After All, I'm Your Secret Admirer~!!

Ch3 - Dodge that Ball!

It's Tuesday.

Paige ambles his way through his classes, swapping his French class for Home Ec and his Art class for Gym, just like he does every Tuesday and Thursday.

He makes sure to check his locker before going to his 1st period class, but the note he left there yesterday is still there. He frowns a bit, but keeps it moving.

The day goes by smoothly. There's a mild explosion in Home Ec because Tiesha messed with chemicals again, but they always messed with chemicals, so it was about as normal as a regular Home Ec class went.

Everything in Paige's day had been going good, all things considered. But, with the minimal amount of distractions he had, he noticed something.

He hadn't seen OJ in a good couple of days...

He and everyone else had the same Lunch period. OJ was the only outlier in their group, having his Lunch be a period later.

He and OJ used to share practically every class last year. It's how they became such good friends! They had some classes together in Freshman year as well, but not like last year. So, to share no classes with him this year was really upsetting. He missed him so much!

It didn't help that he maybe had a bit of a crush on him...

Just a bit.

The thought is popped out of Paige's head as Mr. Reed's whistle blows.

"OK, kids!" Mr. Reed shouts, loud and proud. "Dodgeball today!" He looks over the crowd of children and points. "Lulu! Bola! You two'll be the leaders of the two teams!"

Barret flushes in embarrassment. "Dad..." he grumbles.

Mr. Reed either doesn't hear him, or ignores him entirely. "Round up your crew, team leaders!" He blows into his whistle again.

Immediately kids scramble to one side or the other, claiming their spots on their respective teams. Barret and Lucy don't even get the chance to choose.

Paige runs with the crowd, somehow ending up on Lucy's team, along with a good amount of students he recognized as hard hitters.

Great! Maybe he could just hide behind them...

See, Paige wasn't really a big fan of dodgeball. He always ended up getting hurt or striking out first... It wasn't a fun game for him at all.

"All ready?" Mr. Reed calls. The crowd of kids all cheer. "Alright then! PLAY BALL!" The teacher blows into his whistle one last time before popping some dodgeballs into play.

Immediately chaos breaks out. Balls are thrown left and right, making Paige dizzy trying to duck and weave. People strike out at seemingly every second, whistle after whistle splitting the air and calling out the poor players.

All things considered, Paige is doing pretty good for himself. He hasn't tried making any moves, but just outlasting was an achievement in this game, wasn't it?

Still, doing all this back and forth tires him out, and for just a moment, he takes a breather.

Big mistake.

Immediately, Lucy shouts out, "PAIGE!"

But it's not soon enough.

Paige is beamed in the head by none other than Piper, who cheers, "Hell yes! Super Piper Power!" once Paige is sent cascading backwards. He hits the ground with a thud that rings in his head.

Paige doesn't remember the next couple of seconds.

But when his eyes blink open, Mr. Reed is over him.