Heart of Flame: Sparks

Chapter Twenty One

Saturday and Sunday came and went swiftly and pretty smoothly for the most part. After Ame and I had hung out, I pretty much stayed home and did homework. I know, not the most fun thing to do on the planet, but at least it was safe. From angry humans and Kaiju.

Monday was... not bad. Even though I was a nervous wreck the entire day. You wanna know why?

Today was Monday, and Monday November 9th was the day Basketball tryouts where. Didn't help that mom and Ame were reminding me all day about this. Mom even went so far as to buy me a brand new basketball and a net for me to practice with. I tried to tell her that I wasn't even sure if I was going to make it, but she sounded so confident in me she wouldn't let me speak. She even said she'd tell father when she got the chance.

"Hey man, you ready?" Ame asked, sitting on top of the lockers. I slammed it shut, not looking at her. What the hell was I supposed to say when I felt like bile was filling my mouth? Remembering what my mother said to me this morning, I let in a deep breath through my nose.

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." I mumbled. Through the corner of my eye, I saw Ame smiling. She hopped down from her high up perch and dusted off her jeans.

"Good, cuz I'm not letting you back out of this. I know you're nervous, but you need to do this in order to get Nathan's trust back. Besides, the entire squad is gonna be there." She informed me, which only made my stomach leap into my mouth.

"Wait... the entire squad's gonna be there?!" I asked, shocked. This was news to me. Ame just gave me one of her slightly evil smirks.

"Yup. Didn't tell you cuz I knew you'd react badly. Now come on, let's get there early. We're already in Gym so let's make it look like we're trying to be impressive." She said, grabbing my hand and dragging me along. I realized that I've let her do that a lot lately. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

When we got out of the smelling locker room, I was mildly surprised that other people got here before us. Then again, I had been stalling a lot in the locker room. Curious as to who else I was competing against, I did a quick survey around the room. There was about seven other people, four boys and three girls. All sitting on the bleachers with normal clothes on. Since Agono was a small town and there weren't really a lot of kids (five hundred, if I remembered correctly) most of the sports teams where Co-ed, even football.

After my quick survey, I decided that no one was much of a threat, especially since they were all skinny and had no muscle what's so ever. I did sit down on the bleachers, but I made sure to be as far away from them as possible without it looking like I was a bystander. Which was a lot harder than it sounds since everyone kept on trying to scoot away from me.

It was about a half an hour later when more people started to show up. Only about fifteen total, which meant if my research was correct, only three people weren't going to make it. I had a feeling I was going to be one of those three however, when I noticed that everyone here looked overly serious about the whole thing. Didn't help that Barnes is the referee. Few minutes later, I spotted the bright pink hair of Nathan coming out of the locker room. And damn, he looked like a total different person! Instead of his normal blue jeans and t shirt attire, he was wearing a blue with silver trim basketball jersey and shorts. He too looked overly serious about the whole thing, and that made me even more nervous than before.

"Hello everyone. My name is Nathan Asher, team captain of the basketball team. Alongside our gym teacher, Mr. Barnes, we're going to see who'll make it to the team and who'll have to get kicked out." Nathan said, his voice completely devoid of the usual happy tone I was used to.

"But before the fun can begin, I need to take attendance." He said, grabbing a clipboard from Barnes before he started calling out names. None of the names I was familiar with, so I tuned it out until he got to mine, which was at the bottom since I was the last to sign up.

"Sorcha Jackson." Nathan said nonchalantly. He paused for a moment before he realized it was me.

"Sorcha?! What're you doing here?" Nathan cried out, his eyes flashing to me. I shifted uncomfortably on the bleacher.

"I'm trying out, like everyone else." I said. Barnes gave me a nasty look.

"No way, Sorcha. You have an unfair advantage being half Kaiju. Plus, you're injured." Barnes snarled.

"Since when did you care if I was hurt or not?" I snapped back. Nathan gave me a surprised look.

"You're injured? How?" Nathan asked, as if me being injured was something that had never crossed his mind before.

"Some jerk kid in fourth a few days ago stomped on my foot. I'm fine now. Hell, I don't even need a brace anymore." I reassured him. Barnes still didn't look happy. Then again, when had I ever seen him happy?

"No, Sorcha. All we have is the small Gym until the regular one is fixed. I do not want to have this one destroyed, too." He growled, glaring at me.

"Don't worry, Barnes. I got this covered." I heard the voice of Damian. I looked over to the entrance, and I saw that it wasn't just Damian who had arrived. It was the entire gang, just like Ame had said. Barnes seemed to relax some when he saw a fellow KADT agent here. Even if he is only a recruit.

"Hey Aiden." I heard Nathan murmur, sounding unusually shy. I smiled when I saw Aiden blow him a kiss in response. Cuties.

"Alright. But Sorcha, if you show even the slightest danger I will lock you up." Barnes threatened. I rolled my eyes, believing him, but thinking how stupid it was that he was still trying to make me scared. After a moment of awkward silence, Nathan cleared his throat.

"Alright then. Let's get started shall we?"

I was actually a lot better at Basketball then I had expected. The rules were rather simple, and with my Kaiju speed, I was able to outrank everyone there. When I started hearing people murmur about how unfair I was being, though, I backed down a little.

The only thing I seemed to have trouble with, though, was actually dribbling. Often times I reacted too quickly and the ball would either go flying or it would stop bouncing. After my twentieth time trying, Ame intervened, even though I was pretty sure that was against the rules.

"Dude, just pretend it's Brandon's head." Ame advised. I gave her an amused grin.

"You know that's gross, right?" I asked.

"Just try it. It might help." She said, handing me another basketball. I looked at the basketball in my hands, trying to visualize it as Brandon's ugly face. Needless to say, that was the easy part. The hard part was trying to keep my stomach under control while I dribbled. Hey, at least it helped.

At the end of the two hour tryout period, I found myself not as tired as I had expected. Everyone else was on their knees, gasping for air as if they had been held underwater. I just felt like I needed a little water.

"Alright wimps. It's time for us to tell you who's staying and who's going." Barnes barked. Everyone seemed to breath out a sigh of relief at that before we all gathered at the bleachers. I sat with the rest of my group.

"Dude, did you put on Cinnamon perfume or something?" Carlos asked, which surprised me since for the past two weeks or so he hasn't spoken a word to me.

"No. Why?" I asked.

"You smell like it. Not like it's overpowering, it's kinda nice, actually." He said.

"Oh. Uh... Thank you?" I said, but it came out more as a question.

"Shh! We wanna know if you got in or not!" Kyle said, another pleasant surprise since he hasn't talked to me either. From then on, I trained my ears towards Nathan to see if I had gotten in.

There was only me and this Mexican guy, and there was only one slot left to fill. The air was tense, it felt like everyone was holding their breath. Nathan and Barnes kept on giving each other looks, like they weren't sure who they should pick. Nathan looked at his clipboard, probably comparing the scores. He let out a sigh and looked up. I held my breath.

"Jacob Winchester." Nathan said. I felt my heart go heavy when I heard the other kid's name, feeling like I had failed. Already, people were cheering for him, and I just closed my eyes, feeling like I wanted to block everything out. At least for a moment.

"I'm sorry, you didn't make it." My eyes flew open at that, and the Gym filled with a loud, confused sound. Nathan looked over to me, a slight smile on his face.

"Welcome to the team, Sorcha." He said. I had to pause for a moment, trying to process what had happened. Then, it hit me.

I did it. I was a member of the basketball team. Someone behind me had startled me back into existence by a loud, cheerful laughing sound. Along with someone hugging me from behind.

"Welcome to the jocks, Sorcha!" Aiden cried out, gripping my shoulders tightly as if he was trying as hard as he could. Sorry man, wasn't working.

"Thanks, Aiden." I said, smiling happily.

"Sorcha, come on up and get your jersey." Nathan said, laughing. I didn't even wait for Aiden to get off of my back, I just stood up and walked over. I was surprised, however, to find that Aiden wasn't heavy to me at. Hell, I felt like I could carry him around all day

"I'm not sure if this'll fit you, but this is the biggest size in women's we have. If it doesn't fit, just let me know and I'll give you one of the men's sizes." Nathan said. I gave him a quick nod.

"Umm... Sorcha? Can you put me down?" Aiden asked, making me remember that he was still hanging off of me."Yeah man." I said, leaning down so his feet could touch the ground. Once I felt Aiden's weight leave my shoulders, I stood back up."Alright everyone! First practice is tomorrow after school. I expect everyone who made it to be here ASAP. You're all dismissed." Nathan said, walking off to the boy's locker room. Probably to change. I was about to leave with the rest of the team, but Ame grabbed my shoulder."Let's wait for Nathan. We can walk him home." She said. A bad feeling seemed to form in my stomach, mostly because I wasn't sure if Nathan had forgiven me yet. I waited with them anyways.