The Disciple: First Mission

Chapter Four

In a series of tournament events, Tristan and I end up advancing to the semifinals. Tristan ends up defeating a Latina competitor by slightly tapping the ping pong ball over to his opponent's side. In another match Tristan faced off against one of the guys Lionel was talking to earlier. In the final moments, Tristan spikes the ball towards his opponent's left side. He dives for the ball, but crashes into the scorers table. The guy stands up spinning around the room as the medical staff arrive to take him to the infirmary room to get looked at.

"Alright Tristan! You made it to the semifinals." I yell out.

In my matches, one of my opponents who was a tall bald African American who forfeits after passing gas and running to the bathroom. The referee gave him a certain amount of time to return, but he couldn't make the count on time causing me to advance. In one of my other matches, the other contender didn't even put much of a competition for me because I had served the ball and spiked it every single time.

"James you made the semifinals, just like me." Tristan says as he gives me a friendly pat on the back.

We stare at the third table as Lionel had just eliminated his third opponent with ease. Walking up to his table two of the people who Lionel was talking to earlier walk up to Tristan and I with purpose staring is us down.

"Is there a problem here gentleman." Jeff says as he takes a swig of his beer.

"No... no problem at all." One of the guys says as the two of them calmly walk away.

Tristan and I sigh in relief as we thought we were about to get into a fight.

"Come on man. You got a match coming up." I say as Tristan is still staring at the two competitors.

We head towards the second table where Tristan is about to have his semi final match. Arriving at his table, Tristan picks up his paddle and starts swinging it around. Tristan then picks up the ping pong ball and is ready to serve. His opponent turns out to be one of the guys that Lionel was talking to earlier and trying to pick a fight with us. Tristan stares and points his paddle at him ready to start the semifinals. As he serves the ball Tristan stops and stares into the crowd.

"Tristan what's going on man. Serve the ball." I say to myself wondering what's going on.

As Tristan serves, he tries to spike the ping pong ball, but it ends up going out of bounds. Tristan gets the ping pong ball back and serves again. Again, the ball goes out of bounds. The score is now 0-2 and I begin to get worried. Walking up to Tristan, I nudge him on the arm.

"Tristan what are doing? Is everything okay?" I ask.

"James, she's here." Tristan answers as he points out to the crowd.

"Who's here?" I ask scrunching my eyebrows together confusingly.

"The lavender haired girl. I keep telling you about." Tristan answers.

Looking out into the crowd, all I could see were a bunch of people crowded near the table. They were all looking at Tristan as though he was high on marijuana. Tristan picking up the ping-pong ball, serves the ball spiking it towards the other side of the table. His opponent hits the ball back as Tristan lunges towards the left. Diving for the ball, Tristan is able to hit it back. Getting back up, his opponent is about the spike the ball back. Tristan readies himself, but before he could do anything he sees the lavender- haired girl standing in the front waving at Tristan. Distracted, the ball hits Tristan in the face as he is knocked unconscious. Seeing Tristan on the ground, I rush towards him, kneeling at his side.

"Tristan, are you okay?" I ask as Tristan gains consciousness in a second.

"J-James did you see here? She's here." Tristan replies as I look around the gymnasium seeing only blondes and brunettes.