VARSITY 9 | VOLUME II | BL

FIFTEEN

Wen was extremely close to falling asleep against Kean as the two passing teams waited for the third and final team to enter through the training room doors. In the half-hour that passed between the remainder of Team 14's arrival and the appearance of the third team, Kean never budged and let Wen relax against him. The kyro was extremely patient and wanted nothing more than for Wen to rest.

"Congratulations on passing Phase Two, Team 8." Coach Jeon congratulating the third team to arrive with a finch stopped Wen from passing out from exhaustion. Opening his eyes sleepily, Wen looked toward the doors to see Toma and Liyam enter followed by their three teammates.

Toma held a small, metal cage in which the third and final finch had been captured. Upon Coach Jeon declaring them as 'passed', Toma dissolved the metal cage and absorbed the energy back into his body as the finch flew from his palm.

"Yatah!!" Toma sounded with excitement and lifted his fist in victory. "We did it, Liyam!"

The dion smiled at the hyped callan as the two celebrated their victory with their teammates. Behind Team 8 entered Team 11 who engaged Team 8 in a fierce battle for the finch upon Liyam finding the bird hiding in the varsity center's centralized atrium.

"Oh!" Toma sounded with wide eyes as he swept his eyes around the room to see who the other two, passing teams were. "OH MY GOD!!" The callan adorned a wide smile when he realized all five of the friends had passed Phase 2. "This has to be destiny." Toma's eyes watered when he realized his dream was coming true.

For so long, he wished he could be a varsity player with Stryke. After growing close to the others, he hoped he could play on the same field as his friends. Now that each of his friend's teams had passed the final phase, Toma could not contain his excitement about the possibility of his dreams coming true.

Sensing his boyfriend on the verge of tears from happiness, Stryke quickly approached Toma and brought the callan into his arms. "We're going to be varsity players, Stryke," Toma said with happy tears while returning his boyfriend's hug.

Although Stryke was aware there was still a slight chance that not all five of them would be selected for the team, he knew better than to voice the possibility. Instead, he held Toma lovingly and shared in the callan's joy.

"What happened to you?" Liyam inquired as he joined Kean and Wen on the floor. The dion was quick to leave the couple to themselves and joined the not-officially-dating-but-secretly-taken couple in relaxing after an extremely long day of tryouts.

"He held a technique for a half-hour," Kean explained shortly as Liyam sat beside him who then nodded in impressed approval and patted Wen on the back.

With the three teams and finches in the training room, an announcement was sent through the varsity center alerting the remaining seventeen teams that Phase 2 was done and the tryouts were complete. Hearing the official announcement of the tryouts being over sparked sighs of relief from the fifteen members of teams 8, 5, and 14.

"Well done, Team 8, 5, and 14," Coach Jeon said to those in the training room following the official announcement. "The final team lineup will be delivered tomorrow at 10:00. Until then, rest up. I look forward to officially meeting Dawson's Freshmen Varsity Team."

With that, the teams were dismissed, and the tryouts came to a close. Shina and Jace high-fived each other, and Erin quietly exited the training room while the five friends from Azari gathered together.

"Let's get some dinner," Liyam proposed as he stood to his feet. "I'm starving."

The other four readily agreed with the dion. Aside from an early breakfast and the finger food provided toward the end of Phase 1, the friends had very little to eat throughout the day and had expended great amounts of energy. So, to say they were starving would not be an overstatement.