Page 15 of A King's Oath

“Ava?”

“Go,” she chuckled, playfully punching his shoulder with her gloved hand. He smiled, reaching for the drinks basket and stepping back from her.

“Don’t sweat it, princess. Your pores don’t allow it,” he shouted over the din, making her burst into a laugh. Then Samarth turned, threw the basket over his shoulder and ran back to the stands.

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5 to win from 1 ball.

Ava on the striker’s end.

Samarth still hadn’t moved from his spot.

“Jai Dwarkadhish…” he chanted under his breath. “Jai Dwarkadhish, Jai Dwarkadhish.”

The pacer’s final ball dropped on the pitch and swung. Ava did not swing her bat. The wicketkeeper behind her caught the ball. No runs scored. The stadium went dead silent.

Samarth smiled, seeing what she had done there.

The umpire held his arms out to signal a Wide. And the stadium erupted in a loud whoop.

One run and one more ball. She got one more final ball.

4 to win from 1 ball.

Ava’s mouth opened to say something. Samarth couldn’t catch the words, neither could he lip-read her under her helmet. But the bowler’s brows did furrow. She tugged her short hair off her forehead and stalked back over the line to deliver.

Samarth waited. The team behind him waited. Coach Dhillon waited. The stadium filled with Saraswati Crest and Vedanta High waited.

And then the pacer ran again, the ball leaving her hand and going full toss. It was about to land close to Ava’s foot. She opened the stumps and stepped out of her crease, leapt another long step out and swung her bat, knocking the full toss ball as it came perfectly on the surface of her bat. And up it went. Up, up, up, farther than any fielder.

Samarth did not need to follow it to know where it landed to know that they had won. Neither did she. Because his eyes wereon her and hers were on his. Suddenly the stadium erupted in euphoria and then the team behind him was running onto the field.

Samarth took a deep breath, eyeing Avantika get swallowed into the crowd of her teammates. He grabbed the trolley, pushed it behind the stands, parked it there, and strode out of the stadium.

“Who won?” A Saraswati student asked him, running no doubt to watch the match.

“We did,” Samarth grinned, opening his palm for her high-five as more followed her, running into the stadium. News spread fast and he walked out into the field rolling over to the main school base to more students coming. They were running through him to get to the stadium. For sure Ms. Nidhi would have made the announcement on her PA system for this flock to be set free.

Samarth continued to walk, finally out of the crowd and into the clearing. The school was still afar. He planned to collect his bag before seeing if Harsh was still around. He had a remote exam to give…

“Samarth!” Ava’s voice startled him.It was Ava’s, right?

“Samarth?!” It was louder.

He turned. And there she was, running towards him, the crowd left behind her. How she had managed to cleave through it was baffling. She was shooting like a bullet towards him.

“Ava…” he caught her bodily as her hands rammed into his chest with the momentum of her chase.

“Breathe, breathe,” he laughed, eyeing her fully now. No helmet, no knee pads, nothing except her brilliant light brown eyesunder the sun and the ponytail he had tied coming undone. Her face was sweaty and her chest was heaving. He had never noticed such things in a girl. He had not noticed such things in anyone. But here he was, two days without Ava as his bench partner, noticing everything in her.

“Phew,” her cherry-coloured lips rounded. “Where were you going?”

“Back to school.”

She frowned, enraged — “Without listening to me?”

“What’s there to listen to?”

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