Phase 1: The Transition (Re-Done)

Charles walked around the school trying to get familiarize himself with the layout of the school. This school was much bigger than what he was used to. He was becoming a boarding student so that he would be able to have an easy commute to school compared to his other school which were further out into the countryside. While looking down at the map he accidently bumped into some odd-looking kids. They all had piercings in their ears and were glaring down at him. He immediately knew that they were delinquents, some of them even had scabbed over wounds on their face and arms.

"Oi, watch where you're going kid!" the delinquent that had bumped into Charles yelled as he pushed Charles back. Charles did not take kindly to this snarling at the delinquent who was at least another 30cm taller than himself.

"Wah, this kid has balls. Bumping into me and then snarling at me!" The delinquent said while looking to his entourage of 9 other boys. All the boys looked around 17 compared to Charles who has only turned 15, 2 months prior.

"It's getting late bro, I'm just trying to familiarize myself with the school," Charles responded while he pointed to the map of the school he held. It showed that they were situated around the science block close to the sport fields which were adjacent to the boarding house. The Delinquent snatched the map out of Charles' hand and looked at it.

"Looks like they updated the look of the map this year," he said before he tore it up in front of Charles. He then took the torn-up map and threw it in Charles' face. Charles, who was not one to waste an opportunity, grabbed hold of the delinquent's arm, spun around, pushed his hips slightly under the delinquent's pelvis and flipped over.

The delinquent hit the ground with a thud, landing on his back which thankfully dispersed the damage that would has been dealt to him if he had landed on his head. This still hurt immensely though, and he reeled in pain.

"What do you think you're doing ****", one of the other delinquents said as he came running up towards Charles, fist loaded ready to land a punch. Charles again used the opportunity of an ill-experience delinquent to catch his fist and used the momentum generated to send him flying backwards into the other delinquents. The other delinquents were surprised by this and half of them got his by their friend being thrown back their way. However, a few of them who stood further back than the other were able to get out of the way in time.

A voice called out from behind Charles, "Well, what are you waiting for, get him!" Charles looked back and saw the first delinquent he had thrown struggling to get up off the ground but composed enough to spout orders. This moment of confusion for Charles gave the able delinquents time to catch Charles. Just as Charles saw a fist almost meet his face the area behind the fist appeared and there was no fist to be seen.

Again, a thud could be heard, followed by a large yelp of pain right beside Charles. Looking down he could see the delinquent who had just tried to punch him underneath a larger body of an Indian boy. The Indian boy got up from the delinquent and looked directly at Charles. Charles then slowly nodded to the Indian boy, which was reciprocated with an ear to ear grin.

"Come on Arjun don't go getting into trouble!" A voice came out from behind Charles once more. He looked back to see 30 or more well defined boys, all seeming to range from 15 to 17. When the remaining delinquents saw the large group come over the slowly started to disperse collecting their downed members. As they left Charles heard one of the delinquents say under his breath, "Damn those bloody Rugby guys."

Charles had heard of the word Rugby before, but never really paid any attention to it. It was only a few took a few seconds before all the 30 or more Rugby players had passed him by and made their way to the middle sporting field. Arjun, the Indian boy who had saved him had patted a few of the other people on the back while they made their way past the two boys.

Arjun then turned to Charles and said, "Hi, I'm Arjun, you got a good head on your shoulders." Arjun smiled as he turned to face the field but took a quick glance in the direction that the delinquents had gone.

"Thanks for your help, I would have had my face in the ground if it weren't for you," Charles replied shaking Arjun's hand in gratitude.

"So, you're interested in joining the Rugby team? You played before?" Arjun said as he started stretching while looking at Charles with an enthused expression on his face.

"Oh, no I was just trying to familiarize myself with the layout of the school," Charles replied trying to back pedal and pointing towards the direction of the main school area.

"Ah I see," Arjun said with a small amount of disappointment in his eyes. "Well, you seem like you would be good at it, and you seem quite fit. Do you want to join?"

Charles was still a bit taken aback with this statement. He didn't even really understand what Rugby was, but this other boy seemed to embody power. When he thought about it, his mind slipped back to all the other boys that had passed him by. They were all different heights and sizes, but all carried themselves like seasoned veterans that could pummel anyone into the ground if they wanted. It sparked a light of curiosity in Charles.

"I don't even know what Rugby is, but it seems pretty interesting," Charles finally said. Arjun just chuckled.

"Don't worry, some of the guys you just saw only picked the sport up in the last year or two, your not too late and the coaches would be more than willing to teach you the ropes," He said while taking a few small steps towards the field. "You should join now, or just come watch out practice. It might be good for ya."

Charles chuckled to himself, he wasn't far from the dormitory and he was already in some sport like clothes that held the school emblem with the orange and black colours.

"Alright, I'll join today. I could use some exercise," Charles replied, after which he followed Arjun down to the field. As they walked down to the field Charles could see the other boys setting up. He was also able to count how many people were down there, which ended up reaching 43. Although 3 other men came from some extra building that were on the other side of the fields. They carried a few netted materials with them. In one seemed to be oval shaped balls, in the other was some sort of padding, similar to the kick pads he had seen before, but oddly shaped with the top quarter of the pad seeming to extrude out.

When Charles and Arjun finally reached the field where the other boys were, the middleman of the three men called out, "Alright boys, over here!"

All the boys followed the direction of this man, some yelling out "YES COACH!"

"Alright boys, It's almost pre-season time. So, we need to shake of the holiday mentality and put in the work." The man said clapping his hands together.

"Seems we have a new face, Mr. Mohamed, will you look after him while we get everyone warmed up?" The man added while he looked to the slightly darker skinned man beside him.

"Sure Mr. Handa, you heard him boys, split off into forwards and Backs!" Mr. Mohamed called, before he walked towards Charles. He extended his hand to Charles with a smile. Charles took the hand shaking it firmly.

"Hi there, what's your name?" Mr. Mohamed asked.

"I'm Charles sir, Charles Yang." Charles said as he released Mr. Mohamed's hand.

"Have you ever played Rugby before Charles?"

"No sir, I haven't. But Arjun said I should come and play," Charles said while pointing to Arjun who had gone with a group of boys towards the third man. Mr. Mohamed laughed a little.

"Arjun is very good at convincing people to play Rugby, he really loves the game," Mr. Mohamed said.

"Anyway, I should explain some basic things about the game for you, shouldn't I?" He added with a chuckle. Charles smiled as he nodded along with Mr. Mohamed.

"So, Rugby is a team sport with each side consisting of 15 players and 8 substitutes. It's played for 80 minutes split into two halves and the main goal is to score points by putting the ball down on the ground in the zone behind the big H shaped posts that you can see there and there, or putting it through the posts above the horizontal bar," Mr. Mohamed said in one breath while he pointed to each of the areas that he spoke about.

"Those are the basics of the game, we'll teach you how to play as you go on, although do you have any questions for me?" He asked.

Charles just shook his head trying to process all the information that he had received.

"Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. Why don't you join Arjun and his group over there," Mr. Mohamed said pointing over to where Arjun and the boys he went with were passing the ball among themselves.

"That is Mr. Taylor they are with, he is the coach for the player that play in the back part of the field," Mr. Mohamed added before Charles ran off.

Charles jogged over to where Mr. Taylor as standing as he watched the boys do a passing drill.

"Ah, the new kid. You're the guy Arjun brought in?" Mr. Taylor asked.

"Yes, I'm Charles," Charles responded.

"What we are doing at the moment is a passing drill, the basic rule in Rugby is that you can pass a ball to a team mate as long as the ball doesn't travel forwards, only flatly or backwards," Mr. Taylor added.

"Go join the line with Arjun, he'll help you with the other nuances of the drill,"

Charles nodded and walked over to where Arjun was. He passed by three other lines of boys. Charles watched intently which allowed him to see the front boys of the lines jogged up in a straight line passing the ball down the line and back again, before getting to the other set of lines with other boys waiting.

Arjun was waiting in the fourth line for Charles as soon as he saw him walking over, allowing other boys to go ahead of him in the line.

"Alright, Charles. So, the main goal of the drill…" Arjun said before Charles chimed in with,

"To get the ball down the line and up again before getting to the other row?"

Arjun grinned before adding, "Yep, looks like you are very perceptive. We've got five rows so it should be fairly easy. You want to pass the ball with two hands, so you have more control, also have your hands out ready for the ball before you get it,"

"Why's that?" Charles asked a bit perplexed. He had seen some of the other boys doing that but wasn't able to understand the reasoning.

"Then you're less likely to drop it. If this was in the season, if we drop the ball, we all must do 20 pushups," Arjun said shuddering at the thought.

"Ok, Backwards, hands out, two handed, got it," Charles said.

Arjun smiled as he got back into the line. Charles watched intently as the boys ahead of him proceeded with the drill. He saw that each player took extra care in passing the ball to the next, some of the players added a small spin to the ball, which seemed to make the ball travel through the air faster. The ball only stayed in their hands for a few seconds while the received it and passed it off to the next person.

And just as he had been intently watching it was his turn to go as Arjun's group went off in a dash. To Charles it had not even felt like a second had passed and his group had already started jogging up. The first pass went off, then the second pass and then the third and Charles had yet to put his hands out. The third boy let the pass leave his hands before he had even turned his head, it spiraled towards Charles' face who still had his hands towards the third boy.