Today we had our first PE lesson, which was for the last period.

Yeah, we weren't excited for that at all.

By "we", I thankfully meant the whole GangGang. Apparently Art and Gym were the only lessons we shared with Lyn.

We quickly changed into our gym uniforms and jogged back to the assembly area, which was inside the large auditorium.

I glanced around at the students and realised with a shock (which probably should've been unsurprise, because really, what was I expecting?) that one of them was Brie, who was standing next to Connor. Her blonde hair was done up in a tidy bun, like she had taken ages to fashion it just right, despite only being in the changing room for five minutes. Connor contrasted this, as his black hair was messy as ever.

Casey followed my gaze and huffed. "We'll just ignore her," she explained, pointing Brie out to the others. 

We agreed.

"Alright everyone! Come sit so I can mark the roll," the teacher, Ms Stevens, called to all the students, and we all walked over and sat in front of her.

"Skye... Joy... Felicity... Evelyn... Brie... Gypsica... Hunter... Alycia... Veronica... Adam... Casey... Andrew... Billy... Lily... Connor... Grace... Mark... Eric... George... Charlie... Edward..."

She cycled through the list and I learnt Connor's last name was Miner, and Brie's was "Asteria". 

"Okay! We're going to be playing dodgeball today!" Ms Stevens' voice volume sounded like it was stuck at "high". 

The entire class groaned, unified in our dislike for physical exercise.

"Get into two teams and spread out behind the cones!" The teacher instructed.

We did as we were told and the GangGang jogged over behind the cones along with a handful of other classmates.

"Why did our first PE lesson have to be the tv show stereotype?" I groaned. "Do the teachers want us to suffer? What is up with this school?"

"I don't want you to suffer, but I will see to it that you do if you speak poorly about this school and its staff again," Ms Stevens scolded from behind me, and I jumped.

"What the–" I gasped.

Ms Stevens glowered at me. Thankfully, nobody else was paying attention. "First warning, Gypsica. I have faith you will do better in the future."

She ran to get some equipment from the storage room, and I turned to Lily. "Why didn't you use a forget-me-knot?" I asked accusingly, my embarrassment fuelling my temper.

She gulped. "I tried, but... I – I couldn't..." she gasped.

My eyes widened, along with the rest of the Gangs'. 

"What?" Skye squawked.

Lily shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe I used it too many times, for too many bigs things. I think... what if it has a recharge?"

"A recharge?" Casey cut in. "We're not talking about a phone. But... maybe that's the right answer. Because your power is quite probably the most powerful out of the bunch."

The Gang stood in momentary silence.

"Alright everyone! Positions!" Ms Stevens called.

We looked at each other. 
"It's alright," Lily assured. "Let's not worry about it now."

"You sure?" I asked.

She nodded. "It'll be fine. Our main worry now is surviving high-school dodgeball," she smiled, gesturing to the equipment behind us.

Casey, ever the athlete, eagerly regarded the battlefield. "Let's do this," she grinned, her tone that of a cliché movie's.

We inspected our teammates as Ms Stevens tossed the balls to the people up front.
Each team had fifteen members. I noticed Hunter Coyle, Adam Dune and Alycia Dwain were on our team. I couldn't remember the names of the others, which consisted of a brown-haired girl blowing a pink bubble with her bubblegum; a blonde-haired boy joking with Hunter; a ginger haired boy glancing shyly at the Bubblegum Brownie; and many others I couldn't be bothered naming. I wondered if I could help the ginger boy in any way. He seemed nice. Plus, us redheads had to stick together, right?

I skipped to the back while Ms Stevens laid down the ground rules. "You like her, right?" I whispered to the boy and pointed to Bubblegum Brownie, who had her back to us.

He jumped, turning around to me. "Is it that obvious?" He asked, pink circling in his cheeks.

I giggled. "A little bit," I admitted. I held out a hand. "I'm Gypsica Bane. Or just Gyps," I smiled.

He shook it. "Nice to meet you. I'm Eric Sarge," he returned my smile.

"Come on, my friends can help you get your girl," I tugged him along to the others.

"Hey everyone, this is Eric. He has a crush on that Bubblegum Brownie and we need to play matchmaker," I informed the Gang, gesturing to the girl in question.

Eric laughed. "Her name's Joy Anon. She's French and has the sweetest accent..." he trailed off, descending into daydreams. He was staring wistfully at the girl, who was currently chatting with a friend.

"Eh. I prefer Bubblegum Brownie," Lyn shrugged. 

Skye huffed. "I totally would've coined that first, you know," she said fake-hotly.

I failed to hide my smile. "I know."

Ms Stevens blew her whistle, gaining her students' attention. She began the rules, which could basically be boiled down to:

1. Only shots above the knee count,
2. Any shot that lands above the neck, including the neck, is disqualification for the person who threw the ball,
3. Kicking the ball is a disqualification
and 4. If the person you threw at catches the ball, you're out.

In the next few minutes, everyone was acquainted with each other. 

I realised somewhat lazily that both Connor and Brie were on the opposite team, and had a small but horrible feeling gnawing at my gut that this game would be significant.

"On your marks," Ms Stevens readied. "Get set..."

The whistle sounded.

The dodgeballs sailed through the air.

The game had begun.

<⚙︎>

"Everyone ready?" Ms Stevens called.

It was the last round of the game. The two teams (who had dubbed themselves "All Stars" and "Legends' League", the latter being us) were all tied with three points each. We had just come back from our drink break and we were out for blood.

"YES!" My classmates chorused back, answering the coach's question.

"Then let's play ball!" Ms Stevens grinned, blowing her whistle.

Eric heaved his ball at the other team and caught a black-haired girl in the chest. She let out an "oof!" and sighed, accepting defeat with her dignity.

It wasn't long before both teams had suffered losses, and from the sidelines our fallen teammates yelled helpful tips, my favourite one being "GO FOR THE KIDNEY!" amongst other, more alarmingly graphic threats.

A ball bounced my way. I caught it. I didn't have time to look around and see who else was left over.

But I did spot Evelyn.

She was dribbling her ball, all those years of basketball paying off.

I realised with cold fear that she was facing off against Brie, who also had a ball. Both of them were about four feet away from the line of cones that marched through the centre of the auditorium, dividing the two teams.

I was close enough to hear their rapid breathing.

I was close enough to witness their face-off.

Brie readied her ball.

And something happened that made me falter.

I don't know if she was talking to me, or to Evelyn, or to both of us, but she growled with absolute disgust evident in her voice and in the expression on her face:

"Dyke."

The ball was flying so fast that if you blinked you would have missed it.

Evelyn drew her ball up to deflect it, but it was too late.

The small dodgeball hit her in the throat.

Evelyn stumbled backwards, making choking sounds, her eyes pooling with tears.

The seemingly innocent dodgeball that had just assaulted my best friend bounced toward me, and with my eyes glued on Lyn, it collided dully with my leg, then rolled to a stop.

"You're out," Brie smiled, seemingly oblivious to the damage she had just caused. She pivoted, looking for another ball.

How could someone lack so much empathy?! 

In that moment, I didn't think. I didn't care.

I acted on instinct.

In fact, it wasn't even instinct; it was pure, unbridled, wild outrage.

I only saw red.

My thoughts raced away from me before I could grasp them, flipping me into the wrong state of mind. Without realising what I was doing, the ball in my hands ignited with fire.

I didn't even register the feeling of the singeing rubber beginning to melt through my fingers. I didn't recognise the smoke curling into my nostrils. None of it mattered.

Summoning my wind powers, I heaved the ball at Brie. At the girl who dared to hurt my friend so viciously, and so horribly, for something that didn't concern her and didn't make an impact to her life and shouldn't have mattered for any reason.

The dodgeball sailed through the air at sound-speed, and my added elemental boost powered the somewhat small object clear across the line.

It connected with Brie's stomach, knocking her back some three paces and simultaneously catching her clothes alight.

The people closest to Brie froze, everyone else following suit when they realised something was wrong. No doubt thoughts of is this happening? This can't be real. What's going on? Did that ball just catch fire? Are Brie's clothes on fire?! were streaking through their minds.

All of this happened in under ten seconds.

And then the first scream sounded.

I don't know who it came from. Being honest, it might've been me. 

But it was enough to get everyone else screaming, too.

And then the auditorium erupted in complete chaos.