Right-o, then. The day I wrote this was the 30th of March. We had two tornados that day. Lovely, isn't it? I had the pleasure of staying at school for four hours with unlimited web access. It quite made up for the weather. Anyway, this chapter is a continuation of that last chapter, in a way. Same day, though not the same episode of antagonization. Also, err… !canon. Sorry.
Lots of love,
O.R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the things I own. The things I own are the things not owned by Colfer. Colfer owns everything except the things I own. The things Colfer owns are the things I do not own. :) Try that one, all you people who think you're the next Artemis Fowl.
Holly sighed, got up for the fifth time in the last half hour, and paced out the measurement of her cubical like a wildcat in a cage. The question, of course, was whether or not she should risk drawing any more attention to herself. The Commander had been furious! If word got out that she was disturbing the peace he might investigate.
However, the thought of playing on a tolerable crunchball court inside instead of a rundown half-court in the city park was alluring. And the thought of seeing those boys' faces was even better.
She glanced at the clock, saw to her satisfaction that the work day was official over, and set about removing her suit. The newness of it made it difficult to get off, as it was starched, and pressed, and the button holes were still unbroken, and so forth, but she managed to get it off fairly quickly, and slid on the tennis shoes she'd brought with her. The boots she'd been given hurt her feet, and she wasn't going to wear them any longer than she had to.
The jeans would have to do for now, but she doubted she'd exchange them for anything other than an older pair. Jeans was her favorite word.
Once, twice she looked in the computer screen at her reflection. As far as she could tell, her hair wasn't too far out of line. She opened the door, and hurried towards the gym.
It just so happened that Chix Verbil, the team water boy had bumped Julius in the hall that day, making him spill his fresh cup of coffee. Needless to say, Julius was not happy about this turn of events, and Chix was receiving a thorough tongue-lashing as he tried to make his way to the gym.
Julius was going so he could find an excuse to make severe cuts in the team budget, which was miniscule already. He also enjoyed giving people long lectures and this errand happily coincided with his lecture to Chix.
"And further more—" He broke off abruptly, frowning at Chix, who was staring off into the distance. "Are you listening to me, imbecile?"
"Look at her butt!" Chix licked his lips, eyes huge. "What's her name?"
With several choking noises, Julius turned to block Chix's view of the butt in question, and let out a howl. "Stop looking at people's butts Verbil! Was that why you ran into me in the hall?"
Chix sidled to the side, where he could see the butt again, eyeing it and it's owner as it disappeared around the corner. "Sorry, Commander. Just trying to get a better look. I honestly didn't see you. She really sticks out, you know? That gorgeous red hair—"
The choking, which had started to die down, returned in full force, and Julius actually considered hitting him. "Are you listening to me?"
"No," answered Chix truthfully. "Can we hurry up? I want to get a close up, if you don't mind."
"I do mind!"
"You can look to if you want," he offered kindly. "I won't get in your way, and I promise I'll try not to spill anymore coffee on you. It's kind of awkward when it looks like your commander just peed his pants."
If Julius had been blue in the face before from yelling, well— never mind. It was doubtful things could get much worse. You really had to feel sorry for Chix. Not only was he going to get a cheap coffin, but he was so incredibly stupid, that he didn't realize it.
Holly opened the gym door, discretely sniffing up the warm air that reeked of wax, and smiling at the sound of scuffling tennis shoes. From her vantage point on the gym walkway above the bleachers she could see the guys stretching and bragging. Typical of the jocks. A few of them had even decided to leave the shirts behind for the benefit of the ladies sitting on the other side of the gym. None of them looked like they were going to go anywhere near a crunchball.
She hadn't played crunchball at the Academy. Not very many people knew she played. It probably wouldn't have surprised them, since Holly was naturally good at most sports, but it wasn't very public. She liked to be able to startle people. Now would be the time for that.
With a slightly smile, she ambled down the steps until she was directly behind the team's bench, and leaned over to pull Trouble's hair. "Hey, Trouble. Am I invited?"
"Hey!" He turned, nodding as she swung over the rail. "Join us. I wasn't sure whether or not you'd show up."
"Oh?" Holly arched a challenging eyebrow. "And why would that be?"
Trouble shrugged. "It is your first day."
A ball came whistling at them, and Holly snatched it out of the air, half a second before it permanently damaged Trouble's face. "Watch where you throw that, Vein!"
"Sorry. But I couldn't resist. Trouble's so enamored with you, I didn't think he'd notice, and I just wanted to test—" Grant ducked to the side as the ball came whistling back at him twice as fast as he'd originally thrown it. "Just kidding, Holly!"
Holly got to her feet and pretended to brush herself off. "Whatever. What are we going to do?"
"Mondays are game days. We've already got teams for this month, though we shuffle them. It was an odd number, so you'll make it even." Trouble nodded towards Grant, who was dribbling in tiny circles. "You can be on his team. He's short one."
One of the men shuffled over uncertainly, a little wary of Holly, since he'd been there when she laid Vein flat on the ground earlier that morning. "Sorry to interrupt, but uh… is she going to play? I mean, what— what's she going to do? She's not going to join the team, or something, is she?" He shot Holly a hasty glance. "Not that that would be a problem, just wondering."
"If I'm not good enough, I won't join," said Holly calmly, slicking a loose strand of hair out of her face. "That simple. Let's go."
Slowly, the men moved out onto the court. A few of them sent her curious glances, but they ignored her for the most part. She was a women. Women didn't join the crunchball team. Let her play. Don't make her angry. She'll lose interest and wander off soon.
Holly studied the men on her team for a few seconds, and then moved to the empty guard position. Grant was about as good as Trouble, and she thought she recognized a couple of the men. At any rate, they all looked like they were descent at least, and appeared to know what they were doing, which was always a plus during games. (particularly the ones you wanted to win)
"Wait a second." Grant turned around and motioned to Holly. "You start at center."
This caught the attention of everyone. A few of the men on her team grumbled. Trouble also grumbled, but it was for an entirely different reason. Grant smiled unpleasantly at him. "I can't wait to see our star player get schooled! And you know you will."
Beside Trouble, Holly looked tiny. He was almost two inches taller than her, and about three more across the shoulders. It was almost laughable, but naturally Trouble didn't feel like laughing.
A few of the men tittered.
The second the ball was in the air, Holly was beside it, almost two thirds her height off the ground, snapping it to Grant before Trouble even had time to react. She came down hard on his toes, almost knocking him over. One of the reasons women didn't usually get involved in crunchball was because of the amount of contact. Unless you broke something, or there was a lot of blood, no one cared less who you knocked. "Don't get too much in my way, Trouble Kelp. I'm going to play this game!"
Very politely, Trouble moved to the side, and Holly took off down the court, catching the ball Grant tossed her, and bowling over the man who got in her way.
Then, in something close to slow motion, the whole gym gaped as she kicked her feet together, and rose off the ground, higher and higher and higher, and slammed the ball through the net. The entire basket quivered from its force, and she hung on the rim for an instant before dropping back to the gym floor with a soft thud.
Everything was silent except for the hollow bouncing of the crunchball on the gym floor.
Finally, one of Trouble's teammates rounded on him. "Did you know she could jump like that?"
He nodded sheepishly.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He shrugged.
"Why didn't you invite her to play before?"
Trouble scowled at him. "This is her first day, idiot! She's been in the Academy!"
Several of the men started to shake their heads. "Impossible! We checked everyone who played crunchball in the Academy. There weren't any women!"
"I don't play," said Holly quietly.
Almost as one, the team turned to look at her. It wasn't comprehendible that someone could be that good, and not play. "Since most teams are only guys, they don't tend to be welcoming. Not their fault exactly. I mean, I am kind of odd, but I dislike the looks people give me." She tossed the ball to Trouble. "Here. Thanks for letting me play for a while. I'd better get home."
"But—"
She grinned cheekily at him. "I just had to beat you again."
One of the older men turned around. "Kid, it doesn't matter that you're a girl! We want to go to Atlantis. If you're that good we want you. You can't just walk out after baiting us like that!"
The door flew open with a bang, and Chix Verbil fled down the stairs, followed closely by Julius, who was screaming profanities at the top of his lungs between death threats.
At the bottom of the bleachers, Chix stopped dead as he caught sight of Holly. "Look, Julius! That's the one with the gorgeous butt!"
Snickers all around, except for Julius who hadn't heard over the noise he was making, and Chix who was actually serious. Holly set her jaw, and turned towards Trouble. "Give me that ball back."
Cautiously, Trouble tossed it to her.
Holly eyed Chix for a moment, then leaned back, and hurled the ball at him. It was what the older LEP members called a pop. Like when you take a dandelion between your thumb and index finger, and pop the head off. Chix's head popped. Almost. The ball hit him full in the face, and he dropped like a bucket of squid.
Unfortunately, the ball had been thrown with so much force that it bounced off Chix and continued on its course, hitting Julius in the head as well.
Trouble struggled with a laugh. "Isn't that the second time now?"
Julius struggled to his feet, trying to pick of the remainder of his shattered dignity, and failing miserably. "Woman! Get off the court! What the hell are you doing disrupting the team and causing violence, and injuring fellow members of the LEP?"
No one moved. Especially Holly.
"Did you hear me?" His neck was bulging. "Women don't play crunchball! Get off the damn court!"
Holly sighed and glanced at the rest of the team. "I'll stay then."
Laughing, one of the men ran to get another ball. They were going to like Miss Holly Short. She had a wonderful way of driving the commander's blood pressure up a few notches. Of course, none of them wanted to get on her bad side, but so long as they were nice and the commander kept her occupied, things should be fine.
Julius stepped over Chix just as he started to sit up, lost his balance, and tumbled down the rest of the stairs to land in an undignified heap at the bottom.
It was a sad day for LEP pride, at least from the top's view. The rest of the LEP was very proud at what they had accomplished— or rather, what Holly had accomplished.
They opened another betting pool on when Julius would have his first heart attack. Soon— they were sure. With Holly around, it looked like all things were possible.
Julius sat down huffily, deciding not to do anything about the woman, and figuring she'd make a complete fool of herself. He couldn't risk something else happening. Getting hit by that ball was bad enough. Tripping over Chix Verbil had been a nightmare. He didn't even want to consider what the next thing might be.
Chix staggered to his feet, blood streaming out of his nose, with a rapidly swelling face, and collapsed on the bench next to Julius. "She likes me."
"What the hell do you mean, she likes you?" Julius turned to stare at him in clear astonishment. "She just bashed one side of your face in, you moron! How's that mean she likes you?"
"Showing off for me," grinned Chix. "You can tell when they get feisty like that. She wants attention because she's attracted to my naturally good looks and charm."
Inside, Julius was screaming. "Not even a bull troll, sprite. Think again."
"Don't be jealous! I'll give you a few pointers, if you like. Then, you too can be beautiful— though given the material we have to work with, it might be a bit of an overstatement if you know what I mean. Not that that's a bad thing— if everyone were as beautiful as me, it would be harder to appreciate my natural charm and good looks."
On the court, someone dropped the ball, they were laughing so hard. Holly groaned and started looking for something else to throw. It took her a moment before she realized the men were backing away from her. She sighed. "I don't lose my temper with anyone except the person annoying me. You're safe."
The men stopped backing away, but they wisely chose to stay where they were. Just in case…
Just to be careful.
This time, Julius noticed what Holly was doing, and began to scoot away from Chix. Slowly, at first, and then faster and faster until he was a good distance from the target. He was certain Holly wouldn't miss, but he was worried about it bouncing off Chix's exceptionally hard head.
"Don't be frightened, Julius," prattled Chix, not even noticing that everyone was holding their breaths, and watching Holly in delight as she aimed. "Anything is possible, they say."
He was knocked clean off the bench.
Very carefully, Julius stood up and began walking up the steps. When he had reached the door, he turned around. "Women have no place on the crunchball team, and I want you off, or—" The rest of his sentence was cut off as he hastily ducked to the other side of the door.
After waiting an instant to make sure he was gone, Holly turned around, smiling brightly at everyone. "Well then— shall we actually play crunchball? I want to go to Atlantis."
Trouble laughed. "We all do, Holly. We all do."
How happy… I just though that maybe we should have established Chix prior to his heaving activities in mockery of Julius at the end of the first book. This was the place to do it, no? The next chapter, in my opinion, is better than the first. Sorry if this one lagged. Um, just so you guys know, I'm having the hugest WB. Oh yeah... and go check out the Orion Awards! It is awesome. Join the forums. Someone said the link in my profile wasn't working, but I'm going to fix it.
You who do not review: Your evils will condemn you on the day of judgment. :)
