"Sir Ronald is here? Why?" the parents asked among themselves. They watched as the cars stopped and a bodyguard went to open the car with the insignia on it.
A tall good-looking man stepped out into the sun and waved at the villagers.
The village chief immediately scurried towards him.
"Sir, Sir! what poor reception we have given you. Forgive us, these lowly ones."
Ronald waved his hands to show that he did not care about that and the village chief heaved a sigh of relief.
.....
Ronald woke up this morning with a splitting headache. Furthermore, his assistant and butler, Paul, had taken the day off. He walked to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of milk chugging it down.
He checked his calendar on the kitchen wall and remembered that the scholarship quiz would be held that day. He already decided not to go but now, he was feeling hesitant to just ignore them.
He decided to donate something to them. 'The school would definitely need a proper basketball.' he thought.
After deciding that, he called Paul and told him to buy a basketball and send to Acorn village.
But he did not expect Paul to be in front of the house at that time. Paul came in and told Ronald something shocking.
"Young Master, I hope you are okay." he said anxiously.
"Why are you here? Did you not understand what I said?" Ronald asked, displeased.
"Young Master, I understood very well but, I left my wallet in my room. So I wanted to stop by."
Ronald nodded. "You've bought the basketball already?" he asked noticing the basketball Paul held.
Paul sweated. "Not at all, Young master. Someone planned to assassinate you."
Ronald got up in shock. "Are you serious? Who would that be? My political rivals? But that's insane! Psychotic behavior!"
"Young Master, they planned on sending this basketball to you and it was to explode immediately you touch it."
Sweat poured down Ronald's face. 'Close escape from death' he thought.
"So I shan't touch that not to die? But that is amazing technology!" Ronald started to think of all his rivals in any field.
'Riches, politics, women, family. None of the rivals had such amazing technology in their hands. Sensory device! This is out of the world. This is the future.' he excitedly thought.
"Go on, go buy a basketball for that school." Ronald came back from his reverie and ordered Paul.
"Yes, young master."
He slumped on the couch tiredly.
20 minutes later, Paul came back done with his assignment.
"Master, something else."
"Speak."
"There's a timer on the ball that still determines when the ball would explode, whether you have touched it or not."
'Disgusting behavior! What it was someone innocent that held the ball. But wait.. I'm also innocent!'
"Give me the basketball." Ronald stretched his hands to Paul.
"Young master, it's gonna explode if I do that." 'Your mother's going to kill me!'
"Of course it would not explode, you dunce, since this isn't that basketball!" Ronald shouted pointing at it rendering Paul pale.
"There is no timer on this one!"
'This is the wrong basketball? Then I sent to Acorn village....'
"Into the car! Quickly!" Ronald screamed at him.
.....
And that was how he ended up in the village he swore not to enter again.
A mile away from the village, he heard a loud boom. He looked up with an ashen face. The ball exploded.
"Hurry up!"
The cars drove into the village and finally reached the school.
Ronald got down quickly to receive the bootlicking of the village chief. He waved his hands brushing him off and walked quickly to the field.
.....
Xana watched as the esteemed man walked to their field. She was radiating cold killing intent at him.
The poor man kept on feeling cold and scared not knowing the reason.
"The basketball I donated, it exploded right?" Ronald asked.
The village chief's eyes narrowed. "That was not done on purpose, was it sir?"
"Not at all! I was a victim even." Ronald shook his head. He kept on feeling cold shivers down his spine.
He went on to explain what transpired and the villagers looked sorry for him
Xana seethed.
She stomped towards him in anger. Ronald was shocked seeing the angry lady and so was the village.
"You dare send an exploding basketball to this village and you think you can wave it off with that stupid explanation!"
Everyone was shocked, then the villagers started to nod and whisper amongst themselves.
"She is right. That was absolutely dangerous. Is he trying to make us pity him thereby not mentioning the consequences of this event?"
Ronald inwardly cursed. That was indeed what he wanted to do but this girl came and destroyed it all.
'Who was she anyways?' he thought and took a closer look at the girl. His brows lightly creased as he observed her features.
'She looks a bit like that girl that gave me nightmares, but I would never think they are the same person. She's way prettier than that other one.'
"I really am sorry. This is my fault. I should not have left the ball with my assistant thereby endangering you people. This is all because of me, I was the one to be assassinated and now I involved the innocent masses in it. Forgive me." Ronald finally apologized sincerely.
Xana's anger reduced at this. "Just that?!" she pointed at the girl who held the basketball.
"That poor girl is traumatized along with the rest of the field. If I did not throw away the ball, our lives would have been taken."
"Yes, yes, what do you need?"
"Mental and physical compensation. The poor girl is obviously not okay, I sustained scratches and her hands are burned. The students on the field were scared and just imagine how their parents and mine felt!"
The village chief kept on blinking at Xana. 'That's Sir Ronald.' But Xana kept on ignoring him.
Ronald nodded and beckoned on Paul who gave him a chequebook and a pen. He immediately write something down and passed it to Xana. The village chief managed to get a glimpse of what was written.
'Seven zeroes! And a nine in front!' the village chief was just keeping himself from fainting.
Xana collected it and sharply gazed at Ronald. Then she smiled like nothing had happened. That smile overlapped with a face in Ronald's memories.
'F**k, she's that girl!!' he thought.
Xana did not notice the man's momentary fear and simply called Bill and gave him the cheque. He was to withdraw the money from a bank in the next village.
She nodded at Ronald. "That's good enough." and walked back to the field.
The game continued as suddenly as it ended.
Ronald was led to a seat and he kept his eyes on Xana.
Xana felt his stares but ignored it as she scored against the other team.
Sometime later, the game was finished. Xana's team won. A 21:43. Xana laughed inwardly. If she gave half of her all, the opposing team won't even score a goal. But then that would make her a one man team. She had to give space for her teammates and help when she could.
After two more games, the sports section was over. The principal climbed on the podium again.
"We have our Sir Ronald here with us at this epoch event." the principal bowed at him then continued.
"The ten students picked from the sports section are:"
He called out their names, some names were re-mentioned like Xana and her friends.
"Finally, from these twenty students, we shall pick ten who performed excellently well in the two sections.
"Rachel Queen, Samuel Gray, Evelyn Ace, Maxwell Badger, Ciara Winter, Samantha Badger, Fanny Marcus, Sean Anderson, Pauline Henry and Deanna Page!" the principal said and everyone gave a round of applause to the qualified students.
Ronald turned his eyes towards the girl who exhorted money from him. 'So she is Deanna Page. Oh..' Ronald gasped in horror. 'She'll be one of those I'll sponsor?! In my school?! My little nieces and nephews in the same school, your uncle apologizes for sending this nightmare to you. Well, she's more prettier now. So you might not suffer much.' He prayed in his heart.