59 New Captain and Vice-Captain (1/2)
Summer arrived soon after the nationals. Before Yuel realized, he had already spent an entire year in the Classmancers club. He improved a lot and class-changed from ”Kid” to ”Second String Captain”. But, that's about all he achieved. He'll have to work even harder next year if he wants to play competitively.
The end of the year was approaching and a third of the club was about to graduate: Aron, Trever and all the other seniors. It meant all their spots on StormBlitz will be open next year. But Howard and Ellen were still here, so Yuel and Lars's spots were still taken... for now.
Before graduation day, the club threw a small farewell party for the seniors. All juniors and freshmen joined hands to bring snacks and drinks. Chips, cupcakes, candies, cola, you name it. Yuel could only imagine the horror of cleaning all of this afterward, a job that's clearly going be forced on the freshmen... oh well. It was supposed to be a party, so he did his best to shut his brain and enjoy.
”Hey,” Lars called out to Trever. ”You finished entry exams, right? Got into Ivy?”
”Ivy?” Trever took a slow sip from his drink. ”Nah, I blew it.”
”Pft, not surprised.”
”What's that supposed to mean!?” Trever jabbed. ”Man, like you're the one to talk. I'll know for sure the zombie apocalypse is coming when ya get higher than a failing mark at literally anything, haha.”
”Have to agree with that,” Yuel gave Lars a look. ”From what I heard, most of your grades have only one digit.”
”Haha!” Trever smacked Lars on the back. ”And you wanna get to Ivy? Better start taking cram school, boy.”
”Heeeeck no.” Lars shook his head so hard it nearly flew off his neck. ”I'mma just study hard in the last year. Things will work out for sure. Believe it, yo.”
”Second year.” Yuel insisted. ”You start studying in the second year. You need to get your grades at least into double digits first.”
”Geh, what a pain. I'll think about it.”
”Do it.”
”I'll [think] about it.”
”I'll tell your mom about your grades.”
”Gah! Okay, okay! I'll try harder next year!”
”Good.” Yuel nodded. Ivy High was known as a rather ”prestige” school. It demanded an average grade of 70 or more across subjects, as well as passing their entry exam with at least 60 points..
Fortunately, there were various scholarships which made things easier, like a sports scholarship. Since Classmancers was so highly regarded in Ivy, the sports scholarship extended to scouted Classmancers players. Being scouted didn't always guarantee admittance, but at least it significantly lowered the required average grade and entry exam score. Honestly, that's Lars's only hope.
Trever didn't get to play in the regionals this year and barely even in scrimmages, so of course, nobody scouted him. Not to mention that even if somebody had seen him during the StormBlitz vs. Leopards scrimmage, they wouldn't have gotten the best impression of him. Though it seemed the guy in question had completely forgotten about that dark past of his, and that's for the better. Trever was at his best when he acted like a goof and pretended like he's everybody's big bro.
Unlike Trever, there's one senior who DID participate in the regionals and put on a solid performance. He would have easily gotten the ”Best Jungler” award in the regionals if not for Fenrir. Of course, the talented senior in question was Aron.
”Did Ivy scout you?” Yuel asked.
”No,” Aron shrugged. ”Nobody contacted me.”
”Really? That's surprising.”
”They got high standards, I guess. An elitist school and all.”
”I see. But, that's not an issue for you, is it? I'm sure you still passed the entry exam with flying colors.”
”I did. But, I won't attend Ivy.”
”Huh?” Yuel was sure he misheard for a moment. ”Why?”
”After riding there for the exam, I realized how far it is,” Aron shook his head. ”The thought of traveling there every day by metro and two buses killed all my motivation. I'll be going to Gordon instead.”
”I see...” Yuel wasn't sure how to take this. Aron should have been the type who strives to play in the best environment possible, he even considered going pro later down the line. [Everybody and their reasons, I guess.]
”By the way,” Trever butted in. ”I'm going to Gordon too.”
”You don't say.” Aron made a face.
”Hm?” Yuel raised an eyebrow. There was something off about that reaction, but didn't seem like either of them was planning to talk about this.
”My,” Ellen waltzed into the conversation out of nowhere and smiled at Aron. ”You gave up on Ivy to go to the same school as your boyfriend. How romantic~”
”You chick and your creepy fanfics,” Trever shuddered. ”You're still aiming for Ivy, right?”
”That's the idea, but who knows what gonna happen. At least, I'm sure I won't give up on Ivy for a silly reason like failing all my exams~”
”You're real cute, you know?”
”My, thank you~” Ellen tilted her head and smiled like an angel. A thoroughly disturbing angel.
”So,” Trever grinned and thrust his finger at Ellen. ”We gonna play each other next year. Better brace yourself, girl!”
”My, how rude.” Ellen smacked Trever's finger away. ”Your parents didn't teach you to not point at people? Sheesh. And sure, I'll brace myself real well. That is, brace myself to never playing you in high school because you'll never become a starter~”
”We'll see about that.” They glared at each other for about two seconds, but it felt like an hour. Finally, Ellen shrugged and waltzed away, with a foxy smile still plastered across her face.
”Tch,” Trever clicked his tongue and refilled his drink. Yuel never heard the full story of these two, but they clearly had some bad blood between them. Was it just because Ellen stole Trever's Carry? It felt like there was much more to it, but Yuel never mustered the courage to poke that beehive.
”So,” Yuel changed the topic. ”Is the team at Gordon any good?”
”Heck yeah!” Trever nodded, the usual smile gradually returning to brighten his face. ”They got the Knights! These bad boys don't have a coach, but they get into top four every year. How cool is that, huh!?”
”I see.” Impressive, but also strange. If these ”Knights” were truly so strong, why hadn't Yuel heard more about them?
Then again, the only high school team anybody ever talked about was Venom, the team of Ivy High. They had been the reigning champions of the region for the past six years, so the accepted mentality was: ”You either play on Venom, or you're a nobody.”
Whichever reasons Aron and Trever had for picking the Knights, hopefully they won't regret their decision. They were good players, but not being in Venom meant facing Venom in the regionals. Merely being ”good” won't cut it, that much was evident by the fact a strong player like Aron wasn't even scouted by Ivy. It'll be a tough competition for these two in high school.
Will Aron and Trever be able to shake the tradition and overthrow Venom with the Knights? [I should really start following the high school competitive scene...]
But, it wasn't so simple. The high school scene was where competitive Classmancers began overlapping with the pro scenes. It wasn't uncommon to hear about talented high schoolers receiving pro contracts.
Unfortunately, all of this was so far from Yuel right now. He was just a freshman in middle school, about to become a junior. The high school scene was still many years away from him. Every time he remembered that he died a little inside.
As much as he wanted to debut on that stage right now, he first had to conquer the junior high scene, for which he first had to graduate from the second string. And to do that, he had to beat Howard. Speaking of the devil...
”Alright,” Howard raised his voice. ”We got a farewell speech from our captain. Gather around.”