2 Psychology

"Ping pong?" Anna asked and looked away from the mirror where she was liberally applying mascara to her blond eyelashes.

We were in our dorm room getting ready for our first day of class. I was also trying to get ready for my first meeting with the ping pong club. Although I wasn't sure what kind of clothing was best to wear to play ping pong.

"Yeah," I shrugged and sifted through a pile of scarfs, trying to decide which color I'd wear today. "They were the only club left when I got there. I didn't even know we had a ping pong club, did you?"

"I've heard of them." Anna said moving away from the mirror and plopping down on my bed, "I heard they have a really hard time getting new members to join."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Anna leaned over my bed and pulled a yellow scarf from the pile I was looking through, then tossed it at my face implying she thought I should wear it. "I've heard they take the sport wayyy to serious, and it's no fun."

I snorted at her words and wrapped the yellow scarf around my neck, "It's just table tennis."

"Exactly." She agreed, "It's just table tennis, but they treat it like it's the whole damn world."

"How do you know this?" I looked at my friend suspiciously.

She moved her shoulder in an over-emphatic shrug, "It's just the rumor, that's why no one wants to join and also probably why they were the only club left looking for new members."

~I guess that's a fair point.~

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you." I said, changing the subject, "I almost touched Luca Zhang's abs yesterday."

"What?!" suddenly Anna was off my bed and a mere inch from my face holding onto my arms. "Tell me what happened!" when she stood that close to me, her green eyes seemed vibrant and I could nearly count every freckle on her face. Although I wouldn't want to, it would probably take all day. Anna liked to remind me that freckles were just marks left by angels when they kissed her. She would say, obviously, she was loved by the angels because of all the kisses they left on her. Then, she would promptly remind me that the angels must hate me cause I didn't have a single freckle.

I laughed at her reaction and pushed her hands off of me. "I'm kidding, I didn't touch his abs. But I did almost run into his chest."

"Oh my god." she gasped, "that's almost nearly as good."

I rolled my eyes. I knew when I told her this, she would freak out.

"You know what, Tia." she crossed her arms.

"What?"

"I think this is a sign."

"A sign?" I crunched my eyebrows at her sudden epiphany.

"Yes," she stuck a finger in the air at her bright idea, "the gods are going to bless you this year."

I laughed out loud at her words, "You think that me almost running into some dude's chest is a blessing from the gods?"

"Not just 'some dude!'" she put a hand on my shoulder, "It was Luca Zhang."

"Yeah, well, if you saw the angry way he was looking at me, I doubt you would say it was a blessing." I shook her hand off my shoulder, "Come on, we'll be late to class at this rate."

"You go ahead first." she waved a hand at me, "I'm going to run by the dining hall and get a banana or something."

"Alright," I turned to leave our room, "Just don't be too late."

"Save me a seat!"

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"My first class is psychology, and it's in room....." I scrolled through the list of classes on my phone, "110."

I made my way to the classroom and picked a seat near the door. I always liked to sit close to the door so I could be the first one out when class ended. I started unpacking my books when a crowd of people entered the room.

Wait, no, it wasn't a crowd.... it was a cult. And the leader of the cult, the person who walked in the room first, was none other than my blessing from the gods, Luca Zhang. And the rest of the cult... a group of woman and men seeking his attention in probably the most pathetic ways possible.

To my dismay, he entered the classroom and began in my direction, his crowd following him.

~Please, I don't need any more blessings from the gods...~

"Luca, Luca, did you join any clubs yesterday?" one girl asked.

"Would you mind modeling some of the clothes I am designing for a class this year?" another asked.

Luca ignored them all and sat down in the desk next to mine.

~Great~

I immediately started putting my books back in my bookbag.

After Luca sat down, suddenly every seat around us was filled. And they were all being so annoyingly loud.

~And now I have to sit on the other side of the classroom.~

"Aren't you the one that walks around with your eyes closed?" Luca spoke and everyone around us silenced.

~Shit. Is he talking to me?~

My head swiveled in his direction and my eyes began to blink as if trying to wake me from a dream. But sure enough, his blue eyes were looking at me. I thought perhaps he was making a joke. But his mouth sat in a flat line and his expression looked bored.

~How am I supposed to respond to that?~

I threw my backpack over my shoulder as I stood. "I don't always do that." I responded shortly before leaving my seat and moving across the room. I looked for the seat furthest from Luca and his groupies.

"Do you know her, Luca?" one of the girls asked as I found my new seat.

"No." Luca answered. And when I looked back across the room to him, his eyes were still on me.

I clenched my teeth tight as I focused on the books and pencils I was taking from my bag and attempted to ignore him.

~Blessing from the gods... Ha!... more like curse.~

"She's the mortal girl, isn't she?" I heard a guy ask, and I pretended like I couldn't hear them.

"Yeah," a girl agreed, "I heard she gets to go here because Dean Moore claims her as his daughter."

"Daughter?" another chimed in, "More like a charity case."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn't the first time I had heard talk like this. And it wouldn't be the last either. People always bullied me in one way or another for being the only human here. The only exception was Anna, she grew up in the human world, raised by adoptive mortal parents. That's why my father requested her to be my roommate. And that's why she's never judged me.

"Oh. my. goddddd" I heard a voice whisper excitedly, and I opened my eyes to see Anna in front of me smiling with a half-eaten banana in her hands. She slid into the desk next to me and squeezed my arm. "Luca is in our class?!" she whispered excitedly.

Despite everything, I smiled at my friend. I didn't know if she had heard the other people talking or not, but it didn't matter. As long as I had her for a friend, what other people said didn't matter. And my hope was that this year, I could at least make a couple more friends like that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm here to join the ping pong club." I said and met the eyes of a tall skinny girl. She had short pink hair and was loudly chewing bubble gum that was the same color.

She eyed me up and down, perhaps assessing my physic and whether I was actually fit enough to play intense ping pong. "You can go over there with the other new members." she said and jabbed a thumb in the direction of a bench where two other awkward newbies sat.

~hopefully I'm not too late~

It had taken me a lot longer than I had expected to find the 'sub-sports gymnasium' which I didn't even know was a thing. I had originally gone to the normal gym and almost immediately been pummeled by a basketball. Then, after a good bit of walking around, I found another gym on the other side of campus that looked nearly abandoned. I'm actually relatively certain it was the old gym, but now it houses all of the sports teams that people don't think are important. For example: ping pong, racket ball, chess and checkers (Which technically isn't a sport, so I'm not sure why they need a gym), and men's volleyball. It's also apparently a great place to smoke pot, considering the constant smell of marijuana I've noticed since I got here.

The two other new members scooted on the bench and made room for me. And I pulled my scarf up over my neck as I sat down next to them. There was a girl probably about my height with an afro of curly hair around her head. And the other person was a skinny freshman boy who wore pants and shirt so baggy that it made him look even skinnier than he was.

"Oh! you're all here!" I looked up and the big boobed lady I met at the clubs fair was before us. "I'm Charlie! I'm the leader of the ping pong team. I'm also the one you need to come to if anyone of you need help. We are so excited to have all of you join the club this year! Because of you guys, we have enough members to join the European ping pong competition this year! Now, do any of you have experience playing?"

She looked to the skinny boy first, he shrugged his bony shoulders, "I played a little in highschool."

"Nice!" Charlie looked to the girl next.

"I was a part of my schools ping pong team!" the girl seemed more excited than the rest of us. "And I'm so excited to play with you guys!"

"We are so excited to have you!" Charlie jumped and her boobs bounced with her.

~These people do seem pretty serious about ping pong...~

Last, she looked at me and I shook my head, "I haven't played before."

"That's fine!" she waved a hand, "You'll be learning from the best here! Now, before you guys start, I have some wavers I need you to sign."

~Wavers?~

"We have three different wavers." she grabbed some papers that were piled on the bench beside us. "The first one," she handed it to us, "Is just in case you get hurt, this agrees that the ping pong club is not at fault." she handed us pens and the other two members immediately began signing their names without reading the fine print. "The second one is a waver of loyalty. When you sign this one, you will be bound to be a part of the ping pong club for the rest of this school year."

I blinked in surprise as she handed out the next round of papers.

"That seems a bit excessive." the skinny boy pointed out and I kind of agreed with him.

"You can't join our club unless you sign." Charlie shrugged.

I sighed and began to sign my name. This was the only club left that I could join. I wasn't going to give it up yet.

"And the last waver is one of confidentiality." Charlie passed us the third paper, "There is a certain member of our team, a very important member actually, who does not want his participation in this club to be known to the general public."

"What?" me and the girl with the afro spoke at the same time.

"I know it sounds kind of strange." Charlie shrugged, "But this person's participation in our club becoming general knowledge may end up affecting the entire ping pong team. So it's important that it is kept a secret."

I skimmed over the waver and my eyes came to a halt when I saw a familiar name. 'Luca Zhang.'

~What?~

I pulled the paper to my face and began speed reading. The identity that we must conceal... the person who is secretly on the ping pong team is.... Luca Zhang????