Rivalry

chapter 17

"Cinco is back." Regie leaned on the locker next to mine. The afternoon class has already ended, and we are now in the hallway of my department building. I'm trying to fit everything inside, including the used t-shirts that I wore last Saturday but forgot to take out of my bag.

"And? I heard he's been hospitalized for two weeks." I said, looking for my white t-shirt and jersey shorts for the practice.

"I don't know, man. I don't even know why I'm telling you this." He scratched the back of his neck. "Where's Darren?"

"I don't know. I saw him with Justin and Ney, earlier." The hallway was filled with sounds as Regie and I walked. The majority of them were wearing practice attire just like us. We made our way to the gymnasium without looking for Darren. We did send him a message, though. As we entered the gym, a few members were already inside. Some of them were doing warm ups and some were just sitting on the floor talking. We looked for a vacant area to put our bags and things as we joined the others.

"Thank goodness you guys are already here." Said loki as he stood up and approached Regie and I. I raised my eyebrows as I looked at him.

"Why?" Regie curiously asked.

"Oliver was looking for you two. He needs help in the storage room." He said.

"Oh? Where is he?" I looked around to find Oliver, but only Kane was here. He's playing volleyball using the basketball's ball with the other members. At this moment, I'm starting to question his chosen sport. Maybe he's really into basketball, but his inner self says otherwise.

"What does he want anyway?" asked Regie. I looked at Regie with a slight disgust on my face. This guy right here, remember that car I saw at Sebastian's place? During the practice, I interrogated him, asking where he was that morning, but the fucker did not say anything.

"I don't know. Everyone is busy today." The coach is not here, so Sebastian is. I could clearly see that everyone was indeed busy, from my building up to other departments. I walked passed the faculty room and some students there were busy doing some things, like cutting some colored papers and painting some card board.

"Here they are." One of our teammates said We all turned around and saw Darren, Justin, and Ney entering the gym, followed by Oliver, Sebastian, and the coach. Everyone gathered around.

"Is everyone already here?" The coach asked to check everyone one by one.

"Yes coach!" We shouted in unison.

"Good. Start the warm-ups and be ready. We'll be doing a match for today, and after that, pick a ball from the box. That'll decide who will be your teammates." Everyone spread out, making big circles. Sebastian walked over to the circle to lead us for the warmups.

"Hey." Darren whispered next to me. I leaned closer to him and Regie noticed it.

"You're not included here, so fuck off." Darren teased Regie as he stuck out his tongue.

"Fuck off your face." Regie clapped back.

"Stop it, you two." I muttered as I followed what Sebastian was doing. "What do you want, Darren?" The three of us were now leaning closely against each other as we whispered like idiots. Damn, we were like this because the coach is very strict and Sebastian's eyes were always on me. Every mistake I made, he was always pointing it out.

"I heard that there's an upcoming college week in September."

"Oh? How did you know?" Regie asked.

"We were on our way to the faculty room when some students started talking about the event."