Setting: The covered court, the next afternoon.
The indoor air is hot and sticky, smelling of sweat and leather.
Basketballs bounce loudly against the polished wood floor, echoing through the empty bleachers.
______________________________________________
Seth: (Sprints across the hardwood layout, my sneakers squeaking sharply against the polished timber tiles as I execute a rapid defensive slide drill. Sweat drips down the bridge of my nose, soaking the collar of my blue engineering practice jersey completely. I catch a fast chest pass from Jax, bouncing the leather ball twice before exploding upward to complete a routine layup sequence.)
Lest: (Catches the rebound beneath the net layout, spinning the ball on his fingertips before tossing it back to me with a loud grunt.) “Come on, Seth! Your baseline elevation is completely flat today! If you track your timing like that next week, Jasper is going to intercept your entry path every single time. Reset your focus cells!”
Seth: (Stares down at my palms at the three-point arc, wiping the sweat from my forehead as my chest heaves. Lest is completely right. My reaction timing is off, and my calculation structures are failing to lock onto the court lines. I try to tell myself it’s just a temporary optimization error, attempting to filter out the background noise inside my head.)
Seth: (Tightens my jaw, bouncing the heavy basketball aggressively against the wood to force a manual system override. Glancing over at Jasper and Rey practicing on the far side of the court, a sudden wave of heavy internal pressure hits my system. There is a massive, uncalibrated variable dragging down my processing power. I still haven’t told Jasper and Rey about the thing. They noticed an anomaly in my behavior, but they still have absolutely no idea what is actually causing my scrambled tracks. Only Lest holds that data block. Keeping this massive hidden variable a secret from the rest of the squad while trying to run a defensive strategy against them next week is completely overloading my firewall system.)
Lest: (Blows a sharp whistle, tossing the ball toward the equipment rack as he motions to the sidelines.) “Alright, five-minute hydration break!
Go grab some water, guys.” (Walks over to me, grabbing a towel and slinging it over his neck as he leads me toward the quiet edge of the benches away from the team block.) “Hey. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Step into the sideline sector for a second.
Your data feed is completely glitched today, man.
Talk to me, what’s causing the system lag?”
Seth: (Sits down heavily on the lower bench row, leaning my elbows on my knees as I stare at the floor tiles.) “I can’t lock onto the coordinates, Lest. My processors won’t stabilize. The main system error is the secret. Jasper and Rey keep looking for an anomaly in my behavior, and I’m actively hiding the whole thing. I haven’t told them anything yet, and keeping this block from the rest of the guys is tanking my operational efficiency.”
Lest: (Drinks from his water bottle, letting out a low chuckle as he pats my shoulder reassuringly to ease my defensive pressure.) “Hey, chill out, technical guy. Your firewalls don’t need to crash over this. It’s okay to hold onto that data block for now. You don’t have to stress about hiding it from them right in the middle of our tournament prep.”
Lest: (Lowers his voice, a supportive smile appearing on his face as he looks across the court.) “Listen to me, Seth. You can tell them everything after the festival is over. Right now, every department is hyper-focused on the competition brackets, and things are way too chaotic. And honestly? I’m sure they’ll not mock you or anything. They will support you as I do.”
Lest: (Taps my shoulder one more time, his tone completely certain.) “Just keep your focus layout on our game plans for next week, and once the scoreboard is finalized, we’ll sit those two down and update their system data together. Deal?”
Seth: (Nods my head slowly, letting out a long, heavy breath as Lest’s words finally help stabilize my chaotic firewall system. I stand back up, forcing my mechanical systems into strict alignment for the remainder of the drills.)
[ SHIFT SETTING ]
Setting: The quiet, fluorescent-lit hallways of the main university library block later that evening.
The air is cool from the air conditioning layout, smelling of old paper, coffee, and ink.
Seth: (Washes up quickly in the dormitory shower block after the intense practice session finishes, changing into a clean black hoodie and dark jeans. Lest and I walk over to the main library block to return some engineering reference manuals, but we eventually go our separate ways near the quiet study cubicle zone. I shoulder the heavy weight of my backpack, walking entirely alone down the polished terrazzo floor hallway as the dim evening light presses against the large glass windows.) You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
Seth: (Suddenly freezes for a microsecond near the entrance of the textbook archive block as my visual processors pick up a familiar data silhouette. Coming straight out of the library’s multimedia room is Cara, walking alongside two other girls from her department block. They are laughing softly, carrying highlighted lyric templates as they head back from their afternoon rehearsal space.)
Seth: (My heart rate immediately spikes to a dangerously high frequency, my fingertips turning icy inside my hoodie pockets. My internal system screams at me to execute a friendly greeting protocol. But the moment the two strangers next to her look in my direction, a massive, defensive security block locks up my joints. I don’t even know her friends yet, and the sudden presence of unmapped variables completely scrambles my decision matrix. I remember the hidden secret, the chaotic squad, and the absolute need to keep my parameters completely concealed until after the festival layout is finished.)
Seth: (Clenches my jaw tightly, forcing my eyes to lock strictly onto the tile pattern directly ahead of my boots. I pull my black hood lower over my face, fixing my gaze on the hallway exit sign and walking straight past Cara as if she is completely invisible—acting like I don’t even know her in person.)
Seth: (The distance between our parallel lines drops to zero, and for one agonizing second under the bright hallway lights, I catch the faint scent of fresh soap as we pass each other. I don’t look up. I keep my expression fixed in a cold, rigid technical mask, my boots striking the floor with mechanical speed until their soft voices completely fade away down the corridor.)
Seth: (Stops flat near the emergency exit stairwell block once I am entirely out of their sight line, a violent wave of absolute, crushing guilt instantly crashing straight into my core processors. I place the back of my hand over my eyes, my breathing turning heavy and disorganized in the quiet air columns. What did I just do? My logical brain runs a devastating error report on my defense walls. To protect my stupid system firewalls from the squad, I just treated her like a complete stranger. Staring blindly down at the polished floor tiles, the lone wolf of civil engineering is completely miserable, totally paralyzed by the heavy data glitch of my own cold, cowardly execution layout.)
Cara: (Stops walking down the long corridor layout just a few paces away from the multimedia doors, a happy, genuine smile breaking across my face simply from seeing him walk by. I slowly turn my body around, holding my tightly rolled lyric sheet close to my shirt as my eyes trail back down the hallway, happily staring at Seth’s retreating figure as he walks away down the corridor.)
Lhea and Mae: (Suddenly snap their fingers violently right in front of my face again, breaking out into loud, echoing shouts that shatter the quiet hallway block.) “Cara! Earth to Cara Mina! Where are you looking at right now? Why do you keep spacing out today?”
Cara: (Jumps slightly, my face immediately warming up into a bright, sudden blush as I rip my eyes away from the far end of the hallway.
I quickly look back at my classmates, trying to hide my sheer distraction as I hug my lyric template tighter.) “Nothing, I’m sorry… What was it?” (I mutter quickly with an embarrassed chuckle, desperately trying to reset my thoughts as Lhea and Mae shake their heads with playful smiles.)
[ END OF CHAPTER 24 ]