It was a nice afternoon at the Dunwiddie BallBasket Court and sports complex where a couple of guys are playing together. One of them of course is a certain Royal Sorcerer who of course, ditched his royal duties as expected to play around

"Come on, magic-boy. You can play better than that!" Gus, one of the senior players, called out to his teammate who passed the ball yet again.

Cedric scratched his head "What's the point?" he pointed at the audience, emphasizing it was empty and no one was watching them "No one's around to watch us play"

"Ridiculous!" the elder player nagged on him "What happened to the respect to the game?"

"Fine Fine" Cedric responded "I'll do my best this time"

Cedric pondered perhaps it was a mistake to come here in the first place, but it's definitely much better than spending his afternoon in the castle in the workshop and be nagged on by his father yet again. BallBasket is definitely the better option.

BallBasket is a sport where a certain round shaped ball must be put in the opposite basket to score a point. May it be by laying it in, dunking it or even by shooting it from a distance. Back in the day when he was a little kid, Cedric used to play a lot of sports with King Roland. And despite being a lot younger than the former prince, he was that good to keep up with the big boys and teenagers.

With his God-gifted skill of mastery with his hands, shooting the ball was a walk in the park for Cedric. He rarely misses even. But despite his talents, Cedric refused to take the sport seriously and was rarely motivated. His laziness once again prevails

When the game finally resumed and he received the ball on his hands, an urge came to Cedric to merely yawn.

"Without beautiful women watching you play… what's the point?" he thought to himself, completely uninterested on playing

Suddenly, he sensed a certain entity as he looked around. It didn't take long before he took notice of a certain little girl peeking at him from the outside of the court with a delighted smile on her face. She waved at him

Cedric sighed, he wasn't too happy about this "This girl again… what does she want now!?"

He responded to her with a shooing motion with his hand, but instead, the girl made her way into the court and sat on one of the audience stands at the side to watch him play

"Go Mister Ceedric!" Sofia cheered out "Do your best!"

Her voice echoed throughout the whole court and was heard by every player in the vicinity. Cedric grew embarrassed of this

"There's that motivation you're looking for – aha-haha!" Gus chuckled in a very entertained way, which the sorcerer didn't appreciate

"Tch… why me?" he complained in his thoughts

But his torment didn't last long when he suddenly spotted a bunch of women making their way inside the complex. They sat at the other side of the stands and watched the game patiently. Cedric was completely smitten.

"Hey, focus on the ball.. not on the ladies" The elder player shook him from his trance

"Hey old man, pass the ball to me from now on" Cedric stated, cooking something up on his thoughts

"Why, isn't that a sudden motivation" Gus bit back "I hope you realize those women are not here to watch us play"

An overconfident smirk fell onto Cedric's face "Nah, they're watching me now." He walked past ahead. In that moment, Gus sensed something different with the sorcerer

When the whistle hits, it was like a different wind had passed by. For some reason, Cedric was now dominating the game. He scored and scored again and again without missing

*swish*

"All day"

Cedric whispered to himself, watching the ball go in the basket with the satisfying sound of the whoosh of the net in addition

"Nice shot" one of his teammate uttered to him

"Of course, have you ever seen me miss a shot?" Cedric gloated in a boastful manner which his teammate didn't appreciate whatsoever

The game went on, and Cedric became way too arrogant in about the whole thing. He didn't even pass to his teammates and just hogged the ball on his own.

In the next possession, Gus passed to Cedric. And all of a sudden, three players were guarding him. Gus and two of his teammates were wide open for a pass – but for some reason, Cedric decided to do it all himself and shot the ball despite the defense

*Swish*

The ball went in through the hoop as expected. Cedric takes a glance of the women at the stands and they were watching the game. This of course, inflated the sorcerer's arrogance even more.

"This is a team sport, Cedric-boy. Pass to your teammates too" Gus finally decided to step in and checked the sorcerer who is being greedy about the whole thing

"What? I thought you want me to take this seriously?" Cedric reasoned out to the elder player as he gave him a boastful shrug in addition

When the game finally ended, Cedric's team won as expected when the sorcerer all of a sudden showed up and dominated by scoring 54 points by himself. His teammates, of course, was dismayed by his selfishness – but Cedric didn't care. All that matters to him was that he impressed all the ladies who watched him play

But as he glances towards their direction again, they were no longer in the stands but on the court. They were preparing the net and setting up the poles. Some were stretching and some where hopping

"Hah, did you really think those women came and watched you play!?" Gus appeared out of nowhere and watched the same view Cedric was witnessing "Those girls were merely waiting for us to finish so they can use the court next to play volleyball"

"w-What?" Cedric turned to the elderly man with disbelief "Volleyball?"

"What a silly boy… aha-hahaha!" Gus laughed at his face and walked past ahead, leaving the sorcerer behind all alone

When it finally dawned on him, Cedric realizes all he did was for nothing and no one truly appreciated his performance. Those women weren't watching him in the first place

"What a shame" he thought to himself in defeat with a frown on his face

"Mister Ceedric, good game!" Sofia appeared in front of him and gave him an amazed smile "I didn't know you play BallBasket!"

His frown was then replaced by an annoyed scowl upon hearing that voice and seeing her face. Of course.. how could he forget the little squirt who watched him play?

"What are you doing here" he asked without even paying her a look

"I paid Ruby a visit earlier, her house is just a few blocks away from here. And on my way home, I saw you here." she explained

Sofia then offered him a bottle of cold water and some towel. Cedric accepted it without even a hint of gratefulness

Cedric chugged the entire water and emptied the bottle. He wanted to see the silver lining in all of this, but the fact that the appreciation came from Sofia made it rather redundant

The princess skipped a few steps ahead and stopped midway to wait for him "Shall we go home?" Sofia turned to Cedric

In that moment, he realized pretty much he has to walk home with her since they live at the same place. As if the afternoon couldn't get any worse for the sorcerer

And so, Cedric just sighed and walked towards Sofia's direction as they went home together in each other's company. Perhaps it was a mistake all along that he went here in the first place – he should've just stayed at the workshop and dealt with his father

"The Buttercups are pretty good at cheering people up. That's what we do" Sofia turned to him in a delighted manner and held his arm

"In your next game, I promise we will be there" Sofia added in an excited manner while walking beside him "Me and the Buttercups will be cheering for Mister Ceedric!"

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"Please don't."

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After what seemed like eternity, they finally reached the castle, and Cedric was finally glad. His ears was just about to get numb from the annoying never-ending stories from Sofia

"I had a great day today, Mister Ceedric" Sofia twirled around and looked at him "Do you wanna know why?"

"Why?"

The princess hesitated, as a sweet smile forms on her lips in a sheepish manner

"Because it was my cheer that brought energy to Mister Ceedric and motivated him to play better" she hid her face from him "I'm glad you were happy to see me~"

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"w-WHAT!?" His eyes widened, hearing such nonsense with a horrified look on his face

"Well… Good Night~" Sofia waved at him and ran the other way

"Hold on… princess!" Cedric wanted to catch up to her and clear the misunderstandings "You got it wrong!"

He was too exhausted to even play this game with her and just decided to give it up

"Dang it! That girl will be thinking I did all that for her" he kicked a rock from the ground to a tree, but it bounced back to hit him in the head as he lost his balance and fell to the ground

"Why me…"