Page 56 of Plaything

The President introduced the other two professors before he had Tristan and Wyatt call a coin toss, that we won.

We took our positions on the court and prepared ourselves for the judge to blow the whistle, starting the match. Niko and I stood almost face to face on our own sides of the net. “Chemistry set?” I smirked, keeping my voice low so no one else would be able to hear.

He grinned, “I’ll let you play with it when we get home, legs-for-days,” he gave me a secret wink just as the whistle blew.

Tristan slammed the ball over the net, where Aiden bumped it to Wyatt, who set Niko. I watched his body closely, making a split decision to jump as high as I could, sticking my arms high in the air. Just as I hoped, Niko spiked the ball close to the net, and I blocked it before it went over. The ball dropped in front of Niko on their side of the net, scoring our first point.

The crowd went wild, and I ran back to my team, where we all high-fived and cheered together. “Better luck next time, Professor Moreno! The students’ team scored their first—of many—points with a fantastic block from Odette!” The President announced.

We retook our positions, and I grinned like crazy as Niko stood in front of me again. He and my other professors looked a bit taken aback. I was not losing. He placed his hands on his knees, “I was going easy on you,” he dismissed.

I raised my eyebrows, “Oh?” I said with false surprise. The whistle blew again, and Tristan served. “You should go harder on me,” I whispered, knowing my innuendo would throw him off.

I stepped back, watching Niko’s face in shock, before he snapped his head to Wyatt, who set him the ball again. This time, the ball made it past my block, and our middle hitter smacked it over the net. Dominic got the chance to slam the ball down on our side with such force that none of us were fast enough to retrieve it.

“And the teachers are back in it with a kill from Professor Owens!”

When we did our team hand touch, Tristan gave me a pointed look, “This one’s going to you,” he warned.

I nodded before taking my spot back. Wyatt served the ball over the net, where our middle bumped it to Tristan, who, as promised, gave me the perfect set for an outside hit.

I aimed the ball towards the two drama professors, who weren’t prepared, and slammed it right between them, where it fell to the floor.

“Yes!” I grinned, doing a mini celebration with my team. The crowd of students also cheered. My professors gave each other a wide-eyed look, and I saw Wyatt do some kind of hand motion like he was spiking a ball. I grinned. I did try to warn them that this was what I did. And I was very good at it.

We won the first match by three points, and they won the second by two. We were nearing the end of the third and final match and had been for the last ten minutes. The game had to be won by at least two points in volleyball. If it wasn’t, we kept playing past 25. Our team had 44 points, and theirs had 43. Too close for comfort was an understatement.

After the first game, they started getting way more aggressive, and Niko quickly found any area on our court that didn’t have coverage where he spiked the ball. It’d gotten much more serious; even the drama professors were trying.

Neither team was willing to lose, and every person on the court fought hard to stay in this. Each point was a massive victory in itself, and each point the teachers’ team earned was nerve-wracking. I didn’t think it would be this close; I didn’t think they’d even be close to winning a match at all.

The crowd was just as on edge as the rest of us, screaming whenever a point on either side was won, trash-talking the professors, cheering for us, and loving the tension. This was easily the most nerve-wracking volleyball game I’d ever played, but also the most fun and challenging.

Dominic stood before me now, looking down at me, “You look nervous,” he muttered, trying to get under my skin. There’d been a lot of that in this game, trying to throw each other off by a secret sexy look or comment. At one point, Aiden even lifted the bottom of his shirt, using the bottom of it to wipe the sweat off his forehead. It revealed his drool-worthy abs and our team lost a point because of me during that round.

Niko served the ball, and I blinked at Dominic. “One of us is getting tied up, and it won’t be me,” I assured him.

In full-game mode, I stepped away from the net, watching the ball closely as it bounced from our back row to Tristan and then right toward me. I smacked the ball hard over the net, and Wyatt was quick to retrieve it. He set Niko up, and he smacked it back to us.

The ball went back and forth for what felt like forever. My heart raved from running around the court, jumping, and hitting the ball with enough force to make my hand red.

“Game point, we’ve got it this time!” Tristan yelled, encouraging us to keep going for the kill hits.

Tristan set the ball to me again, and I aimed for the back corner of their court, where they didn’t have coverage. This was it. I jumped as high as I could and hit the ball into the corner.

Wyatt was less than a second away from retrieving it, but it was too late as the ball touched the ground.

I won. We won! I grinned as my team ran over and cheered, but a whistle blew. We all turned, seeing one of the line judges call it in while the other called it out.

My jaw dropped, “Oh, come on!” I whisper-yelled in disbelief.

“That was totally in; watch, the judge will call it in,” Tristan said, more to himself than anyone else. We were all pretty exhausted at this point and just wanted to win.

The entire gym was dead silent as the line judges, the President, and the judge all conversed. Please... give me the cute cat clothes, Dominic in rope, and more than 30 seconds of hot water.

I placed my hands on my hips, watching as the four people deciding my fate broke away from each other. The President grabbed his microphone and dramatically sighed into it, “It’s been a long game...” he teased the crowd and us. “Both teams have fought hard. But there has to be an end...” he paused. He looked between our teams, “The judges couldn’t call it. Replay!” He called, and the crowd went crazy.

I widened my eyes. The ball was totally in!

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