Fan Fiction |
by Mimosa
“I got it, I got it!” Kevin panted “I said I got it!” He stared at the petite girl.
“Did you get it?” Annie lifted her chin challengingly
“I could have” Kevin sneered “if you did not get into my way, Lo Siu Jie!”
“Are we still playing?” Ada hollered from the other side of the net “Stop all your petty talk, please!”
“I don’t know why Nick Gor chose you into this team!” Annie mumbled under her breath.
“I heard that!” Kevin snickered haughtily “if it’s not because my elbow is still hurt, I’ll show you what real volleyball is!”
“Yeah yeah yeah!” Annie stuck out her tongue
“Hey, serve!” Ada hollered again
“Beware! Here I come!” Kevin laughed before serving a straight ball into the other court. It came down as a great angle for Ada, who passed it up to the net where Flora was waiting. Flora, without any effort, set a perfect ball for Gallen to finish with a neat and unstoppable spike onto Captain Nick’s court.
“Yes!” Ada gave Flora another high five. They’d been the winner three games in a row.
“Time’s up!” Nick held up his hand “We seriously need to break that conjunction knot.” He waggled his forefinger at Flora and Gallen. “They’re undefeatable!”
“Why don’t you say you need to break up THAT one?” Ada retorted, nodding at the quarreling ducks Annie and Kevin. “They’re unbearable, at least to my poor ears!”
“My teammates are great! Discussions are healthy; they urge you to improve yourself!” Nick claimed with faith.
“I say you just don’t want to admit your defeat!” Ada rolled her eyes.
“Whatever you say, Ada!” Nick shook his head smilingly “I say we have a girls-versus-guys game next!”
“Deal!” Ada eyes lit up “But let’s have a reward!”
“What would you say?”
“Hmmm…” Ada considered “How about losers cook, losers serve, losers clean?”
“Why not?” Nick clapped his hands “Three games as usual?”
“Let’s see!” Ada glanced at her sport wrist watch “It’s getting late, how about just one game?”
“Sudden death? Sure, deal!”
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The two captains got back to the sandy court after the short break and waved at their new teammates.
“Ready?” Nick gave Gallen and Kevin each an assuring pat in their backs.
“Are you sure Dr. Cheung?” Kevin was skeptical
“Why?” Nick squinted at the younger man “It is Nick, or Nick Gor, not Dr. Cheung! And are you scared?”
“Me?” Kevin was indignant “I’m scared? Oh please! It’s just that…”
“Just what?” Nick passed the ball to Gallen, who caught it deftly but almost unconsciously. His eyes were somewhere on the horizon, dreamily.
“Er… I don’t know how to cook!” Kevin admitted
“Just play and win, silly!” Nick laughed “Then you’ll have three beautiful girls to cook for you and serve you! Right, Gallen? Hey Gall!”
“Huh?” Gallen’s eyes were still dreamy “What?”
“Urg!” Nick groaned “Pay attention to the game please! Our pride, honor, and comfort depend on this one game!”
“What did you promise?” Gallen was on his guard
“Nothing, losers cook!” Nick shrugged nonchalantly
“But I can’t cook!” Gallen exclaimed
“Please!” It was Nick’s turn to cry out loud “Who says we’ll lose? You! And you!” He shove at his teammates lightly “Put some confidence in yourself please!”
“Yes, Captain!” The other two saluted playfully.
From the other side of the net, the girls looked on curiously
“I can’t believe guys would be that talkative!” Annie observed, looking at Ada’s wrist watch “They’ve been talking for 5 minutes!”
“Ah!” Flora placed her head against Ada’s shoulder “I think there’s time for me to take a nap. Call me up when they’re done with their chatting, Ada!”
“Hey there!” Ada ran out of her patience “You three!”
“One minute!” Nick shouted back, and motioned for Gallen to prepare for the first serve.
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It was a tight game… 15:15 when Ada served the ball up to Nick’s court. He passed the ball up to the left, where Kevin was waiting, ready to set a nice ball for Gallen.
It all happened in a split of a second.
Gallen was ready for the spike, and Flora was ready for the block.
Time froze in that particular moment. They were both on the air. Their hands both came into contact with the ball at the same instant… Their bodies were so closed … Their eyes met…
He smiled, and then flicked his wrist, allowed the ball to drop…
…onto his court!
16:15!
“Yeah!” Ada and Annie rushed up to hug Flora “We win, we win!” They jumped and let out their crystal peals of laughter “We beat the guys! Girls rule!!!”
Gallen stood holding the ball smilingly before he found himself being pushed roughly and landed on the sand.
“Hey!” Gallen complained “What the … ?”
He looked up to see Nick and Kevin standing threateningly over himself, hands on their hips, obviously furious.
“Traitor!” Nick growled.
“You got the ball all right!” Kevin spoke coldly “How could you make it land onto our side of the net?”
“Hey” Gallen protested rather weakly “You two can’t blame me! The ball just slipped off my hand!”
“We’re not 3 year-olds!” Nick kneeled down next to Gallen and gave his friend another push on the shoulder as the other tried to get up “You’d better tell us the truth, Gall! Are you interested in Flora?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Gallen murmured “Told you the ball just slipped!”
“Well,” Nick narrowed his eyes “Would you believe it, Kevin?”
“No!” Kevin answered flatly “He faked that defeat! His hand touched the ball at a higher point than Flora’s. If the ball slipped, it must land on Flora’s court, not ours! See… I could draw a diagram like…”
“Cut!” Nick yelled “Cut cut cut!”
“What?” Kevin widened his eyes innocently “You asked!”
“My point is,” Nick rolled his eyes “Who do you think should cook and serve dinner to all of us tonight?”
“That’s not fair! Why only me?” Gallen objected when he realized fingers were pointing at him “Don’t you two need to help me?”
“Hey!” Nick arched his eyebrow “You made us lost the game!”
“But… but…”
“No but!” Nick got up and nodded to Kevin “Let’s go have a dip! Dinner should be ready about .. hmm… “ He checked his watch and glanced at the guilty teammate on the ground “5 o’clock?”
“I don’t know how to cook!” realizing his friends were serious, Gallen sounded a little panicked.
“Well, tell your Flora to help you!”
Laughing gaily, the two trailed off toward the beach after the girls, leaving Gallen alone.
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[Flora]
I wasn’t the best swimmer around, so I didn’t take the chance even though Nick assured us that the beach was the stillest “on the whole Pacific’s”. Ada and Nick were now only the two tiny dots on the blue waves from where I sat. Annie and Kevin were swimming a little closer to the shore, and appeared to be quite busy bickering at one another again. I smiled, and flipped myself to lie on my stomach. Then my eyes caught the lights from Nick’s summer house.
I remembered Annie said Gallen did not know how to cook! “My Dai Gor knows how to eat! He’s tasted all the best food around, but no… not cooking! My mother spoils him so much that he doesn’t even make coffee himself!”
So how was he doing up there in that vast kitchen of the Cheung’s summer house? He had to do that partly because of me. Well, what made him flick his wrist at that moment?
I remembered his smile, so vividly!
But he had to pay for what he did – did for me, because of me, because he… Well, maybe I was just being oversensitive. Maybe it WAS a slippage! Maybe he wasn’t smiling AT me!
Yet I was feeling sorry for him – staying in the house cooking while the rest of us enjoying on the private beach. How was he doing up there in that kitchen?
I was so curious! Maybe I could just sneak in for a peek.
But I had no chance to do so, since my friends had all decided to finish with their afternoon bathing and declared it was time for dinner!
“What do you think your brother will have for us?” Ada asked Annie
“I don’t even dare to think!” was the girl’s response.
“He said he couldn’t cook!” Kevin said redundantly
“He’d better have something for us” Nick said in fake threatening tone “Or he’ll pay dearly for it!”
“What are you going to do to him, Nick Gor?” Ada asked while throwing me a meaningful glance
“Get him into the yacht, sail out, and throw him into the sea!” Nick said with a straight face
“So inhuman!” Annie giggled “Somebody is crying inside!”
“I’ll take a shower first!” I excused myself, hearing my friend’s teasing laughter trailing behind me.
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[Flora]
When I got out of the bathroom, all fresh in my white cotton summer dress, I heard footsteps rumpling the house amid my friends’ laughing and yelling. Then I felt someone brushed by my side and caught my arms.
“Run!” The voice hushed. It was unmistakably Gallen’s.
I didn’t ask where we were heading to. It was just that utmost securing, utmost trusting feeling, having him holding my hands and leading the way.
I was silly, I know!
But it was so nice running barefoot on the white sandy beach amid the magical sunset. The horizon had become that of a bright reddish orange. The ocean and the sky added onto the amazing canvass ranging from amethyst purple to jade blue to ruby red.
On that marvelous showcase of colors, we ran. Sand plashed under our feet, caressing our flesh. His blue jeans hugged his figure for every move he made, his loosely-tucked white shirt flapped wildly against his well-built torso, and his short jet-black hair floated freely in the ocean breeze.
We dashed passed the sandy volleyball beach court, followed the water line for a while, got to the end of a wooden pier, and finally found ourselves boarding a huge yacht.
There we finally stopped to catch our breaths. Then he looked at me.
Gallen’s eyes gave something that was half of an embarrassing grin and half of a sparkle when he hastily released his grip on my hand.
From the distance, we could hear our friends’ yelling and hollering. They were zooming in on us.
“Why… why are we here?” I, at last, managed to ask
“For dinner!” He grinned, now perfectly. “Come here!” He offered his hand once again. I took it. He had very nice long and slender fingers…
He helped me to the upper deck of the boat, and I gave out a little gasp…
The view was simply magnificent! The sunset… the table…
And him!
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