Safaranos!

“PLAY BALL!” Nik and Boy 1 shouted at the same time.

In front of them, the safaranos shot up into the air at their command, high above them. Both boys jumped up for it, and Nik managed to catch it.

“Mina, catch!” Nik yelled, and tossed it in Mina’s direction, well above her head.

“Ah! I got it!” Mina exclaimed as she ran backwards to catch the ball, just managing to catch it before it hit the ground.

“GROUND BALL!” Boy 2 yelled.

“Huh? But I caught it?” Mina questioned as Nik and boy 2 walked towards her.

“Yeah, you caught it while you were on the ground, which is a ground ball. And that means they get the ball for free.” Nik explained with a glare. “You’re only allowed to hold the ball while you’re in the air, remember?”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Mina said sheepishly as she handed the ball to boy 2. Nik rolled his eyes at her, but didn’t complain any more as the game restarted.

When everyone was ready, boy 2 jumped up into the air with the ball. Nik tried his best to stand in front of boy 1 to stop them from passing to each other, while Mina decided to block the net hoop. Boy 2 couldn’t find an opening, and landed on the ground before jumping again, momentarily confusing Mina before she remembered another rule.

‘Right, they’re allowed three jumps if they’re starting with the ball from standstill.’

On the second jump, boy 1 jumped with him, prompting Nik to jump to try and block him, but this was a feint. Boy 1 only did a short jump while Nik did a high one, and this let boy 2 throw the ball beneath Nik. Still, boy 1 didn’t have much time before he landed, so he quickly tossed the ball back in boy 2’s direction. Mina saw this as an opening and attempted to dive for the ball and intercept it before boy 2 could catch it. But, she missed, leaving the net wide open for boy 2 to make his shot.

*Swish*

“GOAL!” Both boys shouted, and bounced over to each other to high five. Meanwhile Nik glared at them for a moment, before turning his glare on Mina instead.

“What the heck was that?! You left the net wide open!” He exclaimed.

“Sorry, I just thought I could try and intercept the ball before he caught it.” Mina explained. Nik paused, not letting up his glare but not digging into her more quite yet.

“Ok, that was a smart move, but you’re not good enough to try that stuff yet, so don’t try it.” Nik told her. “Now come on, it’s your turn to go from center.”

“Oi! You two ready? Or is amateur hour going to do the smart thing and quit while you’re behind?” Boy 1 called out from the center. Mina turned to the guy with a glare.

“Seriously? You know this is my first time playing this. You should be going easy on me.” Mina complained.

“We are going easy on you. We’re making it easy for you to quit.” Boy 2 shot back, and well, that was certainly tempting to Mina. But, a quick glance at Nik told her that he had no intention of quitting, and she was doing this for him, so instead she marched up to the center face to face with boy 2. She glared at him, and he met her glare with a smirk.

“PLAY BALL!” Both Mina and boy 2 shouted, and just like before, the ball shot up into the air. Mina jumped up to catch it, only to be caught by surprise as boy 2 jumped much faster and higher, catching the ball before she could get anywhere near it. So, instead Mina changed her plan to focusing on him and reacting to wherever he threw the ball and jumping in that direction next time she landed. But just before she landed, boy 2 threw the ball not to his teammate, but to her.

“Huh?” Mina exclaimed as she reflexively caught the ball.

*tap*

Then touched the ground a moment later.

“GROUND BALL!” Boy 1 yelled, and didn’t hesitate to snatch the ball from Mina right away.

“SERIOUSLY!?” Nik yelled, and Mina turned to see him marching right up to her. “You got another ground ball?!”

“Well, what was I supposed to do?!” Mina exclaimed. “He threw it at me right before I touched the ground!”

“Thrown it!” Nik practically yelled. “It didn’t matter if I was going to catch it, you should have just thrown it randomly towards their net! Better to have a penalty starting more on their side than here. Or better yet, you could have just, not caught the ball when he threw it!”

Mina was going to yell at Nik about how there was no way she could have thought of any of that in the single second between boy 2 throwing the ball at her and her feet touching the ground, but she was interrupted by boy 1 speaking.

“Hey, as fun as it is to watch you two have your lovers spat, can we get back to us kicking your buts in the game?” He jeered.

The pair glared at him, and Mina turned to Nik to tell him that they shouldn’t waste their time on this anymore, but Nik was already walking towards their net, clearly planning on guarding that this time. Reluctantly, Mina moved so she was instead playing guard for boy 2, much to both boys’ clear amusement.

And so, the game began again. Boy 1 bounced once, twice, and after the second bounce boy 2 also jumped, going in the direction of the net. Mina naturally jumped to follow him, keep him from catching the ball, but boy 2 wasn’t the target. Boy 1 instead went for a hail Mary shot on the net, seemingly trying to throw it straight past Nik, but Nik was able to intercept the shot. However, as she saw Nik catch the ball, Mina felt a push on her back that sent her towards Nik, and she realized the boys had baited them once again. Unable to correct herself, Mina slammed into Nik, Nik looking at her in shock and betrayal as they fell to the ground.

“Clumsy girl.” Boy 2 said teasingly. “Tha-”

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The boys were caught by surprise by Mina’s scream, but both boy 1 and 2 had a smirk on their face as they watched Mina get up and march off, ripping off her sky badge and slamming it on the table at the entrance of the park. Nik lay there for a short moment, mind catching up to what happened, before shooting the two now laughing boys a quick glare before running after her.