Sei's head flew in the direction that the cry had come from. He sensed more than saw a basketball flying toward him. Swiftly, he brought his hands up in front of his face and caught the ball. His heartbeat didn't increase at all through it all.
"Wow, good catch!" A girl called as she ran up to him. She had her shoulder length brown hair pulled into a side ponytail that bobbed about as she jogged. "When I saw you come out of the locker room, I thought for sure you would end up with a concussion." She laughed.
Sei just shrugged and handed the ball back to her. "I've got good reflexes."
"I noticed." The girl laughed. Then she squinted at him slightly. "I also noticed that I've never noticed you before, and I think I would have. Who are you?"
Sei mentally sighed. He was starting to hate being new even more than he did this morning. He felt so uncomfortable introducing himself to others. "I'm-"
He was interrupted by the door behind him opening. "Hey!" Peter exclaimed. He stepped to Sei's side and grinned, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "So you did wait for us, let's start that warm up."
"Oh!" The girl gasped slightly. "So you're Peter's friend."
"Hi Sophia." Ravis greeted the girl politely but quietly as he came out of the locker room. He stepped to the side as other boys pushed past him on their way in.
"Hey, Ravis." The girl, Sophia, said with a smile. Then she turned back to Sei. "You should have told me you're friends with Peter. Now I feel really bad about almost hitting you." She tossed the basketball up in the air to illustrate what she was saying.
"Why would I do that?" Sei asked, bored. He wasn't friends with Peter, and even if he was, he wasn't going to go tell everyone he met who his friends were.
"Didn't you know?" She asked, looking surprised. "Peter's my cousin." She tucked the basketball under her arm and stuck out her hand. "Sophia Kirkland."
Sei wanted to ask her how he was supposed to have known that they were related, but he didn't. Asking would have led to a conversation that, no matter how short, would still feel too long. Instead, he simply shook her hand and introduced himself as well. "Sei Gea."
The class bell rang, and was quickly followed by the teacher, Mr. Rush's whistle. "Kirkland, get the stragglers out here!" He ordered.
"On it!" Both Peter and Sophia replied. Then they ran into their respective locker rooms.
Sei watched Mr. Rush and noticed that he smirked as he watched the two students. It must be convenient having them both. He thought.
When Peter and Sophia returned, followed by a steam of kids from each locker room, Mr. Rush started the class. They were going to be playing dodge ball, boys against girls.
Sei stood in the corner of the court with Ravis as the game began. It swiftly progressed, with Peter getting most of the girls out, and Sophia getting most of the boys out. It didn't take more than five minutes for it to come down to Peter VS Sophia.
"Sophia!" One of the girls called from the sidelines. "In the corner!"
"Huh?" Sophia quickly glanced to the corner of the court. When she saw Sei and Ravis, she smirked. "Oh no you don't!" She shouted, and threw the ball hard in our direction.
Ravis squeaked and ducked low while Sei didn't move. Instead, he caught the ball and threw it back at Sophia as hard as he could. Only after it had left his hands did he realize that he didn't have to throw it that hard.
"Gah!" Sophia cried out as the ball hit her in the face. Everyone watched as she crumpled to the floor, hands covering her face. They all ignored when the ball bounced away from her and knocked over the basket of other balls.
"Ohmigod!" Half the girls cried at once. They all jumped up from the sidelines and ran to Sophia's side. "Sophia, are you alright?"
Sophia didn't move her hands, and after a moment, Sei saw way. Emerging from between her fingers was a thick red liquid. Sei had hit her so hard that she was bleeding heavily. He felt a painful pang of an unfamiliar emotion and he turned away.
Then his eyes met Peter's, and the pang grew stronger. He quickly shook his head and ran into the locker room. He had to escape the pain.
Sei didn't leave the locker room until just before everyone else started to change. When he did leave, he took the back way out, so that he wouldn't have to go through the gymnasium.
Because he left Physical Education so early, Sei got to his fourth and final class just as the bell to end third period went. Surprisingly, even though he was so early, he wasn't the first one there. One other student was standing outside the room when he approached.
"Sei?" It was Arthur.
"Oh, hi." Sei said, emotionlessly. He walked past Arthur and tried the door. It was locked.
"Miss French has a class in a different room third period, so she won't be here for a few minutes." Arthur leaned back against a locker. "The rest of the class know that, so they also won't be here for a while."
"Oh." Sei breathed. Great. He grumbled in his head. I've got to wait here for a while, and of all the people who I could have had to wait with, it's the older cousin of the girl who I injured last period.
"Hey." Arthur said, grabbing his attention. "Did you have gym last period?"
"Gym?" It took Sei a moment to realize that it was just another name for Physical Education. "Um, yeah."
Arthur nodded. "I just came from the nurse's office." He said, looking up at the ceiling. The tiles were painted with different scenes. "I was there to see Sophia, since I'm her legal guardian."
"Oh." This just keeps getting better and better. And on top of everything, that painful feeling had returned.
"She told me about what happened." Arthur continued. "When I told her that I knew you, she gave me a message for you."
Sei sighed. "What is it? Is she going to kill me tomorrow?"
"No." Arthur didn't even laugh. "She says, 'Nice arm'."
"Oh." Sei didn't know what to think about the message. Sophia wasn't mad at him. She had complimented him. The only conclusion that he could come to was that she was insane.