One member down

The next day when Scarlett woke up, she noticed that her phone had several messages left on it that had been sent while she was asleep.

"Alex?" Scarlett said. "I wonder what he wanted so late."

The message read:

"Scarlett, if you can come to school early and meet me in the club room, I have some important news."

Scarlett didn't know what the news was but the fact that Alex didn't say what it was over text, meant it had to be important enough to be said in person. Scarlett then threw on her clothes and got to school as soon as possible.

Alex had been patiently waiting inside the clubroom for a while now, he had gotten to school early before classes had even started, preparing what he wanted to say. In the end, he just didn't know how to break the news to the rest of the team. His heart couldn't take it.

He managed to gather up the courage to tell Scarlett, who he felt closest with. When Scarlett had arrived, she immediately saw a mark across Alex's face.

"Your face! What happened." Scarlett said as she rushed over.

"It's nothing don't worry." Alex lifted his hand to stop Scarlett from seeing the mark on his face.

Once Scarlett had calmed down, he took a deep breath before saying what he needed to say.

"I need to quit the club!"

Scarlett's eyes nearly popped out of her skull. She knew more than anyone how much the club meant to him. Before Scarlett could ask why, Alex continued.

"My grades have been dropping and I have no more time for silly games. I have to start focusing on my studies and think about my future."

Alex was looking down at the ground. He wasn't able to look Scarlett in the eyes while speaking. Every word he had said was just a repeat of what his mother had said to him at some point.

"I'm sorry," Alex said as stormed out of the room.

Scarlett thought she might have been imagining things but she was sure she could see tears coming from his eyes.

The class had started and Scarlett's mind was full about what to tell the others. She was sure that this wasn't Alex decision but it was somehow influenced by someone else. Even when Mac was bullying him and others, Alex had never quit the game but now all of sudden he wanted to focus on his studies? Scarlett wasn't buying it one bit and wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Although Scarlett's mind was soon focused on something else as the teacher had an announcement to make.

"Now, before we start class, I have a new student that will be joining our class today."

Suddenly, the room was filled with the boys all praying one thing.

"Please be a girl… please be a girl…."

George was watching the situation from Novis's point of view.

"These boys are really thirsty aren't they."

The door slid wide open and in stepped a boy with incredibly short hair, his uniform didn't have a mark on it and his clothes had every crease ironed out.

"My name is Frank Burney, I used to go to Hershal Grammer school but I have now transferred to your school. I hope you will all look after me."

Novis immediately dropped the pen he was holding. His mouth remained wide open. Was this a dream? Novis thought.

When Frank spotted he was in the same class as Scarlett and Novis he gave them a quick wave.

"Oh, it seems like you already know some of your fellow classmates. Novis!" the teacher called out.

Novis quickly snapped out of it and replied.

"Yes."

"I'll leave you in charge of showing Frank around the school. If he needs anything you need to help him the best you can, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, anything other than studies that is."

The class started to laugh but Novis didn't care, he was still wondering if he was in a dream or not.

Classes throughout the day continued as normal, apart from the fact that Frank continued to follow Novis around everywhere including when he went to the toilet.

When it was finally time for the end of the day Novis quickly said goodbye to Frank and rushed off to head to the VSW club. Novis didn't think Frank was a bad person but felt awkward. Just a couple of days ago Novis felt like he had a real strong grudge against Frank.

Novis patiently waited in the VSW club room as the members arrived one by one.

"Huh, where's Alex?" Ashely asked. "He's always here before all of us."

"About that," Ashley said.

Scarlett then proceeded to tell the rest of the club members what Alex had told her this morning. Novis then slammed his fist against the table.

"No that's not possible, that guy, I know him, he loves the game. No way would he quit!"

"I think the same as well but what can we do?" Scarlett replied.

"Maybe someone's behind this, like Mac or something," Ashley said.

"No, trust me, I would know about it if that was true," Dan replied.

Ever since the incident with Scarlett. Dan had asked his brother to keep a close eye on the Ruman family for him and to inform him as soon as possible if anything happened. Right now, it seemed like the Ruman family had their own problems they were dealing with.

Scarlett then stood up from her seat.

"Look, I want to convince Alex to come back to the team just as much as everyone else, but the important thing is we have a match next week and we have to think about what to do if Alex can't come back."

"But who would be able to fill the gap in our team?" Ashley asked, "Especially one as big as Alex's, we can't just get anyone."

Just then the VSW club room doors swung wide open.

"Err hello, is this were the VSW club is?" Frank said.