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I managed to slip out of Literature class without anymore questions due to Austin being half asleep by by the end of class, at first I thought the skinny kid, Rodgers was following me but he turned left at the bottom of the stairs instead of right.

My second class of the day was Math, seventh grade math.

Yes, I'm Asian, an Asian who doesn't do well with math. At least not at the level when you do things with negative numbers and start using letters.

I’m not going to be an engineer or even an accountant. Adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying, I got it. I'm even good at it, but unless you're going into a field when you need more than that, high school level math should be either an option for those who want to take it or else they should be able to skip it.

Instead, I have to take Advanced Math, then Pre Algebra in the spring, and then I have to take three more math classes to get through high school.

But I guess if I have to take these classes, I have to at least do them so well that my younger sister will have to work even harder at it to match my grades. And she hates math even more than I do.

For spite's sake, I will excel.

Third period was gym, and I thought math was a waste of my time.

There I was in my brand new gym clothes, green sweat shorts, and a red polo shirt, all ready to show up to a very limited degree, and, "Caine, you're benched due to your doctor's note."

I look at Coach Adams in disbelief, “What?”

The bald middle aged guy nodded at me and waved me off. "You're in study hall at the old gym until the end of the hour, You still get a credit for gym, but you're on independent study. Scoot."

Then he winked at me before turning around to blow his whistle at the rest of my class.

Rodgers and Austin were waiting outside the doors I had been waved to. Both of them were in sweats, the larger boy in a fairly new set of sweat pants and a shirt he had overgrown, while the smaller boy, Rodgers, was in a set of worn and patched cut off black sweat pants and a tank top that showed off his thin but wiry arms.

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He waved at me. "Ryan Rodgers, and you know Austin. We figured that since you got a note from Dr. Fictus as well you might need some directions to the old gym." Austin grunted at me and turned to walk away. I nodded at Ryan and thanked him, even though I had looked over the floor plans of the entire school that my Dad had sent me on my phone.

The old gym was the last remaining part of the old Junior High School building which had been the only part of it that had been renovated before the money from the state government was cut off. As such it was unheated and without power since the rest of the school it had been connected to was gone. But it was also old enough that it was built back when natural lighting and windows that opened were still something they kept in mind when building stuff.

Another girl from my Homeroom was sitting in blue jeans and a blouse on a set of bleachers out of the sun playing on her phone.

Ryan called out to her. “Do you want to basketball Lourdes?” She looked up from her phone to give him a look of disdain before returning to her phone.

Austin walked over to pick up a basketball and began bouncing it while glaring at me. “You and me, one on one, winner plays Ry.”

That… actually sounded fun. “Ryan does a toss up?”

The larger boy reluctantly handed over the ball to the smaller one. Ryan held the ball while me and angry boy faced off, and then he tossed it nearly to the ceiling.

Both of us jumped high as I let my Chi flow into my legs to increase my leg strength, and coiled it around my lower body around my center of gravity to lighten myself.

To my surprise, Austin leaped pretty day high himself, but I went higher and got there faster.

He slapped the side of my foot to try to send me off balance as I dropped, I spun with it to let the force move me to the side to land well clear of him to make a run up to the net.

Which had been placed a good ten feet higher than normal, only five feet below the rafters.

I jumped and dropped the ball down into the net and pushed off of the rim to spin and land facing the big boy as he pounded down the court looking ready to slam into me, only to skid to a stop as I stood in a stance my dad got out of an old movie, when my Uncle Dave called, “Very Dramatic, but no worse then anything else you’re going to drop the moment you start moving.”

Austin glared down at me from over a foot taller, and I glared right back up to him.

Ryan slipped between us and began waving his arms back and forth in front of his friend. “No fighting Austin. Deloris swore she would break the arm of anyone who made her look bad in front of the Sheriff.”

The larger boy looked enraged, with both of his hands squeezed into fists, then he took a deep breath, let it out, and stomped over to the bleachers to drop down with his arms crossed.

Ryan chased down the ball and began dribbling it while grinning at me. "My turn, if you're still willing to play?"

I returned his grin and nodded. There wasn’t a toss up this time, I guess he wanted to at least start with the ball.

He wasn't bad, he may have even played basketball a lot more than I ever had, but I was quicker, faster, and more accurate. I stole the ball every time, and after three baskets he called out "Switch."

I tossed the ball to Austin and he tried every dirty trick I had ever heard of, traveling, trying to shoulder or elbow me out of the way. Jumping at me to try to body slam me while shooting for the basket.

I should have been mad, but I was above it. If we had played it straight, or turned it into a real fight, it would have been boring. Instead, he surprised me with a few moves and even connected with me a few times well enough to knock me off balance, while Ryan kept calling him to switch off before the larger boy lost his temper.

Ryan focused on making things challenging for me rather than scoring points.

All in all, it was a fun way to kill most of an hour and a nice break from regular classes

Then I had to go take a shower in the girl's locker room with a bunch of strangers.