A Man of Routine

The spring air felt great against Briallen’s skin as she went for a nice jog around the sports field. She had only been at Starlight Academy for a few days, but the sight of her in her clingy sports bras and spandex shorts on the sports field had already become a common enough that many of the students knew who she was—even if they didn’t know her by name. ‘The faux hawke girl in the spandex’ was one title she had overheard…

Briallen stopped jogging to wipe the seat from her brow, when something caught her eye.

No, it wasn’t Eric. In fact, she walked right past him. What she was looking at was a very attractive girl playing tennis in the nearby courts.

“Wow…” she said under her breath as she watched this pretty girl slam the ball toward her opponent. The sounds of a soccer ball being kicked against the wall, however, broke her out of her trance. So, she finally gave Eric a quick glance. Certainly not for the same reason as she was admiring the tennis girl, but rather she was curious about this guy’s soccer skills. She had come to realize that just kicking a ball by herself over and over was getting a little boring.

“Hey!” she called out to Eric. “You’re not bad—do you play competitively?”

A smirk crosses Briallen’s lips as she waited for the ball to roll closer. Once it tapped her shoe, she rolled it onto her foot and kicked it into the air. She then caught it on her knee—bouncing it a few times before sending it flying high. Before it could reach the ground, Briallen gave the ball a swift kick—sending it flying right past Eric’s head and slamming into the brick wall.

Satisfied with her little display, Briallen ran a hand through her faux hawke and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Not to be a brag, but I’m not half bad myself,” she said—her smirk becoming cocky. “I’ve just been thinking: I’ve been at this school a few days, and I’m starting to get bored of kicking the ball around by myself over and over…”

Briallen had not picked up the signs that Eric was attracted to her—or else she would have changed her mind very quickly. It had actually been quite a while since Briallen was hit on by a guy. The boys at her old school knew better—and if they didn’t, well, they learned very quickly.

Out of the corner of her eye, she checked to see if the pretty tennis girl was still around, but unfortunately she was walking away back to the school at that point. Damn.

She was pretty impressed that Eric didn’t flinch when the ball zoomed inches past his head. Usually when she did that, people would panic and duck—which she had to admit would get a laugh out of her. His unflinching behavior got the competitive sparks flying in her. Ah, how she missed that feeling. Playing a competitive sport without competition was just not the same. It made her miss her old school, where she was considered VIP of the soccer team.

“Some 1-on-1 shootout is sounding pretty appealing,” she replied as she approached the ball in between them and started rolling it under her heel. She started cracking her knuckles in anticipation as she glanced around for an empty net they could use. Luckily, the sports field was pretty quiet that day—so they had plenty to choose from.

“Let’s grab the net over there,” she said as she tilted her head toward it, before starting to kick the ball toward the direction of the closest free net.

“I’m Briallen, by the way!” she called back to Eric, realizing they hadn’t done introductions yet, as she ran toward the net.

For Briallen, on the other hand, soccer was her number one sports. Her reflexes were not superhuman by any means, but she was pretty damn fast regardless.

“Sounds good,” Briallen replied when he offered to take the first kick. She kicked the ball over to Eric, and then sprinted over to the net.

Then he mentioned putting his number in her phone. Ah, now here came the flirting. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes a bit.

“Yeah well, in the event you somehow get my number: it’s ‘Bri’ and then ‘Allen’ like a dude’s name.” Briallen didn’t necessarily get mean with flirtatious guys--unless of course they were being gross or too pushy—but she did have a tendency to get sassy. Still, even with the flirting Briallen was still eager to play some shoot-out.

Briallen got into position in front of the net—not even bothering to respond to his ‘ready’ since she could see he was going for it right away. No worries—she was prepared. She watched his moves carefully, taking only a few seconds to predict the ball was going for the right corner. She leapt into action, lifting her leg up high to kick and send the ball flying right back to Eric.

“Gonna have to do better than that, man!” she exclaimed with a cocky smirk.

“Heh, just a warm-up? Alright, then you better show me what you got this time,” Briallen said as she walked past him toward the ball. Even with the little bit of flirting going on, she was enjoying her time with this cocky guy. She’d let him have his fun for now, but would be ready to shut him down if he started to get too serious.

Briallen turned around and started rolling the ball under her foot in anticipation. She didn’t even notice Eric taking a peek at her butt—although frankly it probably wouldn’t have surprised her much. The spandex shorts weren’t exactly modest.

“Ready?” Like Eric had done before, she asked if he was ready, but was going to kick the ball regardless of his answer. She shifted back and away from the ball a bit to get a running start.

She started approaching the ball at the left side, but at the last second she feigned the move and actually kicked it toward the upper right of the net instead. She was kind of infamous at her old school for these bait-and-switch type of moves.