Past Calem's POV

It has been about three days since the beginning of seventh grade. This is my first year in this middle school, so I don't know many people here. The only reason I know a few people decently is because we sometimes play basketball together after school.

Clemont was one of the guys who was really nice to me diring my first day here. He showed me around the school this morning, and now at lunch, he started to tell me who was who.

"So, that guy with the mahogany hair is Gary," He said, pointing to a boy a few people ahead of us in the lunch line, "That girl with the short blue hair is Miette," He said, pointing to a girl sitting at a table with a bunch of other girls, "And that guy over there is-"

"Wait." I stopped him, pointing at a girl who just sat down at an empty table, "Who's that..?"

"Her?" Clemont asked, pointing at the girl with long, honey-colored hair I pointed to for clarification.

"Yeah."

"Her name's Serena." He said, taking his lunch money out of his pocket. "People say that she's really popular, but she tends to be slightly shy and reserved."

"Oh. Ok." I responded, not paying attention to the lunch line moving up and still looking at her.

"Uh, Calem, you might want to move up." Clemont said, snapping me out of my reverie.

"What?" I mumbled, before blinking my eyes multiple times, "Oh. Right."

After the both of us got our lunches, we sat down at an empty table and started talking. I couldn't really remember or pay attention to what Clemont was saying because I just couldn't stop looking at Serena.

I'm not trying to be creepy, but she's just pleasant to look at.

Before I knew it, the bell had rung and it was time for recess. Clemont didn't notice that I wasn't exactly paying attention to anything he was saying, so it's a relief that he wasn't upset at me for that.

Clemont asked if I wanted to play basketball with him and a couple of other guys outside. That immediately caught my attention. I quickly accepted his offer, since basketball was one of my favorite sports.

As we got outside, the place that we were going to play basketball ar was just a huge square contrete area for everybody to be in. There were already a lot of people out here, and three basketball hoops were set up and spaced out along the perimeter of the area. Not exactly as glamorous as I had hoped, but it will do.

I was chose by Clemont to be on his team, probably because he was the one who invited me, and I'm not sure that the other team knows of me anyway. Once we had picked our teams, we quickly started up the game.

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"Calem! Pass it here!" A tall boy yelled, waving both of his hands frantically in the air.

The kid who was asking for the ball could be a bit of a ball hog. He plays as a center, but he feels the need to start attempting to break people's ankles. I didn't want to have to take another risk, because we were already losing 6-10. However, nobody else was open and I had already picked up my dribble, so my only open option was to pass it to him.

As soon as he caught the ball, he started dribbling, regardless of the number of players surrounding him, preventing him from moving anywhere. He actually did a somewhat less dumb move and shot the ball, rather than having it stolen. Only problem was that he missed the basket, and the other team had already gotten the rebound.

"Oh, sorry. My bad." He apologized to me, "It was the wind's fault."

"Ok, whatever." I grumbled, contemplating why Clemont had chosen him to be on our team, "Just set up on defense."

Some kid with spikey raven-colored hair had gotten the rebound and dribble up to what we established as the top of the key.

He plays actually decently well, and scored 3 baskets for his team.

He was about to make 4, because most of us were still bunched up under the basket from the last play. He had already squared himself, and started to get ready and launch a shot. Except, I wasn't going to let that happen.

I sprinted as fast as I could up to him, jumped up, and smacked the ball off of it's course to the basket, making it fly behind the raven-haired boy.

"Ha! No points this time!" I cheered, turning around to give Clemont a high five, but the look on his face wasn't exactly proud or impressed.

"Uh, Calem, you might want to look behind you..." He nervously said, his eyes darting to something behind me.

As I turned around to see what Clemont was talking about, I turned around to see something that made me regret everything I did just now.

That girl named Serena was sitting on the ground, holding her head in pain.

And that raven-haired boy was comforting her; kneeling down on one knee and holding her up.

"Serena, are you alright?" He asked, obviously extremely concerned about her safety.

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine." She groaned, using the support from the boy's hand to pull herself up.

At this point, I was super embarrassed and really envious of this kid and Serena. I didn't want her to think that I did that on purpose, so I quickly apologized.

"Hey, uh, sorry about hitting you the basketball..." I said, hoping for there not to be any grudges between us.

"You better watch yourself next time." The boy said, clearly of upset at me for what I did, "I don't want to see you hurting Serena ever again."

As this kid said that, I saw red starting to appear on Serena's cheeks, which made me die inside.

"I didn't do it on purpose, so calm down." I protested, starting to get frustrated with this guy.

"Hmph. Guys, I'm going to stop playing. I have to make sure Serena's feeling ok." He said, walking away with Serena, while glaring at me.

Ugh. That guy is annoying. Not only did he take away the only girl who I thought was beautiful, but he blames me for hurting her. Maybe if he wasn't so bad at basketball and actually made the basket.

"Clemont, who is that guy?" I asked, irriation being the only thing heard in my voice.

"That's Ash." He said, walking up beside me, "He's one of the few guys whom Serena feels the most safe around."

"Ok." I said, watching the two of them walk further and further away from my sight.

Ash. I'll remember that name.

And Serena, just you wait. One day, you will be mine.