Winners and Losers

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The day of the exam arrived faster than expected but I felt like we were well prepared this time around. Under the leadership of Sudo, Matsushita and Hirata the second year classes headed to their matches to face off against the third years. I was on Sudo's team solely because I wanted to see how Kushida performs in this exam since the gym was split in half for Basketball and Volleyball which gave me an opportunity to keep an eye out for the girls competition.

"Yo Ayanokoji, it's been a minute since we faced off huh? When was it? Oh yeah the relay race!" Standing in front of me were the five man third year basketball team lead by the Student Council President himself Negumo. The last time I encountered him was at that fateful relay race which changed the course of my school life and was ultimately the cause behind me catching some unwanted attention from all sorts of people. "It was also the beginning of the end for us, Kushida. We were so wrapped up in our own world that we didn't realize our time was running out."

I looked towards her direction and for a moment she looked back at me. Staring into her eyes I remembered the silent prayer I made last year:

"If you're up there, please, please let her be the one who changes me."

I guess in a way that prayer did come out to be true but not in the way either of us hoped, right Kushida?

Looking into her eyes I realized that the love she had for me was gone, everything was gone. She was empty and completely devoid of emotions. Seeing her this way made me hurt a little...

"Kiyo look over here!"

"Oi Ayanokoji! The match is about to begin where are you looking?"

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"Oi Ayanokoji! The match is about to begin where are you looking?"

I was snapped back into reality by Sudo's words. I guess this wasn't the time to remanence about the past. I put my focus back into the match at hand.

"My fault I was out of it for a moment."

Match begins:

Negumo's team managed to get the ball at the tip off and immediately moved into an attacking position. Sudo was in charge of guarding Negumo while the rest of us cut off his passing options.

"Quit stalling bastard, you aren't going to catch me off guard with that stupid drop dribble."

"You sure about that Sudo? You know it's harder to predict simple moves more than complex ones because no one expects you to do them."

Sudo started to lose his patience and quickly went to interject with the ball while keeping a solid defensive stance and then it happened. Negumo looked like he expected this and he immediately brought the ball to his back foot and then behind his back and under Sudo's armpit which completely left him stunned as Negumo went on to shoot a mid range shot which went in.

All of this happened in under 3 seconds which was just enough time for him to score before the people close to him could react.

Everyone was left stunned by Negumo's impressive performance as our whole team fell silent.

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