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The sounds of feet and teenagers screaming filled the room. No one was taking mercy on everyone. And as soon  as the ball touched you, the coach immediately blew the whistle and told you to beat it.

"Grab the ball!".

"Hey watch it!".

"You're out!".

A girl, Stacey, who I had art with, spotted me on the side of the court. She swerved past someone before aggressively throwing the ball my way. Thankfully Vanessa rushed in front of my and blocked the ball with her own dodgeball before throwing it towards the blonde girl, hitting her immediately.

Vanessa and I laughed together before giving each other a high five.

I quickly rushed past someone, grabbing the bright red ball and throwing it at the first person I saw. Coach blew his whistle as the ball hit them, "Out out out!".

A grin grew on my face. It felt good finally staying in the game long enough to make it the last four. It was me, Vanessa, Justin, and Tristan. And the boys kept dodging our every moves.

"Come on boys just give it up!", Vanessa cackles as she dodged a ball from Tristan.

"Never!", Justin calls back as he ducked down from the next ball flying at him.

The game started again, and the boys were definitely showing no mercy. Justin tried countless times to hit me but thankfully I blocked him. The two of us trash talking one another while Tristan and Vanessa could only laugh at our shanegians.

"Hey Vanessa!", Justin exclaims, catching the other woman's attention, "If we win this game, you gotta go out with me".

Vanessa tried her best to cover her smile as she shook her head in disbelief. I, on the other hand, saw this as a perfect opportunity and threw the ball towards Justin, hitting him in the stomach.

"Oof!".

Justin fell to the ground, ball falling from his hands, and Vanessa and I cheered in glee as we had finally gotten Tristan alone.

"Hey!", that is until Tristan promptly hits Vanessa in the back, "Low blow pretty boy!".

Tristan shrugs, "Rules are rules".

"Vanessa! Justin! You're out!", Coach exclaims, Vanessa rolling her eyes with a smile as Justin held his stomach.

Tristan smirks as we stood in front of one another, waiting for the coaches call, "Give it up Esmé, you know you I'm faster than you".

"Winning a race when we were in eighth grade doesn't mean you're faster than me, Tristan", I snap back with a similar smile.

"Don't fool yourself, cause I'm not taking it easy on you, baby".

The nickname makes my heart flutter but I quickly remove it from my mind and respond, "I don't want you to take it easy on me, pretty boy".

"Ready.. set.. GO!".

As soon as I hear the whistle I run to the back where I started to throw as many dodge balls as I can.

Tristan didn't lie. He wasn't taking it easy on me, but one thing he forgot?  we've been in the same gym class up until this year.

We were on the same level, every time I threw a ball he would dodge it gracefully. And anytime he threw one, I ducked from it as quick as I could.

Behind us I could hear our teammates cheering us on.

"Let's go Tristan get her!".

"You got this Esmé! Don't give up".

"Hurry up and hit him!".

"Come on dude don't let her get away!".

"Give it up already Esmé!", Tristan exclaims with a laugh, "You know you're getting tired!".

"I'm pretty sure that's you old man!", I screamed back before throwing two balls his way. Tristan blocks both of them with his ball before passing it at me but luckily I ran to the other side before it could touch me.

"I'm only a month older than you!".

"Still old!", I laugh as I jumped up at the balls flying at my feet, "Tristan stop!".

"What?", he chuckles in response, "Ready to admit to defeat?".

"Never!", I screamed before chucking my ball at him. He tried to move away but I was too quick, hitting him square in the chest as soon as he tried to grab a ball off the ground.

My team erupted in cheers and before I could even blink arms are being wrapped around me. "We wonnnnnn!", Vanessa exclaimed as she hugged me tightly, lifting me off the ground. All I could do was laugh.

After Vanessa put me down I could see Tristan snickering as my team cheered from behind me.

"Good game", I acknowledged.

"Yeah well I could see you were struggling so I thought I'd let you take the win—".

I hit his arm causing him to chuckle, "Such a sore loser".

"No hitting!", Coach exclaims before ushering us to move so we could get started in the next game. Tristan left me be but I could see him smirk every so often when we made eye contact. It felt good. After the animosity that was held between us, to know we could still play around like we did when we were kids was refreshing.

"And you're sure he hates you?", Vanessa's asks as we lined up across the court to begin basketball.

I nod before sighing though my nose, "Maybe this is his way of apologizing for what he said".

Vanessa nods but confusion still painted her face. But we left it at that, quickly running across the court to begin the game once Coach blew his whistle.

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