How. She knew that I was going to say something.
Grace tapped her hand and she came out of her thoughts. She followed close behind Grace as they walked towards the restroom.
"Ouch " Grace gasped as someone bumped to her. She looked back and
Red eye
That person have a red eye , that means he is not from this earth , probably from black magic. Olivia looked at her in confusion and she signalled her to not worry.
Not from this world for sure.
Once entering the Restroom , Grace turned towards Olivia.
"So what is it ?" Grace said while looking deep into her eyes.
"Ac-actually, I -I want to have a talk with you." Olivia said while shuttering.
Grace slowly kept her hands on Olivia's shoulder.
"Don't worry just say what's in your mind " Grace said in a polite tone. Olivia looked into her eyes with hope and soon she broke in tears.
Grace stayed by her side as she cried her heart out. She was out of words. Grace smiled.
"What do you need just tell me " Grace said while caressing her hairs.
"Right person "