Chapter 21: The Girl They Underestimated

By morning, the entire academy was talking about the message on the Moonball board.

MOONSTONES DON’T BELONG ON OUR COURT.

Students had theories. Some blamed the senior team outright. Others insisted it was someone trying to provoke the brothers into losing their cool. A few were already convinced whoever wrote it was about to regret it badly.

Roxanne walked to class with Isla, half listening to the gossip swirling around them.

"You don’t care, right?" Isla teased.

"Not even a little."

But she was walking faster than usual, and when they passed the competition posters lining the hallway, her eyes went straight to the schedule without her meaning to.

"You’re pretending not to care while memorizing match times," Isla said.

"I am not."

"Our match is at four."

Roxanne froze. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Isla laughed. "Caught you."

Roxanne didn’t bother denying it further. Something had shifted, and she could feel it. She wasn’t just trying to survive Moonstone Academy anymore.

She wanted to win.

They passed Dorian and Arabella on the way to class. Roxanne was laughing about something, talking animatedly about the match, and Dorian watched her go without a word.

The Roxanne he remembered used to look for him in every room. Used to wait. Used to care what he thought before anything else.

This Roxanne walked past without even slowing down.

"She’s found quite the little group," Arabella said lightly.

"I don’t care."

"Then why are you still looking?"

He didn’t have an answer, and he looked away before she could push further.

The Moonball court was already busy by the time Roxanne arrived after classes, several teams scattered across it, students gathered along the edges to watch. Liam was bouncing a ball off the wall. Kai stretched near the sideline. Roshan studied the layout of the court like it owed him information. Lucien stood with a clipboard.

"Why does he have a clipboard?" Roxanne asked.

"Because he was born eighty years old," Liam said.

Lucien ignored him. "Practice starts now."

Roxanne groaned. This clearly wasn’t going to be casual.

"You should be grateful," Liam said.

"Why?"

"Because I plan to make you famous."

"I’ll settle for making you shut up."

The brothers laughed, and the tension of the day eased into something lighter.

Drills started, and Roxanne quickly saw how differently each brother approached the sport. Lucien cared about positioning and discipline, uninterested in flash. Liam treated every drill like performance art, throwing in ridiculous moves designed purely to make her laugh at the worst possible moments. Kai moved with total control, wasting nothing, silent except when she made a mistake which he noticed instantly, every time. Roshan watched everything, studying patterns, already cataloguing her strengths and weaknesses like data worth remembering.

She was starting to realize that playing with them might actually make her better.

Kai eventually tossed her the ball. "Play me."

She assumed a simple drill. It wasn’t. He came at her seriously, blocking every attempt, stealing the ball twice in a row.

"You could at least pretend I’m good," she said.

"I wouldn’t insult you like that."

That only made her more determined. This time she watched instead of rushing, catching the small shift in his weight right before he moved. She faked left. He reacted. She cut right and stole the ball clean.

For a second, neither of them moved.

Liam erupted like she’d won a championship. Kai looked at her, then gave a small nod.

"Better."

"I know."

"Again."

She accepted, and something about the way he treated her settled warm in her chest.

Before they could start again, Liam interrupted, declaring Kai far too serious, and challenged her himself. His style was chaos. Talking the entire time, inventing ridiculous nicknames, making exaggerated mistakes just to see her reaction.

"You’re impossible," she told him.

"You’re smiling."

She immediately stopped smiling. He grinned. "Too late."

She chased him across the court, finally tricking him into overcommitting, and stole the ball clean. He collapsed dramatically to the ground like he’d been mortally wounded, and the whole group burst out laughing, Roxanne included.

She realized she hadn’t laughed this freely in longer than she could remember.

Dorian, passing the court on his way somewhere else, saw all of it. Saw her laughing with one brother, then another, then another. And for the first time, he didn’t feel like he was watching someone he used to know.

He felt like he was watching someone he might actually lose.

During the next drill, Roxanne kept committing to her moves too early. Roshan waited until the group took a break before approaching quietly.

"You’re moving before you’re ready," he said.

She braced for criticism. Instead, he explained her instincts were good and she just needed to hold back a fraction longer. He demonstrated the timing, and when she tried it, it clicked immediately.

His smile, when it came, was small. Almost shy. "Fast learner."

She looked at him a second longer than necessary before thanking him. He looked away first.

Lucien gathered them not long after. "Your individual skills aren’t the problem," he said. "We’ve been playing as four exceptional players and Roxanne. We need to be one team."

Roxanne bristled at being singled out. "I can keep up."

"I know." He assigned her a position built entirely around speed and reading the court instead of overpowering anyone. "I planned this after watching you play," he added, when she asked.

That landed differently than she expected. He wasn’t protecting her. He was studying her, respecting what he saw.

Lucien arranged a full practice match against another student team, and at first the Moonstones’ physical dominance was obvious. But their opponents quickly noticed something else. Roxanne was the easiest target on the court.

They came for her.

The first time, she barely recovered. The second time, she anticipated it. By the third, she understood exactly what was happening: they were so fixated on taking her down that they’d stopped paying attention to everyone else.

She let two defenders close in, then passed behind them straight to Liam, who scored before either of them could react.

The final possession came down to her again, the same trap forming around her. This time she read it instantly... ran toward the strongest defender, cut away at the last second, drew two players with her, and left Kai wide open. Her pass landed clean. His shot missed.

Roshan was already moving, catching the rebound, sending it back to her. She saw Liam open on the far side and sent it across the court instead of taking the shot herself.

Liam scored. They won.

But the win belonged to her. She’d read the defense, built the opening, made the final assist.

The team celebrated. Liam grabbed her hand and pulled her into it despite her protests. Kai stood nearby with the faintest smile. Roshan told her the final pass had been exactly what they needed.

"You made the right call," Lucien said simply.

It meant more than any elaborate compliment could have, because he wasn’t offering pity. He was acknowledging what she could do.

As they left the court, students started approaching... asking where she’d learned to move like that, whether she’d be playing in the official match. Isla was practically glowing beside her. Roxanne tried to act unbothered and failed completely.

Across the court, Joanna watched with a flat expression, clearly having expected something else entirely. Farther off, Arabella’s face hardened. The rumors weren’t landing the way she’d hoped. Roxanne was building something of her own now, and that made her harder to isolate.

Dorian watched them all walk off together, Roxanne laughing at something Liam said, and felt the old ache twist tighter. He’d made his choice. He kept telling himself that.

"Are you coming?" Arabella called, and he had to be called twice before he answered.

He looked back one more time before he left.

This time, Roxanne didn’t notice.

That made it worse.

The next morning, students crowded around the competition board, and Roxanne pushed through with Isla to find the posted results from the preliminary matches.

MOONSTONE TEAM — #1 SEED.

Students around her murmured in disbelief. Liam looked ecstatic. Kai looked satisfied. Roshan was already studying the bracket ahead. Lucien simply looked at the ranking, unsurprised.

Roxanne stared at her own name sitting among theirs.

Yesterday, she’d been the girl who supposedly didn’t belong on that court.

Today, she was standing at the top of it.

She reached out and touched the edge of the paper.

A small smile crossed her face.