Chapter 24

Squib was fuelled with anger, but he still wasn't strong enough for Jake. Squib's nose was bleeding and he felt dizzy. Jake was now punching Squib in the stomach. Squib tried to defend himself, but he felt he was getting weak. Everyone in the Open was staring at Jake and Squib's fight. Adena ran away as fast as she could to get staff to help Cody and to break Jake and Squib apart. Megan was just staring at the awful scene and clinging herself to Sébastien's arm. And Sébastien's mind had never been so active before.
I have to do something, Sébastien thought, I have to help Squib. But I don't think I can beat that bastard down either. Why is the staff taking so long? If I help Squib, I know for sure that I'll get hurt too. And if I get hurt, then I'll won't be able to go to the Hampstead Tournament. If I don't go to the Hampstead, then I'll won't make money, and I really need that money. What to do? Friends or finance, friends or finance, choose Sébastien, choose!
Suddenly Sébastien got an idea: maybe he could knock Jake out with his foodtray. Jake was too occupied with beating Squib up that he wouldn't notice Sébastien standing behind him, right? It was worth to try, it was all or nothing. Sébastien gently pushed Megan away from him and picked up his tray. Because of his hastiness, he accidentally knocked over Adena's bowl with salad. Jake heard that and when Sébastien was standing behind him, he quickly turned to face Sébastien and shoved him away. Sébastien slipped over the salad that was lying on the floor and fell with his whole weight on his right arm. Just when Jake wanted to kick Sébastien, coach Gunnerson and another coach got rushed into the Open and managed to suppress Jake.

Sébastien was the first to return from the school's nurse. Megan and Adena didn't had much eagerness to practise after what happened during breakfast so they had waited on a bench outside for the others to return. Megan ran towards her love when she saw him walking into their direction wearing a bandage around his right arm.
"Oh, honey, are you okay?" Megan asked worried.
"Well, at least my injury isn't as bad as Cody's or Squib's," Sébastien said, "but I won't be able to tennis for at least a couple of days. So no Hampstead for me…"
"Ah, sweety…"
"You know what the worst thing is? I didn't got my injury because of the fight, I got my injury because I slipped over salad. SALAD!"
"Well, you did got pushed…"
"But if I hadn't dropped that bowl… And if I never had lied about my financial status, then this all would never have happened!"
"Stop blaming yourself, Sébastien, you don't win anything with that."
"No… especially not the Hampstead Tournament."

There was no band that could be arranged last minute for the dance, so Rick performed as a DJ. At the end of the dance the two contestants for the Hampstead Tournament would be announced. Top Guns had only sat silently at a table during the whole dance. Cody's wrist was broken and Squib had broken his nose, but they both wanted to be at the dance because of the annunciation of the Hampstead Tournament contestants. After all, Megan and Adena were the only ones of Top Guns that weren't injured and had a change at contesting.
Finally the end of the dance had come and President Bates had asked everyone's attention. He first announced the male contestant, it was Peter, who was second on the rankinglist.
Megan searched the room to count how many girls there were in Group A. She counted eight, herself included. That meant that she had a change of 12,5 to get into the Hampstead, she calculated.
"And now the name of the female contestant…" the voice of Bates sounded through the microphone.
Please pick me, please pick me, please pick me, please pick me, Megan wished.
"Adena Stiles!"
Adena yelled of happiness and hugged Megan. Megan had trouble not getting jealous. She wanted to go to the Hampstead so badly, now her best friend was going, did she had to feel sorry for herself or happy for her best friend? If only she had practised more the last days instead of taking care of her injured boyfriend all the time.