Drained and almost loosing my right sense of mind, we did it? We actually won! I admit that the other team is hard to beat, we even lasted for 5 sets, their deffense block is hard to get through but other than that, their attacks are easy to read.
"Great work girls" Ashlyn gave us a group hug.
"Thank ghad" I breathed out.
Cheers from our school filled the whole place but we also receive a desserving applause from the other school.
What a tiring day, I think I should retire for the day after this. Both teams greeted each other for the match and we all look forward to the next game on the up comming sports fest.
"No. 05, you're skills are no joke" someone from the other team approached me.
"Your blocking skills are awsome too, it was a good game, thanks for having us here" I did a little bow making her laugh lightly.
"Don't do that, you guys won, I'm looking forward to beat you on the next match" she grinned while offering her hand.
"I'm also looking forward to that" I grinned back at her while shaking her hand.
Phew now that was tiring, we all lined up at the end of the court before bowing to each other and to everyone who watched the game.
"Thank you!" We all said, I gave Ace a little wave and he just nod at me.
Him and his serious look on public places, he really hates when it when people saw his soft side, after everything was done, we took a rest back on our locker area and change our clothes, energy drinks were also distributed and the medical team from our school inspected us one by one just in case if we have injuries.
"Ouch!" I exclaimed when she pressed my left ankle, I didn't even notice that a while ago.
"It's not sprained, just stress" she smiled and applied something on the visible reddish spot before wrapping it with a bandage.
I also tied some elastic bandage over a few of my fingers to avoid getting it more painful everytime, Liz injured her right shoulder from attempting one block, Sam is doing good but she's tired so are the rest, as for Thea it was her left wrist.
Not long when Ace entered with Zen and Icer. Ace handed me some healthy snacks before checking up on his cousin.
"You're gonna have to attend another check up for that" he said.
"I guess" Thea chuckled.
"Did you tell mom?" She suddenly asked.
"Do you want me to?" Ace smirked and she frowned.
"Of course it's a 'no'" she crossed her arms in front of her chest making a 'X' sign but by doing so, her wrist ached.
"Stop wriggling around" Ace poked her forehead earning a whine from his cousin.
He gave her a cold compress before walking towards me, kneeling down to check my ankle.
"I'm okay, get up here" I chuckled, his forehead ceased at me and pointed at my foot.
"'Okay'? With this injury? Are you numb?" He growled lowly he totally looks like a cute angry tiger.
"Whatever Ace- aww!" I glared back at him and he smirked at me, giving me a 'I thought you are okay' look.
I sighed and just let him be, he also helped me pack up my things and carried my bag before helping me up, good thing I brought some extra slippers so my feet can relax from being suffocated in my running shoes.
After finishing up, we decided to take our leave, to my suprise, someone was waiting for me outside the locker area.
"Cayden" I uttered, I can sense that Ace is confusely looking at me but I shrug it for a moment.
"Hey" he greeted.
"Oh yeah, Ace, he's my friend back on elementary days, Cayden, Cayden, my boyfriend, Death" I introduce them to each other, only I can call him Ace so I meant to introduce him using his first name.
"Nice to meet you Death" Cayden lended his hand to him and he accepted it right away.
"Likewise" he simply said.
"It was really good to see you again Tine, let's hang out sometimes" Cayden said before excusing his self and we maded it out the gym where our bus in now waiting for us outside.
"I don't like that guy" he muttered.
"Oh come on, he's a friend" I frowned, 'I didn't even act that way when Mikayla is sticking like a leech to you'.
"Still, the way he looks at you is making me want to punch him" he complained.
"Ace I'm tired so can you shut up? Let's talk later okay?" I pat his cheek, he sighed and nod before helping me up inside our bus.
When he set me on my seat, he immediately exited the bus to join the others inside the van and because of tiredness everyone of us fell asleep during the whole ride.
I woke up when I felt someone scooped me up my seat and carefully set me out the bus, of course, I smell his manly perfume so there's no meed for me to panic, I think I really need to retire.
Later that morning, I found myself on my bed, Annie was still asleep on her bed and when I look at my phone, it was just quarter to 4 in the morning.
Was I really that tired to be sleeping for 16 hours? No wonder I'm hungry, I carefully left my bed and check the cupboards in search for any foods.
I found a cup noodles and a ready to eat mashed potato so all I need to do now is heat up some water, while waiting for it to boil, I checked my phone and I received an unknown number messaged me.
'Who could this be?' I clicked on my inbox and almost dropped it.
'I know who you really are and your family background...'
It says, I grinned.
'Yeah? Well too bad cause I don't know you'
I replied. Such a creep, but I really wonder who is this, well it's worth a try to play around for now, I don't really wanna stress myself on this one.
Tomorrow's the sports fest so we'll be busy, it will last for a week because we'll be battling on a lot of sports and all 5 known schools are going to participate, this will also be the time when our school- the Emprium Academy's gates for Fallon University, Golden Gates Academy, Sparthens High and Hilton University.
And the main venue will be here in our Academy, so much to our last year huh.
When my water had boiled, I had it poured on my bowl which also awakened my room mate from her deep sleep.
"Good morning, sorry to wake you up" I giggled.
"Yeah *yawn* good morning, no worries, I have plans with Pierce today so it's a good thing to have you wake me up, hungry?" She asked tiredly.
"Yeah" I replied, I watch her did a little stretching before heading towards the bathroom as I eat my meal.
When I was done, Annie was also done showering so I decided to take a shower as well, a busy day is up for me today.
When I was done drying my hair, I walked towards my closet and picked up a loose checkered croptop and a tennis skirt, I also wore some safety shorts and my ankle boots, I have my hair tied into a low bun.
"Let's go?" Annie asked after unplugging her phone.
"Sure" I nod, it's still early but I think the cafeteria is already open at this time and I need to eat a proper breakfast.
Annie locked the door of our room then my phone rang, a smile automatically formed on my lips when his name greeted me, I swiped my fingers on the screen to answer his call.
"Good morning" I greeted him, Annie scoffed at me but I chose to ignore her.
"So hyper early in the morning my little devil" he chuckled.
"You're up early yourself, what's up?" I giddly slipped through the staircase while Annie used the elevator, probably doesn't wanna tire herself early in the morning but for me, I need to burn some fats because I ate earlier than breakfast time.
"When you're done with breakfast, can you meet me in the library? I mean before we proceed to meet with the others?" He requested.
"Sure, see you in a bit" I said.
"Great, I love you" he said, for the first time over the phone.
"I love you too" I replied in a soft tone.
When I reached the ground floor, I saw Annie waiting for me near the elevator and we proceeded to the cafeteria for breakfast.
5:30. Annie decided to meet up with her classmates on the main building leaving me to meet up with Ace on the library, I slowly pushed the door open to nobody inside.
I mean it's still early anyways, I walked over the library trying to spot Ace but I couldn't find him, is he playing hide and seek with me?
I took a quick detour to my usual place here on the library where I often find the letter, what suprised me when I got there was Ace, holding the book where the letters were hidden, my heart skipped a beat, how did he-?
"Oh, you're already here" he turn to me, I smiled.
"Looks like you're too busy to notice me earlier" I muttered, slowly walking up to him.
"Just found something to read" he grinned before closing the book and leaning down to kiss my forehead.
"I wonder..." I trailed my sight over the book he was holding.
"Hmm?" He asked before returning it on the shelf.
"Nothing" I smiled at him.
"Oh yeah, I need you to see this" he reffered to the book he just returned seconds ago.
"W-what about that?" I asked, he extended his arm over the shelf and unexpectedly took the book next to the Twilight one, good grief.
"The tables are classified here and it's the perfect formula on our science experiment from last week's quiz" he pointed out, I took the book from his hand and flipped through the pages.
"Wow, how did you know about this?" I asked him.
"Babe, you forgot that we're both on the top spot" he pinched my nose, I giggled amd simply look over its contents.
"I think you should return it now before someone finds out about our secret formula" he joked and I immediately returned it back to the shelf.
"Ah, my genius boyfriend is so cool" I complimemted that.
"There should be a corresponding kiss after that, right?" He said.
"I take that back" I muttered and left him there with his jaw dropped.
Our class was assigned to design the grand stadium- where the opening ceremony will be held so we went to fetch the decorations on the storage room where the lowest class including Mikayla was assigned to clean.
The storage room is big because we have a lot decorations there so it will be hard for them to clean it especially that a lot of students are walking back and forth to fetch things here that will be the disturbance here.
"Here you go" a male student handed me a big box.
"Thanks" I smiled before walking out the room.
We spent the whole day decorating the large stadium which was tiring to do, we even need to get rid of the gigantic disco ball on the center and replace it with spotlight that could be use to point at the stage.
The boys even climb up the roof to clean the dust and cobwebs on it, there's just 24 of us so it really took us a lot of time to clean and decorate it.
"At last, were done" I set my hands on my hips while looking at the whole stadium.
"Good work for us" Ace chuckled.
"Come on everyone, tomorrow's the big day, let's pack up and rest" James announced and we followed his command.
"We need to rest now so I'll just see you tomorrow" Ace said.
"Yeah, see you" I grinned, I kissed him on the lips before skipping towards the rest of the girls.
~
Okay, this is the day. Annie and I woke up at the same time and prepared ourselves, wearing our proper uniforms, I tied Annie's hair into a waterfall braid and I let my own hair down before we took our valuable things with us and walked down the cafeteria.
Everyone is up early today, guess they are excited to see the Academy's gate opening for the other schools.
After breakfast me and my friends walked out our building and proceeded to the main building to meet up with the rest of the group.
"Woah, first time to see you letting your hair down" Joseph complimented while Ace just smirked.
"Of course" I playfully rolled my eyes and flipped my long hair.
"Cupcake, you look pretty gorgeous than usual, you shouldn't wear light make up or I'll end up having a lot of rivals" Zen complained but Liz just kissed his cheek, I rolled my eyes at them and focused on Ace who have his hair brushed up neatly, a total prince charming.
Is he also showing off? Not bad, he looks handsome on his messy locks but he's even more handsome with his cleanly look.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot" Ace turn me around and ask me to hold my hair up, which I confusely did.
He wore a necklace on my neck and locked it, I look over the locket and saw the Core Society logo on it, my eyes widened and turn to look back at him.
Before I could even question him, he pointed at my friends and saw them wearing the same necklace as me, confusion also marked their faces.
"Wait, does this mean-" Annie looked at Pierce.
"My lady" he bowed at her and her jaw dropped.
"Isn't this too soon?" Sam asked Icer who just smiled at her.
"We can't ruin Loraine's crowning on the snowflakes dance so we need to do it now" Zen answered while straightly looking at Liz who was too busy admiring the necklace than noticing Zen staring at her.
"Ace, I wasn't inform about this" I grunted.
"Suprise?" He grinned making it impossible for me to hide my smile anymore.
"Welcome to the Card Organization ladies" Sofia clapped her hands and we replied with a smile.
"Okay, the gates have opened, time to head to the stadium" Icer said while looking over the gate almost 2 and a half kilometers away from here.
Just as what he said, we all headed towards the grand stadium and waited for everyone there, all of the Emprium students occupied the upper deck leaving the wide space below for our visitors.
The group led us to their designated seats which is called the grand deck which is located at the top of the stage where you can see both the audience and the one who will be performing on the stage.
We waited for a while until the stadium is filled with people, at first everyone was noisy but everything fell silent when Joseph took a hold of the mic and the spotlight pointed at him.
Thw light is focused on him solely so everyone's attention is on him, as the usual scenario of my three years of studying here, there was no sign of the 5th Cards, 1st and 2nd Cards around, only the 10th Cards attended today, which I didn't took a glance at their faces clearly because it was dark.
"Good morning everyone, I am Joseph Trevor Warner the leader of 8th Cards, sending our warmest welcome to every one of you for coming to our Emprium Academy for this festive event on this time of the year, kindly wait for a few moments and we'll be starting anytime soon" he announced before handing the mic to the person behind him and the spotlight adjusted to 'her'.
'Ashlyn?!' I exclaimed mentally, w-what is she-
"Good day to everyone, I'm Ashlyn Tainacei Fukuda, your Campus Queen, may I request everyone to stand up to honor the hymn of our dear school followed by the opening remarks of our 1st Card- the Head master and a message from our student power group, 4th Cards" she spoke up with a lot more confidence.
It's been a big mystery to everyone here about the campus Queen but looks like the 1st Card purposely exposed her identity today because she'll be stepping down soon as the Queen.
Just like what she said, everyone rose from their seats to give respect from our flag being raised together with the flags from the other schools.
After singing the hymn, we sat back down our seats silently, it's my first time sitting here and I can't help but to shake from being too nervous, it's a good thing that only the spotlight is on.
"Representing, our Head master, Oliver Cansas Santos, for his opening remarks" Clyde spoke up then the lights opened, oh sheez, now I'm totally visible to everyone, I look down shyly.
There's a lot of people here, I sighed and look at Ace who was just composed all this time, he turn to me and silently held my hand before looking down the stage below us.
"Don't look down, be confident, chin up" he muttered and I followed, keeping my chin up as I observe the whole stadium before it settled on the center of the stage.
A man on his late 20's walked up the stage and my eyes literally widened, t-that's him? Our head master?! All this time I've been thinking about an old man or something- but no! He's a handsome guy in a black tuxedo, his hair gelled nicely and his aura spreads power and authority, I can't believe this.
"Little devil of mine he's 11 years older than you so stop admiring him" my seat mate commented.
"Can't help it, this is the first time I've seen him this close" I replied he grinned.
"Thank you Clyde Nicolas Merferei, our campus King, Core Society members, thank you for the hard work to make today's event successful" he smiled to our direction for a moment before looking over the crowd.
"Good morning everyone, athletes, students, teachers and organizers, welcome to our 56th grand Sports Festival, all 5 powerful schools are gathered here today to compete with a fair and friendly condition as a tradition of our schools for the past 56 years in counting, our staffs and medical team are all open for service but as much as possible I don't want any accidents and dirty tricks in our place so do your best Emprimians, Fallonians, Goldens, Sparthenians and Hiltonians, I wish all athletes good luck, thank you" he ended his not-so-long speech with a bow before walking up to our place.
"Okay let's go people" Sofia announced.
Now it was our turn to set foot on the stage, since me, Loraine, Annie, Sam and Liz are just new to this, we simply stood with the group while Ace's group explained everything including the games settled on that day up to friday and what time will it be held.
"... and by friday, after the awarding ceremony on the afternoon, please remain on the Academy to attend our party that will be for everyone to enjoy" Icer said and applauses rang the whole stage.
"As the power group of the Core Society and one of the highest ranked students here in the Academy, it is also our job to serve you, our dear visitors, so feel free to approach us if you need something" Pierce added.
"Now that will be all for today" Troy said and handed the mic to Ace.
"Oh we have our late commers, 5th Cards, ladies kindly settle on your positions right now" Ace glared at the door which just opened.
And again, I was shook upon seeing who was standing by the door, Althea and Kiana and 3 other girls which I rarely see over the academy for three years, so that's them? The mysterious group.
"I, Althea Stanzelle Cromello, Leader of the 5th Cards, send you our deepest apology for being late- well I suppose, we're excused right, 1st Card?" Althea sneered at her cousin, these two.
"They're excuse, I gave them a mission this morning" the 1st Card announced and we all sighed.
"Well? Let the 56th Sports Festival begin!" The five ladies announced and the roof opened, confetti fell over the sky and a blasting music followed which left everyone of us speechless and amaze at the same time.
"That's why they're late" Dhenzy giggled.
"Ace..." I called when we stepped down the stage.
After the official opening, one by one of the students left the stadium to prepare for their games and do stuff so that leaves us to stand on guard- not all of us because some of us are joining some sports too.
"What? You didn't asked so what should I do?" He reffered to Thea who keeps smiling at me this whole time.
I pouted. "No wonder you two are cousins" I rolled my eyes at them.
"How's your wrist?" He asked her.
"It's already fine cous, don't worry" she chirpped and grasped over my arm.
"So you're officially part of the Core Society" Thea muttered tiredly.
"Well yeah, I wouldn't be here if I wasn't right?" I grinned and looked over to my other friends who seems to be processing the details of today's event in their heads.
"Well we still have a lot of work to do" Icer clapped his hands and we nod.
Do we really need to do this? I just wanna exit the scene and roam over the newly built stalls over the field and find something to eat to relax cause I have a game comming up tomorrow.
I sighed and look up the sky, so much to do for this last school year that's worth remembering, even if my head is about to get destructed by these twists of events, I can't deny that I enjoyed it.