Zelgadis assumed his position as a forward, which came as no real surprise: when Xellos was team captain he always put Zelgadis there, probably to shake up the other team. No one ever wanted to mess with him, probably afraid to get near him, to get near his scars. The shorts and t-shirt he was forced to wear for P.E. didn't cover much.
Looking back at his team, he nodded in satisfaction. From the other class that shared his P.E. period Xellos had picked Lina, who drifted impatiently as leader of the defensive players. She had a cross between boredom and excitement on her face.
"Now I see why he put me in front," he told a fellow forward, "So that he didn't have to put Lina up here. Hey, you have class with her, right?"
"Yeah?" the forward responded, a small fellow named Hallas Lyes. He knew little of the kid, other than the fact that he had numerous women problems.
"So, is she the same devil on the field she is inside?"
"She definitely is! I'm glad she's on my side this time, and on defense."
"Yeah," Zelgadis agreed absentmindedly, his gaze floating back to Lina. It was definitely a different look to see her in a P.E. uniform, leaving far less to the imagination.
A sharp whistle screech brought his attention away, and the P.E. teacher walked into the middle, his long red hair scattered wildly about but held out of his eyes by a visor. Funny, but Mr. Gaav seemed more a fantasy overlord than a P.E. teacher, what with his massive build and powerfully deep voice. Rumors had it that Mr. Gaav had gone off to war, coming back as a disturbed hometown hero, but Zelgadis figured that was an exaggeration.
"Alright, you little hormone balls," Mr. Gaav started, holding out the field ball, his hard eyes staring down any that dared to look at him, "This is the field hockey ball. I want a nice clean game, but don't be pansies about it either."
Zelgadis looked to the opposing team. Seigram and Glavos stood on either side of Martina, Seigram keeping his hard glare forward. Martina seemed more worried about her looks than anything else; she was leaning against her stick and gently tossing her hair. Glavos said something to her, and she gave him a snide look and said something Zelgadis couldn't understand. Not that he had to; it was probably some ego inflated defense to belittle Glavos. She wouldn't be able to do that to Valgarv without him slapping her.
Mr. Gaav dropped the field ball and brought the whistle to his lips, "Alright, on the whistle." He blew hard, and kicked the ball toward Martina, who kicked the ball away as if it were a dead rat.
"Hey Martina, nice ball technique!" Zelgadis heard Lina yell as he charged to steal the ball from Glavos. Glavos tried to pass to Seigram, but Zelgadis intercepted it, barely avoiding a collision with the tattooed forward. Dashing ahead, he saw Hallas coming up on his left.
He made eye contact with him, "Hallas," he shouted, and passed the ball. However, he watched as Hallas received the ball and collided with one of the mid-field guards, a scrawny freshman by the name of Jeffrey, the two of them becoming a tangle of limbs and falling to the ground unconscious.
Mr. Gaav blew the whistle, "Alright, time out!" He crossed the field to the downed students, pulled them apart and the sticks from their hands, yelling to the sidelines "Amelia, you'll replace Mister Lyes! Valgarv, you'll replace Jeffrey."
Zelgadis cringed, then scowled as Valgarv came onto the field, taking the stick from Mr. Gaav, a wide smirk on his face. Amelia bounded onto the field, waiting for Mr. Gaav to toss her the stick.
"Alright Mr. Zelgadis, time to put our best effort into this. Are you ready…"
"Amelia," Zelgadis cut in, "Now is not the time for inspirational speech. This is going to get ugly."
"Ready for me to pretty you up, Zelgadis?" Valgarv taunted, spinning the stick in his palms. Zelgadis felt his blood boil.
"Well, if you handle the stick as well as I've heard you handle your guitar, I think we'll have nothing to worry about," Zelgadis retorted, digging in for a good run. Valgarv would be able to match him stride for stride, but he had better maneuvering, so he had a chance.
"Once again, on the whistle," Mr. Gaav boomed, then blew the whistle and tossed the ball to Zelgadis. Wasting no time, Zelgadis rolled the ball down the field, looking for Amelia.
"Zelgadis," Amelia called. Zelgadis followed the voice and saw Amelia coming up on his right flank. He nodded to her and shot the ball back, rolling ahead of her to help clear a path for their attack.
"Forwards!" Zelgadis shouted, knowing it would draw the others to assist Amelia, and he plowed a path between two guards. He spun around to catch a glimpse of Amelia, who was only a few steps behind him.
"Mr. Zelgadis," Amelia called, pulling back her stick to pass it to him. But she never completed the movement; Martina and Valgarv sandwiched her hard, and Valgarv snatched the ball, taking off toward the other end of the field.
"Mr. Gaav, penalty?" Zelgadis called, shrugging.
Mr. Gaav only shook his head, "No blood, no foul. Besides Zelgadis, Amelia is getting up." Zelgadis looked to Amelia, who used her stick as a support to push off the ground and stand, "Come on Amelia, let's see some hustle. Zelgadis, get back into play."
Zelgadis' face grew hot as he returned to play. Lina and the others were fighting to keep the ball away from the goalie, though Xellos hardly looked tense. Zelgadis couldn't help but smile: Xellos was an excellent tennis player, stuntman for the football team, and excelled at being a goalie. It would be a miracle if they could get the ball past him.
He watched as Valgarv pulled away from the defenders, Glavos and Seigram giving him cover, and approached the goal. The smile disappeared from Xellos' face, and he opened his eyes.
"It's over," Zelgadis said, and watched as Valgarv slapped the shot towards the goal, "So gone."
However, a flash of red hair and uniform intercepted the ball, her eyebrow hoop glinting in the sun as she slapped the shot away, chasing after the ball without missing a beat. Zelgadis just stared; nobody ever stole a defense from Xellos.
It was Martina who got the ball though, and gave Lina a hard bump, causing her to lose balance. He watched her voice "It's mine!" and slapped the shot toward Xellos, who was still stunned by Lina's interception.
"Xellos!" he shouted, hoping that he would snap out of it in time. Though Xellos was non-responsive, his body moved in near perfect time, blacking the shot and rebounding it toward Martina, who was in a state of near panic as it came back toward her. Lina stepped in front of her though, and prepared to receive the shot. Martina scowled and charged, sending Lina sprawling.
Mr. Gaav blew his whistle, "Penalty on Martina! Lina, you get to shoot it from where you're standing." A fellow player passed the ball to Lina, who took it, brushing the dirt from her face. Though he couldn't hear Martina's arrogant prattle, her could easily hear what Lina had to say before she slapped the shot.
"You want this Martina? You can have it!" With that, Lina struck the ball as hard as she could, sending the ball straight for the opposing forwards, all of which dodged the streaking orange ball, save for Martina, who took the shot full in the face. The whole field went quiet, watching Martina carefully.
The ball fell from her face, and Martina stood there for only a moment, smiled dazedly, and fell onto her back unconscious.
The whistle blew again, "Lina, you do that one more time…"
"Mr. Gaav, it's not my fault she has the reactions of a rock."
"That's true," Mr. Gaav finished as he crossed to Martina, "Filia, you're filling in for Martina."
Zelgadis directed his attention to the tall blond walking onto the field. Filia ul Copt, their class' valedictorian and the school's star female athlete, was a tall, pale beauty with long golden hair that hung down to her butt. She was one of those girls no one could touch, and the only enemies she had were the slackers, with the possible exception of Xellos. The two of them never seemed to get along, even as children.
"This is going to get interesting."
"Mr. Gaav, penalty?" Valgarv insisted, motioning to Lina.
Mr. Gaav looked to Lina, then back to Valgarv, "No blood, no foul. Play on!"
He blew the whistle and tossed the stick to Filia, who snatched it out of the air coolly and prepared herself to chase the ball. Mr. Gaav blew the whistle one more time, throwing the ball to Filia. Expertly she knocked the ball to the ground, focused on the people in front of her. She challenged every defensive player in her way, Lina occupied with keeping Valgarv and Glavos away from the ball.
Zelgadis watched as Filia blew past each opposing defender, maneuvering with the grace of a dancer as she approached the goal. A small doubt crept through his stomach: would Xellos be able to stop her?
He looked to the goalie, whose smile was buried and his eyes open, narrowed at Filia. Xellos was pulling out all of the stops, and he wondered if someone was going to need a nurse after this was over. He knew neither would give: Xellos was stubborn when it came to sports, and he had seen Filia lose her temper if anything stood in her way of completing a goal. This was going to be a real showdown.
The next few minutes looked like something out of a sci-fi action film; it would need to be played over in slow motion to watch anything. The ball seemed like an orange streak rapidly changing angles and flying back and forth, both athletes intensely focused movements swift and sudden. It was all a matter of who blinked first as to whether there would be a score or not.
It seemed as if there was a stalemate, and Zelgadis watched Mr. Gaav raise the whistle to his lips. Without warning he watched Lina dive right between them and attempt to knock the ball away. Filia flinched, and Xellos smiled, knocking the ball past her to a waiting guard. Lina winked to Filia and said something, but Filia seemed focused on Xellos, who only smiled and waved.
Now that the ball had resumed play on the rest of the field, Zelgadis saw an opportunity to charge in and snatch the ball; it had escaped an opposing guard and was rolling his way. Putting in an extra burst of speed, he rushed past a pair of defenders, the ball within easy reach.
Nothing could have prepared him for what came next. As his stick contacted the ball, Valgarv appeared out of nowhere, sliding in underneath him and ramming his shoulder under Zelgadis' ribcage. The air rushed quickly from Zelgadis' lungs as he was flipped over and collided with another body, Glavos, who sent him tumbling back over Valgarv's back and onto the ground.
"No blood, no foul, Greywords." Valgarv hissed as he pulled the ball away and ran off, Glavos charging after him. Zelgadis could only wheeze as he fought to sit up.
"Are you okay?" He heard Filia's voice as she helped him sit up.
"Fine," he choked and watched as Valgarv approached the goal. Xellos was actually distracted this time, staring at him in concern.
"Xellos, pay attention to the ball," he tried to yell, but instead came out as a sputtered wheeze. Valgarv was going to score, against Xellos no less!
However, he saw Lina, who had cleared herself of Glavos and Seigram, anger in her eyes. Her arms were pumping hard as she moved to intercept Valgarv, who was setting up for a slap shot. Even at this distance, he could see the die-hard determination in her eyes. Raising her stick high, she entered a slide to interfere.
What came next astounded Zelgadis; Lina slid towards Valgarv, who let off a weak slap. The ball sailed into Lina stick, which fell into her lap as she continued to slide on through, right between Valgarv's spread legs as he tried to dodge.
When everyone realized she had the ball, a cheer went up on his side. She looked relieved and hyped, and she stood up, preparing to knock the ball away.
The whistle screeched again, and everyone stopped. Zelgadis looked around for the reason, then cringed and smiled when he saw why. Valgarv was out cold, his hands on his crotch, his expression wide with both amazement and pain. Glavos and Seigram were poking at him, trying to wake him up.
"That's enough! We're calling this good," Mr. Gaav shouted to the students, "Get on inside. Glavos, Seigram, help me with Valgarv."
Zelgadis just shook his head, walked over to where they were dropping their sticks, and threw his on top of the pile. Lina came alongside him and threw her own stick on the pile.
"I knew you were hard Lina, but that was almost too much. I mean, I despise Valgarv as well as the next man, but even I was cringing at that."
"I'm a tough bitch, and mean when you piss me off," Lina responded, "If he wants to make dirty comments to me, I'm taking it out of his hide."
"You never worry about the future, do you?"
She looked to him, her red hair tossing in a sudden gust of wind as she smiled, then replied, "No fears, no regrets."
