Chapter 39 - Fanning The Flames
The match was intense, with each team seemingly dominating the court the moment the ball gets into their hands. The coach was busy shouting out instructions and criticisms throughout the game. Girls in the bleachers were screaming silently in their hearts upon seeing Kyle's intense concentration as he played.
One scene, however, almost made the court get flooded with blood.
Everyone was slightly out of breath, their jersey's sticking to their bodies which were drenched in sweat. Kyle was no exception, his hair wet with the sweat dripping down his face. Many girls were itching to provide him with a towel at that moment, as they gripped the towels that they had stitched some motifs and Kyle's name on it. They couldn't, though, as it was in the middle of the match.
As for Kyle, he was finding the sweat irritating, as it tended to fall into his eyes, stinging it. Thus, without thinking deeply into it, he pulled the collar of his jersey to wipe his face of the sweat. The girls went silent as they watched the jersey get pulled up, exposing five inches of Kyle's skin above his navel. The fine, fair soft skin and well defined abdominal muscles was a sight for sore eyes.
Phones were frantically whipped out, but all too soon, that vision of loveliness disappeared. Some found that they suddenly developed nose bleeds, while some found their throats dry due to their mouths being wide open.
[You did that on purpose, didn't you?]
A ghost of a smile flitted across Kyle's face. He quickly noted Kay sitting at the far corner of the bleachers. [You've got to entertain the masses, don't you? Too much?]
[Next time, take longer to wipe your darn face of yours. It's too shameless!]
[Next time, I might take the top off then]
Kay snorted. [You're beyond redemption, Kyle.]
Kyle laughed, as he took control of the ball. Jumping up, he scored a 3-pointer easily as the buzzer sounded. Cheers and woots were heard throughout as the juniors all high fived. With that shot, they had won the friendly match. Kyle had purposely kept the last shot until the end, letting the others have their play as well. With his accuracy and precision, he could actually steal the ball easily and land the ball in the basket from any angle and distance, but wouldn't do so. After all, his skills had to be within the 'believable' range.
With that, everyone started cleaning up. Kyle jogged over to the stands, under the fervent looks of everyone. He rushed up to where Kay was sitting, and squatted down. As Sarah was on the outer of the stands beside Kay, Kyle was actually squatting next to Sarah. He even was leaning over a bit to get closer to Kay, without actually touching Sarah.
Sarah was trying very hard to breathe properly. This was actually the first time Kyle was so close to her. She could even feel his body heat and see the sweat glistening on his head. When he had leaned forward a bit towards Kay, Sarah's eyes darted to see his collarbone and down ... Sarah closed her eyes tightly. She was getting perverted.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw that Kyle had taken a hand towel from Kay and was busy wiping the back of his neck. "10mins, tops," said Kyle, "I just need to take a quick shower."
"Please use soap this time," Kay said, waving him away, "You stink."
Kyle then turned to Sarah, and whispered in her ear, "Excuse me a bit". She cringed, frozen, while he took her hand and moved her aside. Then he went closer to Kay who got up and was vainly trying to edge away even more, her hand in front of her, "Kyle ... stay. Down boy. Down!! .... KYLE! Don't you DARE!!" Kay couldn't move further away as there were people in the next seat, who obviously wasn't going to move if it meant Kyle would get closer to them.
Kyle had his arms wide open, a puppy dog hurt look on his face as he took a step closer, "I just want to hug my dear lovely sister ... and she doesn't want me."
Everyone was screaming in their hearts ... ME ME ME ... hug me!!
Kay pinched her nose and placing a hand on his chest, she pushed him. Or at least, tried to. Kyle wouldn't budge but instead raised his eyebrows up and down comically. He then raised his hands up in the air as if in surrender, "Okay, okay. I geddit. 10 mins."
Just as Kay was about to sit back down, thinking it was safe, Kyle gave her a quick hug and ran off.
"Ew euw eeewwww" Kay was grimacing, taking out some wet wipes from her bag and sat back down. She proceeded to wipe her arms and neck, not realising how a group of boys to her left at the next aisle were suddenly focused on her every movement. However, just as their thoughts were straying into certain unmentionable territory, one of them suddenly got smashed backwards into the chair.
His friends jumped in their chairs, only to see their friend holding his head, a reddish bump forming on his forehead. They then saw a basketball bouncing down the aisle, and looked to the court. There was a smiling Kyle, but one could feel the chill in that grin of his. He had one basketball in his hand, which he was tossing up and down in the air.
"Ooops, my bad," Kyle said, "My hand slipped." He then turned to look at a girl who was sitting just two rows above, and smiling sweetly this time, he said, "Can you please pass me that ball?"
The girl blushed, looked down and saw that the basketball had landed right next to her feet. She bent down, retrieved the ball and went down to hand the ball over to Kyle. As Kyle took the ball, he then grabbed her hand gently, turning it over and kissed at the back of it, "Thank you, dear lady."
She clutched her hand close to her chest, her eyes wide open as Kyle turned to walk away. The feeling of Kyle's lips on it replaying over and over in her mind.
Kay watched all of this with a scoff, seeing how the girl was most likely not going to wash her hands ever again.
[You're REALLY enjoying this, aren't you? If I didn't know any better, I'd think you'd have an ulterior motive when making up this 'Fanning the Flames' plan]
Kyle grinned to himself. Although there wasn't an ulterior motive, he had to admit, he was enjoying it far more than he thought he would. He had lived an extremely mundane life before, and school was basically just study study and more studying. He had never been in the 'popular' group or even the 'geek' group. Just the 'loner and no one remembered' group.
Now, however, he was in a position that he had only read in novels. Not just the 'popular' group, but the top in the popular group. Since he never did take these things seriously, it was more like a game to him. 'Fanning the flames' meant just that : since Janice had started the rumour that he was involved with a girl, and further gave Principal Dobbins the conviction that he was such a playboy destined to ruin girls ... he was going to fan that small flame.
However, he would be controlling the flame and not have it burn the way they wanted. They wanted to malign him? Fine. He was going to bring on the charm. Give the girls some "unintentional" eye candy, be a gentleman, be an openly loving and protective brother, and an all round nice guy. The more positive the image, the more the rumours will turn into another direction. Of course, you will still have those dissenting views but they would be negligible.
The power of the fangirls can be devastating.
**--**--
Kyle did take only 10 minutes, and found all of them already waiting for him outside the gym. Flinging his arms around Ali and Xing Han's shoulders, he grinned widely, "Let's go!!"
"FOOOOOOOODDD!!" shouted Ali and Xing Han together, throwing their hands up in the air. Kyle laughed, his face brightening everything around him.
It was a 20 minute walk to Kayu, and everyone's eyes turned towards the rather eye catching group as they walked in. Kyle eagerly went to the food display area, his mouth drooling when he saw the assortment of dishes piled up there. There was a rice that had reddish and slightly yellow tinge known as bryiani rice. Then fish curry, lamb curry, chicken and fish fried in spices, fried cabbages, fried beansprouts, fried brinjal and pickled vegetables.
"Boss!!" Kyle shouted, naturally adopting the common form of address used in Country M. The Southern Indian guy behind the counter was taken aback at first, staring at this obviously non-Asian boy who was smiling and acting all naturally. He smiled, finding it rather heart warming to have something more familiar in this place.
"What do you want?" he asked politely, standing while waiting for Kyle's order.
"White rice," Kyle began then started pointing at various dishes "lamb curry, no gravy please. Fried chicken, drumstick portion. Cabbage .. brinjal .. ah ah. Those pickled vegetables. Don't forget the papadom! Fish gravy all over."
"Wah ... you know how to eat nasi kandar, good good." the guy said, smiling widely.
Everyone looked at the pile of food on Kyle's plate. He blinked repeatedly at them, grinned and headed back to the table.
Kay just shook her head at that, and told him, "I ordered plain water for you already".
"Thanks," mumbled Kyle, eating while using his hand. Sarah was shocked at this and Kyle explained, "It's the only way to eat this. Otherwise, you'd lose out on the experience and taste!"
The table soon got rowdy with all of them laughing and joking about while eating. Kyle relished such moments, basking in the warmth of friends and family.
"Ali? Is that you?" a voice sounded from behind them.