Filed to story: That Campus Prince Is a Girl
Cameron answered mildly, “I’ll go first.” Then, without any hesitation, she gave the ball a light bounce, stepped into position, and launched a clean, effortless shot.
The moment Cameron made the shooting motion, the crowd erupted.
“Oh my goodness.”
“He’s insane-Cameron’s seriously shooting from the opposite end of the court?”
“There’s no way that’ll go in, right? If it does, he’d be a straight-up legend.”
While everyone was still buzzing, the basketball sailed through the air and dropped straight into the hoop on the other side. Gasps broke out in every direction, the crowd stunned by what they’d just witnessed. They all started cheering for Cameron.
“He made it.”
“Wait, did he actually make that? Am I dreaming?”
“This can’t be real.”
“Holy crap. Is Cameron even human? That was unreal.”
“This is way too insane.”
“With someone like Cameron on the team, what’s there to worry about in next month’s game against Horizon Academy? We’ ve got that in the bag.”
And yet, at the center of all the attention, Cameron remained calm as ever. What seemed like a miracle to everyone else didn’t even register as impressive in her eyes.
She looked over at Xander, whose jaw looked like it might hit the floor, and said flatly, “Your turn.”
Xander couldn’t even speak. His emotions were a tangled mess of shock, disbelief, and frustration. He had lost to Cameron. He might be arrogant, but he wasn’t delusional. He knew damn well he couldn’t make a shot from one end of the court to the other like Cameron had just done.
Just as everyone was staring at Xander in anticipation, he suddenly shouted, “I forfeit.”
The crowd was stunned, their jaws practically hit the floor.
“Did Xander just admit defeat? Xander? That proud guy actually gave up?”
“Well, Cameron is crazy good. Even Xander had to admit defeat.”
“Xander knows when to hold back and when to step up. No wonder he’s one of the school heartthrobs-dude’s got real class.”
While everyone was murmuring their praise, Cameron turned to Xander. “Forfeit? You mean you’re admitting full defeat and agreeing to leave Room 316?”
Successfully unlocked!
Xander snapped. “Pretty boy, don’t push it,” he wins jabbing a finger ather
Cameron remaine expressionless. “Understood. So you’re only admitting defeat in basketball. Let’s go. Track’s next.” With that, she turned and walked off the court.
Xander clenched his fists. ‘Losing in basketball was a fluke. But running? That’s my thing. Long-distance, sprints-I’ve never lost. No way Cameron can beat me there.’
With a relaxed look, he followed right behind her. The rest of the students, sensing the show wasn’t over, eagerly trailed after them toward the track.
The crowd of students moved together in a lively wave toward the school track. The campus had a massive field, and though it was already close to 10:30 p.m.-with dorm curfew hitting at 1:30-it was still packed with people.
Xander was off to the side stretching. He was determined to make a comeback. No way was he going to lose to Cameron twice in one night.
Cameron was stretching too. It was a basic warm-up, the kind any serious runner to avoid pulling a muscle before high- intensity movement.
A bunch of students clustered around to watch, their curiosity buzzing. Someone whispered, “So how are they gonna race?”
Feeling confident, Xander handed the reins over to Cameron. “Pretty boy, your call. How do you wanna do this?”
Cameron’s lips tugged into a faint smile. “Marathon.”
Xander blinked. “A marathon? What, are you planning to run until sunrise?”
There was no time limit in a marathon. The idea was simple-whoever stopped first, lost. It only got interesting when there were a lot of runners.
He thought, ‘Just the two of us? Running a full marathon? Is he kidding me?’
Cameron shot him a look. “So? You in or not? Are you scared?”
Xander scoffed, “What would I be scared of?”
Cameron slipped off her jacket and draped it over a potted shrub nearby, then stepped to the starting line. Xander followed suit.
Someone in the crowd called out the countdown, “One, two, three.”
The moment “three” dropped, Cameron burst forward like a flash of wind.
Xander was stunned. He shouted after her, “Cameron, what the hell? This is a marathon, not a damn sprint.”
Cameron’s speed was a full-on sprint-no question about it. Everyone knew that marathon runners had to conserve energy, or they’d burn out quickly. And yet, Cameron kept up that blazing speed.
With that many people watching, there was no way Xander was going to let himself fall behind. He had no choice but to kick into sprint mode too, chasing after her with everything he had.
“Come on, Xander. Cameron’s already over 200 yards ahead of you,” someone shouted.
“Shut up,” Xander snapped, seething.
His stamina was solid. But no matter how good he was, running this fast for this long wasn’t sustainable.
Meanwhile, Cameron showed no signs of slowing down. It was like she didn’t even get tired-just kept pushing harder, faster. The gap between them kept widening, and Xander had no choice but to push himself to the brink just to keep from falling completely behind.
“Let’s go, Xander. Cameron’s about to lap you,” someone yelled. That meant she was nearly a full mile ahead-one lap around the track.
Soon enough, Cameron caught up to him. By that point, she had already run four laps-four miles. Xander was only on his third. Keeping up that kind of speed for that long was already unbelievable.
Xander was gasping for breath, struggling to pull in air. His chest burned. Meanwhile, as Cameron passed him, her breathing was steady, her pace smooth. In just a few strides, she pulled ahead of him again.
Xander was someone who cared a lot about saving face. Watching the distance between them grow, he gritted his teeth and pushed forward harder.
Milena jogged up beside him. “Xander, it’s a marathon. Slow down. Let Cameron run if he wants to-once he runs out of energy, you’ll win.”
She handed him a bottle of water with a sweet smile. “Here. Drink this. No rush-just pace yourself.”
“You’re right,” Xander said, panting. He was exhausted and parched, so he took the water from her hand and, little by little, eased his speed.
He thought, ‘She’s right. This is a marathon. It’s
Successfully unlocked! ndurance.’
But slowing down only made things worse-Cameron pulled two laps ahead, then three, then four, and even five.
Xander was struggling more with each lap, his pace slowing down, while Cameron was still running at the same blazing pace, lap after lap, like she didn’t know what fatigue was.
“Xander, come on Cameron’s already tapped you so many times if you don’t pick it up, you’re gonna lose someone shouted
Exhausted, Xander felt like his whole body was falling apart. His breathing was labored, every inhale scraping cold air into his chest like glass. His legs felt like they were filled with lead-every step was torture
He felt like he was about to die. His pace slowed and slowed, until he was moving en slower than the students walking along the edge of the track. But he still kept going. He gritted his teeth and forced himself forward
“Xander, maybe stop, okay? Milena’s eyes welled up as she watched him stumble
She thought, “Seriously, Cameron? A marathon? Was that really necessary? Look what she’s done to Xander-he’s a mess
But Xander didn’t respond. Every ounce of focus was in his feet. Keep going I have to keep going I can’t lose. I’ve gone eighteen years without losing I’m not about to lose to that pretty boy Cameron, he thought
His will was rock-solid. But his body wasn’t. With a heavy thud, he collapsed face-first onto the track All six feet two inches of him hit the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
His eyes rolled back, and he passed out cold. His body had hit its absolute limit.
The crowd erupted in shocked cries. Someone yelled, “Oh my goodness. Xander just collapsed”
Another shouted, “Hurry Get him to the infirmary,”
Everyone rushed in at once, lifting Xander off the ground and carrying him toward the infirmary.
Xander had collapsed, and everyone rushed after him. At that point, no one cared about the outcome of the race between him and Cameron anymore The track, which had been buzzing with noise and excitement just moments ago, fell silent in minutes.
Cameron slowed her pace, jogged another half lap, then came to a stop. Her entire body was drenched in sweat after all this running, but her breathing remained steady. This level of stamina was something she’d brought back from her world- hopping days.
“Cameron.” A sharp, angry voice rang out behind her.
Cameron acted as though she didn’t hear it and kept walking in the direction of the dorms.
Fuming, Milena stormed up and grabbed Cameron by the wrist. “Cameron, why did you pretend not to know me back there?* she snapped, furious that Cameron had made her look like a fool in front of Xander.
Cameron shook off her hand. “Funny, you called me like I was your brother. I’m female-not your brother.”