Moments before the incident, up in the stands, Xin noticed something strange in the stand opposite theirs. One of the Eton High students had a hand-held camera in his hand, and was filming the entire match. Next to him was another student with a laptop who seemed completely focused on it and nothing else around him.
“Doesn’t that look a bit strange? They’ve been filming since the start of the match.” Xin mentioned, as something was giving her the feeling that things weren’t as they seemed.
“Is it?” Innu just shrugged it off. His attention was on the game, ever since Gary started to just bulldoze his way through the field. There was a certain excitement from everyone watching, each time he got the ball.
“Don’t a lot of sports teams film their matches? It’s not like anyone else will film such an amateur match. It makes it easy to replay important moments and learn from them so they can improve.” Innu added as he looked up.
“…Although now that I say it, that doesn’t sound like them. Come to think of it, if they were that diligent about getting better then they should have had no need to attack all the regulars.
“They attacked you guys?!” Xin yelped out, surprised. “No wonder I barely recognize any of the members.”
If it had only been the camera guy then she wouldn’t have thought much of it, but it was the fact that the student next to them also had the computer when they should have been focusing on the game.
It was then, though, that a loud shout from a familiar voice was heard grabbing her attention completely.
“I’ll kill you!” Gary shouted, having pinned down one of the Eton High players, and it was one of the twins, Sren.
It was seemingly out of nowhere, and so fast that both teams didn’t know how to act. Looking at Sren, Gary had already pulled back his fist and threw it out. Moving his head to the side just in time, the high schooler ended up hitting nothing but the ground beneath. Making it hard for anyone looking to know just how hard the punch was.
The first one to act from Eton High was Sren’s brother Leng, but as the two of them met eyes, Sren just shook his head, and his brother backed down. While also looking back at the stands making sure everything was okay.
“You slimy little snake!” Gary cursed, as he pulled back his fist again, ready to aim at the other’s chest. However, by this time his fellow players from Westbridge had arrived and were trying to stop him from doing something stupid and grabbed onto his arms.
“Stop it Gary! He wants you to hit him! If you attack him they’ll kick you off the pitch!” One of the students tried to reason with him as he held onto Gary’s outstretched arm.
Alas, he wasn’t listening and looked at Sren who gave him a satisfied smirk, making him want to punch him even more.
Four people were pulling Gary back, and yet it looked as if it still wasn’t enough for them to pull him off, until a certain person came and pushed him off the other from the front. Sren didn’t thank him and just tsked as he went away.
Gary could see Blake above him.
“What the hell are you doing? That guy hurt Tom! If you get in my w-!”
“Stop!” Tom shouted, holding his hand. “I’m okay. They only pierced my skin a little, it just hurt a lot, that’s all.”
Although this might have been the case, that wasn’t why Gary was angry, he could tell that what they had done was intentional.
They had hurt his friend again after Gary had talked about Tom being safe next to him.
With this thought in his head, Gary continued to charge forward and the players were there trying to hold him back again, but with Gary’s strength, he was just skidding them across the grass.
Still, Blake stood firmly in his way. Seeing this, his father stood up from the crowd.
“He must be worried about his son!” One of the mothers said.
“That boy is so vicious, where is his mother?” Another asked.
In the stand not too far away, Kai was also watching the match with Marie.
“Is this what you expected?” Marie asked.
Kai smiled looking at the site.
“No, it’s even better. He is exactly who we need. I’ve never seen someone get so angry over a friend being hurt like that…he’s perfect.”
“GARY!” Tom shouted, getting in between Blake and him. “I’m fine!”
Tom held up his hand showing that his wound wasn’t a big deal, he could even still play. Seeing this, Gary finally seemed to somewhat settle down.
However, the referee looked to be in a troublesome spot, wondering just what to do. Mr Root, seeing this, quickly went to his side, and placed his hands together as if he was begging.
“Now come on, there’s no need to do anything. These are just hot headed teens. Of course they’re going to get aggressive in a fight like this. Besides, in the end, only our player was the one that actually got hurt.” Mr Root argued.
The referee glanced at the teacher, he understood why he was being this way. From watching the match, Westbride’s team were mostly made of amateurs and the one that had gotten involved in a scuffle was one of their star players.
If he was taken out of the game, then there would be no hope for Westbridge. He also was aware of Eton High’s reputation, so he was sure their attack wasn’t a coincidence.
It was only because of this, that the ref at the end of the day, decided to keep the game going on with no consequences on either side.
Before the match was to resume, Gary went to look at Tom’s hand.
“You seem to be getting hurt a lot these days. Are you sure you’re okay and it’s not just the adrenaline?” Gary asked
Tom lifted his hand up again, showing his best friend the wound.
“Look it’s only a flesh wound, it just ripped the skin a little it will be fine-“
Strangely, Gary grabbed onto Tom’s hand and looked at it closely. At first Tom thought it was out of concern and he just wanted a closer look, but then he noticed that the other’s eyes seemed almost obsessed with it.
“G-gary? Oi, Gary!” Tom shouted, yet the other was still holding onto his hand.
At that moment, Gary was having visions… visions of biting down on Tom’s hand. He soon let go and almost fell back to the ground as he backed up.
“I….I-I got to get out of this game, Tom..I have to leave now….” Gary mumbled, and that’s when Tom noticed that there was a significant change to Gary.
His eyes, they no longer looked like that of a human, and instead had gone slightly yellow changing shape.
“Are you…changing? Right here, right now?!” Tom helplessly looked around for a way for the other to disappear.
******
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