I can run pretty fast, and I can kick a ball well, but there's the small problem of basically having one hand to work with in total. People still pick me for teams because not picking popular people for your team is basically death, but my arsenal is incredibly limited. At least I have a good teacher though. I'll introduce everyone to a guy in my class named Roland. Roland has two hands to work with. Roland can do nought for the team. Everyone hates Roland because he's hopeless at everything. Whenever we're playing competitively, we always sub Roland off for the whole game. No one ever risks subbing Connor, Petra or me off. Connor would probably have them executed for subbing him off. Petra would probably have them executed for subbing her off. And Petra would probably flat out murder anyone who tried to sub me off. So the basic lesson is don't sub us off unless we ask you to personally. You'll have a greater chance of surviving if you have an excuse. We usually only have one proper sub because Roland doesn't count because he's not actually available to play. And the teacher learnt that if Petra, Connor and I aren't together, it doesn't matter. Petra will just trade her way into my team, and then Connor will trail after her and shove one of the girls out through bribery. You might think that we're a bit up ourselves, but it's just the way our school works. If you're popular, just about no one can stop you from doing what you want. If you're a loser, you get picked on and try to weasel your way up towards popularity. I'm just happy to be up high on the food chain. Petra was basically dragging me across the court, waving wildly to Delia, who grinned and waved back enthusiastically." Petra, Dani! You guys up for some basketball?" Petra was literally jumping on the spot with enthusiasm." Yes!" "N-" " Dani too!" I hate her. Man, I hate her with a fiery passion." Boys vs girls then?" Jakob frowned at the suggestion, hands on hips." No fair, Delia! What do you expect us to do, mark two people at once?" Delia grinned and nodded. Paulie groaned, trying to snatch the ball off Jakob while talking." You're so full of it Delia." " How about I play then?" Excuse me while I be sick all over the carpet. Connor grinned at our surprise, although his eyes were cold enough to burn." Yay, Connor! We're all set then! Dani, since Paulie sucks anyway, you can mark him." Paulie blushed and screwed up his face in an indignant frown that was weirdly cute." I don't suck! You guys are just giants disguised as humans!" While Delia and Paulie had their typical argument over whether or not he was super short, which he was, Jakob chucked the ball at me." Girls start. That's fair." What's not fair is passing it to me." How about we go our room on you three? That'd be fair, right?" That got him to shut up and take back the ball. His only real advantage was having Connor on his team. Otherwise, Delia could easily take him on as a partner. And Paulie was, well, short. So he was out.
" And, as usual, the girls smashed the boys. Because Jakob and Paulie are still super young and we're cooler." I smacked my head. Well, one of my hands did. And it hurt a lot." OW!" I yelped, dragging my hand away from the danger zone." Can't I just not be abused by my own limb for once?" Everyone giggled, even Connor and Natalia, who seem to hate my guts." And even with the amount of abuse that Dani-chan suffers from herself, she still manages to be better than most people at basketball due to having the second best teacher in the world. Right, Petra-chan?" Anita nudged Petra playfully, and Petra nudged her back." Hey, Natalia's better. Hey, Natalia, want to take over for me?" Natalia shook her head, smiling slightly." I'll pass. I'm too busy with Mel alone." Mel blushed slightly, smiling shyly." Natalia is a great teacher though. I'm not surprised she's so popular, with the amount of one time students she's had that still want more training. You and Dani should come and verse us some time. I know that it's not your thing, Dani, but we'd love to see you guys in action." Natalia nodded, but she looked disinterested by the thought." Hey, Sebastian, why don't you help? Twins help each other, right?" Sebastian didn't even look at her." Not interested." He looked at me and flicked his fork in my direction." Do you even like sports, Danielle? You've always seemed more into other stuff. You're a scholarship student, right? For academics?" I hated sports. But Petra was sort of the dominant best friend between us." Yeah, I was awarded a scholarship for such. But I don't really care." I lied, not meeting his eye. I wanted lunch to be over." And you weren't punched in the head during the exam?" " Um, no?" His eyes glinted menacingly. This guy was not predictable." Better be careful then, Danielle. Make sure you don't get strangled by your own hand, right?" Was that even meant to be a joke?" That's not funny, Seb-kun. She could actually die if that happened." And then the creepiest thing all day happened." I'm not actually joking, Anita. She could die. Wouldn't that be unfortunate?" People talking about you dying isn't very comforting.