Plenty of different snacks, including chocolate bars and potato chips, laid now on the table.
The tempting view distracted Sophie from Max's questions until she noticed it was significantly less than usual.
"Did they rise the prices at the kiosk again? That's just half I got yesterday."
Sophie could see how Monica rolled with her eyes in annoyance.
"Ugh… you and your snacks. I'll go and look how 'your' brother fairs."
The reproachful gaze she threw her made Sophie shudder for a moment, but Monica was just better at dealing with teachers, so she shrugged it off.
Max shrank a little, being asked something unrelated to the topic he was really interested in, before getting himself together.
"No... They didn't raise the prices. I just… didn't get any for myself. These are all yours Sophie."
She took herself one of the chocolate bars while Monica disappeared into the main building.
"Why that? Did you forget your money? You can have some of mine, if you want."
Izzy put her hand a little closer to the pile, triggered by the invitation, while Max looked down on himself, or rather the impressive belly that he had.
"No…, I just thought I might try to lose some weight. You know… leave out the extra snacks."
His brown eyes peered somewhat sad at her, and Sophie felt another rise of guilt. Followed by a fleeting look at her own quite flat stomach.
"Oh… Why didn't you say so? I wouldn't have asked you to buy them, had I known…"
He changed into a defensive stance, waving both hands in front of him.
"No need to worry. You can still eat whatever you want. I didn't mean to… come on Sophie, I know you're hungry. Now, what happened? Where are Felix and Jacob and why did Monica leave to look after them?"
She took a bite from her chocolate bar, mirrored by Izzy doing the same. She had snatched one while Sophie hadn't looked and wore an innocent smile while enjoying the sweet snack.
'Always the first when something is free…'
Sophie frowned despite enjoying the taste, hoping Izzy would at least know where to stop.
"Felix threw your time plan overboard and pulled your little musical number with Jacob in front of Coach Warren. Monica wants to mediate so they don't get too much punishment for almost fighting with each other."
Max sat down beside Izzy, who shrugged at Sophie's sour face while relishing the taste of chocolate.
'You know exactly what I mean!'
He looked slightly confused at her, as if trying to make sense of her words.
"Little musical num…?"
A numb sound came from under the table, clearly caused by a kick that Izzy had given Max.
"Ouch! Oh…, that little musical number. I know exactly what you mean."
His poor acting skills couldn't have convinced anyone.
'Sure…'
Now it was Sophie's turn to roll her eyes. She should really try to catch up with Felix and get some actual answers out of him.
"Either way, the break is almost over. We should really go to the gym hall."
[---][---][---][---][---][---][---][---]
The way to the gym hall was uneventful and Sophie spent it only by eating her snacks, while Max and Izzy had an extensive discussion about the right choice of clothes for doing sports.
They changed clothes in their respective locker rooms before heading into the main hall, which was currently separated into two equal halves by a partition wall.
Coach Warren stood in the middle of a half cycle, a ball under his arm, and assigned each of her classmates to either one of the two parts of the hall, like usual.
Felix and Jacob stood already apart from the largest group, far enough away from each other, as if to make sure they wouldn't clash. A sight that sparked Sophie's curiosity, on what might have happened earlier.
Warren actively pointed her out, calling her towards him, before Sophie could approach the two.
"You there, Taylor! I always see you close by when there's trouble, so you stay right there with your brother, where I can keep an eye on you."
She ignored the amused chuckle of some of her classmates and moved over to her brother, while the Coach picked another seven from the crowd.
Jacob didn't look like he received a lecture from an angry teacher, only occupied by something, so Sophie poked his shoulder to get his attention.
"Hey, Jacob. Everything fine? What did Warren say?"
Warren continued to split the class, so that only ten remained in this part of the hall, while the other twenty left for the other.
Her brother looked up at her, distracted and detached from the moment, his eyes darting away from her, unable to keep eye contact.
"Huh? Oh... nothing too harsh. He just took us aside and washed our heads for... well... for fighting like that. He said we should rather... just talk about our problems. You know, the usual..."
Warren took Monica aside for a second before signing her to go over as well, probably to watch out that nothing might happen, considering that she's the class representative.
Sophie couldn't help but wonder what he avoided to talk about and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"No problem, we can talk with Felix later together. He's really overdoing it a little today..."
The group of ten that remained contained herself, Jacob, Felix, Izzy and Max. As well as five others from the class.
Jacob only shrugged at her attempt to lift his mood, turning slightly away.
Before she could even consider worrying about his strange behavior, stepped Coach Warren in front of them, with the ball now in his hand, and the usual annoyed expression on his face.
"While the other, normal children, play some basketball, I'll have to do with you troublemakers. So, to get some of that energy out, which you don't know what to do with, let's play dodgeball."
He pointed over to Felix, calling the big teenager right in front of him.
"Ibrahim, you'll be captain of team one. Because the game is just over if I don't make you stay in the back until the last moment..."
Coach Warren let his eyes wander over the small group before pointing at Sophie.
"Taylor, Sophie. You'll be the other captain. I won't make the mistake of letting you two play in the same team again."
She stepped beside Felix, getting greeted by a challenging smile from her friend, and turned around.
"Taylor, you may pick first. Now choose your teams, we don't have the entire day..."
Sophie didn't hesitate and chose her brother as first one for her team, followed by Felix taking Izzy for his own.
Her eyes graced over Max, who would definitely get chosen last like always, and settled instead with Charlie. The girl with long blonde hair had received a growth spurt, similar to Felix, and stood out from every crowd.
Felix's second choice was almost instant and Jeremy, a fairly athletic short guy with black hair, joined his side of the field.
Sophie took Lukas as her next choice, a fairly unremarkable guy with red blonde hair, while Felix choose Rudy, the jittery guy with light brown hair, who jumped at the command and run up to his team.
That left only Max and Kim as the last choice, and since he was Sophie's friend, left her that with no other choice but to take him.
With all other players chosen moved Kim, a girl with brown hair, over to Felix's team and they got in position at the match field. Sophie and Felix moved behind the other team's field and Warren moved to the middle line, preparing to throw the ball up.
"You know the rules. No one targets the head. And yes, Ibrahim, I look at you specifically! Now begin."
Rudy took an approach run even before Warren got to throw the ball into the air, gaining him enough height to catch the ball at the peak of its flight.
Jacob's own fruitless attempt to get the ball made him an easy target when Rudy landed.
But just before the over-energetic boy could throw it right at Jacob, grabbed Warren the ball right out of his hands.
Kim, who was already rejoicing upon their first hit, lost all of her air when the Coach just gave the ball to Jacob.
"Your foot crossed the line at your landing, Rudy. The ball goes to the other team."
The silly mistake conjured a smirk on Sophie's face, only to waver and turn into dismay, as Jacob let the opportunity pass to throw it at the now retreating boy and instead gave it to Charlie.
"What are you doing, Jacob? Just throw! Ugh..."
She slapped herself in the face, seeing that the enemy team had already moved away from her own, but moved in position to catch the throw Charlie prepared.
Her throw wasn't too strong, giving enough time for everyone to dodge it, yet no one got to catch it because Rudy threw himself literally towards the line of fire.
A rash maneuver, which was perhaps motivated by his earlier mistake. Still, the boy landed flat on his stomach and forced his teammates to sidestep and refrain from a catch attempt.
The over motivated move remained without success, leaving Rudy immobilized on the ground, while Sophie caught the ball with ease in her left.
Another smile formed on her face as she aimed with satisfaction right at the exposed target, followed by an appalled outcry as the projectile hit Rudy's butt.
She could see how a similar smile grew under Warren's beard at the sight of the try hard student and heard a snort escape his serious facade.
"Pfft... good throw Taylor. Maybe this won't be as boring as I thought."