You knew getting into the school volleyball team wasn’t a good idea. Your friends just dragged you into it, because they thought It’d get you more athletic, since you kept complaining about not being sporty enough and feeling a bit sluggish.

However, it seems like it gets you more bruised than any athletic. You’re not exactly good at this and even if you try to ignore it, you’re not completely oblivious to the way everyone in the gymnasium stares at you whenever you fall clumsily on the floor or when you miss the easiest ball ever. It made you realize how hard it was to keep up with something when everyone else around is much more better than you.

And you can be sure that today, no one missed the way that ball hit your head so hard, making you fall back immediately.

Things were hard to process, but you could notice soon enough the House Captain’s figure crouch over you, a slight grin on his lips. You didn’t even need to look around to know that all eyes were on you, the silence making the moment worse. God, it couldn’t be more embarrassing.

"Hey," Max utters softly. "You okay ? That ball didn’t miss you…" he points out, running a thumb over a spot on your cheekbone that hurt, most likely a bruise in there.

You’ve noticed a few stern glares from him from time to time whenever you were embarrassing yourself, but he’s never talked to you before.