29 – Conflict
Dave grabbed both balls on their court and tossed one of them to the only team member he had left for another attempt at working together.
This time they did a little better and managed to eliminate one of the guys on the other team without losing one of their team members and forcing the match back into a tie.
Due to how much force Dave used in his throw the ball he threw actually managed to bounce back to their side of the field leaving only one ball for the opposing team to grab.
The guy that grabbed that ball threw it towards Dave's last team member as hard as they could, but in their focus missed the ball Dave sent their way eliminating them easily though Dave also lost his last team member.
Dave didn't even pause though and ran to the ball that bounced of his team mate and grabbed it, unfortunately after it had already bounced on the ground. He didn't care about that though and immediately turned to face the last opponent.
Both of them stood still eyeing each other closely looking for any opening they could use, but not confident about committing to a throw yet.
"You can do it!" Kate cheered Dave on again. It was rather nice to have someone on his side.
Dave tried to fake the guy out as if he was going to throw, but unfortunately it seemed it wasn't convincing enough. The guy took the opportunity to throw though.
Noticing that it was a pretty straightforward throw Dave caught it giving him both balls tossing one after the other at the guy. The guy managed to dodge the first one, but was left wide open for the second to hit him. This eliminated him and caused Dave to win the match.
The other team was beyond pissed. They were the cool kids and the jocks and they had actually lost to a team made up of the geeks and losers which was unacceptable to them. Jeffrey was by far the worst though as his glare at Dave indicated he was planning to make him miserable as revenge for this humiliation.
Dave noticed a few of the girls in class and even some of the guys in class were cheering him on after winning the close match and even more than that were paying more attention to him than usual. Most noticeable were the girls that usually simply ignored him.
Kate hugged him first with a wide smile when he came off the field despite him being covered in sweat from running around the dodgeball court like crazy to win.
He wrapped his arms around her and they received some looks from the rest of the class, though she was too shy to do anything more. Thankfully Brad wasn't in their class or it likely would have been a fight right then and there. Dave was rather satisfied with his performance. He had managed to go through the entire match performing at a high level and though he was a little out of breath it hadn't held him back.
He wouldn't have been able to imagine performing anything like this just 3 weeks ago. He was already on the level of some of the top performers in school. As long as this kept up he would exceed anyone in school given just a few more weeks of training.
A few of his other classmates even went out of their way to acknowledge and congratulate him, though Kate was sticking around quite closely. He suspected she was trying to ward off the other girls that were suddenly showing him more interest than ever before. He almost chuckled with how hypocritical it was, but she should know given her own situation.
On his way to the cafeteria after leaving the locker rooms he was cut off by a still enraged Jeffrey at an inconspicuous part of campus. He seemed to be alone as far as Dave could tell which surprised him.
"You pathetic piece of shit! Do you think you can just do whatever you want?" Jeffrey asked him agitatedly.
Dave shrugged still looking around for any of Jeffrey's friends. He was already squaring up some, very familiar with the lead up to a beating both due to the bullying and his father's abuse.
"You think anyone cares that you got a little lucky in P.E.?!" he continued to rage.
As he suspected Jeffrey took a swing at him, but he managed to slap it aside quite easily. Now that he had been given just cause though he wasn't going to hold back and blasted Jeffrey in the face with a quick jab to the chin stunning him. He wasn't used to Dave fighting back and though he would just bully him a little bit to get back his confidence after it was hurt during P.E.
Before Jeffrey could even react Dave followed up with a haymaker to his eye. That was going to leave a mark he was sure. Jeffrey stumbled back, but Dave wasn't done and used the wide opening to knee him in the gut knocking the wind out of him.
Jeffrey fell to the ground gasping for air. For a few moments he was unable to breathe in which caused him to panic. Dave returned to a defensive position ready to respond if Jeffrey continued to antagonise him.
His moves had been stiff as it had been years since his father had forced him to watch and practice fighting, but with his enhanced physique it was more than enough to deal with someone untrained and weak like Jeffrey.
After a few moments Jeffrey finally managed to breathe in again gasping with tears in his eyes to get as much air as if his life depended on it. Well it kind of did. He climbed back onto his feet and ran away. Dave was sure it wouldn't be the end of things though. He might have beaten up Jeffrey, but it wasn't just Jeffrey. Jeffrey had a whole group of friends that liked to bully together with him and he was sure that he wouldn't be stupid enough to confront him alone next time.