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“They’re stupid. They’re so fucking stupid,” Lux whispered under her breath.
She was seated in the teachers’ lounge and busy correcting a test her students had just taken on English literature. While most of her students were decent, what she was seeing on the test made her want to repeatedly smack her head against a wall.
The first multiple choice question had been “Who is the author of Macbeth?” with the possible answers being:
• Edmund Spenser
• William Shakespeare
• William Snakespeare
• Hans Christian Andersen
Lux turned to her colleague, the gym teacher Darius.
“Five students said the author of Macbeth was William Snakespeare. And I’ve just graded two classes so far, I still have three to go. Just kill me now.”
He chuckled. “Why would I do that, when seeing you suffer is so much more entertaining.”
Lux groaned.
“By the way,” Darius said, “are you joining the teachers’ football team tomorrow?”
Lux scratched her head, trying to remember what he was referring to. She looked at him, eyes pleading for a hint.
“The sports events we’re organising with the other schools, remember? The kids will be competing, but the teachers will also be playing a friendly match against each other. You in?”
“Oh, I’m not really the sporty type, I’d just get in the way.”
“Would you be that much worse than the rest of the people here?”
Lux looked around at the other teachers in the lounge. Indeed, most of her colleagues seemed to treat their bodies as a tool to get their head from place to place and little more.
“Ugh, since you insist. But don’t get mad at me when we lose.”
“No worries, I just need eleven teammates for the numbers, but I’m not counting on anyone else being competent.”
“Jeez, thanks for the words of encouragement. I feel really fired up and ready to hit the field now. Please, put me in, coach.”
Darius laughed but didn’t rescind his previous statement.
*
The school had been divided into different areas where different sports would be played, or athletic skills would be performed. Classes from one school would compete against classes from other schools, and at the end of the day, the school with the most points would wind. Lux guided her class through the different challenges. Her students were doing okay, not bad but not exactly excelling either.
During the pyramid building challenge, where the students would try to create a pyramid by climbing on top of each other, Lux came face to face with a very pretty gym teacher from a different school. The gym teacher was very muscular with long black hair that she wore in a high ponytail, and Lux could see tattoos peaking out from under her white t-shirt. The two women shook hands and wished each other good luck.
While Lux encouraged her students and let them figure it out for themselves, the gym teacher next to her sounded like a drill sergeant, ordering the biggest students from her class to get on their hands and knees and herding her students into line by size and weight. Lux looked around for Darius, who she saw standing over by the 100 metres, just as passionately shouting something between encouragement and an insult at his students. Lux sighed. Gym teachers were the same, no matter where they came from apparently.
The other school’s well-coordinated stacking meant that they built the most impressive pyramid and were awarded a point. While Lux wasn’t too invested, she could tell her students felt disappointed, so she tried to be more involved at the next event, which was spear throwing.
At the end of the day, Lux’ team had managed to score five points for their school, which Lux thought was more than acceptable. While the points were being tallied, it was time for the event the students looked most forward to: the football match between the teachers from the different schools.
Darius made Lux and the other teachers do some warmups and stretching before they hit the field. While she hadn’t cared for the event beforehand, standing on the field, Lux felt a small fire building up inside her stomach. The team they were going up against had the pretty gym teacher from earlier.
Darius turned to Lux. “You see number seven over there?” He was pointing at the other gym teacher. “That’s the one you’re going up against. I don’t expect you to be able to outplay her, but just annoy her as best as you can, and then try to pass the ball to me as fast as you can.”
“Do you know her?”
“Who? Number seven? Yeah, that’s Akali. We went to university together. She’s probably the biggest threat on the other team, so that’s why I’m entrusting her to you.”
“Wait, what?” Lux said, exasperated.
“Good luck,” Darius said, as he jogged over to the other teachers on their team to give them some last quick instructions.
Lux looked at Akali. The woman saw Lux staring and smiled playfully at her. Gosh, she was pretty. Lux had to take a second to remember how her face worked and smiled back.
A coin toss was made to determine who would start, namely their team, a whistle was blown, and the match began. Lux ran over to Akali, trying her best to get in her way. The woman seemed more amused than anything by Lux’ attempts, and with a surprising combination of speed and force, Akali sidestepped her and sprinted over to Darius who had the ball. The fight for the ball was more impressive than anything Lux had expected from a bunch of teachers, of which most were closer to retirement than the start of their career. Akali was nimbler, but Darius’ immense frame and bigger reach managed to keep her at bay. Darius brute forced his way to the enemy goal and scored a goal. Their students cheered and Lux felt a rush of excitement.
Now, it was the other team’s turn to start with the ball. A team member kicked the ball to Akali. Lux ran up to stop her, but Akali just zoomed past her. She was so fast, Lux felt like trying to keep up with her was like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands. Darius was an imposing wall of pure muscle, but even walls can have cracks, and someone as agile as Akali could slither her way past him. Once again, Lux was in awe as these two forces clashed. It was like they were in their own arena. Akali made it to the goal and scored, much to the cheers of her students.
The match continued like that. It was clear both teams knew to pass the ball to either Darius or Akali and let them fight it out. Lux once managed to catch Akali enough off guard to throw her off her rhythm, and that small moment of hesitation was all Darius needed to steal the ball and bolt for the enemy goal. As he scored, Akali turned to Lux.
“Impressive, I didn’t expect anyone but ol’ Darius here to give me any trouble.”
Lux felt herself blush at the compliment. “Haha, thanks, I couldn’t let him do all the work.”
“Congrats and be warned, you have my attention now,” Akali said with a playful tone.
Lux was unable to cause any more trouble for Akali from that point onwards. Every time she would try, Akali would just coyly smile and her and swiftly move around her. Lux also felt the tiredness from all the running catching up to her. Darius and Akali kept fighting it out like the concept of ‘exhaustion’ was not a part of their vocabulary.
The match finished with Lux and Darius’ team one point ahead. Darius walked up to Lux.
“Nicely done, that one disruption was all we needed.”
“Thanks,” Lux managed to say in between pants as she tried to recover her breath.
Darius walked up to some students and colleagues who came to congratulated him.
To Lux’ surprise, Akali approached her.
“Well played.”
“Oh, it was nothing compared to you and Darius.”
“Yeah, we go way back. I’m just glad we got to play football and not basketball. That would have been a decimation.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty good at basketball, isn’t he?”
“Pretty good? That’s the understatement of the century, right there,” Akali laughed. “But hey, I’m sure he’s grateful we don’t have to face off in gymnastics, I would have left him in the dust.”
“I can tell, I’ve never seen anyone move like you do. You were so fast that I could barely keep up.”
“And yet you did at times. Anyway, the name’s Akali. Does the pretty lady come with a name?”
Lux could fell herself turn as red as a tomato. “Lux! Well, it’s Luxanna, but you can call me Lux.”
“Nice to meet you, Lux. It was fun playing against you.”
“Haha, I wish I could say the same.”
Akali brushed against Lux’ chin. “Keep it up and you’ll get the hang of it eventually.”
“Yeah, but no... I already know I lack the discipline to keep up training.”
Akali nodded. “Other people can be great motivation. A partner could help keep you in line.”
Lux felt a pleasant shiver run down her spine. She glanced up and down Akali. Her face was beautiful. Her rippling muscles were showing through her sweaty t-shirt. Lux wanted this woman to keep her in line.
In the background, Lux could the school directors coming together on the makeshift stage to announce the winning school.
“We should probably return to our colleagues.”
“Yeah,” said Akali. “I usually train on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Here, I’ll give you my number, and if you ever feel like joining, just shoot me a message.”
“Oh, that’s really kind, I’ll definitely do that!”
Lux watched as Akali walked away, giving Lux a view of her beautiful back muscles and glutes. Oh, Lux was definitely going to shoot her shot- oops, shoot her a message.