บท 42: The Sports Tournament

We took the bus from station and the bus took us to the college where the tournament was held.

It was a 3 storey college where different floors were arranged for boys and girls. Rooms in 1st floor were arranged for girls while the boys had their rooms on 2nd floor. The teachers were given a separate room on each floor as per their genders.

Each room had mattresses for students to sleep. We kept our bags and came out to take a look around the city. It's hypocrite to say this but I think most of the boys in the school hated me because of being the true alpha male because there were not many same gender friends of mine in school. Shanaya called me and told me she wanted to eat something, behind her voice I heard some giggling and talking of the other girls.

"OK, get ready quickly, let's take a walk around the town"

" YES! thank you and Ri... Ritik muah* I love you", after saying that she quickly hang-up the call but just before that I heard loud exclamations and shouts in background.

' Shit* what did she say... wait* those senior girls must have somehow instigated her for saying that', with these thoughts I came out and after asking the teacher for a walk, I walked down towards the ground floor. Only one boy who played shotput followed me.

After about 10 minutes Shanaya in sports tee and lower came out followed by 8 more girls.

'I knew it but I don't know what they are planning', I thought while looking at the gang of girls.

"Hey Ritik, it was Shanaya who asked us if we want to eat outside and we said yes, please don't blame us for spoiling your little date", Volleyball captain teased.

" No-no, there's nothing like that, we were just going to eat something, I would be glad if you accompany us", I said while scratching the back of my head.

"Oh! if it's like that then thank you, it would be my pleasure to get a treat from the suavest student in school", she said with a smile.

With that Shanaya came to me and held my hand, I was a little shy but looking at her initiative I started walking with her while the other girls and the shot putter followed behind.

"Shanaya, what's all this, do I have to treat everyone here now", I asked in a whisper*.

" Don't be so stingy, you... you know it will not cost much", she said while still looking downwards.

"It's not about money, it's just that I thought you wanted to have a walk with me but... anyways, why are you acting like this, tell me are they bullying you or something, I'll help you if they are troubling you", I said while tightening my grip on her hand.

"No... no it's just that they.... they wanted to tease me and you, and while we were talking someone proposed for a treat and things happened and here we are, you... you please don't think that I'm showing you off or anything, I'm just trying to be friendly with the seniors", she said while continuing her steps.

" Don't worry, I can even kill someone for my dear Shanaya so this is a very little thing for me", I said with a smile.

" Can you die for me ", Shanaya said with a smile and a questioning look while coming back from her stutter-self.

" Why would I die I would better kill the person who tried to do that to me, do you want to spend the rest of your life with someone else, I didn't knew you had such bad thoughts I'm disappointed with you Shanaya", I said while removing the invisible tears from my eyes.

" Don't try to act emotional, you're good at everything but you're acting skills are really bad", she said while hitting the back of my head lovingly.

" You don't need to hit me to tell me that", I said with grieved expression.

" Looking at how close you both are, it looks like you are enjoying your time while treating us all singles like dogs", suddenly a grieved voice came from the back of us.

" It's your fault for not finding a good person to be with you, try and you may find someone with 15% of my skills", I said while putting my arms around Shanaya's shoulders and without looking behind.

" Dont try to act all Alpha without even having the courage to look directly in my eyes. Still not looking behind?? you both sure are lost in your own world.", Captain's voice came.

" She's so beautiful and sexy, I can't get my hands, eyes, body, heart, mind or anything off her", I said while taking my hands to Shanaya's soft buttocks while everyone watched keenly from behind. Shanaya pushed my hands away after feeling it over her ass and turning backwards returned to the girls group.

" Look you embarrassed her, if you want to flaunt your girlfriend then go flaunt it to some boy, she'll only be embarrass in front of us"

" OK-OK let's go, look there's a restaurant on that side, let's eat something quickly" I quickly changed the topic and took them to the restaurant.

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

We were sitting in a square 12 people table with Shanaya on one of my side while the captain on the other. We were talking while Shanaya was getting teased by the captain.

BURP*

"I'm full now I'm sure I'll definitely gonna get the first position", the shotput guy said while burping.

" Why not lard-arse, if you can't win even after eating that much then I would be the first to take out all that food from inside of you directly, you know you ate 3 full plates while none of us ate more than one", captain retorted.

" Ritik also ate 2 full plates too so why am I the only one getting scolded and anyways, you don't need to take it out it will come out by itself tomorrow morning, you know while I'll be going in...", he said with a funny looking smile while suddenly getting cut in the middle by many girls.

"Eww.. that's gross"

"yeah, he's sick"

nauseous*

"disgusting"

Listening to all these words he just smiled foolishly.

••••••••••

"clap* Now that it's all over we should be going back after all there's a welcoming party in the evening, right, nobody should want to be late for that", captain said after a little while and we agreed.

All of us then came back like a normal group of young lads would after a party.

•••••••••

4 Jan, 7:00 p.m.

We were standing in front of the decorated stage in between the large open ground of the college surrounded by students from all around the country.

" So, with this I would like to invite the first participant.... "

Every year whenever we went there, there was always an open concert format welcoming ceremony where students which came for the tournament participates and show their other talents.

I was dancing, my arms were around Shanaya's slim waist while her arms were around my head. Students were all around the park enjoying the show, one could even see some couples going to the dark bushes or corners of the college.

Shanaya too gave some light pecks and teased me once a while and giggled after doing that. My hands were also roaming all around her body.

"Ritik... is that you", suddenly I heard a voice from the back.

I turned around and saw a group of boys.

" umm.. Swan, Dildo, Impotent, Shar... "

"OK-OK I understood you really are the aptest athlete Ritik Singhal"

" Hey man, you're looking so thin, Oh! and look you remember the girl I talked about last time, she's the one and she's my girlfriend now" those were some of the top school athletes from all around the nation and my good friends who were competing in this competition.

" umm.. Shanaya right, she's really beautiful, now I'm really getting jealous, anyways I just came to warn you don't be overconfident I'm gonna beat you this year ", one of the boy said.

" Oh! really, and in which game 100m race, 200m race or did you change your speciality, I'm telling you don't put too much hope, you're gonna loose soon", I said with confidence.

"Here's that confident look, fuxk I'm really getting jealous, just because of doing my best for beating you I did not waste my time on any kind of love life and now looking at you enjoying it makes me so... depressed, remember you're gonna loose tomorrow hmph..", the boy went back with an annoyed face.

" I see, he didn't change even a little bit, same competitive spirit, well how's everything going on with you all", as a great sportsman and winner of 4 competitions every year I had a good reputation there and everybody had some respect and some competitiveness with me.

" Well, it's true he didn't change but all of us too worked hard just to snatch at least one gold from you this year, do you know even bets were going on this year about your number of wins in competition this year....

••••••••

4 January, 12:53 a.m.

" OK mom, take care Sania and love you Mother in law ", I gave a flying kiss to the three at home during a video call and then cut the call. It was a long call, I video called and talked with them for one and a half hour or even more.

I put my phone in the bag and turned to my right, there I saw the fatty shot putter looking at me with incredulous eyes.

"You... you called someone mother-in-law and even send a flying kiss, my admiration for you is getting more and more Ritik, now I'm starting to feel like studying 10th again", he said while looking at me.

" You heard it all wrong, I only said Mother and the kiss was for her", I tried defending you.

" No, I'm sure it was not what you said, believe me I'll not tell anyone you don't need to lie but... can you tell me how many girls do you have or how did you do it like take care and date multiple girls together, there's Shanaya, Zara and one more that I don't know, you can even have the best girls of both high and higher secondary classes, you know I really want to know about girls....", he said with a smile and hearing all that nonsense I cut his words in the middle.

" Don't you need to sleep, tomorrow is the competition day", I said.

"Shit* I forgot, good night, we'll talk later", he said dumbly and turned towards the other side.

I just looked at him and shook my head, 'I really cannot make a normal boy my friend', that was my thought when I looked at the already snoring fat boy beside me. After about 5 minutes I too went to sleep.

•••••••••••

5 january, 11:00 a.m.

I was stretching while standing just behind the starting line from where the 100m race would start in about 5 minutes. Students from various schools including the ladies volleyball team from my school were standing around the track. Shouting and cheering could be heard continuously.

" All students get to the starting point, the race will start in 15 seconds", I quickly took my position and pulled my right ear, slowing down the time to 0.9×. In normal conditions and with normal people I was confident about my skills but I was not an expert and thus normally it was impossible for me to beat those regular practicing sprinters but my power allows me to move faster than anyone.

But for not getting too highlighted I never used too much of my powers.

"That lucky charm of yours will not get you gold this year", the same boy from yesterday said while straightening his posture. I always told everyone that ear pulling was my lucky charm and I do it every time when I try something important.

" I'm not gonna say anything, I'll be waiting for you at the finish line", I too refuted while straightening my posture.

"3.... 2.... 1.... bang*", with the sound of the starting pistol the 12 students starting running in different lanes of their own, each one had one race before this from where they got qualified for the finals.

I moved my legs as fast as I can and used my hands to cut the wind with my hands.

50m...60m.... 80m... 90m.... suddenly the same boy from before came just beside me trying his hardest to overtake me. He looked at me from the side while I tried my best to maintain and even increase my speed for those last 10m.

3m.. 2m.. 1m... I crossed the target rope. Me, the so called aptest athlete had won the 100m race for the third year continuously, repeating a great record.

My hands were on my knees as I was trying to catch my breath when suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I quickly got straight and pulled both my ears and turned backwards, there I saw the boy who challenged me yesterday standing just behind me with a smile while showing his hand for a handshake. He was a competitive and proud sportsperson but he was nowhere near mean. He was just too fed up with regular losses each year. I shook hands with him and after congratulating me he went away to his group.

Suddenly a thin girl ran towards me and jumped, I had to catch her to save her from getting any injury.

" Do you know, you almost lost to that boy who shook hands with you", Shanaya said while still not going down from my embrace.

Behind her many students from my school came and congratulated me.

Shanaya's team won two matches that following afternoon. Some more games were also going on side by side and my school was performing good. Boys's football team lost their first match and got eliminated due to it being a knockout competition. Everyone was happy as it was expected and other than that everything was going well for our school.

5 Jan, 5:17 p.m.

I was again standing at the same place stretching while getting ready for the 200m finals.

" All students get ready, the race will start in a minute" the same procedure followed.

This time the challenger boy's lane was far away from me and rather than acting unruly, this time he wished me luck.

10 seconds before the race I pulled my ear and set the time flow to 0.9× and straightened my posture.

"3... 2... 1... bang*", again we started running after the starting pistol was shot.

200m was my forte as my stamina was much more than a normal athlete and with the 0.9× time flow advantage I always completed the race before any boy. Just like that without any mishaps I won the second gold for the school.

After that we returned to our rooms shouting and celebrating mine and school's victory after the ground closed down.

Many other friends of mine from last year's competitions came and congratulated me, even the organizers came and shook hands with me after hearing about my achievements for 3 continuous years.

It was my last year of participation as I had already decided to invest my time fully on developing the business from next class and thus that year I decided to participate in more competitions than those former 2 years.

5 Jan, 09:13 p.m.

I was standing in the centre of a garden with Shanaya at my side while being surrounded by teachers and students from various schools who came to congratulate me (Dinner was arranged in that garden).

"Thank you sir, thanks a lot, thank you, yes-yes, yes I remember you, OK-OK, thanks, no-no I'll keep that in mind, haha... yes sir definitely.... ", I got free only after half an hour when everyone went back and only some girls were left around me.

" Let's eat Ritik, I'm really hungry", Shanaya said with determined eyes while pulling me to the side.

"Yeah me too, let's go", I said while quickly waving my hands at the girls around me as I was getting pulled by Shanaya towards the food table.

" Don't get too attached with anyone, remember you'll never meet anyone again and those are materialistic bitches just trying to get your attention because of your looks and achievements", Shanaya said slowly while continuing to walk.

" I cannot move my eyes away from you, how could I eat normal food when I got these sexy chicken legs in front of me, should I just feed on them", I said while caressing her thigh.

She stopped in her place as her legs were her most sensitive parts and they were the most ticklish parts of her body too.

"You... don't try to fool me, just follow me and after eating return to the room directly, there's competitions tomorrow", Shanaya said.

" There you are he's here sir, we've been finding you for so long where were you, let's eat together", the p.e. teachers from our school came and asked me for the food and being an idol student how could I reject them. Shanaya went to her volleyball team while I went with the teachers. I saw other school's teachers there too, I was nervous but followed them, they put me between them and started showing off, I could almost see their noses getting longer while praising me in front of other teachers. I ate the food and after asking for my leave quickly left the table.

I slept after informing about my wins at home. All three of them were happy and after congratulating and some love talks I cut the call.

It was 11:17 p.m. when I saw the shotputter sitting at his matress in an excited posture as if waiting for me to say something.

"Now please teach me some tricks Ritik, I was waiting for this for the whole day", he said while looking at me with shining eyes.

Just as I was about to say something a pillow came hitting me directly at the back of my head.

" Sorry for that, give the pillow back", a football player said while defending himself from others. They were pillow fighting, it was a normal routine for us and it happened every year.

" You want this... ", I came near him and as he loosened his posture to take the pillow back, I quickly gripped the back of his neck and pushed him down.

" Head slaps", I shouted and many boys came and gave him slaps on the back of his head and returned back to their places after I loosened my grip.

After getting up he tried to grip my neck but I defended myself and pushed him lightly. Unable to touch me he moved towards other boys. Like that an entertaining night started.

6 Jan, 12:13 p.m.

I won the 800m competition too. I never participated in it before but with my powers everything was easy.

Later I played two kabaddi matches. With the slowing down power I could easily grip legs and pull the raiders while after quickening the time I could pass the time quickly when someone from my team goes to raid. Also, with slow down power I could raid easily and thus taking out one or two point was too easy. I played as the 2nd raider and in the corner position and contributed most in the team's victory.

The 2nd day too passed by quickly, Shanaya's team reached the semi-finals.

After a dinner with some more wishes and praises I came back and heard some singing noises from my class. I ran back and saw boys playing piano, guitar and singing songs. I was not a professional but a little proficient with guitar and knew a little bit of singing. I took the guitar and a new session of singing started.

•••••••••••

7 Jan, 12:40 p.m.

Semifinal 1 of Kabaddi.

A raider entered on my side of the court, he started raiding from the opposite corner as every team understood that my hands were too fast and can perform ankle hold on any raider. After crossing the baulk line he tries a handtouch on the cover but failed, I was watching his every movement in 0.5× time flow. He again tried to perform a handtouch and looking at the chance I got in front of him and performed a double-thigh hold making him stop at his place.

After two raids I went for the raid, I did some stepping and tried to tempt them to come to me, they did not come therefore I entered a little inside the corner side, the time flow was about 0.7× and after getting the opportunity I quickly took the bonus, the cover player too came for a dash and after saving myself from him I touched one more player and came back to my side.

Like that the game continued and atlast it was one more victory for us. Shanaya's team lost the finals against the team who were the last year's runners-up. Later in the evening we won the kabaddi final. I again got four titles like before but I was hungry for more, so I decided to try badminton and boxing which were going to start the next day.

I asked my teacher to submit my name for them. He asked me if I really knew how to play them because badminton already had a player and he had to take his name back if I want to participate, and as boxing being a violent game no student from our school ever participated in that, I obviously said yes as no would not had helped me anywhere.

•••••••••

8 Jan, 10:26 a.m.

I was standing in a ring while girls from different schools were cheering for me. The boy in front had an angry expression after looking all around and finding most of the girls cheering for me. I was nervous as I never tried boxing before, I slowed down the time to 0.8× as I was confident about dodging but the thing that worried me most was punching which I was never taught in Martial Arts classes.

He came forward and tried to punch straight at my face, I dodged and he tried another one from the side, dodge, punch, dodge, hook, dodge.... after a while with martial arts reflex I suddenly caught his arm and threw him over my back towards the other side and after moving a full 360° he fell face first in front of me. Referee came between us and stopped the fight. After checking the boxer he warned me not to use these type of moves the fight continued. After continuing with the same tricks I saw an opening and punched at his face with less than half of my full-power. He got knocked out and I was declared the winner, not many boxers participated in that competition and I won another gold for the school the very same day.

I had not played much badminton before that and thus I could not beat everyone even after slowing down the time a little bit. I could beat them if I used 0.5× - 0.6× time flow but then my speed would become unimaginable as per a human's perspective and thus I did not use it. I lost in the semi-finals and that was my first loss in three years.

Two more nights of fun passed by, we didn't had much to do and thus Shanaya and I spent some quality alone time during those two days. Several times we went to some corner and sat somewhere where not many people comes. Our feelings and intimacy towards each other deepened a lot during that one week.

9 Jan, 06:29 p.m.

" The next one to come on stage is the so called aptest athlete who created several records from the very start of his first competition three years ago, he's none other than..... Ritik Singhal from xx school."

I went on the stage to say some words about the competition.

" Hello teachers, friends and dear participants, three years before I.....

10 Jan, 09:17 a.m.

We were boarding the train for our return trip.

We all joked, laughed and had fun, my last tournament was a fun trip and I enjoyed it very much. During the return trip, no student slept for the night and we just played games and joked all night. While playing truth and dare Shanaya after choosing truth told everybody about her acceptance of my relationship with Zara. Some boys even directly said that I was too lucky to have Shanaya and Zara as girlfriends who accepted each other so easily. We even kissed in front of everyone as I received that dare. It was a fun trip and we enjoyed it a lot.

11 Jan, 10:02 a.m.

The train stopped and we all came out returning to the stressful life. I saw Maya waving her hand at me and Shanaya, I went towards her while pulling both mine and Shanaya's bags.

~~~~~~~~~~~

SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE BUT IT MIGHT BECOME LIKE THIS IN THE FUTURE.

ONE THING FOR SURE IS THAT THE NOVEL WILL BE COMPLETED AND IF SOMEHOW IT DOESN'T THEN ATLEAST YOU'LL GET THE WHOLE SUMMARY OF IT IN A SINGLE CHAPTER. IT WILL NOT BE LEFT WITH A CLIFFHANGER FOR LIFE.