The Boss and The Equipper

Chapter 4- NEW EQUIPPER

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Oliandrin took more than two minutes to tie his shoelaces as he was crunched down on the football ground, which was on the premises of his academy. His concentration wasn't really strong since his last feud with Finiaroli.   

You don't need to dwell on guilt. She was being judgemental...and it was entirely her fault, Oli spoke to himself for the hundredth time and jogged towards the rest of the players for a warm-up match.

Bread and jam were what Fin despised the most but still ate with a fake smile on her face and silently prayed for a call from the Conludium Academy informing her that she is hired. She was in a haste to find an affordable school for Pearl, so her daughter could resume her studies.

Conludium Academy reminded her of the words which she spewed at Oliandrin earlier. She groaned loudly regretting that moment. She didn't want to say whatever she did. Her trauma made her say it. She was angry. At herself, at her life, at God, and especially at those people who snatched everything from her...everything good and everything bad. They left nothing. She was so angry that it was impossible to contain it all and eventually, some of it came out on Oliandrin.

It wasn't until noon that Oli was finally successful in completely eradicating guilty feelings from his mind and that Fin received a call from the academy which confirmed her job as the equipment keeper. The rest of her day went all rainbows and flowers as she hunted down a good school which was fifteen minutes drive away from the academy with a day boarding facility.

One more day passed real quick and Fin joined her job. She got a comfy, small desk in the sports equipment room. She inhaled deeply as she sat down and the fresh smell of leather balls and wood filled her nostrils which she found soothing. Sports was her only love besides Pearl, and that was the moment when it struck her that she loves nothing else in her life...maybe not even herself too. Apart from sports and her daughter, there was nothing that gave her solace or a true sense of happiness.

Fin suddenly felt so heavy and low. She, for a moment, considered that she is having bipolar disorder as her mood changed drastically. She was so high with energy as she stepped inside the equipment room, but now all she could feel was emptiness. What deteriorated her mood more was the known fact that she can't confide in anyone, that she can't share her feelings with anyone. She only had Pearl in her life, a five-year-old daughter of hers who was too young to decipher the complexity of her mother's life.

She was tired of sadness hitting her in waves out of nowhere. One minute she would be fine and the very next minute she would be desperately finding a restroom to hide from the world and cry her soul out. She needed help and she knew it. But she couldn't afford it. Financially as well as emotionally. She gave a dry laugh to herself. How pathetic her life has turned that she can't even afford someone's help. 

A loud knock at the door startled Fin, and she straightened up on her chair and spoke loudly yet politely, "Yes?"

"Oh, you are the new Equipper?" a young, short boy's head poked in from the door as he spoke.

"Sorry? Equi what?" Fin asked with a funny expression and raised an eyebrow.

"Ah," the young boy chuckled, "sorry...that's what we use to call the one who looks after the equipment and gives us one. Get used to it, for you are a new Equipper," the boy smiled at last.

"Oh, I see. Very well, how can this new Equipper help you?" Fin asked with a smile in her voice.

"We need two shuttlecocks, two pairs of badminton rackets, and grip powder."