Stargazing ✰

Chapter 9.1

Today was our first match of the tournament. I would lie if I said I wasn't nervous. As soon as I woke up, I put my staff outfit on: my ATL jersey with "ICT Staff" on and black leggings.

I rushed to the breakfast hall and this time I wasn't last. I saw that Kai and Venom were missing. I greeted everyone and took place.

When breakfast was over we went to the facility where the games took place.

I had to set up every gamer their PC and connect them to their account. Some had difficulties with their settings, so I fixed those. But that was all I had to do.

The game itself was close. They had lost the first map: Ilios and then won the other 3. But they were close. Kai became the MVP of the match, with which he teased his friend from the other team.

"I would've been MVP if we had won, which we should've." Hydron greeted Kai with a hand. "But you didn't." Kai mocked him. "We'll win the next matches and beat you in the finals." Hydron exclaimed.

Suddenly Kai called me, "Lily!", he signed me to join him and his friend. I approached them, "Yes?"

"We planned to hang out with our friends today. Would you like to join us?" Kai asked me. I remembered he was going to let me meet his friends, so I couldn't refuse. "Yeah sure, if they don't mind."

"No of course not." Kai smiled.

"So this is Lily?" Hydron wondered out loud. I simply nodded.

"C'mon, let's go to the hall, everyone will be waiting there." and Kai was right. They were waiting for us.

I saw Samm and Kevster - the only two I recognized - talking to two other boys. One of them was older and the other was around my age. The older one had long blonde hair and a honey-hued beard. The younger one had short black hair. Both of them wore the same green jersey.

Samm looked up when we arrived and looked surprised at me. His hair was still curly and he had the same grey jersey on as he did the day before. "I've met you before," he said to me, "you're the girl I bumped into yesterday." His face turned slightly red, but he had a big grin on his face.

"Hi." was the only thing I was able to bring out. I gave them all a hand without saying much.

"Coluge is late again?" he asked Samm, but he responded with a shrug, "He was here a second ago, but I don't know where he went."

"We'll wait, we have enough time anyways."

The boys talked about the matches they played. Danteh and Pelican from the Houston Outlaws had lost against the LA Gladiators, so Kevster won and Samm had won against the Washington Justice. Tomorrow we had to face Samm and his team.

A little later Coluge arrived and apologized. Now that we were complete, we went outside to visit some places. We went to the AT&T Stadium Tour and some important buildings. The Stadium Tour wasn't something for me, because I wasn't a big sports fan, but it was impressive to see.

I did enjoy my time with the boys a bit. My introverted self made it difficult to socialize and talk to them. I listened to all their conversations. Some were about the League, some were about sports like basketball, NBA, football, and the gym.

We were on our way to a bar close to the hotel after we had dinner. The day had passed so fast that it was getting dark. I already planned on asking Hawk to go to our spot from yesterday to stargaze later.

Samm walked next to me, "Hey, you've been quiet today. Is everything okay?" "Oh, yeah of course." I said, "I'm just not social. Especially not with new people."

I looked at him. His hair got messy and he wore a black jacket over his jersey. He had put on his glasses. I had to admit, he was handsome.

"I understand." he nodded, "Then tell me something about yourself?"

I was surprised, "What would you like to know?" I asked him with a little smile.

"Maybe where you're from, why did you choose to become an ICT-er? That kind of stuff." he replied.

"Wow, you're that interested in me?" I asked with a laugh, but he took it seriously and blushed. He scratched his neck, "I just want to get to know you a little." he spoke softly.

"Well..." I thought, "I'm from New York, and I decided to become an ICT-er when I was a little kid. I was that little nerd that could solve any problem with the teacher's PC."

"Oh, New York, that must've been cool." he assumed.

Little did he know about my past there, it was everything besides cool. My parents were always fighting, I never got to say goodbye to my brother. Then my mother had to go to the hospital. Not to mention my stay with my aunt and uncle, who wanted me to leave as soon as possible.

Samm realized his assumption made me get lost in unpleasant thoughts. He wanted to ask me about it, but he changed his mind. "Why didn't you go to New York Excelsior then?"

I shrugged, "I didn't want to stay in that hell hole. Besides, Nero got me into Atlanta Reign. He's a childhood friend." Nero was the only good thing that ever happened to me.

"Oh, lucky you." Samm said and then looked at me with a troubled face, "Why did you call New York a hell hole?"

"Uhm, that for another time maybe." I said, and that ended our conversation.

We arrived at the bar and I was surprised to see Gator, Frana, Hawk, Ojee, and Ultraviolet there. I waved at them and Ojee waved back.

"Lily, what would you like to drink? The first round is on me." Kai asked me. "Just some water please." I answered.

Kai's eyebrow went up, "I meant as in alcohol silly."

"No no, I don't drink." I explained. I had never touched a drop of alcohol and I wanted to keep it that way.

Everyone except me and Samm took something alcoholic. "Not a drinker?" Samm questioned. I shook my head, "Never tried it, and I'm not planning to. What about you?"

"I'm not in the mood and someone has to stay responsible." he grinned.

"Then we both are." I laughed and so did Samm.

Later on, the boys started to take some shots. I knew it wasn't a good idea; we had a match tomorrow and it was getting late.

Unfortunately, they didn't stop until they were fully drunk. "Let's play a funny game or something like that." Hydron proposed and they all agreed.

Writer's note:
I hope this longer chapter makes up for the short one from yesterday.
I somewhat regret whats coming next, but I had to do it.
Anyways Samm x Lily is wholesome :)
Please don't forget to vote or comment, take care y'all!