When the last bell of the day rang and the teacher left, Heylel was the first to get up, grabbing his bag as he readied to leave.
A hand tapped on his back. He turned to see it was Horikita. "What?" He asked.
She passed him a piece of paper and left.
Seeing her walk away, he opened the folded paper—her contact info. Stuffing it into his pocket he noticed Kouenji smirking. Shaking his head, he headed out. Today he was taking the scenic route to the Basketball court. And an hour or so later he arrived.
There, as expected Sudou was practising and the number two and three of the idiot trio were playing games on their phones.
Sudo was the leader of the trio, Ike and Yama-something were his dogs—that's what he knew from class. Today he sat down to confirm it, out of sight of course.
Ike and Yama-something were both thin boys, they looked like the type to die from one punch, especially Yama-something. As Sudou practised both of them just played video games and occasionally talked. They didn't need to be here but were waiting for Sudou to wrap up. It lent weight to his suspicions, if he got Sudou, he would get the two idiots too.
Seeing him practise Heylel had to agree the boy did love the sport, he moved with a focus and concentration that he hadn't ever seen on him. Taking risks when necessary, and helping teammates when it came down to it, he did it all.
But Heylel was not here for that. Silently he shifted to a more visible spot on the side benches.
When the players were finished with the current game Sudou finally noticed him and waved, "Heylel!" He shouted as he came over. When he finally reached him, he was slick with sweat, he looked like he truly moved, "Came to see?"
Heylel looked at the guy for a second and decided, "I am here to try a game. It's been a while." It truly had.
Sudou looked surprised, "You play?"
Pulling off his blazer and shirt till he was just in his undershirt, Heylel said, "Used to, mind giving me a refresher?" He put them next to the idiot duo as they gawked at him. They hadn't expected him.
Seeing how much better Heylel's body had gotten over time in the swimming class, Sudou asked, "Been busy, huh?"
"Thanks to Kouenji, yes." He said as they moved to the field. The seniors shot them a glance and decided to let them have it. "Very Generous of them," Heylel commented.
Sudou shrugged, "We are all friends."
Heylel raised a brow, there were frowns drawn on some of the leavers. "Doesn't seem like everyone is happy though."
Sudou read it and shrugged, "Don't worry about them."
Then the match began. As a courtesy Sudou had let him have the ball. He was underestimating him. Heylel would punish that.
He moved with surprising swiftness, immediately catching Sudou off guard, as Heylel tried to circle him. He managed to slip by but Sudou immediately turned and nearly caught up to him.
Too late.
Heylel was already at the three-pointer line with the bull approaching and he shot it. It launched in the air but Sudou was Sudou using his height and speed he jumped managing to touch the ball by the tips of his fingers forcing the ball to spin off course.
It was a close call but Heylel was not getting underestimated again. For the next fifteen minutes, it was a slow but methodical operation where Sudou slowly but surely picked at Heylel's defence and openings. It all ended when Sudou managed to push his three-pointer through.
And with that, both slumped down. Heylel was deathly tired. Noticing that he had to ask Kouenji for stamina exercises as well.
"Amazing!" Sudou cheered as he got to him, "Dude you were quick!"
Heylel nodded but felt shit about it, he was breathing heavily while Sudou was relatively fine. Heylel was fast and it was not that he didn't have stamina, but rather that Sudou kept his movement controlled, and Heylel had to expend a lot of energy for each attempt at getting past Sudou.
In short, Sudou didn't win with brute force, no, he won with tactics, he played at Heylel's comparative inexperience—he had a brain at least.
Finally catching his breath he stood up, Sudou put a hand on his shoulder, "Say what about joining the club? You would do great with practice."
Heylel shook his head as they pulled off the field and seniors took it again, "Nah dude, I just wanted to try my hand the with ball again."
Sudou looked a bit disappointed but didn't mind, "Any time you feel the itch, come back okay?"
"Dude, no offence," Heylel said, "I don't think we will get the chance." By the time they had reached the duo too.
His statement confused them. Sudou was the first to ask, "What does that mean?"
Heylel looked at them and started picking up his stuff, "You are going to fail the midterms."
"The hell!? You don't freaking know that!" Indgentant Ike shouted.
Heylel looked at them, "What is a simultaneous equation, Ike?"
"I don't know! Don't care! I will just cram it all before the exam."
"Good luck cramping mathematics," Heylel said as he went over to a tap to wash his face.
Sudou was not taking it well either, he put a hand on Heylel's back, "Hey man. Not cool, just cuz you can play ball doesn't mean you can insult us, got it?"
Heylel shook it off and pulled up his wet face, "I wasn't. I simply came here because I wanted to get one game with you before you left school."
"Huh?" That surprised Sudou, "Oh come on dude have some faith in me! I will pass."
"Dude, you guys plan to cram one night before the test right?" He asked and Sudou nodded, "Yeah?"
Heylel looked at him, half-open jaw, eyes slanted, an audible sigh slipping through his teeth, then he turned to the ball he was holding and shook his head, all in a very obvious manner—he was forcing gilt to bubble in Soudo.
He couldn't tell if the act was working. But this was just a recon mission. "Well, good luck then," Finally Heylel raised his hand and offered the tall boy a handshake.
It took a second before the boy reluctantly reached out to take the hand, "Don't worry dude…I will try my best okay?"
Heylel broke off the shake and turned away. "Sure."
With that, he was gone.
They didn't have a good relationship and truthfully Heylel didn't care to foster one but this laid the groundwork for someone else—for Kushida, who he was going to contact later today.
Reaching his dorm the first thing he did was shower after which he sat down on his head and saved Horikita's cell and email.
Then he called her.
"Hello, who is this?" Her voice rang.
"Heylel, the guy you blackmailed," He said and laid down on the bed half naked.
"Oh. So, any progress?" She asked and he ignored the question, "When is study club exactly?"
"Tomorrow after class. And what of your progress?" Her tone got sterner.
Heylel disregarded her, "We will find that out tomorrow."
"We? What does that—" Heylel cut the call.
Checking the time on his phone, it was already three in the afternoon. Pushing himself off his bed, Heylel fixed up a meal and then as the clock struck four he was out of the dorms, he had a study group to attend after all.
It was four by the time he had managed to stroll his way into the school library where he saw a lot of his classmates, mostly girls gathered as well, Hirata too was there. When they saw him a lot waved at him, pretty boy chief among them, "Heylel, come here to study too?"
Heylel walked over and took a seat at the other end from Hirata and nodded, "Sorry for unexpectedly dropping in, but Kushida must have informed you right?"
"Oh," Hirate nodded, "She said, two more boys are coming. So it is you and Kouenji?" At his words, a few of the girls groaned.
"You think he would come to this?" Sending those girls an unamused look Heylel pulled out his two textbooks on Social and Japanese.
"Fair enough," Hirata nodded, "But Heylel, didn't you do well in the short test?"
Heylel shook his head, "Not in Social Studies and Japanese."
"Oh," He nodded, "How were the rest?"
"Decent," Heylel lied as he opened the books to the topics mentioned by their homeroom teacher, "I am good with all the others."
"Are you good with English?" One of the girls asked.
Taking a look at her he couldn't recall who she was, still to prove that he was he just spoke in English, "[Yes, my English is decent. I am pretty much fluent in it.]"
"Oh!" The girl clapped her hands and shifted to be next to him, "Then can you teach me?"
"After Yukimura's done with my Social and Japanese? Sure. But I didn't bring any material," He said then switched off the conversation, focusing on reading his books high-lighter in hand.
The girl, not caring, tapped two books on the table twice, "I have it!" she said with a dusting of red on her cheeks.
Heylel looked up for a second and saw the name on the cover, Kei Karuizawa—wasn't that Hirata's girl? Moreover, wasn't she a blond delinquent? This girl has brown hair and simple clothing…"You borrowed them?"
Her eyes went wide for a second before she forced them normal and nodded, "Yes. Kei was kind enough to lend them."
"Okay let's check your level at least," He nodded, took out his phone and opened a capture of three passage editing questions he had. The job was simple: find all grammar mistakes and simplify the text. Turning it toward her, "Please solve these questions."
With a nervous hesitation and even redder cheeks, the girl took the phone and got to writing immediately.
Seeing them a small giggle went through the table, hearing it Heylel looked up at them. Some of them forced the giggles down while the others just covered their mouths or looked away. Not finding his answer in the girls, Heylel's eyes moved to Hirata who just scratched his cheeks and didn't say anything.
"Look Yukimura," One of the girls pointed at the gate.
Heylel followed her direction till he spotted him walking in. Waving at him he called him over.
And with that class 1-D's pre-midterm study group started.
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[A/N: Your feedback keeps me motivated!
Also, kind of weird how some chapters end up being 5k, some 4, some 3 and some even 1.2K]