"There are some men here who are trying to harm us, son. Dad can't let that happen, right?"
"Kyle, Can you take care of mommy and Kendall if something goes wrong?"

The words kept rushing through Kyle's mind while the history professor- a man in his 60s with grey hair, gave out his lesson. Kyle kept slumped at the edge of the chair, stretching his legs out while he kept fidgeting with the pen in his hand.

While the class concentrated on the lecture, Kyle kept his eyes on the hind stand of the preceding chair, letting his mind travel to the moment he last saw his father. Several years had passed, but nothing seemed to erase the last words of his father and the memory of the last image, thereafter.

The blurred face, holding a concoction of emotions, dancing over his features, while he stood there frozen with a gun in his right hand and shoulders slumped down, kept playing in his head. That was the last thing he witnessed when he got dragged out of the smoke filled ambience.

The kid had failed to move his eyes from the dreadful sight of separation from his father till the figure gradually got swallowed by the thick smoke. That last picture was spine chilling but also conflicting enough to get engraved into the mind of a six-year-old, permanently.

As things started to make more sense, those last words did not remain just words but a mystery. A mystery that held a history and an alter plot to his story. The more he tried to decipher, the more he ended up in tangles of thoughts. The more complicated the things turned, the angrier he got.

Who were those men? Why did his father need to kill them? If he was just another businessman, why did his mother run? New questions get stacked up every year in his mind, making it harder for him to reach the light at the other end of the tunnel.

Suddenly, the professor cleared his throat, distracting him out of his thoughts. He glanced around him only to see all eyes glued on him. With a frown of confusion, he looked straight to find the professor shooting a pointing stare at him.

"Would you mind standing up, young man?" the professor spoke in a calm yet commanding tone.

Without any hint of emotion, Kyle complied.

"So, can you please speak out your views on the topic we're studying?" the professor continued while leaning towards his table, putting his weight over his palm.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention." Kyle replied in a confident tone.

He curled his lips, at Kyle's response.

"I like your honesty, but not your attitude" the grey-haired man remarked, tilting his head.

Kyle parted his lips to speak, but pressed them back again and sighed sharply. He looked up at the professor and asked, "may I leave the class?"

"Be my guest!" The man replied in an excited tone as he pointed towards the door. "I don't want a slumpy couch potato in my class. It ruins my positive vibes."

Kyle rolled his eyes and walked out of the classroom as every other eye trailed him till he went out of sight.

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Kendall loudly slurped loudly from the cup of coffee while scrolling through her social media feed. It was early in the morning when she sat inside the school cafeteria invaded by students fighting to get their breakfast. But nothing broke her concentration except for a thin squeaky voice.

"Hey!"

Kendall looked up from her phone to see a girl with similar brown hair, grinning from ear to ear.

"Demi, finally! I was choking alone!" Kendall exclaimed.

Demi chuckled softly and pulled herself a chair, opposite Kendall.

Kendall leaned forward, crossed her arms over the table and asked, "so, what does the captain have in mind?"

"Nothing actually." Demi mused.

She picked up a handful of french fries from Kendall's tray and devoured it in a go. Even though Kendall's reluctance was visible in her eyes, that did not seem to bother her.

"Umm..." Taking her time to chew the food, Demi finally spoke, "okay... I have some dark, black tea for you." She started with a twinkle in his eyes, " But before that, I heard the ground was spoiled, what did you do about that?"

"We did our practise yesterday." Kendall shrugged.

Demi stopped chewing and looked up at her. "Where?"

Kendall rubbed the back of her neck and gave her an apologetic grin.

"Don't tell me..." An ominous look spread over the captain's expression.

Kendall slowly and rhythmically nodded her head.

"And what did your brother say?"

"The same he always says."

"Girl, you need to stop doing such weird stuff." Demi revolted, raising her hands in the air.

"Well, we need to practise. We don't even have a month till our inter academics match. And I need to get into that college. He is stopping me from playing football? I need to play football to get admissioned. I can't freaking sit for a test. That would be too much hardwork. Jeez!" Kendall ranted out in a breath.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Calm down, tigress! I was just worried, your brother is going to bash you again."

Kendall heaved and shrugged"He did anyway. How does it matter? And, we had the practise, that matters."

Demi rubbed her face with her palm and sighed, "the things you do for football, girl!"
"And, I get scolded for this."

"Your brother doesn't seem to have a problem with you playing football? He is cute."

"He doesn't but...." her face flinched in a weird way, "wait, he is not cute okay?"

"He..erm, well I didn't....."

"Girl, you are not praising my brother weirdly, in front of me."she warned.

Demi burst out laughing, dipping her forehead on her table. Kendall pulled in her lower lip and poured some of her drink over her head, making her yank back.

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There was a burst of rain, heavy enough to create a shield of closely hitting raindrops on the ground.

Kyle stood alone in the middle of the ground, drenched, tossing the ball with his feet, alternatively, making it twirl in a closed diameter. He kept his eyes fixated on the ball while the same incident from 15 years before played inside his mind like a scary movie. His father's words kept reverberating into his ears, once again.

The demons inside him never missed out a chance to stir his memories anytime he wanted to stay alone. Not that he ever complained. He never tried running away from it, even if it threatened to push him to the edge. He'd rather stay with it, submitting to it, to keep the flare inside him ignited.

The embodied voices got louder and louder, overpowering all other sounds near him. His heartbeat increased and sweat started to burst aggressively from his hairline.

Just like every other time, as he pushed himself to the point of exhaustion, he let the ball slip to the ground and kicked it aggressively, letting all his anger sprawl out with the impact.

The ball raced, splitting through the raindrops. But the least he expected was that instead of hitting the net, it ended up falling perfectly in someone's hands.

He looked up towards the net to meet with a pair of intense eyes piercing through him. The shade of her eyes was dark, just like the black jacket she was wearing. She stood there twirling the ball within her palms as a subtle smirk curved her lips up.

Due to the heavy pour, drenched strands of her jet black hair invaded over her soft beige skin, forcing her to bat her eyelashes a few times. But none of them seemed to falter the stand she held.

For a brief moment their eyes locked. Kyle swallowed hard and composed himself before he averted his eyes from her.

"You know the kick wasn't hard enough, when I could stop the ball with ease." Shay broke the silence.

He gave her a disinterested look and rolled his eyes thereafter. Without any word, he turned on his heels and started walking away. He trod down the ground and, as he reached the end, the ball hit his back with a huge strength, making him stop in his place.

"You're not going to give it a second try?" Shay challenged from her place.
"No." He continued to walk.

"But, last thing I knew is that you play...." she paused as soon as he turned towards her. Slowly the corner of her lips quirked up, knowing that she now had his attention, "...for keeps." she completed her sentence in a lower tone.

He narrowed his eyes at her while she kept studying him with the smirk intact on her face.
The rain had already stopped. He moved his eyes down to the ball lying right near his feet and shot up his eyes towards Shay.

After a brief pause, he took two steps back, titled his body and used the middle of his feet to hit the ball.

The ball raced tearing through the air and took a sharp right turn. As the ball changed direction and rushed towards her face, she in no time bowed down and covered her head with her arms. The ball got past from a close proximity from her and crashed into the net, pushing it back. Shay turned around to witness the impact and looked at him with pride glowing in his eyes.

Giving her a dead look, he turned back and walked away, leaving her standing where she was, smiling, covering the hint of pain registered over her face.