A silent breeze passed through the open window of my room and traveled into my nose, bringing in a sweet smell. Did Lavender put perfume around the house again, I thought as I tried to sleep on my side and guess who I found sleeping on my bed again? Alex.
Normally, I would shriek like a little girl and run around the entire house eating almonds and trying to remember what happened, but this time, I went closer and sniffed. Yeah, I sniffed her, and just as I speculated, she used my perfume. Alright, I'm going head out, I thought and tried to roll out of bed, but someone caught my hand from behind. "Good morning, sunshine. How's the perfume?" Alex asked, with a wily smile, hiding a hidden motive. Oh great, I thought and rolled back, "Good m-morning to y-you too. And t-the perfume is g-great." I said, giving out a weak smile, just enough to get past without anyone noticing how uncomfortable I am.
I swiftly got out of bed and wore my shirt and had a quick glance at the clock. Holy-Moley, It's 6:35 A.M, I thought to myself as I burst out of my room and ran towards Lavender's room to wake her up. With all the power of my conscious, awake part of my brain, I tried and calculate how much time it would take for me to get everything ready. As I reached the kitchen, I saw Alex serving food at the dining table, all dressed up and ready to go to school.
"Chop-chop now, you can stare at me all day long another time, but now, it's time to go!" Alex exclaimed, and suddenly, my body started running on its own to the bathroom, but instead of my long bubble baths, I had to take a shower, brush my teeth and gargle my mouth after which, I ran towards my room, wore a pair of jeans and my red Adidas hoodie and took long strides towards the kitchen. On the way, I caught up with Lavender, who also had to take a shower (I could say by the remains of soap behind her ears) and both reached the dining table.
I had another quick glance at the clock. 6:57 A.M. On the table, there was mushroom soup and a salad with mustard and vinegar and some chilly flakes. As soon as we recorded the dishes in front of us into our brains, we tried and gulp down all that we could. When we finally consumed all the soup and salad, Lavender asked, "When did you get time to make all of this? Cause it's really good!" "Glad you liked it! I've made some honeyed rice cakes and some boiled sweet potatoes," Alex said, making me drool at the very image of all those heavenly delights.
BEEP! BEEP! The bus was honking to make its presence known. We picked up our bags and got on the bus. I found Dan and went to sit there. "Hey, how are you doing from yesterday?" Dan asked. "I'm fine, still alive and kicking!" I exclaimed. "But I was wondering if you could delete that clip, that would be nice," I said. "I've already deleted it, but why would you want it deleted?" Dan asked. I motioned him to come closer and whispered into his ears, "It's a secret."
"Oh c'mon now, stop pulling my leg already. Also, please don't say anything foolish near Becca," Dan said. Becca sounds familiar, I thought, and then remembered the humiliation she caused me from yesterday. "Since her parents are the patrons of the school and supply the school with a lot of money. You could say the school is functioning because of them, and you'd be in a huge puddle of cow dung if you messed up your friendship with her." Dan said. "Fine, makes sense why she did that interview, I guess. So is it safe to mark her as a spoilt brat on my list now?" I said and we snickered at it for the rest of the ride.
"Do we have to go for P.E. class, I mean, you have superpowers, right? Zap us out of here!" Dan whispered as we walked towards the boys' changing room. "Well, try looking at the bright side of P.E. There has to be something good about it," I said. "If you mean looking at girls wearing shorts and tight shirts or getting a sneak peek in the other changing room, I'm all up for it, but I'm no Dodgeball expert," Dan said, just as we entered the boys' changing room. "I was going to say that we would get to train our body and mind in P.E. but I guess your point makes sense. I'm not a Dodgeball player as well." I said to quickly cover up my alibi, just in case anyone heard it.
Good, he didn't say that out loud outside the changing room. Who knows what trouble that would have landed us in, I thought to myself as we changed into our P.E. uniform.
"Vanessa Hoffman," the P.E. coach called out. "Present sir," a girl replied back, who I think is Vanessa. "Maryann Phillips," "Present sir," "Casey Ramsey," "Present sir," "Damon Tyler," "Present sir," "Dan White" "Present sir," Dan said, weirdly sounding like all the others who said 'present'. Maybe it's a trend around here, I thought as my name was about to be called out. "Jay?" "Present sir," I said. "Oh, so you're the new kid! Don't think I'll go easy on you," he said, making me gulp down liters and liters of spit. "Uh... same here," I said, with a faint smile. "Ha! That's the spirit!" He said and started to look around and said, "Dan! Come upfront. And... oh, how about a boys vs girls match!" He said with excitement written all over his face. Everybody began booing and putting their hands in their pockets. Guess nobody likes that, I thought to myself.
"Rebecca, would you like to be the captain of the girls' team?" The P.E. teacher said. "Of course, Joe sir! It would be my pleasure," Becca said, with an airy look on her face, like she owns the place, which technically does (well, at least now I know the P.E. teacher's name is Joe. Now the question is, do I refer to him as Sir or Coach Joe ? Guess I'll decide that later).
"Ok now, I'll be on the girls' side. Does anyone have any objections or hesitations, and if not, we can begin." Coach Joe said (I've finally decided to call him Coach Joe). "He always takes the girls' side. It's kind of unfair really, the reason that he is a bulldozer when it comes to Dodgeball " Dan whispered. "How do you know all of this?" I inquired while whispering. "As I had said before, I have scouts all around the school," Dan whispered back. I started to look around to see the team. There were 6-7 of us on each side and 3 on the side as substitutes. Our side had boys, but all of them were skinny and had glasses. This is going to end well, I thought as Coach Joe blew the whistle, "Alright folks, let the battle begin!" Coach Joe said, in a loud voice. "Also, I forgot to tell you; he was in the military before," Dan whispered.
After the whistle blew, balls flew (that sounded wrong), left, right, and center, leaving us boys paralyzed. Balls were raining down, one of which hit one of our own troops. "Damon Tyler, you're out!" Coach Joe yelled. "Come on, coach. It barely hit!" Damon replied back but like Medusa, Coach Joe stared at Damon with big, wide, angry eyes, which quietened Damon down. Those eyes are... frightening, I thought as balls continued to attack us.
After a while, the girls' team ran out of balls and we still had our share of balls, along with their share. Dan and I ran towards the balls and looked around and searched around for other players to come and pick the balls, but the sight around our side made us jump. Our side was empty! We were the only ones left!
"Can we still win?" Dan asked me. "Depends," I replied. We began throwing balls. Since I had the firepower, Dan passed the balls as I threw the balls repeatedly with a winning aim. One by one, slowly but steadily, they were down to Becca, Coach Joe and... Alex. "Amazing! We're against a demon. Dan, calculate our odds," I whispered. "50% is minimum since we also have a trump card!" Dan whispered back. No, surely not me, I thought. He really doesn't think I'm the trump card, right? I whispered under my breath.
"Ok, plan. Do you know how to read Qi, my friend?" Dan asked. I knew how to read Qi but I also knew where he was going with this. "You want me to predict their moves by reading their Qi, don't you?" I counter questioned. "Yeah, but it will require sacrifice," Dan said as he walked forward. It took me a few seconds to understand, but it was too late. Coach Joe already picked a ball and threw it at Dan.
"Dan! Move out of the way!" I yelled, but he already got hit and the whistle blew. "Dan White, you're out. Which means we're down to you, new kid. Let's see what you got!" Coach Joe said. "You can do it, Jay! Don't let my sacrifice go to waste, or I will kill you, so you better dodge like there's no return," Dan yelled. But that didn't affect me; I was already shitting bricks as I braced for the collision. Alex slowly walked towards the middle line... with a ball in each hand. "Get ready," Alex said as Becca and Coach Joe also came with balls in their hands (that also, sounded wrong).
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and had a revelation inside my head, as I went into a flashback. I went back to the time where I came to know about my powers. Surrounding awareness, huh. Let's give that a try, I thought to myself as I opened my eyes, just when a ball whizzed past me. Did I just... no way, I can use surrounding awareness without actually seeing anything, I thought to myself. So that's what Dan meant when he said he had a trump card. Wait! He couldn't have possibly known that I can unknowingly dodge stuff, which means... that punk took a wild guess! That... I'll deal with him later, right now, It's time to dodge.
"Beginner's luck! Try dodging this!" Coach Joe said as he began throwing balls just like when he hit Damon. The balls had pin-point aim as I was dodging them by mere inches. "Think that's luck as well, Coach," Damon yelled from the benched side. I had a quick glance over to the benched side, which had our ex-troops, but they had smiles on their faces, some had phones recording my dodging skills.
"That's it, we're going all out!" Becca yelled out in frustration as she threw two balls at the same time. "Rebecca, I told you not to play when you're angry, somebody could get hurt!" Coach Joe exclaimed. "I DON'T CARE!" Becca yelled as she continued to purposefully throw balls at me as I continued to dodge them, this time I was at ease as I was dodging the ball by more than mere inches. After their ball supply was exhausted, I began my wild ball-throwing, hitting all of them, including Alex! I walked over to Becca and gave her my hand and said, "You don't have to come first, second is okay cause, you ain't ever beating me!" (Yes, I can quote songs as well; I'm full of surprises).
"You did not just beat Rebecca and Alex, you beat Coach Joe as well! Tell us your secret," Damon said, bringing along with him all the boys that were present in the changing room. "It's just like Coach Joe said, beginner's luck maybe?" I said, trying to be modest, but it wasn't working. "Come on, tell us, no inexperienced player can pull out moves like this," a boy came to me and showed me a video of me during the match. I was ducking and running from the flying balls that were being thrown at me.
"I'm just ducking and running, that's all," I defensively said. "Wait for it," Damon said. I patiently waited... and waited... and waited. I was ducking and running like a chicken for a long time... until after Dan sacrificed himself after which, I began somersaulting and turning like a screwdriver in the air as I was dodging. Amazing, I thought to myself. Lavender is going to kill me!