The gym was crowded with people when he arrived. He had changed to his SA gym clothes which were also black with purple trim. The girls team was on a different gym next door. He peeked over at them as he passed. They also seemed to be having a recruitment day.
In the boys gym most of the people were in the middle. The actual team was currently in jerseys at the front. Another group off to the side had a few members.
"Hello" he said to the smaller group as he entered.
"We are the scholarship group" said one of them, "the rest of tryouts are in the middle."
"Oh" said Cody brightly. This made his job easier. He joined the smaller group and a few of them stared at him in disbelief. He was after all quite small at a whapping 5ft no inches. The others towered around him. One of the actual team came over.
"Hi! The tryouts are in the main group if you wanted to join." He looked at Cody. Cody suppressed the urge to roll his eyes as he handed him a piece of paper. His eyes widened in shock. Then a smile broke out on his face. "Welcome to the team!" he said then he turned to continue beating up the tryout participants.
Another face entered the gym. "Apologies for running a little late." Said the boy with black hair. Cody turned recognizing the boy who sat in front of him during class.
"Hey Connor!" Yelled one of the other scholarship players. "Great to see we will be on the same team again!"
"Hi Ray!" Connor replied with a smile.
"Oye shush over there!" Called out the captain who was trying to give more directions. Connor and the Ray dude both shut their mouths.
Within the first half hour the try out group had shrunk to 20, then 10. Once it reached ten the team captain motioned for the scholarship group to join. There were the five official team members who hadn't graduated yet, 5 scholarships, and 10 others.
"Let's see what you scholarships can do, the tryouts will be fighting you guys in 1 on 1 to see if they can steal your spot. We will also do some 2 on 2, and 3 on 3 to get a feeling for how you work as a team. And remember NO MAGIC! Cause that's not legal in games." The captain shouted.
"If we kill the pip squeak do we get an instant place on the team?" asked a tryout player.
"No…" started the captain.
"Let them Cal" smirked the member who had come up to Cody earlier.
Cal the captain looked at him in surprise. He whispered something in his ear. "Okay" said Cal "Jet is apparently okay with it, and now so am I. You get a spot if you beat him, however I'm not kicking him if he's just having a off day."
Bring it on! Thought Cody, after all he wasn't scouted for no reason. The 1v1's were easy he just dodged around their overconfident egos and did some layup shots.
"This isn't fair!" shouted one of them "Stop dodging like that." Cody mentally rolled his eyes.
"Fine team up on me if you want." He said with a bored voice. He had been planning to blend in the first week but whatever. 5v1 still far too easy. These tryout people weren't anything special. At one point they surrounded him at the far end after triggering a foul.
"Let's see you get through this!" one of them hissed.
Cody smiled and jumped. His jump height? Three and a half feet. At the max of his jump he shot the ball over their heads across the entire court and into the net. He laughed inwardly at their shocked faces.
"He must of cheated and used magic!" yelled one guy as he raised his hand yelling "Fireball!" a burst of flame shot toward Cody.
If he dodged it could easily burn a large hole in this lovely gym, that would be such a waste. With a slight sigh Cody raised his right hand. "Bright Shield!" he yelled. A wall of light appeared and blocked the fireball. Instead of crushing the light to pieces the fireball slowly died out. Cody then lowered his shield as the team captain came over scolding the other member.
Cody couldn't help but smile at the last remark, "He could shoot like that before magic became a thing." The shocked looks on their faces were totally worth it.
With practice at an end for the time being since Jet had basically forced him to take a break. Cody left the gym. He passed a group of girls watching and overheard another fun comment.
"I've never seen the bright element used like that!" shouted one "Do you think I could get to that level?"
People always underestimated the bright element. Most seemed to classify it as worthless. Cody knew better when used in a proper form it could be a shield or as sharp as a blade. Granted without constantly endurance training it would easily break under the other elements. But it was far from useless. In fact it was the easiest one to form into shapes.