Rivals

3rd perso

Thud! Thud!! Thud!!!

"Here Jason!" A player yelled as he threw the ball over to his teammate who caught it despite the opposite team's effort to get to it first.

Jason with little effort bounced the ball around and between his legs, dribbling his opponents as he rushed towards the other side of the court.

In no time he was few meters away from the basket and made a throw for it. Jason had never missed a shoot made in his perfect calculation and years of experience and this ball was not going to be an exception until someone else intercepted the ball's journey and striked it away from the basket.

Jason glared at the culprit who had stopped his goal and the culprit glared right back.

The whistle blew at that moment making the opposite team cheer and run off to their corner praising the player who had prevented Jason's goal for not letting their opponent win.

"Let's take a break" the coach yelled "be back by the end of the day"

"Yes sir" the boys chorused as they left the court.

"Nice shot Jason, too bad Louis got in the way, it would have been a perfect goal" a player patted his shoulder as he walked past him to go to the locker room while he remained in the middle of the court eying the basket like it was the one that betrayed him.

"So how does it feel not win for the first time in a long time" Louis appeared in his line of vision, a mocking smile on his face as he looked at the other.

"Exhilarating" Jason answered bored making the other snicker.

"Your face says the opposite though"

"My face has nothing to do with my emotions most times Louis" Jason deadpanned "and this is not the first time you've shown up strong with potentials of bringing me down" he added as he suddenly turned around and walked over to the bench where his bag and water bottle were.

"But as usual you won't be able to bring me down because there's a huge difference between the two of us" Jason started again as he walked towards Louis, stopping when he stood beside him while facing the opposite direction "I'm a winner while you are..." He eyed Louis up and down with a smirk "a quitter and as you know winners never quit and quitters..." He leaned in a bit so he looked like he was about to whisper something into his ears "never win"

With that, he too like all the others walked to the locker room leaving Louis with his fist tightened as he grits his teeth, his eyes flaring up in anger.

"I'll make you swallow those words Jason" he grits out "even if it's the last thing I'll do before this school year runs out, I'll snatch everything from you one by one"

**. **. **. **.

"Hey Reece" Jason greeted as he sat down on one of the school cafeteria's chair close to Reece who was stuffing her face with burgers, the cafeteria was full and noisy since it was lunch time "where's Tracy?" He asked while looking around to see if she was anywhere in the midst of the heads of students.

"She's at the hall admin's office probably getting her ears busted for missing roll call this morning" Reece shrugged before going back to her burger.

Jason sighed

"I'll be back" with that he went out in search of his best friend.

**. **. **

"I'm sorry Mrs Robert, it'll never happen again" Tracy pleaded

"It better not" Mrs Robert warned "you can leave and don't forget to turn in your apology letter by the end of the day"

"Yes ma" Tracy answered as she quickly gathers her books to leave the room. Lunch time wasn't going to last forever and she was starving.

In her haste to get to the cafeteria early she accidentally bumped into someone, dropping all her books in the process

"Oh my God I'm sorry" she apologized as she bent down to pick all her stuff, the person whom she had bump into bending down to also help her.

"It's nothing" the person's voice had her raising her head up and it turned out to be...

Louis Percy, her crush's rival

"Thanks" she collected the other books he was handing to her as she got up "sorry again" she added as she quickly walked past him.

'i've heard that voice somewhere' Louis thought as he stared at her retreating back.

"Excuse me" Louis suddenly called out but Tracy didn't stop, she probably didn't hear him since she was already quite a distance away and so Louis ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm making her turn to face him just as Jason arrived at the hallway.

"What the fuck are you doing" Jason yelled as he speed walked closer to the duo, grabbed Louis's hand and shoved it away from Tracy whom he pulled back to his side.

"Chill dude" Louis rolled his eyes "I was only going to give her this" he added as he held out a pen in his hand

"Oh thank..." Tracy began

"She doesn't need it, you can keep it to yourself" Jason cut her off before turning to walk back in the direction that he came from, pulling Tracy along with him.

"That was my pen you know" Tracy pouted as she walked behind the taller after putting a bit of a distance between themselves and Louis.

Jason stopped at that and turned to face her

"Then why didn't you say so?"

"Well you didn't exactly allow me to say anything" Tracy answered in a duh tone making Jason clear his throat in embarrassment.

He had rushed into the scene without thinking, seeing Louis's hand on Tracy irked him more than he had expected and maybe the game from earlier left a little wound on him.

"Whatever, I'll get you another pen" he scratched at the back of his head making Tracy smile.

"What will I do with you?" she sighed before continuing on her journey to the cafeteria "I doubt you will be able to replace that pen though, I've formed a deep bound with it"

"I'll buy you a better one" he promised

"You better" she hit at his shoulder playfully just as they arrived at their table which still had Reece occupying one of the seats and slurping on lemonade.

"What happened slowpokes? Lunch time is almost over" she quarreled as she slid the two trays of food on the table towards them. "Here I already ordered for you guys"

"Thanks Reece" Tracy said in appreciation while Jason hummed

"I know I can always count on you" he added as he bit down on his meal, devouring it, not to the extent at which Tracy was devouring hers though.

"Yeah whatever, anything you guys can't eat you can pass it over to me" Reece winked at them making Tracy paused to look her up and down

"I honestly wonder where all the stuff you eat go to"

Jason snickered at that as he continues to take huge bites of his food.

"How dare you body shame me Tracy" Reece glared making Tracy grin and Jason snickered more.

"When did i?" Tracy plafully asked "you wonder too right Jason?"

"I..."

"Hi Jason" a soft feminine voice interrupts making the whole cafeteria go silent as a tall, slender, smooth skin beauty with bright blond hair walks in closer to Jason.

Her every step and sway of her hip in her ridiculously short uniform skirt had most, if not all the boys in the cafeteria drooling over her.

"Hi Samantha" Jason greeted back with a smile as he checked her out "what's up?" he deepened his voice.

"Are you coming for the final years only hangout today at the swimming pool?" Samantha asked as she placed her beautifully manicured and polished fingers on Jason's shoulder which had Tracy's eyes zeroing on them immediately "you could play us the ukulele like always" she smiled, once again drawing another big smile from the already gone boy

"Of course, what time is it?"

"Half an hour after our practice tonight".

"I'll be there and..."

The words begin to fade in Tracy's hearing as her heart began to beat painfully at the sight of Jason smiling so heartedly at Samantha who was the captain of the cheerleaders.

Of course Jason smiles at her too, he always does but not in the manner at which he was smiling at this Barbie doll faced cheerleader at that moment.

And so it begins, that gut wrenching pain she feels Everytime she sees him with other girls, that huge lump in her throat that doesn't seem to go down no matter how she tries to swallow it.

And so it begins again, another week of her heart suffocating, of her jealousy and depression over her best friend and crush who she can never seem to get over.