Sunsets and Constellations | B X B

• T E N •

E L I J A H

Elijah was at ease today. At present, he was standing in the basketball court waiting for his turn to try out. Only six of them had shown up from his batch which probably meant all of them would make it, because as of now, there were just four members on the team.

The big question was who among them would make it to the opening five. All his batch mates were pretty good, he'd seen them all try out and was honestly impressed. He was the last one in line and was surprisingly calm.

Coach Amy Lee had a weird way of selecting the players.
The seniors would have to play a '3 v 2' with the juniors being placed on the team with two members.
It was now his turn, and he was on Mason's team. The boy's hands were wrapped in thick, white gauze and bandages, with only his fingers showing. But he still played incredibly well.

He started dribbling the ball from the rival end and once he reached mid-court, threw the ball over to Elijah who was blocked by Velarde, the Captain. Velarde turned toward his right but Elijah quickly ducked under his outstretched arm and in no time, he had snagged the ball from the Captain's higher arm and slid around him, running as fast as he could toward the basket. He slowed down. Jackson was huge, and in front of him and now he had to think fast. He jerked his head toward Mason, gesturing for him to go left because of which Jackson slightly moved left. He shot forward like a bullet, faking left and then driving right, passing the ball around Blake and grabbing it as he ran past him, taking an easy layup and threw it into the basket.
He whirled around, high-fiving Mason who looked impressed.

"Good game, what's-your-face." Jackson grinned, slapping him on the back.

Coach Amy Lee blew her whistle and clapped her hands.

"Okay, Kingston will be in the opening five for the first match of the season. Matthias, Kingston and Nawaz will alternate this year. We'll have practice every other day. Weekends, nope. But when we have a match approaching, practice everyday. Make sure you don't get detention because it's inexcusable. Now move your butts outta here." She barked out, voice extremely loud for such a small woman.

Elijah slapped his forehead and began sprinting toward the music room. He had completely forgotten about detention.

Arius was going to kill him.

He was panting by the time he had climbed up the stairs and was currently trying to gather himself before he went in to Mr.Grouch.

"Oh hey. Look at what day it is today! Monday, I totally forgot. Haha." He said, forcing out the most unconvincing laugh.

"Oh hey. You got it wrong; it's go-fuck-yourself day." Arius said, feigning a look of complete happiness.
If Elijah couldn't hear, he would've thought Arius was offering him cookies or something.

"Chill out man. No need to be such a bitch. I had try outs for basketball."

Arius's face darkened and a wave of sadness went through his eyes. Elijah would've certainly missed it if he wasn't such a cheeseball, staring into his eyes because it made him feel all giddy inside. He simply turned around and continued wiping down the French horn that was resting on the piano bench.

"What's your problem? Why do you hate me so much?" Elijah pressed.

"I fucking don't know. Maybe you could help by not talking to me. Now leave me the fuck alone, alright?"

For some reason, Elijah just found this amusing and just let out a bark of laughter that had Arius glaring daggers at him and mumbling something about "ignoramus imbeciles" under his breath.