Chapter 19: School Life 2/6

"Haa, that's good." Muttered Gwen in relief as she leaned against the same wall as Pharaoh while rubbing her head.

"So, you going to answer my question or not?" Asked Pharaoh as he folded his arms, staring at Gwen while she once again sighed.

"Haa, I had missed the freaking bus, so my father had to drop me off; because of that, I barely made it to class on time and nearly tripped along the way." Replied Gwen in frustration as she looked up at Pharaoh, who was slightly smirking.

"Ah, don't give me that look; hearing that you almost tripped is kinda funny. Anyways, how were you even late? Don't you have like three different alarms just in case?" Questioned Pharaoh with a raised eyebrow while defensively waving his arms in the air, causing Gwen to huff in annoyance.

"There was a stupid power outage in the middle of the night, at least that's what my Dad said; because of that, it reset all of my alarms on my clock. If it weren't for my Mom, I would still be sleeping now." Said Gwen as she hit the wall, venting her frustration and anger, though she only ended up wincing in pain afterward, nearly making Pharaoh laugh.

"Welp, that's unfortunate, but at least you made it here on time; so, what's your schedule?" Remarked Pharaoh as he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Gwen, who unfolded it.

"We only got two classes together, P.E. and social studies, second and fifth period. What about me? Do I have any classes with Peter and Jean?" Said Gwen as she looked up at Pharaoh while handing his schedule along with hers, which he promptly looked at.

"You've got the third period with Peter, the fourth period with no one, fifth period with me again, the sixth period with, lucky you, both Jean and Peter and your seventh period, you're by yourself." Replied Pharaoh with a raised eyebrow before handing it back to Gwen, who lightly smiled.

"Well then, let's get going; otherwise, we'll be late." Remarked Gwen with a smile as she pushed Pharaoh down the empty hall to the right.

"Alright, alright, I can walk on my own." Said Pharaoh as he started walking, prompting Gwen to chuckle and walk beside him, conversing while heading toward the gym.

The Gym was rather easy to find; even if I hadn't looked at the school map, all I would need to do was follow the sound of shoes squeaking, which led us right to a large gym with a basketball court. Entering the gym, we saw numerous people sitting on the bleachers while a few others were running around on the basketball floor.

"I suppose we just sit and wait." Said Gwen lightly while approaching the bleachers, while Pharaoh tagged along.

Following Gwen, we walked up the bleachers and sat on the third row, which was the highest one right now since it wasn't fully extended. Waiting around, a minute later, the bell rang once more, prompting the people who were previously running around on the court to return to the bleachers, just in time for an older man with a beer belly to exit from what looked like the boy's locker room, would've been weird if it was the girls.

"The name's Coach Geyser; before I start talking, let me take attendance." Said Geyser with a rough voice as he took out a clipboard, calling names, and only after he heard the word "here" or "present" did he jot down

"Good, seems like everyone is here; now, I'm not going to bore you all with cinematics. You kids want to have fun, and having several grandchildren myself, I know very well how much kids want to run around, so until I create a yearly plan, do whatever. All the balls are behind that door; go wild, but don't break anything." Stated Geyser as he pointed toward double doors between the boys' and girls' locker rooms while he, himself, entered the boys' locker room once more.

'Damn, two cool teachers in a row?' Thought Pharaoh with a triumphant smirk as he hopped from the third row onto the ground before heading toward the double doors.

Opening the doors, I was met with a small room filled with a whole bunch of things, but I didn't care about them except for the cart filled with different kinds of balls. Reaching into the cart, I grabbed a few basketballs, testing them out before exiting the room with the best one.

'Eh, not as good as my basketball, but it'll suffice.' Mused Pharaoh as he walked toward the bleachers, passing some students and hearing the room he was previously in while dribbling the ball.

"Yo, Gwen, trying to play or what?" Asked Pharaoh with a smirk as he tossed the ball to Gwen, who barely managed to catch it.

"Hmm, sure, why not? though do be warned, I'm not nearly as athletic as you, and I've only touched a basketball a few times." Replied Gwen as she tossed the ball back to Pharaoh, who smirked in response.

"I'll make sure to go easy on you, Princess Stacy." Said Pharaoh with a bow as he held his hand out, causing Gwen to roll her eyes, though she played along and grabbed his hand.

"Thank you, knight Tut." Said Gwen with her best smile, causing Pharaoh to chuckle while she just shook her head at his antics.

Approaching the opposite side of the gym, I took a shot at the lowered basketball hoop once I reached a three-point line, and obviously, it went in. With my numerous abilities, if I didn't want to miss a shot, then I never would, though sadly, I can't make every shot while playing an actual game; if I did, people's suspicion would rise.

"So, you may have rarely touched a basketball, but you've at least watched games, right?" Asked Pharoah as he ran after the ball before bouncing it to Gwen, who, once again, barely managed to catch it.

"No, not really; my Dad's more into football." Replied Gwen as she awkwardly held the ball while trying to imitate how Pharaoh shot, only for the ball to fall out of her hands and nearly hit her face.

"Haa, let me teach you how to shoot, Gwen." Said Pharaoh as he caught the ball before it hit Gwen's face, causing her cheeks to blush slightly in embarrassment while she closely observed Pharaoh.

Since it seemed like Gwen was a complete newbie at basketball, I started simple with the fundamentals, mainly showing her how to do a layup since they were the easiest.

"Always aim for the square; it's much easier than aiming for the hoop." Advised Pharaoh as he tossed the basketball to Gwen, who was standing adjacent to the hoop.

After that, I had Gwen start shooting, and of course, most of her shots were missing, but she did make a few, which seemed to spur her as she continued to shoot; that only ended up with her improving her skills.

"Okay, so what's next, Tut? I think I got the hang of this." Asked Gwen with a slight smile after making five layups in a row, causing Tut to smile.

"Now, it's time for shooting; you'll see almost everyone shooting like this, but you can really shoot however you wish." Replied Tut as he caught the ball Gwen had thrown him and shot the ball while she closely observed.

"You'll get the hang of it quickly; the hard part will be actually making the shot." Said Tut as he caught the ball that bounced back to him before handing it to Gwen, who was standing right beside him in the mid-range.

The first couple of shots were terrible; she either used too little power and bricked it or used too much power, causing it to fly over the backboard, though Gwen wasn't one to be deterred by failure, and after a few minutes of missing, she finally made a shot.

"Heh, yes!" Muttered Gwen with a smirk as she fist-bumped the air before running after the ball.

"Hehe, now that you've got some of the basics down, let's get into a real game." Said Tut with a chuckle as he watched Gwen run back toward him with the ball.

"You better go easy on me; I only made that shot because of luck." Remarked Gwen with a nervous gulp as she tossed the ball to Tut, who tossed it back.

"Check up; it's your ball, Gwen; remember, you've got to dribble it; otherwise, it's a foul." Stated Tut with a smirk as he lowered his stance and played defense, while Gwen awkwardly walked while dribbling the ball, nearly losing it in the process.

Obviously, since this was Gwen's first game, I didn't call any of the numerous fouls she made, such as traveling five steps, hitting my arm when I shot, or literally ramming me into the ground and a few others. This was meant to be just fun, and from the competitive smile on Gwen's face, It looked like she was having fun.

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Hearing the bell ring, I lowered my defense, causing Gwen to quickly take the shot, which missed, though she got the rebound and kept making layups until she made it.

"Hah, t-that was fun." Said Gwen, with sweat rolling down her chin as she sat on the ground in exhaustion before looking up at Tut, who looked perfectly fine.

"You really took it easy on me, huh? You don't even seem winded." Added Gwen with a wry smile as she grabbed Tut's hand, propping her back onto her feet.

"Oh, I took it very easy on you." Replied Tut with a smirk, causing Gwen to lightly hit his arm before the two approached the bleachers to get their backpacks.

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Is Gwen about to go to the WNBA? Who knows? All I know is, these slice of life stories are going to take a while, so why don't y'all speed them up a little? Y'all already know how to do so.