Boundless Love

Chapter Nine - Dodgeball

"Have a good weekend!" Mr. Nordine calls, dismissing us from his class to next period. 

"And... we're officially done with the project," I say, turning to Lizaveta. 

"Yup!" She smiles. "I don't have to work with you anymore."

"Such a relief," I say, rolling my eyes. 

She nods with a smile. "Okie dokie," she says, sidestepping me and turning to leave the classroom. 

I leave the classroom next, looking for my friend. Liam and I have Physical Education as our last period. I would normally enjoy my last period being gym. It means that I don't have to go the entire day possibly smelling bad and getting a bad reputation with the girls as "that one smelly kid." But, because I go to practice right after, it's not as enjoyable. An extra hour of playing with people who don't want to be there isn't enticing. 

I spot my brunette friend, chatting with a girl outside of his class. Cathy, I think her name is. He looks bored, as opposed to his usual cheerful persona. 

"Yo, bro, you good?" I ask him with a pat on the back after I walk over. 

"Yeah, yeah, man. Draven, this is Cathy, my lab partner," he says that last part begrudgingly. 

Cathy is small. She wears a ponytail every day and a different colored flannel each time I see her. I notice her thick rimmed glasses as she adjusts them to tell me she was just talking to Liam about the project. "We has to pick an ecosystem to observe and the recreate over the next few months. A paper will be due in two weeks on what we observe, and we have to have an ecosystem picked by next class," she explains. 

"Yeah," chimes Liam. "I don't care what system we choose to observe though, so you can pick, and just tell me tomorrow." He sends her a small smile, grabbing my arm and pulling me away as soon as she nods in agreement. 

"Gosh, I am not looking forward to working with her," he complains. 

We enter the locker room and head to our lockers. "Why's that? She seems smart enough. Not totally annoying," I tell him, taking off my shirt and changing to my gym clothes. 

"Yeah, but she's too smart. She's going to expect me to actually contribute. Like, a lot. I can't just half ass it like I normally would." He rolls his eyes. 

"At least you didn't have to work with Lizaveta. She was my partner for Geography. I'm surprised she and I even finished. She's so annoying," I chuckle. "Do you remember how she used to chase us around the playground?"

"Dude, yes! She always took your hat. She totally used to have a crush on you," Liam laughs, pulling his shorts on. 

"Ew, no way." I crunch my nose. 

"What about in middle school though, when y'all were actually friends? Whatever happened?" he questioned as we started towards the gym with everyone else.

"I don't know, man. Stuff just happens," I reply vaguely. 

I spot Lizaveta when I get to the gym. She's in a corner with some of her friends. Almost as though she can feel me looking at her, she turns her head and those beautiful brown eyes find mine. Beautiful? Gosh. What's wrong with me? I look away and make my way to the group of guys I hang with. 

"Yo, what's good?" I bro shake a few of the guys in the group and get some nods of recognition from others. We then talk for a few odd minutes before the Coach comes in and tells us that we'll be doing pom-pom-pullaway as a warm up for Fun Friday. 

"Okay, any volunteers?" the coach asks. Liam raises his hand and gets picked.

"I'm coming for you first, Draven!" he shouts at me as he makes his way to the center of the gym. 

I chuckle. The whole class quiets down and listens, readying themselves to run to the other side of the gym. 

"Pom, pom, pull-away!" Liam shouts, causing the whole class to begin sprinting. 

Again, we all take off running. He goes for the easy kids this time, tagging the shufflers. After safely crossing the gym again I observe who is in the middle now. I see one of the guys from my team, two girls Lizzy hangs out with, and a bunch of kids who really don't want to be here. I see Liam go around, telling everyone something. A strategy? What could he be saying? I brush it off and get ready to run. 

"Pom, pom, pull-away!"

I start off strong but only make it about ten feet before realizing that everyone is running straight at me. That tricky bastard.  I trick a few kids out, spinning around a few others and make it about halfway through the gym before someone tags me. Dang it!

Liam laughs. "The heck with you, Liam! That's not fair," I grumble, making my way to the middle. Everyone else made it safely across due to me being targeted. "How rude."

"I told you I'd get you," he defended, smacking me on the back. 

Everyone is out of breath, huffing and puffing heavily, bent with their hands on their knees. Liam calls the signal and everyone groans, making a run for it. With me now in the middle, Liam and I manage to get over half of everyone that was left. Only a few people made it across this time. 

I spot Liz and make eye contact with her. "I'm gonna get ya," I mouth to her. Her facial expression hardens as she rolls her eyes, getting ready to run. 

"Pom, pom, pull-away!"

I head towards her, reaching out my hand to tag her when she dips right, only to turn and go left right after. She spins around me and shoots straight passed a few other kids for the other side of the gym. I stay hot on her heels. When she's only about a foot from safety I push myself harder, managing to tag her. 

"No!" She runs straight into the padded walls. "I was so close! You suck!" She turns back to look at me, panting. 

"Not my fault you run slow," I taunt. That's not even true. I had to work to catch her.  We walk towards the center as she grumbles. 

"Bro," one of the guys on my team calls me over. "Evan is giving everyone a hard time. We gotta get him," he says, pointing at the last kids we need to get. 

"Y'all couldn't get Evan? Really?" I ask, surprised no one could get him. 

"Yeah, we didn't even know he was still in until a couple of rounds ago. He was hiding behind people. And, dude, he's faster than we thought. Half the kids we got don't even participate, man," he tells me. 

"Right, right. Okay." 

The cue is called and Evan takes off. He almost made it halfway across the gym before getting tagged, but he stood no chance with about fifteen kids going straight for him. 

"Damnit!" I hear his call as he's tagged. 

Everyone takes a minute to catch their breath before the coach calls us to number us off for teams to a classic game of dodgeball. Liam ends up on the opposite team from me and we promise to give each other a hard time. 

Splitting to our given sides of the gym, Liam and I grab as many balls as we can as Coach throws them out, preparing for him to blow the whistle. I move to the middle line, preparing myself as other kids setting into the background and the ones who don't want to be here hide in the corners. 

I briefly close my eyes as I take a deep breath and listen for that sound. The sound that'll launch this gym into a war zone. I open my eyes and hone in on Liam, ready to take aim. Then I hear it. 

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*Authors Note* Sorry for taking so long to update, life's been hectic. A bunch a family stuff, and schooling, and relationships have been getting in the way. I've also had a bad case of writers block recently. Hopefully, as I get back into a rhythm, updates will become more consistent. 

Thank you so much for giving this book a chance and making it this far, it means the world to me. Of course, this whole book is a rough draft and will undergo serious editing as soon as it's finished, but you being here during this loose copy is appreciated. 

<3

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