Palinoia

Chapter 14

Peter gave me a fist pump before going to his partner. I watched as everyone went with their pair so I decided to search for mine.

I saw the same girl with short brown hair standing in the midst and looking around. I approached her and lightly tapped on her shoulder. She turned around in a quick motion.

"Velvet?" I asked. I relaxed a bit when she gave me a nod and extended her hand.

"It seems proper since I didn't formerly introduce myself. My thoughts took the better of me so I apologise," she told me.

I raised my eyebrows. "No, no. It's fine really. I am very pensive as it is so I understand," I said truthfully.

She gave me a nod and smiled slightly. "You have a nice name Sebastian."

Suddenly, I grew incredibly awkward at our conversation. Why did she compliment me just now? I didn't know what else to say so she continued talking.

"When I saw you talk back at Thomas; I couldn't help but find your character interesting. Most of my former group were appalled but I saw it as someone who was different from the rest so I'm glad to be working with you for the day," she admitted.

Once again, I didn't respond and she suddenly became defensive.

"Don't take it the wrong way. I just found you to be an interesting person and you seem nice too. You don't come off as aggressive or egotistical like a lot of the males here. Your friend also seems nice too. Sorry if I'm being a little invasive."

"It's fine," I managed to say. I was surprised that I didn't find what she said disturbing or uncomfortable. Her presence didn't annoy me for some reason nor what she said.

She smiled at me and was about to say something else but our friendly trainer decided to interrupt.

"I don't fancy starting from one so I'd like to have Sebastian and Velvet begin first," he announced.

We glanced at each other for a moment before walking towards the tennis shooter. We both stood where a mark was that gave us a set distance between us and the tennis court.

Nobody walked over to the tennis shoot and stood behind the machine. "Another notice. If one of you get hit, both of you are still held accountable and fail so protect each other. The balls will shoot for two minutes and I will give a total score of how many you missed and how many you didn't."

We nodded in understanding.

Nobody pressed a button and a timer was set.

My eyes primarily focused on the incoming tennis balls and I began to avoid them at all costs. Nobody wasn't wrong. The balls really were coming at fast speeds that I couldn't help but quickly see how Velvet was doing who stood near me. She was doing pretty good and hadn't even got hit.

Shockingly, my glance nearly made me come in contact with one. That was weird. Why did I lose concentration because of someone I didn't even know, let alone did not care about? I knew it wasn't the real case but I didn't want to get damaged because of that reason. She didn't even look like she need help.

I started to hear a few thumps and took it that she did get hit which was unfortunate. I then shared the same hit as I could not avoid all of them either but kept trying nonetheless.

Velvet ducked multiple times while I changed directions from time to time. Without a second thought, I glanced again and noticed that Nobody had quickly positioned the balls to aim at her stomach before going back to taking record so I pushed her out of the way so that she wouldn't get hit. The balls missed her but a few hit me. The time ended and we stopped.