Chapter 79: Just For Fun

Advanced Training was cancelled without warning that morning because the instructors were busy preparing the next Lunar Trial schedule.

The students were handed a free afternoon, and Roxanne planned to spend hers catching up on assignments she had let pile up since the trial.

She had barely opened her notebook when Liam appeared at her desk and leaned over it with both hands flat on the wood. "No," he said. She looked up. "No what?" she asked. "Whatever boring thing you’re planning," he said. "Studying," she said. "Exactly," he said.

He announced that he was entering the academy’s spontaneous Moonball challenge and needed a teammate. Roxanne refused firmly and went back to her page, telling him she had a history essay due and a sensory report half written. Liam walked away without arguing, which should have warned her.

Five seconds later she sighed, closed her notebook, and stood up. "Fine," she said, and Liam turned around with a grin that took over his entire face. "I knew you loved me," he said. "Don’t push it," she said.

The competition was informal, with mixed teams, short matches, and the winners staying on the court. Tessa joined Roxanne without being asked, and Jace threw in with Liam, and the four of them turned the first match into chaos within a minute. A small crowd had already gathered along the fence, and someone near the front started keeping score on a napkin.

Balls flew in wild arcs, Jace argued every call, and Tessa laughed so hard she missed an easy return. But somewhere in the middle of it, Roxanne noticed that she and Liam were surprisingly compatible as teammates.

He played unpredictably, darting through gaps no one else would try, and she read the field and adapted around him. He trusted her calls without ever questioning them.

Midway through the third match she saw the opening. "Left!" she shouted, and Liam passed immediately without looking. Roxanne caught the ball and drove it through the gap for the point.

Liam stared at her across the court, breathing hard. "You didn’t even explain," he said. "You trusted me," she said. He shrugged as though the answer were obvious. "Obviously," he said. It landed more deeply than either of them expected, and for a moment neither of them said anything else.

They fought their way through the bracket until they reached the final. Their opponents were a pair of visiting students from the exchange, and one of them, a tall boy with a sharp jaw, kept targeting Roxanne because she had the highest score of anyone on the court.

He caught her with an elbow under the net, then again with a shoulder on the next play. Liam’s joking expression vanished. He stepped between them, his voice gone low and flat. "Play the game," he said.

The boy smirked, and Liam took another step. Roxanne put a hand on his arm before things could escalate. "Liam," she said quietly. He looked at her, tension coiled in his shoulders, and she gave him a small shake of her head. He backed down at once and rolled his neck, stepping back to his position. She noticed how easily he had listened, and she understood that it meant something important even if he hadn’t meant it to.

The final was close, and by the last point Roxanne was exhausted, her legs burning and her hair stuck to her forehead. Liam got the ball and had a wide open shot at the goal. He looked at it for half a heartbeat and then passed the ball to Roxanne instead. She caught it, pivoted, and sent it in for the winning point. The crowd roared, and Tessa tackled her from behind in a hug while Jace, on the losing side, collapsed dramatically onto the grass and refused to get up.

Roxanne turned to Liam when she could breathe again. "You could’ve taken that," she said. He shrugged. "You had the better angle," he said. "You trusted me again," she said. His smile softened into something she hadn’t seen on him before. "I told you," he said. "Obviously."

Everyone headed toward the cafeteria afterward, flushed and loud, and Liam disappeared somewhere in the crowd, leaving Roxanne to walk between Tessa and Jace as they argued over who had played worst. Roxanne assumed he had gone off to gloat at the losing team and didn’t think much of it. A few minutes later he came back holding a familiar cup, and he set it in front of her, still warm, with a small paper napkin tucked under the lid for reasons she couldn’t guess.

She looked at it and then at him. "Again?" she asked. "You looked thirsty," he said. She smiled. "You don’t have to keep buying me these." His answer was unexpectedly sincere. "I know," he said, and he looked away for a moment. "I wanted to." He wasn’t doing it to get a reaction anymore, she realized. He was doing it because he wanted her to be happy.

Later that afternoon, Roxanne stopped to talk with Elias in the corridor about the next training assessment.

Liam noticed from across the hall, and he didn’t interrupt, though his jaw tightened for a second before he looked away. Jace caught him staring and leaned against the wall beside him. "You know you’re allowed to admit you like her," he said.

Liam scoffed. "I like annoying her," he said. Jace looked at him with unusual gentleness. "That’s not what I meant," he said, and Liam didn’t answer. He picked at the label on his water bottle until Jace gave up and let it go.

That evening Roxanne was heading back to her dormitory when she heard footsteps pounding behind her. "Roxanne!" Liam called, skidding to a stop and waving two slips of paper over his head. She turned around. "There’s another match tomorrow," he said, out of breath.

She raised an eyebrow. "And?" she asked. "Come with me," he said. She smiled. "As your teammate?" she asked. Liam grinned. "As my favorite person to beat everyone with," he said. She laughed and shook her head. "Fine," she said.

They walked back toward the dormitories together, Liam already planning an elaborate strategy that sounded mostly like shouting. Behind them, Jace watched with an amused expression, his arms folded. Serena came to stand beside him and followed his gaze. "He’s gone," she said.

Jace smiled. "Completely," he said. Neither of them noticed when Roxanne turned around briefly to look at Liam, her face warm in the evening light. She just watched him gesture wildly at nothing, and she realized that she genuinely enjoyed being around him.