Rising Shards

I had a brief, unwanted flashback to my actual high school days as I waited on first base for Stella to kick. It was in the same gymnasium, but they hadn't renovated it yet when I was attending school. The gym uniforms were about the same, though. Back then, I despised gym class, but muscled through for Caya, who treated gym class like whatever sport we were playing lit a mystical fire in her soul that could only be satiated by her winning. I remember one mat ball game where she was so focused on winning, she kicked the ball much the same way she did now, knocking that thing into the ceiling. But back then, she managed to actually lodge the ball into the ceiling, which counted as a home run.

It was kind of nostalgic to watch her almost do that again. But thinking of my old gym days also reminded me of my more hated aspects of the class, like the popular cliques that used it as a hotspot for spreading dirt about me, giggling about how nerdy I was, how boyish I acted, all that sort of stuff.

In spite of the bad times, it's important to note that the whole working at the school I went to growing up deal was strangely not an issue for me. I kind of liked the idea of going from nerdy loser with only a few friends, a problem child some of the teachers hated, and a gifted kid that a few teachers liked, that student doing her best to coming back a smarter and more educated teacher/doctor and treating my own students better than my worst teachers treated me, and carrying on the legacy of some of my favorite teachers and their educational stylings.

My reminiscing was broken up by Stella kicking the ball. It didn't soar as high as Caya's, it skidded along the ground, but Stella was cuter about it so she won in my book. She made it to first base, standing right in front of me.

"I was hoping I'd at least kick it up a little," Stella said, her voice a bit quiet to avoid suspicion from any nearby faculty members. "But stopping here first isn't so bad."

I saw a flicker of a grin on her face, and knew I was in for some teasing. And sure enough, Stella leaned forward just a bit, resting her hands on her knees.

My eyes darted downwards, enjoying the view for just a second. I would have stared longer, but Pippi went next, letting out a guttural scream as she punted the ball.

"Let's go Pippi!" Stella cheered as Pippi sprinted past, stopping on the first base mat for just a second before running on. I watched Stella, wondering if our little first base meetup would be that short, but she stayed in place.

"Not gonna go for it?" I asked.

"I'm waiting for the perfect opportunity," Stella said.

"Now, you just went, you don't get to go again," Mahina said as Caya took the kicking position again.

"I noticed our team numbers are uneven," Caya said. "To make it fair, I need to go twice."

"Ohoho, that's pretty good," Mahina said, bouncing the mat ball a few times. "I'm almost tempted to let you. But no. You wait for the next inning."

"I also need as much practice as possible kicking," Caya said. "And I'm sure you need more pitching time against a skilled player such as myself, correct?"

"Hm," Mahina said. "I still lean towards no. Because I like telling strong women no."

While those two continued their debate, Stella had an opening to run for another base. Instead, she leaned forward even more, sticking her ass out toward me. She knew full well what she was doing, and in spite of me checking that nobody else was paying attention to us every few seconds, I did love what I saw when I was looking Stella's way. And I could tell she liked it too by how much she blushed.

"I should probably run for a base soon," Stella said, seeing that Mahina and Caya had settled their debate, with Mahina granting Caya one extra kick per inning provided Mahina also got an extra.

"Probably," I said. "Here, before you go..." I snuck in a quick butt grab, expecting Stella to yelp. She tanked that grab though, blushing more intensely and holding back a giggle, but nothing that drew any attention to us.

"For luck," I said.

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