Help (One Direction)

5. School & Volleyball

“What happened to your arm?” She knew Austin, the three of us were classmates back then and I always told Tina stuff about him, she just doesn’t look at him the same way I do, so we kind of disagree on things sometimes.

“And your pretty face.” She cupped the side of my face and I flinched at the contact. I didn’t know the purple bruises were evident; I should’ve looked at the mirror this morning before coming to school. “I’m alright, Austin happened,” I explained to her and she understood exactly what I meant. Just when I was about to explain to her the whole scene, the bell rang, signaling our next class.

"Gotta get to P.E.” I tell her with a forced smile. “You look sick and I believe you can’t use your arm, so it’s broken, yet you still want to go to P.E.?” Have you knocked some sense into your mind, Kathryn?” She furrowed her eyebrows, looking into me intently as she examines me with a confused face at the same time.

“I’m good, all I gotta do is show up anyway. I gotta go.” A crooked smile fell across my face as I didn’t seem convinced at what I told her. “Alright then,” She let it slip for now, she was suspicious of something and she knows it as a friend.

I changed into my sweats and headed for the gym, and checked the time; I’m five minutes late due to the problem with changing with a broken arm. Who knew just a small job like changing clothes hurt when you have a broken arm? I went outside and saw that they were playing volleyball. How… nice.

Many balls were flying in the air as when it goes down; strong arms hit it back up and again. The gym teacher blew his whistle signaling everyone to stop. We all walked towards him and he starts to speak up as the students were finally gathered. “Okay, the game is volleyball. You group yourselves in two teams and we’ll start in ten minutes.” He says in a stern tone that has always frightened me. “Clarke, are you sure you can play?” He could see that it felt weird when I moved my other arm around, so he asked. Can I really play? I do kind of feel strong enough to play; I think I won’t play along anyways. Most people in the class are really good players. “I’m sure,” I replied. If I do join the game and the smallest chance is that we win, I get a high grade without even breaking a sweat.

Mr. Collins blows his whistle again. “Alright form your teams!” He shouts. I don’t know why he always does that; we could hear him loud and clear. Maybe he just wants to look tough and dignified along with his figure. Everyone started scattering around, calling who they wanted to be on their team, while I was just there standing and waiting for someone to take me on their team. Until, ten minutes was over and still, I was standing in the same position I was in before while the others already had their teams. Typical. I was never really close to anyone, so they don’t know me that well.

Mr. Collins called up that not all students weren’t in any team, which was me and another guy. The other team captain took in a sigh and took me to be on her team. At last. And I was happy because I knew who the people in this team are, I know they’re really good in this sport, so I think we’re going to win. I quickly ran to the team as they huddled up.

“Alright, since Mr. Collins wants all of us to play. First up will be, Matt, James, Sophia, me, Charlotte-“ She pauses for a while as she looked at the members and she thinks of who to join in the first half of the game. “And Kathryn,” She pointed to me and only me, I looked back if I interpreted it wrong, but clearly I didn’t. I was going to play in the first half. I’m not sure if they did the right thing in joining the girl with the broken arm for the game, I might cause them the game, and they’ll all blame it on me.

I stood there, in the middle, in front of the high net I couldn’t even reach, which intimidated me, they expect me to hit a ball from that high, or jump? No way. And the fact that the ball would always end up in the middle of the court, I mean, come on! Why put me here? Why don’t you just put me at the back? Could I hit it with one arm? I hope so, or the possibility is my other arm would also break, I don’t have any hands to work with anymore.

There goes the first serve from the other team, it aimed to my left, and thank God Charlotte hit the ball before it even landed on the floor and it went over the net, the ball was aimed for Morgan on the other court and she wasn’t able to hit it. We just scored a point, now a few more points without hitting me and I will be alright.

Halfway through the first half and we were leading. It’s a really tight game but I knew we were stronger, because of everyone on our team, but me. It was Morgan’s turn to serve and it didn’t hit the net, so it was our turn now. I already did my serve earlier and it wasn’t the best though, it also didn’t hit the net. Matt was going to serve on our team and it went over the net and the other team hit the ball and it went back to our side. This dreaded me, it was going towards me!

“Hit it Clarke!” Mr. Collins yells and I let out my arm in front of me, trying to hit the ball. Successfully, I did it and the team cheered for me. I felt on top of the world at that point, but the game was still in progress so I had to keep my head in the game.

Ryan was up on the other side of the court and he made sure he had the ball. He jumped as high as he could and made a big spike. My eyes grew as the ball was about to hit me. It was like slow motion, I couldn’t move, I was frozen on my spot. Then, just out of the blue, my vision went black.

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Cliffhanger? Haha. Though I could consider an early update if you vote... We'll see...

So, today is the start of our Semestrial break! I mean, come on! Two weeks! But the teachers gave us assignments to do so I'll try to do them immediately, so I can focus more on writing this. Yey!

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