Chapter 115 - Dave's Ingenuity

In his room, Mr. Tyo breathed a sigh of relief. "What's wrong with me, why can I be scared when dealing with my own student?"

Actually, Mr. Tyo tried to hide his fear when dealing with Dave. The truth about Dave who made six third graders still have to receive intensive care at the hospital really gives Mr. Tyo the creeps. As much as possible he did not want to get into trouble with his brutal student, even though he is his own homeroom teacher.

Pak Tyo also looked for a file and took out a plastic envelope and checked back on Dave's background.

"Adonis Daveline Stockholm. Born in Michigan, April twentieth ..." he continued to read every text that was listed there. "Entering with a full scholarship? That means he's a very smart kid? No ... Is he a genius kid? I never thought, a genius like him could be that scary. Even though he's polite."

Mr. Tyo also put Dave's file back into the collection of files in his office cabinet and walked out of his room to start teaching.

Mr. Tyo exhaled strongly. "Cheer up, Tyo! He's just a smart student who happens to be good at fighting. Not a son of a mafia gang leader or anything like that." murmured Mr. Tyo while puffing out his chest and walking upright as he always did.

***

Ms. Tasya stepped into the field. This time, they will study the game of baseball. Baseball is a sport played by two teams. The pitcher of the team that is throwing tries to throw the ball, while the player (batter) of the team that is hitting tries to hit the ball using the bat. The team that throws tries to catch the ball that is hit by the team that is hitting so that the team that is hitting turns into the team that is throwing. The team that is hitting scores by running counterclockwise to return to home plate after touching a marker on the surface of the baseball field called the base. Baseball is also referred to as hardball to distinguish it from softball.

A baseball field is a square (baseball diamond) with the bases at three corners. The distance between one base and the other is 27,432 meters (90 feet). The bat is a long, smooth cylinder made of wood (a requirement for a professional baseball bat) or metal. Game rules were developed in the United States from bat and ball games played in England.

Baseball is a team sport and is popular in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and East Asia. In many countries, baseball is the main sport. In the United States, baseball is a national pastime because some Americans spend a lot of time playing and watching baseball games. The number of spectators who come to the stadium to watch the American Baseball League exceeds the number of spectators of other types of sports, but American Football surpasses the number of viewers who watch the game on television.

Ms. Tasya was carrying a sack containing several baseball balls, with her other hand holding three wooden batons.

"Since you guys have warmed up, who here is familiar with baseball?"

Only a few people raised their hands, Rey and Dave were one of them. Jean who was standing next to Dave just shook her head softly. Even though she likes sports, she is still quite unfamiliar with this kind of sport.

"Mmm… You two can go forward to practice the correct way of holding the stick and hitting."

Dave was just about to step forward as one of the people who was pointed by Ms. Tasya, but Jean's hand that gripped his wrist held Dave's step.

Dave smiled, "Don't worry, I won't be away too long. Anyway, there is Dita here who will keep you company."

Dita stroked Jean's shoulder, and Jean slowly let go of Dave's wrist that she was holding for all this time.

Dave and Rey finally came to the front of the line. Dave takes a baseball while Rey takes a wooden bat. Dave walked quite a distance from Rey and began to stretch his arm muscles.

"Dave, throw the ball as hard as you can, don't ever think of hold back."

For some reason, Dave could see Rey had other intentions. Dave also took a swing and threw the ball as hard as he could. Dave used the same force as when he hit the face of someone he hated to throw the baseball.

The ball missed Rey's punch, causing Rey to be showered with cheers of "Woo ..." from everyone. Rey turned around and put on a stupid face. "Ms. Tasya, what is the correct way to hold this bat? Like this, or like this? Or ... this?"

Ms. Tasya stepped closer to Rey and helped Rey direct his hand to the baseball bat. With Ms. Tasya's chest touching his back, made Rey smile very broadly.

Rey and Dave finally returned to the line and Jean immediately grabbed Dave's hand as soon as he was back to where he was standing before. Dita who saw that, her feelings were mixed.

She understands Jean's situation, but when she finds out that Dave and Jean are already dating, somehow Dita seems to lose her life.

After getting a fairly detailed and easy-to-understand explanation from Ms. Tasya, all the students started practicing the baseball sport by themselves.

Dave and Jean stood on the sidelines waiting for their turn. Randy was the first to hit the ball, while Rey was the pitcher.

Rey makes pretty weird moves with the ball, and they have nothing to do with the pitch he's going to make. Seeing this annoyed Randy. "Hurry up and throw it, don't bother with too many ideas!"

Rey finally threw the ball really hard all of a sudden. Randy, not ready for it, swung the bat in a panic. The ball that should have bounced in the air instead shot in a straight line to the side, and the ball was directly aimed at Dita.

Dita didn't see it, while Dave realized that the ball was quite far from where Dita was standing.

"Dita, watch out!" shouted Randy, making Dita turn her head.

Bammm! ...

Dita saw a baseball shot towards her. The only reflex her body could do when the ball was that close to her was just close her eyes.

And Dita could feel the ball flying past her ear, making her hair flutter back. Both Randy and Dave breathed a sigh of relief. Dita opened her eyes and gave Randy a defiant look.

"Can you hit it or not? If you can't, don't bother with too many ideas! It's dangerous, you know!"

Rey chuckled at Dita shouting at Randy like that. Randy, who was just about to blame Rey, didn't do it, because if he did it would make him look even more stupid.

At least he still has brains, even if only a little.

Now it's Dave's turn to hold the bat, while Rey will throw the ball.

Rey's gaze was different from when he wanted to throw the ball at Randy and when he was about to throw the ball at Dave. There, Dave realizes that Rey is really serious this time. As if Rey wanted to test Dave's abilities.

"You can do it, Dave!" shouted Jean from the edge of the field who was standing next to Dita.

Dave didn't turn around at all. He wanted to focus his mind on the direction of the ball Rey was going to throw. This time Rey didn't warm up unreasonably. Rey stretched the parts of his body a little which was indeed the muscles in those parts to be used as power when he threw the ball.

From Rey's body movement, Dave can predict the possible direction of the ball Rey will shoot.

For some reason, the students who saw the intensity of Dave and Rey's gaze felt that this was no longer a normal sports lesson. Every time Dave competes with Rey, it is as if they are two monsters who are ready to fight to the death.

Rey finally threw the ball with all the strength he had. Dave smiled thinly, because the direction of the ball that was shot by Rey is in the same direction as his prediction.

And as Dave swung his stick, everyone seemed to hold their breath for a split second until the ball hit the wooden bat that Dave was holding.

Bammmm! ... Tk ... Tk ...

Dave stopped the wooden bat he was swinging on the side, making the ball hitting the wooden bat instead of bouncing high but rolling on the ground. All the students who saw him dropped their chins. What Dave did was very different from their expectations.

At first they thought Dave would at least hit a home-run, but the ball rolled on the ground instead, while Dave had already run past four checkpoints very quickly and managed to run a full lap, thus giving his team one point.

Ms. Tasya, who also saw what Dave was doing, couldn't hold back her laughter. What Dave did was a very clever thing.

In the beginning he acted like he was going to hit a really hard hit. But instead of hitting it, Dave just held back the ball, making everyone gawk in disbelief because what they saw was far from their exaggerated expectations, as a result, Dave was free to run without anyone trying to stop him.

Bu Tasya also looked at the student attendance list and looked for the column with Dave's name on it.

"Adonis Daveline Stockholm ... such an interesting kid."