Play 003

The Fight

Riverra International School

Singapore

15 January 2020 7.01 pm

As Arche, Catherine, Nais and Ranvier strolled down the hallways of the dormitory, painted orange by the soon-to-be-setting sun, they found a hulk of a man, dozing off while standing. Beside the giant was another guy, around a head shorter than the massive man, happily spinning a ball.

“Your friend?” Arche said, signaling at the dozing man. “Yes. You looking for him?” the boy said, nonchalant, and with an effortless flick, made the ball jump from one hand to another, where he proceeded to keep the ball spinning, and with it dancing on all of his fingers.

“We’re… looking for basketball players to form a team, and you two look as if you can play pretty well.” Arche smiled. “Oh really?” the guy raised an eyebrow, and with the ball still spinning, he lightly pushed it up, where it flew towards Arche. He balanced the ball on his index finger, and did the same trick the guy did. With both hands.

The guy raised his other eyebrow, certainly impressed with Arche. “Name’s Ventus, and the blockhead over here is Wolfang. Hey, blockhead, wake up.” he shoved the dozing guy, who woke up, looking a bit pissed. “Something about my face, meatball?” Catherine and Ranvier giggled; certainly, Ventus was not the lean-and-mean build, and Wolfang was not called blockhead without possessing certain… qualities.

“We’d like you to play as a member of our soon-to-be formed basketball team. Seriously. Name‘s Arche, by the way.” he extended his other hand, not occupied by the ball, to both Ventus and Wolfang. Both of them shook his hands solemnly, and after five seconds of silence, all of them burst out laughing, almost like old buddies.

At the same time, two girls, one ridiculously short and defiant-looking, and the other appearing to be more average, overheard their conversation on recruiting. “Does the recruiting apply for girls as well?” the short girl asked, with an enthusiastic tone overflowing in her question. Arche smiled and replied, “Yes, of course. It is always wonderful to have more people, especially girls.”

“Okay! Name’s Cora West, looking to play as point guard!” Her voice was the same, high-pitched and animated; somehow Arche wondered if over-enthusiasm was a disease. “Name’s Rowenza, played as a small forward before. Glad to join the team.” the other girl spoke up, with a voice that made everyone know she was not to be contested with.

“Come, give me all your particulars.” Arche seemed to have no problem handling people at all, and quickly got accustomed to all of them. “I think we shall call it a day here. It seems ridiculous to scout for people in the dead of the night.” Arche and Nais walked Catherine, Cora and Rowenza back to their dormitories, and Wolfang looked content to sleep standing in the same corridor, while Ventus and Ranvier were warming up with each other en route to their dormitories.

The next day was a Saturday. Both the incomplete male and female teams set out again; this time going to find out more members. Instead, they found something else.

Ranvier, Nais, Wolfang and Ventus went off to take their lunch during midday, leaving Arche and all of the girls in a secluded basketball court somewhere in a residential area. A young man, named Lance, came over to play with them. He had just applied for transfer to Riverra, and was looking forward to joining the basketball team. Arche was positively ecstatic; he happily started teaching Lance some special moves. The three guys were taking an unusually long time with their lunch… probably thinking that they were not needed. Arche was handling all of his ‘students’ with relative ease, and they learnt quickly and efficiently, combining briefing and tutoring in a efficient package. Catherine was exceptionally good at learning; she mastered the jump shot faster than all of the others, and had amazing accuracy for a person who started shooting only on the same day.

Seven guys appeared, all appearing to be in their early twenties. They did not seem to be friendly at all; they only occupied their half of the court. At first, Arche did not care about them; after all, it was not uncommon for people to split the full court. He simply conducted the training as usual, but still kept a watchful eye over the people in the opposite court.

“Hey, coach! Mind if we have a game?” one of them shouted. It looked friendly enough, and Arche was just about to let them play a match with each other. He agreed, and before they went over to the other court, he briefed them about the game first. “Remember, pick out one person to mark, and always look out to help. Be alert on the court. Lance, you take power forward, Cora would be the point guard, Rowenza would be small forward, Cat should play as shooting guard, and I’ll take the centre. Cat, don‘t do three pointers yet. Cora, play full support for the team, and strike when they least expect it. Lance, assist anyone in the red, and only take shots in it. Rowenza, maximize your abilities to play outside. This can be used as a mock test to gauge how well we can play with each other and your abilities on the court. C’mon, let’s beat them.”

One of the guys was already sitting beside the court, and the remaining six were waiting patiently for them. The ‘referee’ held a ball in the centre of the court, with Arche and another player, wearing a jersey no. 1. Both of them leaped for the jump ball, and expectedly, Arche hit the ball towards Cora. She managed the ball with the experience of a trained point guard, and carried the ball down the court.

She made a shot from the three-point line; the ball flew high up in the sky; and the ball looked as if it was going to go in. or was it? Catherine leaped from her position to catch the ball after it supposedly missed, and did a easy score against their team. High fives went all around; it was their first score in a match, after all.

Arche made it a point to instruct them on where and when to make moves, and as the game progressed, the score was clearly towards their favour. Five minutes after the game started, the two reserves sitting on the floor came in, substituting two of their members, who did not look as professional.

Arche was already wary of the fact they did not play at full potential at all; and were a little underhanded in their movements. A screen by their team was usually accompanied by an elbow or a knee; now the two powerful figures, combined with the other three, posed a serious intimidation to their team. However, he had confidence in his team, if they don’t get too beaten up…

Fifteen minutes after the substitution was made, the girls were injured, and were resting at a side, ‘taken care of’ by the two guys. Only Lance and Arche remained; with Lance not exactly playing much. When at last, Lance surrendered, Arche threw him his phone; and the instructions he gave were,” Call a person called Nais from my phone list. Tell him to bring the rest of the players along, and tell him to call a party down.” Befuddled, Lance made the call anyway. The cryptic message was delivered without problem, and what he could do now, was only to watch as Arche held the last line of defence, holding back the inevitable. Holding back the frenzied army as a lone fighter until reinforcements came.

Ten minutes later, the late members finally arrived. Like knights in shining armour (T-shirts to be exact), they appeared to save them. Arche finally smiled; now was their time to prove their worth as a team.

The game continued without delay; Ventus rushed in with the ball, and smashed his opponent’s face with the ball, and it came back to him. Flinging the ball, Wolfang caught the ball with a single hand, while knocking the person guarding him fiercely, leaped and forcefully dunked the ball.

As the opponent team started the ball, Nais intercepted the ball right in front of his opponent’s face. Tossing the ball forward, Arche continued the push forward, eyes fixated on his opponent. With a sudden movement, he burst forward, passing his opponent in an instant, before squeaking to a halt at the three-point line. From there, he did a magnificent three-pointer, with the ball striking the face of an unfortunate opponent after the score.

“Meet the force of the Riverra team.” Arche half-grinned; his face was half-plastered with blood, and looking more close to death than alive, but still playing with the ferocity of a tiger. All the girls are either knocked out or not in shape; only Catherine was in shape, and was tending to their wounds. After five minutes, she was specially pulled down by Arche, and did not suffer any injury. Now, as Lance joined the sick bay, she had her hands full with keeping all three of them comfortable with makeshift bandages. Before he went in, Nais chucked her a stock-full first aid kit, and was now cleaning and wrapping the wounds. Yet, it was not they whom she was worrying about. It was the one on the court, playing like a madman that refuses to stop.

All the while, Arche did not have his eyes on the game itself; it was the people who were crowding around, holding sticks and bats, that he was paying attention. He was close to his limit; which is no wonder, holding off so many people for so long. But, he knew he cannot stop just yet; the help that Nais had called for had not arrived just yet. The impending doom bore over the two teams; the gangsters were still just waiting for a cue.

All of the delinquents on the court were knocked out. The gangsters were approaching. Cora, Lance and Rowenza were half-carried, half-dragged to the centre circle, where all of them prepared to make their last stand.

Then Nais’ gang charged in, every single one of them armed. There were at least thirty of them, and they protected the pretty battered team at the centre. With the reinforcements, the delinquents paused; certainly, they did not expect such a huge support to come down all at once.

A few guys threw spare sticks at the team, which the guys gladly took. “You can’t be… fighting, right?” Catherine said in disbelief, as he saw Arche holding on to a baseball bat already. “Well, someone’s got to lead, right?” And with that, they charged forth.

After ten minutes and one bloody brawl later, the team finally shown themselves, bruised, battered and bleeding a bit, but are largely unharmed. Except for one.

Arche fainted in Catherine’s arms, just as she was next to him. She just barely caught him; and she quickly signalled to the team to assist her in carrying him, as he was too heavy for her to carry alone.

Two hours later, Arche woke from his slumber at the dormitories of the school. Rubbing his bandaged head, he awoke to look into the very worried face of Catherine. Relief replaced the apprehension in her face and her bleary eyes lit up. “You woke up!” Catherine almost shouted. Arche placed a finger on her lips, shushing the elated Catherine down. He smiled weakly at her, with the evening light bathing on his face.

Suddenly, Arche realised Catherine was trembling. Just as he removed his finger, Catherine burst out into tears, fiercely hugging him.

“Do not, ever, ever do that kind of thing again!” she cried. Sighing, Arche comforted the girl who was sobbing in her arms.

Footnotes! Note: these are rough descriptions. If you are curious, just wiki the positions and technical terms.
 * 1) The power forward is a player who usually gets the rebounds, and assists the centre under the board. Most probably as the second tallest player, with good jump strength.
 * 2) The point guard is the leader of the team, carrying the ball most of the time. They could be usually the shortest or tallest player on the court. Agility and speed are a must.
 * 3) The small forward is the ’ace’ of the team, and the all-round player of the court.
 * 4) The shooting guard is the person who can deal the most shots from far, with the ability to assist in any other position.
 * 5) A centre is the tallest player on the field, in charge of guarding the area under the board.
 * 6) The ‘red’ or ‘paint’, is also the trapezoidal area under the net, with it ending at the foul line. Most rebounds, lay-ups, and blocks come from this area, much like the hotspot for activity.

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