Chapter 1:
Warning: This SpellBook Was Human!
The last fifteen minutes of classes would consist of a dodgeball game.
Heavy rain pattered over the roof of an empty gym. The floor shone with new coats of a fresh waxing. The squeaking of student’s sneakers filled the gym. Boys came from the locker on the left side and the girls entered from the right. Everyone wore wide, knee-length green shorts. The only difference between the short sleeved white t-shirt were the green, pink, or yellow trim. On the back of every t-shirt was the sketch portrait of President Benjamin Harrison, the school’s namesake.
Lilly’s T-shirt hung over her slender frame. Thin pale legs contrasted with the wide hem of her shorts. Black oval glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were too dry for contacts. She couldn’t take the glasses off without becoming debilitatingly near sighted. She leaned against the back wall to watch everyone. The back of her hand wiped her nose.
Zenobia waved a few other girls to the supply closet, “Let’s get set-up.”
Lilly stayed back with an idle smile as they opened the doors and pulled out the ball cage. A dodgeball bounced across the shiny gym floor. It rolled right next to her green sneakers topped by matching folded socks. Long black hair swung around her shoulder before she picked it up.
“We’ll need ten balls,” Zen checked the pressure of the next ball with her hands before tossing it back in the cage.
Zak returned from the closet with a dodgeball pump as Zen leaned over the cage. They decided together what could be used for the game.
Lilly’s smile faded.
The door from the hall the burst open. A thin balding man in a track suit slid through. His posture straightened as he blew a whistle.
“Alright everyone, Dodgeball time! Like I explained before, I won’t have you scrawny runts standing around watching once you’re out. This is how the game is going to work. The red lines form the arena and your squares. You stay in your team square until you get hit. When you are out, you start a line around the opposing teams square so you can target their remaining members with any stray ball. If you catch a ball instead of getting struck, the first teammate who entered the line returns to the square. The balls are soft but absolutely no intentional face shots. Okay, start counting.”
The coach used a simple method to divide large classes into teams. Lilly made sure she’d be in place to take an even number so she was on the same team with Zen.
Zen skidded next to Lilly and pumped her fist, “Our team is going to win.”
Lilly smiled, “Of course we will, you always win.”
Thirty students meant the teams were divided evenly. Balls were placed within lines they weren’t allowed to step over. Each team went to opposite sides of the gym. They touched the wall as their coach observed.
The coach blew his whistle and the race was off. Zen darted from the wall. Her sneakers skidded to a quick stop. Then she scoped up a ball and took out a curly haired boy from Lilly’s chess team.
Zak dodged a weak toss and threw a ball at another boy from the soccer team. His muscular arms flexed when he threw. The ball hit one of Zak’s athlete rivals.
Lilly became a bit distracted watching him.
A soccer team member ran to their team’s backfield with a determined expression. Within moments, he caught an out-of-bounds ball. The ball slammed into Zak’s back. The boys were thinking rivalry instead of team strategy.
Zen frowned as her stance tensed.
Lilly pushed up her glasses. She remained toward the back of the square while using the other players as shields. As long as she didn’t make herself an easy target the boys would underestimate her and ignore her till the end.
The sound of balls smacking into the wall filled the gymnasium. Balls bounced off the line and smacked the floor. They slammed into students attempting to dodge. The timer ticked down with glowing red numbers.
Her team was down to three members, Zenobia and a boy from the tennis team who was good at dodging like her. This meant winning would require more effort on her part.
Lilly concentrated on dodging the bouncy rubber projectiles while both teams were whittled down. With so many students at the flanks and ten balls in play, every direction became dangerous. It felt like a dodgeball cage match. Lilly calculated the vector of three potential throws. She timed her jump and lifted her feet. The ball flew underneath her instead of hitting her shins. She raised a hand and let another ball pass under her left armpit. Then she twirled out of the way of the third projectile with a bit more effort.
Zen skidded across the field. Several balls flew past. One almost clipped her chest as she leaned back. Her ponytail swished as a ball flew under her head. She straightened, ran to the center of the square with her arms stretched out, and a caught a ball that would have taken another girl out. The ball slapped against Zenobia’s palms. Her foot went back to brace her body. Ponytail arched upward with a burning toss right into hip of a swim team captain.
Zak came back into their square.
Lilly tried not to cheer. But she couldn’t help herself. She dodged a throw from the side by lifting her feet while clapping her hands. Long black hair swished as she dodged two throws that tried to take advantage of her flex.
“Don’t play around when we’re losing,” Zen dodged direct throws from the front, “Stay close. Cover formation.”
Ah, Zen was in hyper competitive focus mode again.
“Sorry.”
The clock ticked down to one minute remaining. With Zak back on their side, the balance shifted in their favor for mere moments because he was taken out by his rival. Forty seconds remained. An opposing ball slammed into the other boy just as Zen hit one of the opposing team members on the shoulder with a laser guided throw.
Lilly dove for a ball to Zen’s face and caught it. The rubber spinned in her palms until she pressed it firmly. The person who threw wasn’t that good at throwing, and they would be getting back one of the low effort girls, so her catch didn’t matter that much.
“Aim at the ground, don’t risk a catch.”
Lilly complied with the order. It made sense. While her throws weren’t the worst, she did have a high chance of having the ball caught if she actually tried to take someone out. The ball bounced off the corner of the opposing team’s square; It could still be caught by an out of bounds player if she wasn’t careful.
It was two versus two with thirty seconds left on the clock. Zenobia would be fuming if this game ended tied. Lilly tried to make herself a distraction while staying close to her partner. Unfortunately, the two guys they were up against were a wide receiver on the school football team and the captain of the baseball team. And they had that look in their eyes, completely out for blood.
Zen had the same look in her eyes! But they were on the backfoot, those boys were quicker when it came to attacking and any attack against them risked a catch. Zen winked at the captain of the baseball team! Her ball slammed against his hip. That was typical Zen, anything to win.
Lilly tried not to laugh as she dodged weak throws from the side gallery. The single remaining boy on the other side had his own side gallery to deal with. If they could just run out the clock, they would end the game with more players in their square. But balls came from every direction.
Sweat dripped from their foreheads. Their t-shirts became damp.
Zenobia looked winded. She had carried the team while holding nothing back the entire game.
The baseball captain caught a ball from the out of bounds line and lobbed it hard. It flew straight for Zenobia’s hip as she dodged another attack from her other side.
Lilly found herself out of place. She dove for the ball. The top of her head smacked it out of the way before she slid on her stomach. Zen reached instinctively only to have a ball bounce square off her back.
The bell rang. Game over. They were both out and one player remained on the opposing team.
Lilly pushed to her knees with a sigh. That game had worked up a sweat. She took off her glasses and wiped them with an alcohol pad. A small pink towel with a strawberry print helped to dry her forehead.
Zenobia gave her a forceful assist back to standing, “What was that?”
“What was what?”
“You dove in front of a ball I would have dodged anyway and threw the game. Did you do it on purpose?”
“What are you talking about. I thought I played better than ever.”
Zenobia raised an eyebrow, “I don’t know. I guess you tried your best. But you still need to work on your reaction time. Keep working on it. We would have won if you were paying more attention.”
The coaches whistle blew, “Okay everyone, good game, nice hustle, love to see it. Now get these balls put away so we can leave this gym the way we found it.”
Lilly had a finger raised, but saw her best friend had already turned around to clean up while having a conversation with Zak. She pushed her glasses against the bridge of her nose hard enough to make the plastic groan.
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