Just By Chance

16. Secrets

The sun beat down on the basketball courts and Forth swiped his arm across his forehead. He was sweating profusely but he, Lek, and Gear were only one basket away from winning. Chris, Mai Ding, and Duke formed the other team while Oat sat on the sidelines. Oat hated playing with them in basketball. He claimed it was because he just preferred soccer but in all honesty, Oat just had no skills in basketball. And since he was so skinny, it was way too easy for him to get tossed around the court by guys like Chris, Forth, Gear, and Duke. Mai Ding was smaller but he was faster and better at playing than Oat was.

"Hoooooo! We've got ourselves a tiebreaker!" Oat hollered out from the bench.

"Let's hurry up so we can get out of here. I'm melting." Gear complained.

Forth dribbled the ball a few times before passing it to Lek and running to position himself closer to the basket. Lek was playing man to man with Mai Ding but as he was about to start dribbling again, Mai Ding made a quick switch with Chris. Lek wasn't expecting it as he went for the winning shot and Chris blocked him. Hard.

"Oooohhhh didn't see that one coming did you??" Oat screamed from the sidelines. Chris grinned as he eyed Lek. Gear ran for the ball, quickly maneuvered around Duke who was coming to stop him and tossed the ball to Forth who was still closer to the basket. Forth, without hesitation, made the shot and it went in without even touching the rim of the basket.

"And we finally have a winneerrrrr!" Oat stood to his feet and screamed.

The boys walked over to the benches in the shade to drink their water and wipe their faces with their towels.

"Good game, friends." Oat smiled. He handed Chris his towel and then gave Mai Ding a friendly punch on the shoulder. "And not a moment too late because I'm hungry. Let's go eat."

"Where, at the canteen?" Lek asked, taking a seat.

"I'm not feeling the canteen today. Let's go get chicken. The auntie has a special today, did you know that Forth?" Duke was referring to the lady at the stall that would give him free rice. They all knew that she gave Forth free rice but they didn't care because they knew that despite being the Campus Moon runner up, their friend never asked for nor wanted all the attention or perks that came with being recognized.

"She is?" Forth looked up. He had taken a seat on the bench next to Oat.

"Yea, I heard some students talking about it earlier when I passed them."

Forth thought for a moment. He was usually always up for eating her chicken. But he had eaten there twice this week already. Besides, he was kind of hoping to see Beam.

"Mmm...I didn't plan on heading over that way. I think I'll just eat at the canteen."

"But you love her chicken. And without you, we can't get any free rice!"

Forth gave Oat a look of annoyance. "Nice to know you're using me."

"Awe come on, you know I'm not using you. Come with us."

Forth shook his head. At that moment, his phone buzzed. He grabbed it and his heart skipped a beat when he saw Beam's name flash across the screen.

Hi :) you hungry?

Forth didn't realize he was smiling as he replied until Mai Ding, who was sitting next to him, gave him a little shove and Gear called him out.

"Well lookie here!" Gear said loudly as he peered over Forth's shoulder. "Looks like our Forth already has plans with someone special. Who is it Forth?"