Reason 2: She Is A Very Talented Person (End)

As the girl's basketball team of our grade trains hard every single day for the Intramurals, they inevitably has to bring a ball in school.

Of course, as a certified trained dribbler myself, I borrowed their ball to play with a few dribbling techniques.

I have a few friends in the basketball team of my old school. They usually reach the Provincial Tournaments, so they are pretty good with the sport.

They taught me some of the techniques to hold the ball and to play with it without the other team from snatching the ball.

Also, in Junior High School, the curriculum taught us the rules of basketball. So I'm a glass cannon in the sport.

Maybe because of this that Nella and Blessie invited me to play?

Anyways, I'm not going to play basketball since I'm already occupied by Chess and Sepak Takraw.

The opening ceremony of the Intramurals concluded finely. The cheerleading competition also ended and we ranked second in the flag raising ceremony.

The sports events will start in the afternoon.

"Guys, remember our training!" I cheered for the members of the Sepak Takraw team.

"Yeah yeah, because you're not going to be here with us to play," Christy said with an indifferent expression -_-.

"Hehe, the matches for chess coincides with the time for Sepak. Sepak is a team sport while chess is not. So I better be there to play," I explained.

They just looked at me with no change in expression. My heart is crying inside. Why don't they believe me?! Do they really think that I don't want to play Sepak?! I would really love a change of pace with my sport, but I really can't!

I went to the chess event in the end.

There's nothing to say in the game, anyways. We spent hours sitting in front of the chess mat trying to outsmart and out strategize the opponent and take out their king.

Oh, and by the way, I'm a board two player, while a girl named Naomi, from STEM 1 is the board one player.

Ivy didn't win in the try outs, so it's Naomi and me representing the whole grade. And I'm no match for Naomi either.

That girl reached Nationals for playing chess! I only reached the Units, and Nationals is way farther than the Units!

I won for my board, which got our grade four points. I already accomplished my goal of playing.

Then we had a cross over, a match where the second place of board one and the first place of board two plays to determine who will play for the next Meet.

I got defeated.

That girl from board one is so sick! Even if she's only second place to Naomi.

The first day of the Intramurals ended like this. I heard that the points of our grade ranked first overall. We only have to keep up the good work for the events in the second day and third day to maintain the rank.

And the Sepak Takraw team managed to get second place! Though it only happened because there's only two teams playing. They lost the match and instantly won second place.

"Rae! Tomorrow afternoon would be the Championships match against Grade 10," a certain bird told me.

I was chewing the hard boiled egg on my *arroz caldo serving when I heard Jean say that.

"Oh? We won?" I asked.

I regretted asking that. Because a certain someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Of course! We will always win against those pipsqueaks. They still got a year before they can defeat us," and who would say that, you may ask? None other than the ice queen, Blessie.

"Hey! Get off me! You're sweaty!" I said as I shrugged her off me.

She tightly hugged me from the back, and I can feel and smell her sweat. Apparently, they just got back from the court.

"You're going to watch us tomorrow, right, Rae?" Nella asked as she put her ball by the table. She got with her a bottle of juice from the snacks committee and her bowl of arroz caldo.

"I suppose I will. The matches for chess are over now. I got first place for the grade, but I didn't manage to win a cross over for me to qualify to play in the District Meet," I explained, disregarding the existence of the ice queen tightly hugging me.

Time skip >>>

2nd Day of Intramurals, 1 o'clock in the afternoon

"The Championships for the boy's team will come first, right? So why did we come here this early? I would rather laze around in the classroom for half an hour," I sighed as I looked for a suitable position to watch the Championships in the basketball court.

"Do you want to go back to the school?" Jean asked. My friends circle are present, and they are chatting with each other while waiting for the match of the boy's team to start.

When the Championships for the boy's team started, we cheered and shouted and clapped whenever our team scored.

However, in the end, they were defeated by a small margin.

We instantly felt our morales weaken.

"Don't fret, guys. The pride of our grade level in basketball is the girl's team. Blessie did not get the MVP title for two years in a row without a legitimate reason," Ana encouraged us amd smiled, reminiscent of the past.

I don't doubt that. But I'm just highly suspicious of that ice queen. Did she bribe her way to get the MVP title?

And the Championships match for Basketball Girls started!

As I was watching the game, I can't help it but cheer for the ice queen.

She's always holding the ball, and it seems like every time she shoots the ball, the whole world gets a slow mo effect.

"She's left handed right? She's good," Kaye commented next to me.

I also realized that the way Blessie is shooting the ball is different, as she uses her left hand to shoot the ball instead of her right hand.

"Number 18 shoots and scores! The ball is now in the hands of---" the commentator announced as Blessie managed to get another score.

Blessie's jersey number is 18, as it is the date of her birthday. And to think of it, she'll be having her debut by the summer break.

My thoughts got back to the game after a few moments, just enough to see Blessie get a foul because she committed Travelling.

Kawaii!

She's so cute!

The way she argued with the referee is so cute!

Looks like she really didn't realize that she committed Travelling.

She held the ball in her hand, arguing with the referee. It stopped when Nella calmly told her that she broke the rule.

In the end, we won!

However, my thoughts were held back from cheering.

I felt that indescribable feeling again.

And I knew from then on, that I can't save myself from falling hard.

*Arroz caldo, also spelled Aroskaldo, is a Filipino rice porridge casserole rice and chicken gruel heavily infused with ginger and garnished with toasted garlic, scallions, and black pepper. It is usually served with calamansi or fish sauce as condiments, as well as a hard-boiled egg (Wikipedia, 2021)