The Grand Mistress

With the girl's insistence and wise mouth, Hawk was left with no choice but to let her have her way. Besides, his friends seemed pleased with her presence that Hawk finds it hard to push her out. Soon, everyone was already in position and the ball was already being tossed up marking the start of the game.

Hawk's teammate was the one who caught the ball on air and the game went on smoothly for minutes.​​

"Snap! Thump! Thump! Thump"

"Pass here!"

"Defense!"

"Here" As one of Hawk's teammates struggled to pass through his opponent's defense, Hawk was waving his hand for rescue, asking the other to pass the ball to him. In just a moment, the ball can be seen flying and rolling in the air towards Hawk's direction but it landed on his hand.

"Snap!" The ball was snatched away expertly from Hawk's grab.

"Got ya!" The girl shouted and ran a distance away from the rest of the boys in an opposite direction. Hawk, although a bit shocked that the ball was snatched from him, smirked at the girl's sudden move, mocking her for what seemed to be an idiot move.

'What is she doing? Does she even know the rules, she's nearly at the end line ready for a foul'

Hawk thought. But in just a minute, his thoughts proved him wrong when before the girl's feet reached the restricted line, she jumped very high and threw the ball in the ring's direction.

'What the F'

Hawk's mind went from mockery to amazement when he saw how the ball made it through the ring.

"Thump!"

"Three points!"

"Wew!"

Everyone was flabbergasted!

For a moment no one moved and as all their eyes were fixated on the girl who just let go of a satisfactory smile.

"That was awesome!" One of Hawk's teammates couldn't help but compliment. "I've never seen anyone do a three-point shot as smooth and clean as that. Not even Hawk can do it,"

The comment woke up, made another hit on Hawk's young ego, and made him clenched his jaw, hard. He was then mad not only because the girl outshined him, his friend just then made it pretty obvious.

"She's tall and has long slender hands. Anyone with that kind of body can easily make a three-point shot" Hawk emphasized blaming his disadvantage on the girl's anatomy. Truth be told, the girl was indeed tall. She towered everyone in that group, even Hawk himself.

"Anyone with a decent mind can tell that," Hawk added with a bit of insult towards his own friends. He was losing it as he couldn't accept the sudden twist of today's events. Just a few days ago, he was the new child that every village boy envy. Yet now, it looked like another child came and stole his position.

Aside from that, aside from annoyance, Hawk felt a few unexplained feelings brought by the girl's sudden appearance. He didn't know whether it was because he had never played with a girl before or because the girl was just too pretty to be playing with boys sports. Her smooth skin itself seemed like she wasn't fit for such a game.

"Easy mate. Were just playing a game," The girl tried to ease up the tension that she unintentionally brought in.

"I told you before she's good at it," Dough reminded Hawk. "You underestimated her—

"Stop it Doug," The girl cut him off, "Let's just continue playing shall we?"

Everyone agreed and the game went on again. Few more minutes passed, yet Hawk's team never recovered. Hawk then was pressured and tensioned as he wanted to win the game for many reasons, including the fact that he was better than any newcomer in the village. Because of his selfish desire, his moves within the court became aggressive and almost violent. The other players who saw this change dared not to come on his way and allowed him to go on running the court with the ball. The game became less fun then and they all just stared at the young Monsanto shaking their head.

The girl then, who didn't find Hawk's actions desirable, decided to confront him. While Hawk was dribbling the ball toward the ring, the girl blocked him and when Hawk insisted on getting through, she pushed and outbalanced him. Hawk fell to the ground, shoulder's first and it came with a loud thud.

"Ahhh!" Hawk shouted as an immediate pain struck his body.

"Cat what are you doing?" Dough ran toward the girl while Hawk's friend went to help him. "You hurt him"

"He's not being nice. He needed a good push to wake him up" The girl answered in an annoyed expression. "Besides, he was being violent first. I just let him have a taste of his own medicine"

"Aww, my shoulder hurts!" Hawk almost cried but as a man he ought to be, he swallowed all his tears away.

"Cry baby," The girl wasn't buying it.

"I didn't do anything wrong. Why do you have to do that?" Hawk, although he knew he somehow started it put the blame on her.

"Oh come one. Don't play the victim here," She rolled her eyes on him. "You didn't like the idea of your team losing and mine winning, that's why you played the violence card. You little sir is selfish, self-centered, and pathetic. If you continue to be on that way, none of the kids in here will want to play with you anymore," Then she looked at all the kids around them, "Am I right boys?"

The boys didn't say a word yet most of them nodded in agreement to Hawk's frustration. Hawk felt humiliated then. He looked at his friends with his fiery grey eyes and confronted them. "You all agree with her because she's a pretty girl! Perhaps you forgot, my papa was the one who built this court and that -

"Stop it Spin," One of his teammates cut him off, "She's right. You were not being nice and although you were our friends we won't play with you anymore if you continue that rubbish attitude"

"Yes, you can have this court all to yourself," Another boy added. "You should apologize"

Hawk felt helpless then. He was the one who was hurt yet everyone was against him. His rage and jealousy flooded his being as he had never experienced such kind of dilemma ever before.

Instead of apologizing then, Hawk turned from all his friends and ran away with his Monsanto pride.