Alison woke up in the morning surrounded by souvenirs.

Actual souvenirs. Like a miniature Taj Mahal from India, an I ❤️ NY T-shirt from USA, a G'day mate! hat from Australia and many more. She almost started bleeding from sleeping on top a Great Wall keychain from China. She was exhausted. She didn't know why, but she felt drained. She tirely wiped her eyes, collected all the souvenirs and stuffed them under her bed. She waited in her bed for her mom or dad to 'wake her up.' When her mother finally came, she went downstairs, ate breakfast, brushed her teeth and got ready for school. After she made sure she had everything for school, she looked across the street from her window and saw Katie getting into her car. Less than five seconds later, she heard her mother yell from downstairs,"Come on, Lilith! Time to go!"

? ️ ?

It was gym class, the last class of the of the day. Alison's class was playing dodgeball. Sadly, Coach Blender put Alison and Katie on two different teams.

Something was different. Alison didn't know what it was but she knew it was true. It was like she had to win at everything she did. Like her competitiveness had broken the scale. Earlier in the day when the class had a mock spelling bee, Alison was one of the final champions and she needed up losing to a girl in her class named Olivia. Olivia didn't do anything wrong, but Alison shot her a cold stare and stuck her tongue out at her.

Olivia took it as a joke but Alison didn't know if she meant it that way.

After their gym teacher had laid out all the balls in the gym, he blew the whistle and everyone began to play. Katie stood at the back dodging the balls as much as she could, James, a friend of Chad and Liam was hitting all the girls in her class, Chad and Liam who were both on Katie's team were basically hitting everybody on Alison's team and getting them out and the rest of people on Katie's team were out.

Alison's team was much smaller than Katie's. Katie's team had about 75% of the class, leaving Alison's team with 25%. Most of the class went to Katie's team because they wanted to be on the same team as Chad and Liam as they were the most athletic people in their class.

The only people standing on Alison's team were Olivia, a girl named Jaspreet who was the most bratty and bossy girl in her class, a really nice girl named Alicia who everybody liked, Andrew, a Indian boy who was the smartest boy in her class and Alison herself. Olivia was still standing because she hid behind people, Andrew was trying to take out Chad and Liam which resulted in getting himself out, Jaspreet was aiming at James but kept on hitting the door and Alicia was trying to avoid balls that were being thrown by James. Alison was somehow dodging every ball that people threw at her and she didn't miss any person that she threw a ball at.

Alison didn't want to get Katie out, so she hit James and Liam.

Before they both got out, James had gotten Olivia and Jaspreet, and James had gotten Andrew out.

The only people standing were Alicia, Chad, Katie and Alison. Alison picked up the ball and before she could throw it at Chad, both Chad and Alicia threw a ball at each other and they both got out.

Alison scanned the other team's side of the gym and realized the only one standing was Katie.

She was pacing back and forth and looking like she was sniffing her hands. She turned her head at Alison for just a second and Alison saw her face covered in chocolate.

She probably smuggled a chocolate bar into gym class again, Alison thought to herself.

Alison squeezed the ball in her hand, not knowing what to do.

Normally, she would just quit or find someway to hit herself with the ball but this time was different. Alison felt… knew that she had to win.

So she did it. She whipped the ball at Katie, almost knocking her off her feet.