I win
Round three was the knock out round, well, only if you had lost one of your games. Those who won both were very comfortably pushed up into round four, their competitors soon to be decided.
The night went on and on but the room just got more lively. Maybe it was the anticipation or the heat, but not a single soul seemed tired. Everyone was on edge, eager to find the winners of this silly little Ping-Pong tournament. Jinx found it funny. That such stuck-up rich snobs were that wound up over a little game. It was quite endearing, she supposed.
The bed curfew was long surpassed, but the common room committee got a special oversight seeing as it was an academy-endorsed tournament. Various foods and drinks were brought in to fill the stomachs of many complainers, but seeing as it was part of the academy, the drinks were all soft, much to the heartbreak of many. Still, people had their methods, but Jinx could tell those were very few. Most people were actually just concerned with the Ping-Pong.
Eventually the tournament bled into round four and the first game included Jinx and a girl called Jasmine Kooi. She had literally never heard of her and wondered if she had just randomly showed up and was just inserted in. Maisie assured her, though, that she had in fact been there the whole night, and actually that Maisie had lost to her in round 3. Opps. But Maisie smiled away nonetheless.
Jasmine was okay. Perhaps Jinx was just exceptionally warmed up or maybe because a certain blonde was gawking at the match, but thankfully far enough in the crowd that she wasn’t a weight on her mind, either way, Jinx was unquestionably destroying her.
In the end Jinx demolished her, 21-9 in the first, 21-14 for the second and since round 4 made everyone play best of 5, the third ended in a confident 21-7.
Quite the start to the fourth round.
She found Lux’s eyes, and gave her the same smug smile and a flash of her eyebrows. That was sure to ward her confidence down a little. Lux just stared back, eyes narrow, lips sown and arms folded as tightly as they could go. It made Jinx snicker, the amount of times she had seen her with that stubborn, toddler-looking stance. Under her skin, right where I belong.
*
Lux’s round 4 match was against none other than Francesca Shaldow. Lux had never played her before, and she shattered Ren in the third round, so she was a little nervy.
“Be careful, she’s really good.” Ren warned. “I could hardly return anything.”
“Yeah, of course you couldn’t.” Evelynn smirked. “Doesn’t mean Luxanna can’t. Like when Klark beat Akali. No one ran around saying he had gained super powers. ”
Akali pinched her.
“You got a solid 16 in both the matches, whereas with Lux, you were demolished. I think Lux’ll be fine.” Senna said.
“Hang on, are we forgetting that Akali and I got to deuce?” Lux smiled. Akali rolled her eyes.
“That was dangerous, you know. You could’ve messed just once, or if I had one good ball. What would you have done then, huh?”
“Oh, I could have. But I didn’t. And, because of that, your track record became less… jarring.”
“And yours less impressive.”
“Oh who really cares. It is just a game.” Lux smiled.
“Let’s see you say that when the blue-hair beats you.” Kai’Sa added with a smirk.
“Who, Jinx?” Lux said dismissively, knowing full well that’s what she was actually worried about. “You think she’s good?”
“She destroyed Ren’s hot brother.” Ahri said, receiving a flick on the head from Ren.
“And Jas.” Senna added.
Lux just shook her head, creasing her eyebrows and said nothing more.
Herald then ushered Lux and Francesca to the table.
“Hey neighbour!” Lux smiled, shaking her hand.
“Hiya Lux. Just to warn you, if you beat me, I will start banging your door at 3 am every night…”
“Duly noted. Couldn’t say no to that.” She smiled, as Francesca did too.
Francesca knew her doom before they started playing. And so the disaster which was her loss didn’t burn in the slightest. Despite never playing her before, Luxanna was Luxanna, and she knew she couldn’t win. It was all the more reinforced when Lux won the serve and an immediate 5 points was earnt. Fran simply couldn’t return a single shot.
In the end, Lux won all three games with flying colours and Fran was knocked out. She was very courteous though, as was her opponent.
“See you a 3 am then?” The winner smiled, again shaking her hand.
“On the dot.” Fran returned it. “Good luck, neighbour. I’ll be cheering for you against Finlay. I hope you win.” And with that she spun and returned to her friends.
Finlay was the last person on Lux’s mind. She knew she could beat him, or was pretty sure she could. She was a little more sceptical about someone else.
Actually, where is she.
And just on cue, as Lux was scanning the room for the unmissable blue hair, she bumped into a warm log.
“Oh sor-”
“Geez, who has th-”
They both stopped completely, realising who they rammed into.
“Oh.”
“Sorry Blondie. Forgot who you were, I shoulda laid down so you could walk on something softer than the floor.” Jinx said. Lux rolled her eyes. “But not feel a thing also, since I’m so grateful to have the pleasure of Miss Crownguard gracing me with her presence.” Jinx did a very poor attempt of mimicking the Kiramman’s accent.
A weird jolting feeling spread through Lux’s stomach upon hearing her say ‘Miss Crownguard’. That was very strange.
“Don’t worry, there’s still time.” Lux smirked, gesturing at the floor. Jinx tsched. “So they have table tennis in Piltover? Funny, I thought the place was so conceited that playing a ‘child’s game’ would be in poor taste.”
“Yeah probably. They don’t have Ping-Pong in Piltover.” Jinx lied, crossing her arms and grinning. “I’ve only just heard of it. That was my… third? ever game. And geez, is it easy. You people are really bad.”
“Oh really?” Lux squinted, she saw right through her. “I guess that other place must have it. What is it the ‘Pilties’ call it… the undercity? Hm, yeah.”
Jinx dropped her little grin, her lips tightening into a very straight line, wishing she knew some secret about Demacia or something. Instead she traced back to a new but faultless favourite.
“Hope your room’s not cold. Ya know, ‘cause the door’s wide open an’ all. Anyone could just… walk right in.” Again Jinx analysed her nails.
“You ar-”
“Asck, but don’t worry, Luxie. There’s nothing in your room anyone would want to steal. It’s not like they’d go in and search for Physics notes or something.”
Lux eyed her up and down. There was something going on, something Jinx knew, and Lux didn’t know what. It was eating into her. Everything Jinx did ate into her.
“You know, I’m glad you’re not absolutely horrendous at Ping-Pong. You definitely need to keep that confidence up… especially after that test.” Jinx chuckled to herself, then twirled around – her soft braids swung and grazed Lux barely, but the feeling itched like they were scolding hot – and sifted through the crowd.
She calls me arrogant. Me! When she acts like that. Lux just stared after those annoyingly swayie braids, her nails digging into her palms.
Something about her drove Lux crazy, like every word she uttered was laced with spikes that shot right at her skin, or as if her breath was piping hot and blistered her ears as she heard them. She could do nothing but glower at her, stuck in a trance of fury.
Senna then waddled over, placed an arm around her shoulder only for Lux to jump, stir and shove it off with a face of agitation.
“Wow…” Senna said, aback. “What’s got you all uppity?”
Lux shook her head, pinching her nose and wincing.
“Sorry, Senna. You made me jump.”
“Evidently. Hm, didn’t think the nerves for Ping-Pong would actually get to you.”
“What? They haven’t!”
Senna was shocked, Lux lost a great deal of her customary serenity.
“Clearly.”
Lux just pouted and stared off whilst Senna dragged her back to their friends.
“Good match.” Ahri said. As Lux fell on the sofa with a puff.
“Yeah, Fran was terrible. No idea what Ren was whining about.” Evelynn smirked.
“Ugh easy for you to say. You’re probably far worse!” Akali whined.
“Ah, but we can’t know that for certain. Seeing I as have never and will never pick up one of those funky looking paddles, you have no idea how good I could be. Schrodinger’s cat.”
Akali just looked at her funny.
“Who are you playing next?” Ren asked.
“Huh? Oh. I dunno.” Lux said, picking up her phone and mindlessly going through it. Senna and Ren exchanged looks.
“Finlay’s up now, against Marti.” Ren stated, looking at her expectantly. Lux didn’t move her eyes.
With a little discussion, the girls then went on to watch the match as Lux sat quietly on the sofa. Only Ahri didn’t, Ahri sat down beside her, clearing her throat and cracking her knuckles.
“You should, er- you know. Go cheer him on.” Ahri whispered, leaning her head back on the cosy sofa. These chairs were the few in Rhayn which didn’t look perfectly pristine. They were heavily indented and the style was a bit wonky, being oddly large with pillows the size of half a person and the colour a very faded orange. But they were exceptionally comfortable and had a certain charm everyone seemed to love.
“Why would I do that?” There was quite a good bit of a bite to her tone, so much so that Ahri rose her eyebrows.
“Come on, Lux. Of this entire school, Finlay is without a doubt your perfect match. And, like everyone, he’s in love with you.”
“What happened to you liking Jarvan?” Lux finally looked away from her phone.
“Lux… stop deviating.”
“Ahri-”
“Look, he’s one of the few boys here who is actually sweet and not a horrid human. Plus he’s tall and gorgeous and good at everything.”
“Just what every girl wants.” Lux picked her phone back up, keeping her eyes on it. “It’s not like that Ahri, at least not with me.”
“Oh and before, when you were sat around giggling and flirting with each other, that was what? Friendly?”
“I… I can’t be rude to him. I like him as a friend and talk to him as such. If he thinks there’s more… than its his fault he’s delusional.”
“But he’s not, Lux. He’s not like Ez or Jarvan or Sal who are actually delusional.”
“Are you saying I’m leading him on?” Lux asked, a little insulted, turning from her phone. “Do you think I’m a bad person, Ahri? Do you think I’m actively trying to offend this boy?”
“I think you like him…” Ahri whispered. Lux scoffed, rolling her eyes and turning away. “Even if you admit it or not.”
“Do I have to like a boy? Is that what it is? Do you want me to gossip about my crushes and run from male to male? Am I getting boring just being me?”
“No, of course not! Why is that what your taking from this? What is up with you?” Ahri was genuinely concerned.
Lux just shook her head and stood.
“Nothing. It’s too warm in here. I need some air.”
“Lux, wait. I’m sorry.” Ahri held her arm outstretched. Lux turned to find her friend in an expression of actual distress, and upon such sight she sighed and fell back down. “I… I didn’t mean it that way. Only, well, Finlay is one of the little that I think are actually worth anyone’s time. And I’m not the only girl who’s noticed that. Soon he’ll realise that he doesn’t have a chance and move on.”
“Hopefully sooner rather th-” but Lux found something, Finlay – speak of the devil – talking to Jinx?
“And you might regret it.”
Ahri was right, he had already moved on… and moved onto Jinx of all people. There he was, laughing at her jokes which were definitely not funny as she twirled her stupidly long hair around in her hands. He crossed his arms as he stood, standing tall and puffing his chest out whilst fixing his hair and Jinx tilted her head to the side.
What game was she playing? First stealing Seraphine and then stealing Finlay too.
Only, when Lux rubbed her sleep-fogged eyes – she usually went to bed a good few hours prior – she realised that Jinx was not talking to Finlay, nor him her. She was talking and laughing her obnoxiously loud laugh with Maisie Wilson. And Finlay… Finlay was playing Ping-Pong.
Lux planted her face in her hands. She was going crazy. And that stupid blue hair girl was the reason for it.
“Are you okay, Lux?” Ahri was sounding even more anxious. She had never seen her friend this worked up, and over a silly little game? Very peculiar.
“Yes I am. Completely fine.” Lux said with a certain sharpness to her voice.
Instead of acting… however she was acting, Lux was spurred on by a different emotion, one born from hatred of what this girl was doing to her. She got an overbearing itch to put Jinx in her place, to show her that she wasn’t anything as she thought. To flush out the emotions the stupid new girl was forcing upon her. To beat her.
And, well, such urge was shared by the very girl she sought to destroy. The golden girl was so unbelievably two-faced and it drove Jinx mad. Acting sugary and kind and all those stupid things the media wanted to see when, in reality, she was a heinous bitch. And no one ever noticed. Everyone just widened that stupid smile of hers, completely blind to the villainous hole that she really was. Well, Jinx had a violent impulse to dissolve that smile from her flawless face, to prove that someone from the undercity, is better than her in, well, every aspect.
*
Round 5 rolled around soon enough, the semi-finals round. Finlay won his game against Marti, so all who remained was just him, Lux, Jinx and an underdog that snaked his way through the tournament, Lukas. Lux knew him vaguely, having never played against him before, nor even seen him play. She was a little too busy watching someone else.
So, when he was announced as her competitor for the semi-final, she was a little worried, but not nearly as worried as she was about the other game. Jinx against Finlay. She didn’t like that. Not for the outlandish reason before, but because if Finlay won, Lux couldn’t beat her.
Arguably, if Jinx lost to Finlay, and if Finlay lost to Lux, technically she is better player. But that wasn’t satisfying. Not at all. And Jinx would make some lame round-about excuse about how Lux didn’t really beat her.
But she had to worry about securing her place in the final first.
Now, Lukas was good, she’d grant him that… but not great, and not nearly as good as she feared. She was actually very curious how he had gotten that far but people like Klark Hoskel or Jasmine Kooi, people who were quite plainly better, had been kicked out. But Lux wasn’t one to complain, especially about her free ticket to the final. So she was diligent, won three games in a row, graciously shook his hand and accepted her place.
At this point it was pushing 2 am but the room was screaming with excitement. It seemed as though tiredness worked backwards for people in Rhayn. A competition which had been going on for the past 4 hours was finally coming to its climax. Although, Lux did admit, the sound of the Ping-Pong ball squeaking against the table was getting rather grating. If she didn’t make it that far, she’d have left long ago, and was surprised that the numbers stayed roughly the same from the start. She supposed that since the new girl, who most of these people had probably never seen before, was becoming something of a Ping-Pong prodigy, was the reason for that.
That ate into her too. No one seemed to care that she was a crazy weirdo with no social skills and no reputation, as whenever she won, the room thundered with praise. These sycophants just cheer for anyone. She decided.
Anyways, she shook her mind of that, for her win spawned the next match and she had never been more eager to watch something all her life.
Despite desperately wanting Jinx to win, she was going to route for Finlay, quite verbally too. Anything to irritate her.
“Hey Lux.” Seraphine said. “Here.” She passed her a can of some soft drink, Lux sipped on it without much thought, then kept going, she hadn’t noticed how thirsty she was.
“So who’s your money on?”
“Finlay. Without a doubt.” She said, having lots of doubts. Ren and Akali then shifted their way from the sofa. Everyone was very curious about this match.
“Well who would you rather play?”
“Hm.” Lux thought for a moment, it was Jinx, obviously. But was she going to be honest about the reasoning? Actually, there was nothing wrong about wanting Jinx to be beaten, her friends knew how much she didn’t like her.
“Jinx. Only so that I can quiet her.”
That earnt her a few ‘oooo’s.
“Quiet her?” Akali repeated. “Lux is turning into the mafia.”
“Well it’s true.” She replied. “Like Seraphine said, she’s very bold. Too bold. And for no good reason other than arrogance.”
Another wave of ‘oooo’s sounded. Lux rolled her eyes.
“Alrighty! To find out who will be facing Miss Crownguard in the final of the Cairn’s table tennis tournament, we have Mr Finlay Price and the new Miss Jinx Kiramman!”
The crowd burst with noise, clapping, yelling and woo’s filled the grand room. Both Jinx’s and Finlay’s name were thrown about in cheer, but after the initial uproar, Lux heard the sound ‘Kiramman?’ blow out of a few mouths.
They knew nothing.
The game was now everyone’s attention. The room was silent enough so that Lux could hear her own heartbeat, pumping faster than it would if she was up there.
Finlay started off by winning the service of the first game, Jinx messed up one of her hits, going in to smash it but missing the end of the table narrowly. A pang of frustration bled through the Crownguard girl.
Despite that though, Finlay only won two of this serving shots, with Jinx the other three. And Finlay’s serves were deadly, that’s how he got all this points, his returns were… less of his strong suit.
Jinx’s serves were good. Actually very good. But Lux’s head was so filled with meeting Jinx in the final that it didn’t register for her to be concerned about how good she really was.
It must be her hands. They were delicate and moved the paddle so quickly and with great precision that rallies almost always ended in her opposition chocking. Lux didn’t know why she was looking at her hands. They were covered in splotches of some type of grease or something and a few mini nicks here and there, some older than others. It looked like she’d been doing ‘tech projects’ all her life.
Deep down she knew it was Jinx who broke her door, just didn’t know how to prove it.
She brushed those thoughts from her mind though, they were stupid, and Jinx was currently winning. It hit 12-6 and Jinx just scored another point. With every point she won, with every time Jinx grinned her little grin, Lux had a twinge of relief.
The first game ended with Jinx earning a 21-17. Finlay was gracious about it, and promptly they switched sides, starting the next.
Finlay won the serve again, and subsequently another four points, only for Jinx to get the last of his serves. They swapped, and his returns got better, Jinx won only 2 and Finlay the other three. The score stood at 7-3 and only got worse. When they swapped again, Finlay’s deadly serves started proving their name, as he won every single one of them. 12-3.
Something shook Jinx up. Lux was worried.
She studied her face, it was quite expressionless, quite still. Which was interesting, considering she usually had some rather vivid expression painted across it. Instead her eyes were still and her lips relaxed, the only slight change was her eyebrows, drawn closer together. From time to time she would bite her lip and furrow her eyebrows more, but that was extent of it. Until she lost a point, then her expression would be overly vivid. It made Lux laugh.
Concerning rage, most of the Ping-Pong players were quite calm, well, in comparison to the pool players who broke about 5 things. Ryan Kho and Micha Sewart were the only ones who threw their paddles, but Lux soon wondered would Jinx make a third, after all this was the first time she had been properly losing.
But something dragged Lux from her thoughts, as when she was busy studying Jinx’s face, it suddenly looked up, and locked eyes with her.
Lux’s stomach dropped. She quickly turned away before it could be any more incriminating. Jinx lost another point and loudly swore. 15-3.
The game was not rectified at all. With no comeback, it ended 21-5. Ouch. But it was a game each, and two more in it at the least. But something weighed on her mind. How could Jinx lose that game so badly?
“Hey, Lux.” Jarvan said, walking up and standing beside her.
“Hi, Jarvan.” She replied, not looking at him, instead trying to tune him out.
“How are you finding the game?”
Did he seriously do all this to ask the most dull question. I was finding the game good before you came along.
“Good, good. A bit of a nail biter, actually.”
“Yeah… Finlay again?” He said with a tad of frustration. “You can’t let him win all three now.” He laughed, a little unsteadily.
“Hm, true. But it looks like I won’t be the one.” Lux said, smiling a little too much when Jinx just won all five of her first serves.
She wasn’t thinking properly, forgetting she was supposed to be routing for Finlay, and clapped a bit too loud at that. And their eyes met again, and Jinx lost the next point.
“So, who is this girl. She’s in our Physics isn’t she?”
“She is.” Lux stated… those memories coming back to her.
“So she’s new? The guys were saying she’s a Kiramman. But they must be lying, she looks like anything but. I guess the hair…”
Jinx scored another point. This game was going well. It was almost enough to distract Lux from the nattering boy beside her.
“You know, I was thinking, Lux.”
There’s a surprise.
“You should teach me how to play this game. I reckon I’d be good. And in return, I’ll teach you pool.”
“You think?” Lux half-laughed, apathetically clapping for Finlay out of automation.
“Yeah, why not.”
“Well Jarvan, last time you lost in Mainland Snap you almost flipped the table over.”
“That’s completely different. That’s a card game i-”
“Exactly, losing a card game is like the least frustrating loss. Like losing your pen lid, annoying but you’re not going to stomp around the place and swear death to someone’s mother. Ping-Pong on the other hand… is whole other type of rage. I mean, look at Finlay… have you ever seen him lose his temper?”
She timed that perfectly as he just smashed his fist upon the table after missing a shot by a scrape. Jinx chuckled and Lux’s smile broadened.
“But this is high stakes…”
“But Finlay is the calmest person I know. And is pool even that fun? Hitting spheres with sticks doesn’t really thrill my fancy.”
“And hitting them with paddles does?”
“…There’s more adrenaline with Ping-Pong.”
“Hm…”
“And its quick, never a dull moment, and far more aspects of skill.”
“Okay good. I want to see what all the fuss is about, then.”
Lux just walked into that one. Internally sighing, knowing she couldn’t come up with a polite way to decline him, she decided to offer a proposition.
“Fine I’ll teach you. Only, if I win tonight. If I lose I’ll never want to look at this table again.”
“Deal.”
Lux reasoned that if she beat Jinx, she’d be so unconditionally happy that the thought of teaching Jarvan couldn’t dampen her mood. Win-win.
“Its dead easy though. You don’t really need taught.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Jarvan breathed, his eyebrows high and eyes wide as the rally before them unfolded. With such high speed shots and quick movements, the sound of the ball hitting the table echoing fiercely, the expressions of both the contenders… it looked like the most important thing in the world. And when finally the friction relented, a player lost their shot, Finlay bellowed in aggravation as the crowd yelped with praise. Jinx won the third game. And Lux’s smile couldn’t widen more.
As per the fourth, well, it was very quick. It seems Jinx had slotted right into her element then and there, every shot was perfect, every return easily found and Finlay just couldn’t keep up.
It was only then that Lux realised she had to actually beat Jinx to get the gratification she sought. It was all well and good getting to the final, but if Jinx beat her, it would take Lux back leagues. Everything about her test and her door… Jinx would just keep winning.
So, when the game finished, Lux’s smile disappeared, and instead was replaced with a very straight line.
“Well there’s a shame.” Finlay said as he approached her. “And I thought I could’ve had a chance to redeem myself after our last one.” Finlay hardly seemed affected at all. He was quite a good loser.
“And you’ve had to say goodbye to your hat-trick.”
“Yeah, I guess, but if Luxanna Crownguard was my opponent, I suppose I would’ve already said goodbye to it. Still, two’s enough.”
“Our humble king.” Seraphine said as she too joined the circle forming around the finalist.
“So, Luxanna,” Klark started, rubbing his hands together. “any tricks up your sleeve?”
“I wish.”
“Oh, you’ll be grand.” Ren said, dismissively.
“Anything worth noting, Finlay?” Lux asked him. She didn’t think anything he said would help, but she wanted to shift the attention. She had to admit, the game was getting to her.
“Only that she gets distracted easily. Not really sure by what, but it won me a few good points. She was just looking away.”
“Hm, maybe one of us could start a fire or something to grab her attention.” Ezreal chimed in.
“Oh great idea.” Senna said flatly.
“Yeah, or, you know if we just burnt down the whole building, she’d probably get confused and try to escape the flames. Then Lux could just bat against an empty side, securing the win!” Akali laughed, earning herself a chuckle from the group. Ezreal pouted.
“I’ll go check on Micha...” He said mumbling. “I think he’s passed out in the bathroom.”
“Maybe he’ll help you with that fire.”
“Alrighty!”
That word was going to give Lux PTSD.
She didn’t know how she could come from being so excited about this silly tournament to genuinely anxious.
“Luxanna versus Jinx. Who will win the third Cairn trophy of tonight!”
There was very little ‘meeting in the middle’ before their match. Lux always went to her opponents before, as a sign of good faith, and shook their hand. She presumed, though, that Jinx would spit on it or something. Anything to get a little power. She seemed petty like that.
In fact, they barely looked at each other, or really, Lux tried her best to avoid looking at Jinx. She was worried enough as it was, and something about her face, maybe it was the constant smirk or deep blue eyes, but it irked her.
She would just focus on the ball.
Lux was first on the side closer to the wall. She didn’t like that side as much, had less room. She tried to focus on that instead of looking at her.
It was taking quite a while for them to start, for reasons unbeknownst to the competitors. They had their paddles and were ready, Lux had been staring at the table for so long it was starting to look weird. She had to look up so that she looked alive. And there she was, staring right back. With that loose strand of hair and wide eyes. She was captivating. But not for any normal reason, she just looked… different, and obviously that’s eye-catching.
They just stared at each other for a while, both of them scowling at the other. The room was dead silent save Kell and Herald running about and whispering. Something technical seemed at fault.
That didn’t matter much, the problem was soon resolved and Lux got to look away as Herald starting booming his favourite word.
“Alrighty! Enough lingering. I think it’s safe to say we have all been waiting for this end for quite long enough. Jinx, since you’re new to the Cairn, here, you have the throw of service.”
And with that, the game started.
Lux had every reason to worry. Jinx was good. She won the first serve, and with quite a lot of ease.
Lux was in her own head too much. She held the paddle limply, her feet stood too close together and was afraid to hit the ball too hard. It was like she retracted into herself, all confidence thrown in the blazing hot fire.
Jinx, on the other hand, was almost too open. She stood with her feet wide, hunched over the table, firmly holding the paddle as though it what was a ledge stopping her from a tragic fall. But it wasn’t really a stance of confidence either.
Jinx was two points in, with a strong serve that forced Lux to a high return, letting the opponent smash it down. Twice. Lux withdrew more.
But it only worsened. The more Jinxed scored, the more Lux deteriorated, especially when she caught glimpses of that stupid smile. She got a point here and there, solely because Jinx missed them, and overall the first game was a disaster, Lux losing 11-21. And, as expected, that feeling came back. The feeling she felt when she did terribly in Physics and Jinx only highlighted that.
This weeding sensation that wove around her mind and ate into it. She felt exposed, as if her skin was being blown on. Lux wasn’t used to losing, ever, and did not like that fact everyone was there to see… with Jinx of all people being the cause, getting the satisfaction that Lux desperately wanted.
But the feeling ignited something in her, a burning desire to flush it out and gift it upon her smirking opponent.
So, when game two came around, she didn’t contract into herself, but stood tall, fuelled by temper.
Lux won the serve, but based merely on nerve, she played with ferocity as opposed to skill. But, upon winning the next three points, she relaxed, her movements became more natural instead of ‘frantic hit and hope’ that she was surprised she got so much merit from. Nevertheless, she ended her first serve 4 to 1, and the look on Jinx’s face only made her play better.
Jinx remained composed, though, she hadn’t fallen out like Lux did before. Instead the game was much more equal, where rallies were long and fast and nail-biting. Both of them lost points at around the same level, each wanted to scream and curse and slap the nearest person in their frustration, but they didn’t want to give the other girl the satisfaction. Instead their temper was taken out on gritted teeth and aggressively flipping the paddle around when waiting for the ball to be retrieved.
Still, with Lux having a better start and a more natural disposition to Jinx who was still quite fired up, she claimed the second game.
It really wasn’t that serious, it was a game of table tennis. But for Lux in that very moment, it was almost everything.
The third game started with a bit of a kick, the rally for the serve lasted a whole minute, in the end Lux just missed her shot by a sliver and Jinx won it. It took every morsel of strength Lux had in her nerves to not lash out and swear. The heat of the fire which melted the room and blushed her face made her frenetic, it was like she was drugged.
The next shot, Jinx served and Lux lashed it back, Jinx couldn’t return it and it was Lux’s point. Jinx made some sound but it wasn’t really very noticeable. Jinx, too, was practically selling her soul to stop herself from swearing and bashing the table, and then leaping up on it when she won a point.
The third game was even more push and pull, one of them would win a point and immediately after, the other would win it back. It came to deuce, after twenty minutes of heated rallies and frustration. But, just by winning out over the excessive amount of rallies, Lux claimed her second game.
‘Just a game’ seemed pretty far in the distance then. It felt like life or death.
Lux knew she was letting it fester too much in her head, but still, she couldn’t snap out of it. She needed to beat that annoying blue haired girl. And she was only one game away from it.
This game was very different. Lux could breathe, she had a bit of wiggle room seeing as that she could still lose the fourth game and then win the fifth, but Jinx had no second chance, and that was clear.
She was shaken. Her shots were either too fast or too strong and for the first half of the game she was all over the place. Lux was relaxed, and with such tranquillity came the score of 12-3.
Things were either looking very good or very bad depending on your persuasion.
But, Jinx’s shots, too, got better.
She woke up, so to speak, and every rally ended in her favour. It was a very compelling game, the points won were never achieved out of mistake of the other but just from skill and good timing, and Jinx’s seemingly never missed. So, she fought back another 10 points all in a row, making it 12-13. Lux just couldn’t seem to win a point.
The frustration was getting to her but she couldn’t present it, not daring to give Jinx that satisfaction. So she just ran her fingers through her thick hair and took a breath.
And just like that Jinx’s streak was over and it was back to neck and neck. For every point won, the other would win one right after. Lux’s fingers twitched uncontrollably, her heart battered against her chest, all only worsened as they made it to deuce.
For Lux, winning was right there. For Jinx, loss was almost touchable, but such pressure affected them both. They got sloppy, and the points they won were from the other’s mistakes, be it missing the table or even missing the ball. The sweat was specifically perceptible.
It seemed never-ending, one would score, their advantage, then the other bring it back to deuce.
Until it wasn’t. Jinx missed the table after a long rally and it was Lux’s advantage. She served, Jinx’s return was too high and Lux smashed it down. The ball flew onto Jinx’s side and then to the other end of the room.
The game was over.
In that very moment Lux could hear nothing but her own breath, it was rapid, as though she just sprinted five miles, but she could see nothing either. Just the girl at the other end of the table. It was like everyone else was gone.
Jinx just placidly stared through empty eyes. As if her loss hadn’t even been properly understood.
Lux went to her, only one thought in mind, crossing the apparently empty room. She stood before Jinx, staring right at her, a grin stretched across her face. Jinx looked back, scowling her eyes only slightly, it seemed that was all she could do. Her mouth and expression unchanged.
Lux reached down for her palm, grabbing it and forcibly making a handshake, very tightly.
“I win.”