Second semester.

A time of starting over; wether it be grades, goals, friends , or new classes.

Grades- I'm doing pretty well in that aspect.

Goals- Gain my reputation back from being the Prince's local whore!

Friends- .... no question there.

And classes; probably my favorite class I will have ever taken in my seventeen years of life.

Targles.

I loved playing targles with the little kids when I was in Gregerson. I was quite good at them too, but when I got older it wasn't acceptable for kids my age with such different social class to play together.

I was a smart little girl; I purposely nailed screws into the pipe for footing to climb down and sneak out at night. I can vividly remember the dark alleyway to the fields, mystery water splashing on my shoes and damp grass beneath my feet as I took shot after shot into the goal; scoring nonstop.

When I arrived to the class, all the students were already there. I was subconsciously pulling the short shorts down that the school required us to wear, not trying to show so much thigh.

Do they actually want us to look like a strumpet?

I spotted Hazalen and waved her over not wanting to be alone in the crowd of people. She smiled at me and be-willingly walked over.

"At least we have the worst class ever made in the world together." She retorts with a scoff.

I laughed and tugged at my shorts again,"Believe it or not, but I like targles."

"How can you like targles? I never understand what is going on. Especially in racketball. The ball is going so fast it gives me a migraine." Hazalen complained. I just smiled at her, never playing racketball so I can't say anything. The Gregerson kids couldn't afford rackets.

"What's up with these uniforms? I feel so... revealing." I whisper to her.

She laughed,"You get used to them. Our principal is a male after all, who would have known. Rumor has it he's a little bit of a perv." I cringed at her words.

I do not like Mr. Roswell.

"Speaking of guys... there's your Prince." She winked at me. The uniform the boys wore were very tight fitting, showing off their body in a way that would leave girls staring at them all day long.

Especially one Darius of Deltora.

It was if the shirt was made for him... now that I think about it, he probably did have somebody craft it for him. The shirt sculpted his already bulging biceps, his wide frame giving a pretty good idea of what his chest looked like underneath.

You could see his six pack from behind the shirt, it was as obvious as the color of the sky. Toned and refined, his body look as out of a museum; an image you could pay money for just to marvel at. The shirt was doing him much justice, but for me on the other hand...

I couldn't look away.

Yet I then spotted Isabelle in the mix, narrowing my eyes in displeasure. I decided not to entertain anything. She was honestly just reflecting the kind of person she was, and me a better person for not continuing it.

The coach called all of us to the benches and we huddled around him. Hazalen was rubbing her hands together, obviously nervous for what was to come.

I couldn't be more excited

"You guys know the rules. No pushing over, grabbing, and obviously cheating. Let's start with the team captains." He got to the point real quick. Many raised their hands, mostly males.

"Damien, Landon, get your asses on the field and pick your teams." He called out to them demandingly. I confusingly glanced at Landon, not realizing he had transferred into our Targles class.

Landon rubbed his hands together, eager to play,"Can I pick first?" he asked Damien questionably.

"Be my guest," Damien gestured to the crowd with a smirk.

I know that look like the back of my hand.

What does he have up his sleeve?

Probably wouldn't fit in there anyway.

"Cole Reynolds." Cole held a dashing smile as he prowled towards Landon, giving him a pat on his shoulder.

"Annalise Woods."

I froze in place, all eyes on me. Damien held a soft smirk on his handsome face, while everybody else's face held surprise.

Now I was his whore and co-captain.

One point for a Darius of Deltora!

I mumbled some incoherent words as my peers made a path for me to walk through. Once I arrived by his side, I was at his shoulder and grimaced purposely.

"What's wrong Woods? Aren't you happy I picked you first? Quite an honor from a prince." He whispers to me. Everybody was now distracted by who Cole was picking.

"Why me? I haven't played a targle since I was small."

Damien called out our team player after Landon would, talking to me in between. "Annalise, you are fast. Fast as can be. Stand on your toes and look down at your calves, you've got muscle, you could pass that ball half-way across the field. Examine, Landon is going for the strong ones; but with football it's all about speed. Agility. Being able to get the ball away from the opposing team or get past them. Look at Landon's team. What do you see?"

"They are tall... broad. And they have muscle."

"Where?"

"Their torso, pecks, and their forearms."

"Now how does that help?" He asks me, a smirk rising at the corner of his lips. I look up at him with smile, knowing he was right.

As intelligent as could be, per usual.

"You don't need to use your torso. Just your legs and stamina." I tell him, or more to myself. "Not an arm game."

He winks at me,"You got it, Woods." He then calls our last team player and we all huddle up to discuss our positions.

I was right wing because I had a right foot, so if the ball would come to my side I would use it. Damien was middle forward, figures since he is captain.

We were about to start. The nerves in my stomach were dancing around, prancing, my adrenaline pumping through my veins.

"Everybody ready!" The coach shouted. Nods were to be seen across the field. He blew the whistle and we were off.

Damien sprinted off, passing by people with simple touches of his feet. He then passed it to the left forward, but the pass was interrupted by none other then Isabelle Daniels. She sprinted across the field, only to be stopped by our mid-field.

He passed it to me.

Once the ball hit my feet, it was as if I had done this for ages. I took off, passing by people in a haze, not even knowing how I was doing it all. Before I knew it, I reached the goal.

I shot the ball with all the muscle I had.

And I scored.

It was silent again. Dead silent. Everybody just stared at me in wonder.

People are probably wondering who I am, where I came from, how I knew how to play this game so well.

That is something they can never find out.

Damien was the first to clap. The rest of the team then did, just for me. I smiled at them warmly, elated I scored the first goal for our team.

"Don't get too cocky Woods, the game is not over yet," Damien comes up and whispers in my ear.

I smiled and bit my lip," Afraid I'm better then you, Darius?"

He smirked like a fox whom narrowed in on his pray, savoring his sweet time. His eyes were raking my body, lingering on my legs and my chest, which made me feel hot all over.

Him looking that sexy in those workout clothes gave me a GREAT mental image of a different turn of events.

I had never wanted to kiss somebody so much as I did in this moment.

I wanted it more than anything.

"You're very good at many things in the world that I am not, Annalise. Wether it be charming men with your beauty and your wits, or never failing to surprise me; yet Targles is simply not one of them."

I small smile slowly made its way on my lips," Charming men, huh? By beauty do you mean my legs and chest you were just-"

" -Or my stomach you were ravishing for about four-hundred years before we even started playing?"

He got me there. I narrowed my eyes in a harsh glare for a response, hoping my message was sent through.

Maybe if I just glared hard enough it would burn holes into his brain and he could stop being such an... arrogant bastard!

"Didn't think I would notice?" His teeth made an appearance, my response making him even cockier. He took a few stops forward, closing the space.

Talk about being able to practically see everything, now I could feel everything!

If I thought I was hot playing this game, it was nothing compared to being this close to Darius with no shirt on. (Practically)

"Now if you want our team to win, you better focus your attention from the pretty view of my chest to the goal." He let go and walked away, leaving me dumbfounded.

The way he walked back to his position, oh this man knew just how to grind my gears and get me pissed off.

He thinks he can just say such things!

The game continued on. We were winning, apparently I must have stopped looking at the "pretty view"; we only let Landon's team get one point in because Cole cheated. He pushed Hazalen, our defender down so he could get past. When I saw it happen I wanted to explode.

I scored a few more goals and so did Damien.

Yet this play was different.

As I went up to score the goal, I was rammed from my side into the ground. As I did so, I ended up hitting my head very intently on the grass field. It felt as if my head was being rammed by my metal bedpost over and over again.

I felt tears run down my face but none of my features were moving. Silent tears were all I felt, I could hardly hear anything. My mind was drifting off as the world became dark.

I heard somebody yell,"Annalise!" And something about Isabelle. My mind couldn't process words correctly.

And yet, I could hear Damien's voice reassuring me.

"Its going to be ok, Annalise."

"It's ok, I've got you. I can fix this..."

"Its going to be alright

I felt myself being lifted, then drifted into a world of green unicorns and complete nonsense.