Chapter 3
The library at Targon University stood 6 stories high, made of pale bricks that were carved with eloquent depictions of the sun, the moon, the sea, and everything in between. Diana loved how ornate the library was - and how different it looked in the moonlight, the bright light shining down and illuminating the already white stones. She couldn’t believe it was already 1:00am. I guess I got a little carried away reading, huh? It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Diana to stay up all night reading but she usually stayed in her room, reading through the moonlight that shed through her window. She supposed tonight, however, she was reading her way out of stress.
After she left the tutoring center, she decided to grab her usual coffee from the cafe and head to the library. Nothing sounded more relaxing than espresso and astronomy books. Unfortunately, the relaxing thoughts had wistfully disappeared while she was waiting on her coffee. As she was hanging around the pickup shelf, she caught a glimpse of auburn hair and golden eyes - again. She almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing, twice in one day seemed like too much good luck. Why is she at the cafe? Shouldn’t she be running laps or something? Diana could feel her cheeks get warm and started to get nervous. Does she even know I’m tutoring her? I can’t make myself look like a fool! Get it together, Diana! She sighed, tapping her foot in obvious impatience. The faster she got her coffee, the faster she could get out of here and hopefully avoid interacting with possibly the world’s most gorgeous girl.
As the barista called out her name, Diana could swear she saw the sun beaming at her in the cafe. Not through the window, or even through the crack in the door, but from a girl. She could feel herself getting flustered under her gaze, and quickly grabbed her coffee and left. She could almost feel her presence behind her as she swiftly veered in the direction of the library. By all the stars, what am I so afraid of? Pretty women? Funnily enough, the answer to that question was an astounding yes.
Diana bravely glanced behind her for a brief moment, and caught her golden girl sauntering in a different direction.
The whole cafe interaction was enough to fluster Diana for the whole evening. She desperately grabbed the first astronomy book she found upon entering the library, hastily plopped down into a chair and let the pages absorb her. Reading away some weird, uncontrollable embarrassment was something out of a book. This is like a bad romance trope. She wasn’t sure when she ran out of coffee, or what time it was, but she could see the darkness of night through the windows and decided to pack up shop and head back to her dorm.
As she examined the gorgeous bricks of the library illuminated by the moon’s light, she couldn’t help but ponder over how peaceful and silent the night was. The night always made Diana feel important, like, somehow, the night was meant for her. She turned on her heels, the brisk night air filling her lungs as she started the trek back to her room. The stress and embarrassment drifted away as she lost herself up in the stars.
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Leona approached the gym, a sense of apprehension clouding her mind. Maybe she was still bent out of shape about the whole tutoring situation. She was sure someone would find out and her reputation would be over in the blink of an eye. She took a big gulp of her tea, the cold shocking her throat and giving her a physical sense of just chilling out.Leona, you are way too high strung for the first week. Let’s take it down a notch, yeah? As she approached the locker room, she could hear loud thuds that got more intense with each thump. She could hear loud huffing, the intensity of the thuds getting stronger with each passing second. She then caught a glimpse of pink flashing around a punching bag. She was sure Vi had been there for hours, in fact, she wasn’t sure Vi even went to class. She decided it was best to skip formalities in fear she would become the punching bag if she interrupted Vi’s intense focus.
Leona quickly changed into her practice jersey, and caught a few familiar faces as she laced her shoes. Seems like everyone is earlier than usual today. Leona was habitually an hour early to their practices. Hard work makes the dream work, or something like that, I guess. She rushed onto the court, grabbed a ball, and started doing her usual dribbling exercises. Her nerves instantly settled and she felt a familiar comfort, picking up the pace and eventually adding a jog to her drills. Leona knew she could get lost on the court, her brain switching to auto-pilot, the thoughts of the day at bay.
Before she knew it, she was in a full sprint up and down the court, shooting different shots each time she came across the hoops. Leona was the best Point Guard TU had seen in ages, and she showed steady improvement every day. She couldn’t wait for their first game next week. Noxus University won’t know what hit them. Even though the Ravens had the reputation of being extremely tough, Leona knew they wouldn’t really be a problem for her.
Her cockiness disappeared as she heard her coach blow his whistle. She quickly put her ball back and sprinted to the baseline to line up with her teammates.
“Alright ladies!! I’m sure you’re all aware that our game next week is EXTREMELY important. First game of the season at home, we can’t make fools of ourselves! We have to show Noxus U what we’re all about, right?” The coach ended the speech with a loud clap, blew the whistle, and instructed the team through plays.
The 2 hours of practice were typical yet intense. They ran through every play in the book 5 times back to back, each time increasing the pace at which they moved. Leona could feel her brain throbbing with all of the information that was just crammed into it. For being the point guard, memorizing the names of plays has never been my strong suit. I always went with the flow. Sometimes trying to follow a strict plan only holds you back.
After plays were done and dusted, they moved on to shooting and rebound drills. They would take turns shooting from the 3pt line and rebounding under the hoop. If the shot missed, whoever got the ball would have to make it in - while the other rebounders tried stripping the ball from her. Every drill had an unnecessary roughness to it - Noxus U was known for playing aggressive and dirty. Better to prepare ourselves for it now, both physically and mentally.
They ended practice with a loose ball drill. Two girls would lay on their back under the hoop, Coach would throw a loose ball down the court, and upon blowing the whistle both girls would get up. The goal was to retrieve the loose ball by ANY MEANS. First to retrieve the ball wins. Loser would run two suicides.
Leona’s turn was up - her drill partner was Cass, their starting center, a 6’6” senior that easily had 50 pounds on Leona. Oh boy, what a matchup. Thankfully I’m faster than her. I’ll just use that to my advantage to avoid any quarrels.
Leona’s back touched the cool gym floor, her sweat sticking to her practice jersey. She could feel the pool of sweat underneath her hair, the world's coldest shower sounding like the heavens greatest gift. She was hyper aware of the silence around her - all she could hear was the thumping in her ears, the anticipation of leather smacking the court driving her to the edge. She heard the whistle blow - but no sound of the ball. She could see Cass hopping to her feet. Shit! GET UP! Leona scrambled to her feet, frantically searching for the ball. Her coach threw the ball further away from her than her opponent. She’s doing it on purpose to take away my advantage.
Leona’s feet were almost moving faster than she could keep up, her anxiety rising. As if by perfect calculation, she and her teammate approached the ball at the same time, both diving dramatically in search for the holy grail. Leona felt the ball graze her fingers before it was suddenly yanked away, but that didn’t stop her. She searched further until she was able to get a whole hand on the ball, finding herself entangled with Cass. The two girls were attempting to rip the ball from each other, elbows flying and legs flailing. Leona could feel herself take an elbow to the nose, almost certain the flair of immediate pain indicated a nose bleed. The pain threw her into a frenzy. Suddenly feeling the strength of 100 women, Leona snagged the ball and ripped it from Cass, feeling her forearm make a hard impact with her opponent's collarbone, a slight shock running up her arm.
Leona stood up, ball in hand, bruised and bloody with a crash of applause. Her teammates were whooping and shouting, her coach shaking her head in agreement.
“AMAZING WORK LADIES! What a show! I wanna see that kind of grit and determination out on the court every game! Leona, Cass, thank you for giving it your all. Let’s wrap up practice and get you guys taken care of. Ya look like shit.”
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After practice was done, Leona headed to the athletic nurses office to get checked out. She was still buzzing with adrenaline from the drill, unaware of what she looked like. The nurse greeted her with a “oof”, handing Leona a mirror. Leona held up the small mirror to see a black eye and dried blood pouring from her nose.
“How long will my eye be like this?” Leona asked, frustrated at the sight of herself.
“Probably a week max. Here’s an ice pack to help with the swelling. 15 minutes every couple hours for a few days, it should help it heal faster. You girls are always so intense, I’ve already ordered extra ice packs for this year just in case,” the nurse said with a chuckle.
Leona thanked her and headed to the locker room to change and head back to her room, the cold shower still heavy on her mind. Although she looked beat up, Leona couldn’t feel better about herself. Now to tackle the week ahead of me.
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By the time Diana made it back to her room, it was almost 2am. I guess I got lost in the sky on my way back. Thankfully, Diana’s roommate dropped out after one whole day of classes. Since everyone already had their room assignments, nobody ever filled her space. It was awfully convenient Diana had no roommate with the way she waltzed in after midnight most nights.
After slipping into her pajamas - an oversized plain grey hoodie and shorts - she lit a candle on her windowsill and began looking through her collection of crystals. First tutoring session tomorrow, I could definitely use some luck. After what felt like ages of digging, Diana came up with two stones - a tower of rose quartz and a pyramid of citrine, the light pink and orange complementing each other in the moonlight. As she set them on the window, the flame of the candle flickered, creating tall shadows that seemed impossible to ignore. No better time than now, I suppose. Diana lightly touched each crystal, and with a deep breath blew out the candle. To good luck, and a good day tomorrow. May the moon bring these intentions to fruition.
Normally, this is when Diana would pick up a book and read until her eyelids betrayed her, but tonight she decided to retreat to the comfort of her bed. After brushing her teeth and pulling her hair up, she made her way to the end of her bed. She started fumbling around with her blankets, until she finally found what she was looking for and hit the switch with a satisfying click. Diana preferred her room cold as to enjoy her guilty pleasure - a cozy heated blanket.
As she crawled under her covers, the familiar warmth settled over her, quickly lulling her to sleep - her last thoughts of mathematics.