This Town (Sally Face x Reader)

Gym

The gym felt hot and humid. Like the air conditioning had gone out and hadn't been replaced in years. The musty smell of age and B.O supported the theory.

Coach Mark had decided a warm up of several laps around the gym would suffice before kicking the year off with a game of dodgeball. Dodgeball had been banned in the state of course, but "battleball", Coach Mark's loophole game, was not. Two kids were chosen to start picking the teams. You noticed Travis standing in the back of the group of 20 or so students. He did not look eager to participate.

You had been chosen fairly quickly for Team 1. The teams were almost finished being separated. Travis was the very last student to be chosen for a team. The same team as you. Despite what Larry and the others had told you about Travis, he really didn't seem that awful. He was quiet and stayed in the background most of the time. His facial expression was one of disregard and annoyance, but you didn't blame him. He most likely tried to avoid gym class just like you had and was now stuck with it as a requirement to graduate. You weren't exactly stoked to play 'battleball' either.

The teams separated into their sides on the basketball court while the coach set out 8 balls on either side in front of the lined up teams. The coach did a countdown and the teams were off. Kids were getting pelted left and right. Several of the students were actually pretty athletic. They were the ones who wanted to be here. A sideline of kids who had gotten out quickly formed.

Participation didn't mean you had to be any good at the sports and games the coach had planned. To pass, you pretty much just had to act like you were participating. You were somewhat doing your best to dodge, but not really throwing any dodgeballs to progress the game. There were now only two people left on either side. Travis was the only other team member left besides you. He wasn't very strong, but he was extremely fast and agile. He was incredible at dodging.

A dodgeball was barrelling towards you. You weren't paying attention. Travis yelled at you to duck, but in doing so, he wasn't paying attention to another ball heading straight for his face. There wasn't enough time to react or tell him to duck as well. He took it right on the side of his face and was immediately shoved onto the hard floor. He tumbled and held his face. The oversized t-shirt he was wearing rode up in the process, revealing part of his back. You saw the very edges of scars that looked very similar to yours. A giant "X" on the back.

Travis saw that you were staring at his back and he quickly recovered, pulling his shirt back down before walking over to the sideline. He glanced back to see if you were still looking at him. You were.

You had this feeling that he had some sort of idea what was going on. He had the same markings as you, and as far as you knew, you were the only one that did. You weren't alone. Maybe talking to Travis would finally give you some answers. Sal and Larry had told you about Travis's father being the leader of the church before. Maybe he was connected somehow. Maybe he wasn't involved at all, but there was only one way to find out.

The bell rang and the boys and girls from either side headed for the locker rooms to change out of their gym clothes before heading home. The locker room was tiny. You went inside one of the bathroom stalls to change. You didn't want to alarm any of the other girls with your scar. You did your best to change out quickly so you could catch Travis on the way out.

You waited outside the locker room entrances. The boys filed out one by one, but no sign of Travis. Maybe you had already missed him. You could've sworn he had gone into the locker rooms with the other boys, but maybe he left straightaway. No matter. There was always tomorrow's gym class. There, you could talk one on one and ask him about the "X" and how he got it.

The bus ride home was fairly quiet. It had just begun to rain. You looked out the window, curled up on your seat. The raindrops trailed down the glass. Some joined others and formed bigger streams. They looked like hundreds of little worms finding their way down the window. You were lost in thought, the sound of Sal and Larry's voices resonating in the background along with all the other voices on the bus. You wondered what was for dinner.