Sora & Fumiko

Chapter Thirty-Three

I smiled at Jake as he walked over to me after finishing a few rounds, his hair ruffled and his skin drenched in sweat.

"We beat them! Did you see!? We beat them!" He almost couldn't speak as he tried to contain himself, his eyes dancing with victory.

"Well done!" I said in an appreciative voice as my teammates began crowding him with cheers.

"It was nothing really." he responded almost breathlessly, pride playing on his face.

It was really great seeing how excited the team was as we were inching closer to qualifying for the finals.

I continued smiling at him until I realized that Anastasia wasn't there. I looked over and saw her standing by the net, her racket and towel in hand.

I couldn't help but admire how calm and collected she always was, her eyes not betraying whatever she felt.

I stood up and made my way past my ecstatic teammates and towards her slowly before halting when I saw the scene that played out before me.

One of our rival teammates walked by Anastasia and tripped her.

I quickly ran over to her and so did Jake before our coach and the rest of the team joined.

"Are you alright?" Our coach asked as he tried helping her up.

"I'm fine, I just slipped" she retorted while pushing him away.

"No she didn't" I managed to say as I pushed past Jake. "She was tripped."

"Tripped, by whom?"

"A kid from Anderson's high"

"Typical of them to do something as low as this."  Jake agreed as he glared over at them before looking back to Anastasia.

I couldn't help but nod in agreement as Anastasia attempted to pull herself up before falling back to the floor. It was clear to see from the way she was holding her ankle that she was hurt.

"Ana are you -" he started

"I'm fine!" She snapped before he could finish.

"You're ankle is hurt, let me take you to the nurse" He opted instead.

"I told you I'm-" A gasp erupted from her as Jake scooped her up into his arms, her eyes wide as a blush crept up her face.

"Don't worry Ana, I'll take you, it's my job as the captain after all."

The blush on her face deepened as our team chuckled at her, the embarrassment from being held evident on her face.

"Fumiko" My coach sighed as he dropped a hand on my shoulder. "It looks like you're going to have to take Anastasia's place in the singles match that's next."

I swallowed hard as I took in his words, panic clearly causing my hands to sweat.

"B- But coach, I can't-"

"Don't worry about it Fumiko, this match is going to be easy"

With that he left my side and went to Natalie, leaving me petrified to the spot.

Me play against them?

My eyes shifted over to the boy that had tripped Anastasia.

I had only gone against a younger member and won but these guys were capable of stooping to any level and playing dirty to win.

I ran a hand through my hair as I went and got my racket, all the while cursing fate under my breath for having put me in this position.

As I made it back onto the court, a little nervousness gripped me, my heart skipping a beat as I realized the match was about to start.