Having changed into the sports uniform that Hana had prepared for me, I left Lilah's personal gym and headed to where she recommended. This gym was near the main cafeteria of the university, as well as the main entrance of the same, so despite being an exam period there was a considerable flow of people even at this time.
It was a large and spacious building with a very high ceiling, and inside there were some indoor soccer and basketball fields, which had some people practicing or playing in them, and on the side wide benches where many sat to chat in their groups or see those who were on the courts play.
The largest and most central court was a basketball court, in which no game was being played yet, but there were several boys standing there talking, some of whom became familiar to me.
Cristian Dowd and Cameron Jones were discussing something in that group, they were part of Isaac Meyer's group and something like the popular ones of the group, they got along well with everyone and were exaggeratedly sociable, especially Cristian who could become friends with Anyone after chatting for a few minutes, on the other hand Cameron was more quiet and direct, in addition to being very athletic and he liked sports.
Since they were acquaintances, I approached the main court to hear what they were discussing and as I got closer I understood, who they were talking to were some second and third semester students, they planned to use the court to practice since some of them are part of the club. college basketball, but Cameron and Cristian wanted to have a friendly game on the court along with two other classmates from our same semester.
But because they were insufficient to make a basketball team, and the upper semesters believed that playing against them would not even serve as practice, they refused to play the game and had been arguing that until now.
When I finally understood the situation Cristian seemed to notice me when he spoke aloud to me, interrupting the discussion.
—Hey Abel, did you come to hang out here after your exams too? It's lucky you have come, we just needed one player to have a friendly basketball game.
He seemed genuinely happy about my arrival, but the older semester boys didn't seem so happy because now we did have enough for a basketball team.
—What does it matter if one more or one less arrives? Although they are enough for just one team, they do not have relays in case of accidents, not to mention that we need the field to practice, since soon the club will have an important game and we cannot lose. time.
Said one of the boys in exasperation, and upon hearing it Cameron seemed to finally lose his patience when he spoke for the first time.
—And what does it matter if they have an important game or not? This is a public space and the court is the same, they cannot take over it just because their club has "basketball" in their name, if you really want to practice, go to your room club or to another unoccupied field, or do they want to practice here to look good with the new students?
At the end of everything he fell into a sudden silence for a moment, the boys of the highest grade seemed to panic a bit and some even got angry for no reason wanting to step forward and fight with Cameron, but the others stopped him so as not to make a scene.
Looking around I noticed that everyone's attention was on us, even those who played on the small courts around them stopped and paid attention. In that I noticed that there were many girls who just entered college and were in the first semester of their respective careers in the vicinity and that possibly Cameron's accusation was true and that is why the boys had become so tense and angry for her.
The situation remained stagnant for a moment and the tension in the air seemed to be on the verge of exploding, with the older semester boys angry and doubting what to answer and Cameron and the others waiting for a fearless response, at this rate it could end in a fight. if nobody intervened.
In the end I ended up sighing and decided to intervene, I came here to enjoy my university life and have fun, not to get involved in silly and senseless fights so it was better to mediate and find a peaceful solution.
*Sigh*
"How about we just decide with a short game?" —Talk before taking a little dramatic pause to direct the boys' attention to me - we can play just one period and decide what to do after that, if we win we can stay and play, and if we lose we will go peacefully, what do they say ? -
Listening to my proposal they all plunged into their thoughts to decide, it was a perfect and reasonable proposal, if we won we would prove to be worthy of training with them, and if we lost we could just leave after having a little fun, but everyone's pride acted as an anchor. to prevent them from making up their minds.
Finally noticing his obvious indecision due to his pride and wanting to avoid being the first to step back, I decided to deliver a strong and forceful coup de grace.
—Also… if this continues like this it could get the attention of the student council and the teachers, maybe even the president of the council could come to see what is happening…
Hearing the possible arrival of the student council president and teachers, everyone seemed to prefer their heads over their pride and compromised. In a short time the senior semester chose 5 people to play and we decided our positions in the game.
I had never really played basketball before, but I knew the basic rules and how it was played in general, but since I did not have much experience I was tasked with being the basket defender, it was a simple role in which I only had to hinder the rivals when they wanted make a basket avoiding a lot of physical contact so as not to commit a foul.
As long as I didn't aggressively advance towards them and only touched them with my chest when defending I wouldn't commit any fault, and I would have to try to steal the ball from their hands whenever I had the opportunity, it was a very simple and intuitive sport so I was a bit excited. to start the game.
The rest of the team seemed to be familiar with basketball and took their positions naturally and without disorder, apparently they were used to playing and they tacitly understood what to do each one, I was in the back of the formation to defend and what not shoot, Cristian and Cameron in the front to be the aggressive players and the other two guys in the center to support in any position.
'Leaving me alone in defense would be a bit difficult to defend'
I thought while looking at the opponent's formation, it was very similar, but they had two people in the back and one in the center, a more balanced and defensive formation, which could be difficult to overcome for ours who seemed very focused on attack.
A random student took the role of the referee to make the game more fair, who stood in the middle of the court with the ball in his hand before throwing it into the air to signal the start of the game.
Due to my playing position, I didn't need to do much more than defend and take the ball if I got the chance, so I had more time to watch everyone play and quickly learn about basketball. The ones on my team despite being a little younger than the upper semesters, they managed to play at the same level as them, which surprised me because these guys were also members of the college basketball club and not just players. casual.
And although we started at a great disadvantage because I couldn't keep up with the game and made a lot of mistakes, we never fell far behind on the scoreboard and got closer and closer to them, perhaps because now my physical condition was a vampire. and reflexes were much better than before, not to mention that I was always in decent physical condition and just didn't play sports due to lack of time.
After the first 5 minutes of the game, we were only 2 points behind the opposing team and getting closer and closer, because I had gotten used to the game and the rules, I became a very good defender, I was able to easily steal the ball from the opposite players, since if I concentrated their movements became very slow and with my superior physical condition thanks to being a vampire I felt that I could win the game by myself if I tried.
But since I only wanted to have fun and not stand out too much, I let them pass me half the times that we faced each other to keep a game in balance, In addition to the fact that Cristian and Cameron were much better players than I thought at first, they had not gotten tired at all and they seemed to play better and better, scoring furiously on every attack.
—You are much better playing than we thought, is it really your first time playing? - Cristian asked before continuing, "Not only are you pretty good at defending and stealing balls, but your passes are just as great, even against these guys who are clearly good," he said with a big smile on his face.
Hearing his praises I couldn't help but laugh a little shy, Cristian seemed to have a great talent for flattering and liking people, it was not surprising that he was part of the most popular group in the group.
"I'm not that good, I just know when to take the opportunity to steal, plus you're the ones who do most of the work scoring…" I humbly replied.
"Right, you've been playing defense the entire game and it can be pretty boring, why don't you go up and try to shoot a bit?" Anyway, the game is practically won - offered Cristian, misinterpreting my words.
I wanted to turn down the offer arguing that I wasn't that interested in being the scorer, but once I brought it up a little desire to score flared up in me, I wanted to jump high and hit a great dunk like I'd seen on TV, plus There were only 2 minutes left to play and we were already 8 points ahead; which would be impossible to overcome for the opposing team, who had already been totally overcome.
By accepting his suggestion we changed positions and I went up as a scorer, I noticed that both Cristian and Cameron came down to the back of the formation to defend, apparently they wanted to give the rest a chance to score.
Once the game continued in this formation they scored us 4 points in a row since we were not used to it, but soon after we recovered them, with my improved physical skills it was not really difficult to score a basket, even if it was by myself against everyone, but I didn't abuse my speed and I played at the most normal and average level possible.
With 1 minute remaining until the end of the game, our advantage had expanded to 12 points, the opposing team seemed to be resigned at this point and put little effort into attacking or defending. It must have been humiliating for them to lose to new students being part of the college basketball club, although no one was a starter on the college team it would be the same or more humiliating in front of so many new ones.
It was at that moment that a small commotion broke out in the direction of the gym entrance, everyone's attention was attracted along with the arrival of a group of people, when I turned my gaze I noticed that the group of people were from the student council and in the center of all was the current president, Lilah White, who acted as a magnet for the stares of all who turned their attention to her unconsciously.
Even those who the guys I was playing with reflexively looked in her direction, it was at that moment that a wild idea suddenly popped into my head, they were all turning their attention to Miss Lilah, be it from popularity or a passive ability from being a noble vampire, that meant no one was paying attention to me currently.
I had the ball in my hand and I was in the middle of the basketball court, about 17 meters from the opposite basket, even for an Olympic athlete it would take at least 2-3 seconds to reach it with a normal sprint from a still position , and in that time the rest of the boys would return their attention to the game.
Looking at the opposite basket I thought that I had not yet managed to make a great dunk as I had always wanted, since it limited my physical strength so as not to stand out too much it was difficult to make a great dunk like the ones on television. But now that everyone was distracted it was a perfect opportunity to test my limits and attempt a full power dunk.
In a moment of impulse I decided to go with everything and use all my strength, making the decision had only taken an instant and everyone was still focusing their attention on Lilah's arrival, it felt as if time had slowed down several times, I could hear my heartbeats increase in rhythm and I vaguely feel that everyone's attention was away from me, the basket that was more than a dozen meters away seemed to be within reach of my hand and my desire to test my strength was overflowing.
In what seemed like a split second, I took two forceful steps forward to gain momentum before jumping into the basket, despite being so far away from her in just an instant I was in the air right above her, but with the At the same speed that I approached her I moved away, before I knew it I had jumped past the basket heading for the empty benches that were behind.
* BAM *
A loud blow woke the boys from their moment of inattention, and looking back at the noise, the first thing they saw was the ball bouncing right under the basket and when they were going to direct their gaze towards me, for some reason they lost interest and simply they picked up the ball.
"How strange, Abel was here a moment ago, where did he go?" Or did he shoot and run away? Cristian asked in a low voice, believing that the president had arrived at the gym due to the commotion before the game and Abel fled to avoid punishment.
"I don't know, surely he's afraid of getting into any trouble for his scholarship and I just run away when I notice that the president was here," Cameron replied, Abel and Frank's scholarship was not a secret in the course and they knew they came from families quite a lot. poor, so they took college and its punishments seriously enough.
In the meantime…
I was getting up from the benches, the impact was quite large, so much so that part of the benches were completely damaged, but luckily no one had noticed. Anyway, the result was quite unexpected, but not so bad, first I could conclude that my physical strength was much greater than I thought and I could not use it carelessly, and the second ...
I thought as I directed my gaze to the court, at that moment they had picked up the ball that was gently bouncing under the rival basket
'I… had made a basket!'