Halls and Basketballs

Hamish sat alone, wondering if anyone would note his presence again. Mizlin always gave a polite ‘welcome back’ whenever he rejoined, but Exer and Zan had grown apathetic to his many comings and goings. At least with Lena now in the PFP group, there was someone to be shocked by his whims.

Much to his delight, Lena was the first person to arrive – other than himself. He adjusted slightly against the wall he was leaning on, resolving himself to play it cool. But then he saw her sweater, and made eye contact with a distorted derpy cat face. Hamish burst into laughter.

Lena looked down at the cat face, then back at Hamish and bit her lip. Hamish tried to force himself out of his fits of laughter, not wanting to upset Lena.

“Don’t laugh…” She said as deadpan as she could, barely supressing her own smile. “He’s very precious to me.”

She held an open palm to her midriff, gesturing to the mid-scream cat with bugging eyes.

“Yeah? Does he have a name?” Hamish asked as he tried, and failed, to compose himself.

“Big thoughts.”

Hamish raised an eyebrow. “Big thoughts?”

“Yes…” Lena pulled out the bottom edge of her jumper, and looked down at the cat solemnly. “He is always thinking very hard.”

In truth it was the second most head empty thing Hamish had ever seen, a close second to Lena herself.

Hamish eventually stopped laughing, though kept a grin on his face as Lena leant against the wall beside him.

“It’s, uh, nice to see you’re back.” Lena said to break the silence.

“Thank you.” Hamish responded, genuinely grateful that someone was happy to see him.

Lena scuffed the tip of her starry sneaker against the floor. “Uh, how was the whole gaming thing?”

“It was alright.” He shrugged. “But I got bored pretty quick, because there was no one to really match my skill level.”

“Oh.” Lena couldn’t relate.

“It would have been more fun if Exer had come too but, y’know…”

Lena didn’t know, but she nodded as though she did. The duo remained in a comfortable silence until the rest of the PFP group showed up.

Mizlin, as usual, stood at the front of the room to announce their daily activity, though the surprise was slightly spoiled by the fact she asked them to turn up in athletic clothes. The only person surprised by her basketball announcement was Lena, who didn’t know what basketball was.

--

Zan attempted to explain the concept of basketball to Lena on their tram ride over to the basketball arena, but Lena just couldn’t conceptualise without clear visuals.

“That’s what a basketball looks like.” Zan pointed to the exterior of the basketball arena, which was essentially just a humungous, bisected basketball.

Lena had too many questions, and didn’t know where to start, so stayed silent as Mizlin ushered them inside. They were politely introduced to their basketball coach for the day, and taken to the expansive collection of basketball courts.

“See, those white lines mark out each court.” Zan said, pointing to the lines and guiding Lena’s gaze.

“Oh. Right.”

“And those are the hoops.” She changed the target of her pointing.

“I see.” Lena murmured, surprised the hoops were so small and so high up. How exactly were they supposed to get a ball through one of those?

“And that is…” Zan grimaced, and recalled her pointing hand back to her side. “Gio.”

Lena quickly found the pale man in the crowd of strangers. He wasn’t wearing a cape this time, but his geometrically patterned black and white jacket was enough to make him stand out. That, and he was a good few inches taller than most of the people around him.

He made eye contact with Zan, and suddenly sparks were flying. Not the good, romantic kind of sparks, but the kind that made Lena think they’d start brawling.

Thankfully, the coach interrupted their hatred by telling everyone to gather around. He instructed everyone to take a ball and practice bouncing it against the floor. Zan grabbed one and ran to the other side of the room, while Lena lingered in the middle and waited for everybody else to go first.

Lena was surprised at how easy the bouncing came to her. She was expecting there to be some kind of trick that made it hard to bounce, but it was like both the floor and the ball were made to be particularly bouncy. She walked, and eventually jogged, around the hall with her bouncy ball.

The coach blew his whistle to gain everyone’s attention.

“All right, everyone!” The coach shouted across the room with an unnaturally loud volume. “Now you’ve got the hang of bouncing, partner up and start passing the ball.”

Lena clutched her basketball to her chest and stood perfectly still, hoping someone would come and ask to be her partner. It didn’t take long. All three other members of her PFP group made a beeline for her, but Hamish was the closest and fastest.

“Shall we pair up?” He asked, bouncing his ball on the ground a few times.

Lena nodded.

Behind her, Exer looked to Zan in disdain, and she looked back at them with a slightly forced smile. Hamish took a moment to relish in this small victory, while Lena remained oblivious to her popularity.

“Hey, uh… Can I ask you something?” Lena asked after a few passes.

“Yeah, shoot.” Hamish replied.

Lena stared at him blankly and gripped the basketball. She assumed he didn’t mean ‘shoot me with a gun’, but that was all she could think of. She awaited clarification.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Lena passed the ball back to him. “Why do you, uh, always leave and come back?”

The question caught Hamish off guard, and he almost dropped the ball.

“I just go to do the things that catch my interest.” He regained his composure and passed the ball back. “Then my interest gets fulfilled, and I want to find something else.”

“Oh…” Lena tilted her head and stared at him.

Hamish started to realise she was less head empty, and more head full and moments away from exploding.

“Do people not get upset that you leave so quickly?” She prepared to pass the ball back.

“No, they love me.”

Lena’s hand slipped at his response, and she threw the ball with great speed directly into his face.

“Sorry!” She blurted out, blushing and rushing to approach him. “Are you okay?!”

Hamish rubbed his nose, and blinked back the stinging in his eyes. With a slight grin, he bent over and picked the ball up.

“I’m alright.” He took a few steps backwards to get to a respectable passing distance. “That hurt more than I thought it would, you’re surprisingly strong.”

“Sorry…” Lena murmured quietly.

She took extra care in passing the ball back this time, only using a fraction of her true strength.

The coach’s whistle pierced through the room again. He ordered them to reassemble their PFP groups and practice shooting hoops, which made Lena think about guns again.

Hamish stepped up first to shoot and got the ball in on his first try, which immediately discouraged Lena and Exer from trying. Zan grabbed the ball next and stepped up to the line.

She missed. Then missed. Then missed again.

She kept glancing to the side, peering at the PFP group a few hoops down from them. The group that, obviously, had Gio as a member. She lingered with the ball in her hands, not taking another shot.

Exer sighed. “I realise your ex-boyfriend is nice to look at, but perhaps you could do your staring later.”

Zan clicked her tongue in annoyance at the implication Gio was attractive. But when she turned back to look at Exer’s serious look, she suddenly felt guilty about her distraction. She took two more shots and missed both.

“Wait,” Lena said, her brain finally catching up to reality, “Gio is your ex-boyfriend?”

Zan missed another shot, then looked at Lena with narrowed eyes. “Yeah? Did I not mention?”

Lena shook her head.

Zan hadn’t explicitly told anyone in the group they were exes, but the signals they were sending each other weren’t exactly subtle. Even Exer, with their general struggle at understanding social situations, was able to pick up on the dynamic. But it had gone completely over Lena’s head.

Frankly, the idea of ‘boyfriends’ and ‘exes’ were completely new to Lena. It was a recent revelation to her that it wasn’t a universal experience to be assigned a fiancé, then get married at an appropriate age/time.

Lena’s thought process was interrupted when Zan finally got the ball through the hoop. Exer, feeling a tad more confident in their abilities after Zan’s many failures, stepped up next. They got it in on their tenth try, and significant step up from Zan’s twenty odd attempts.

Lena went next and got it in on her fourth try, but didn’t have the mental bandwidth to celebrate.