Save Me, Demon (GaLe)

Chapter 7: Dodgeball game

~~~~LEVY'S P.O.V~~~~

The gymnasium was full of students. The gym was able to hold up to five 30-student classes. But, at the moment, there was only two. As I walked through the doors, I saw Lucy and Natsu at the far end of the gym. Lucy stood there sighing and face palming. All the while, Natsu took a running start with a basketball to the net. A small smile inched its way onto my face, knowing that what he was about to do was stupid. He had jumped too late and his head had hit the top of the rim. Natsu had crumpled to the ground, confused and dizzy. The ball, however, had made its way into the basket. Unfortunately, Natsu was under the net, making the ball fall straight onto his stomach. He gasped, sitting up before falling back to the floor. A triumphant smile plastered on Natsu's face.

Lucy began to laugh and Levy in the far back giggled. Bringing his head up, he faced Lucy.

"Wha'd I tell ya? I knew I could make it in," he gloated, breathless from the hit to his gut. Sitting up, Natsu groaned a little, gingerly touching his head.

"Yup, you sure showed me," she said as she rolled her eyes. "You need an ice pack, you big oaf?"

"Nah! It's no biggie. It takes a whole lot more to take a monster like me down!" Natsu grinned, puffing out his chest comically. Lucy chuckled before going over to help him up. He dusted his sweatpants off. He was facing the doors, so inevitably he saw me. He squinted his eyes for a moment before the realization became clear.

"Hey, LEVY!" he shouted. I froze, startled and a bit shocked to be honest. Many eyes looked to where Natsu was waving. My face grew hot, not used to the attention. I swiftly made my way over them, just so that everyone could stop looking.

"What's up, Levy! Haven't seen you at all since you blasted out of the courtyard yesterday," he said.

"Yea, what was that all about?" Lucy asked, concern shown in her eyes.

"I had to get dry, didn't I? Plus I had classes that I knew I'd be late to so left. It's nothing to worry about. I'm sorry if I did make you worry," I said effortlessly, a small reassuring grin on my face. I've gotten pretty good at lying. So good that I often times believe my lies. Lucy held eye contact with me for a small while before sighing and lightly punching me in the arm.

"Don't scare me like that,"she mumbled, to which I chuckled.

"Sorry."

"So, I heard the coaches saying something about a dodgeball game. Sounds like it's gonna be awesome!"

"Natsu, I think you are the only one who is actually excited for gym," Lucy said. Natsu just grinned at her. I looked at him and smirked, knowing the other reason for his excitement for Phys. Ed. He glanced at me smirking and looked away from Lucy with a faint blush on his face.

Then, a sudden whistle pierced the air. The gym went silent and turned to see the source of the sound. Coach Bisca and Coach Alzack made their way to the center of the gym.

"Alright kids. My class on the left side of the gym, Coach A's team on the right. Let's move it!"

Groups of kids started moving left and right. I walked to the right side of the gym, Lucy and Natsu trailing behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Evergreen move to the left side of the gym. Our coach walked in front of us with a clipboard in his hand. 

"Hey! I'm gonna call out names so just shout here if you're here." He looked at his clipboard and began to call out names. Once roll call was completed, the coach placed his clipboard down and blew his whistle to gain our attention again. 

"Today, we're gonna play dodge ball against Coach Bisca's team," A couple of cheers and whoops were heard from the class. "But with a little twist. The trick is that the game is not confined to one side of the gym. Members from the other team are coming over here and you're  going over there. The ones who are out go and take a blue flag so they don't get hit by more dodgeballs." Coach gestured to the table on the far right of the gym, where there were a pile of flags. He then pointed to the left side of the gym. "Also those who are out stand on this side of the gym. Wait here for a second while we set up the court," he declared before heading towards Coach B. 

The coaches talked to each other for a moment before going over to the bag of dodgeballs. 

"I knew it!" Natsu yelled. "I'm so ready to beat the crap out of Coach B's team!" He cracked his knuckles and bounced up and down. 

"I suck at dodgeball," Lucy replied. "I'm always out the first 10 seconds the game starts!" she whined.

"Chill, Lucy! You're on my team now, I got your back no matter what," he smiled and slapped her back. She smiled back and at this point, it was a wonder that they weren't a couple yet.

The coaches stood at the ends of the gym once the balls had been placed. 

"On my whistle!" Coach Alzack shouted as the gym went silent. Boys on the other end of the gym were tense with excitement, waiting to run for the balls. The whistle finally blew and a clash of boys and girls crowded the middle before chaos ensued. Everyone with brightly colored balls swarmed the ones that didn't.

I started to run. I noticed that many of them stayed around the middle, including Lucy and Natsu. There were others who stuck to the edges but no one went to the corners. So I dashed to one out of the four corners. Once most of them moved to another area of the gym I ran to another corner, and I began to systematically move to different corners. I was small and pretty fast so I could dodge any stray balls headed my way. But there was always that stinging pain that came with exerting myself with bruised ribs. Every time I made it to a corner, it hurt to breath and stung to move. And every so often I would get noticed, which caused a multitude of balls being thrown my way. I fled as fast as I could, like I was being chased by the Thunder Legion. I knew that if one of those balls hit me, I was done for. 

Ten minutes into the game and already a large portion of kids stood at the left side of the gym with blue flags. Lucy and Natsu were still in the game and I noticed with fear that Evergreen was too. I resumed my system of dodging. I was almost to the far right side corner of the gym when I skidded to a stop. 

Evergreen was there. She had two bright red dodgeballs in her hands. She scanned the area before her eyes settled on me. I froze as she smirked, taking a running start towards me. I sprinted in the opposite direction and did a circle around the gym. Once I turned back around, she was gone. I sighed in relief and headed to another section of the gym. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone rushing my way. My head turned to find that it was Evergreen. I was too late. By the time I finally saw her, she had leap up and hurled both dodgeballs on me. The first hit my face, under my eye and on my cheek. The second one was directed to my stomach and an explosion of pain erupted from my ribs. It was too much for me. 

I was out before I even hit the floor.

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A/N: Thank you for reading!