The Montem students continued to cheer as they saw their team leave their VR headsets. Many of the screams were directed towards Scarlett and Ashley. Dan and Alex had died early on in the game and much of what Novis had done wasn't seen on camera. This meant that all the attention was currently on the girls of the team.
Novis couldn't help but notice that not a single cheer was for his name. He was slightly depressed and Alex could see this standing by his side.
"Am I just that unpopular?" Novis thought.
"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think anyone is calling my name either," Alex said as he placed his hand on Novis's back.
Novis smiled back, he wasn't upset for long, how could he be after they had won such a tough battle.
"You're right, let's enjoy this," Novis said as the rest of the team continued to wave at the students to thank them for their support.
On Hershal's end, each member had exited their VR headset in disbelief. Many of the Hershal members were still wondering how they had lost. Of course, Frank new the reason better than anyone.
But what Frank was dreading more than anything, was speaking to the coach. The Hershel team quickly lined up in a single file line in height order in front of the coach and bowed down.
"We are sorry for the loss!" The Hershel team said in sync.
The Montem students and the VSW club members started to go silent as they watched the Hershel members.
"Disappointed!" Burny shouted. "How could you guys lose to a bunch of nobodies?"
Burney walked up and down in front of the team members and then stopped just in front of Frank.
"And you, you decided to leave the team and act on your own, do you think you're too good for this team or something? because of you, we lost."
"I'm..."
Before Frank could even say anything, the coach had lifted his hand and gave a big smack across Frank's face. The slap had echoed through the gym hall and the few people that were speaking were now completely silent.
Burney stood there staring at Frank.
"I want you to quit from this school, dropped out, I don't want to see you on this team ever again."
Frank clenched his fist hard. Had he really made a wrong decision? If he hadn't gone after Scarlett then there was no chance, they would have gotten through. The only mistake that Frank had made was underestimating Novis.
"I think this is unfair, I believe the coach himself has made a wrong decision," Frank said with determination in his eyes.
The other Hershal members didn't react but inside they couldn't believe that Frank was talking back to the coach.
"How dare you, you're just a child!" Burney shouted as he lifted his hand to prepare for another slap.
This one seemed like it would be more powerful than the last. As Burney's hand moved towards Frank's face. Frank closed his eyes to prepare for the worst.
A few seconds had passed but nothing had happened.
"Wasn't I about to get hit?" Frank thought.
When he opened his eyes, he could see Burney's hand being held mid-air only a few inches away from his face.
"What do you think you are doing?" Novis said as he held on to Burny's hand.
As soon as Novis saw Burney slap Frank, he knew something was wrong, he couldn't just stand by and do nothing. So, when he saw that Burney was preparing a second slap Novis had moved over in an instant.
"Let go of my hand, how dare you hold a teacher's hand!"
"How Dare me, How dare you! How could you even think about hitting a student, look around you."
Burney then looked around the room and could see that all of the students currently had their mobile phones out and were filming the whole situation.
"Go ahead and film like anyone would do anything. Do you know why?" Burney then went and whispered in Novis's ear. "Because he's my son."
Novis was so stunned by what he had just heard, that his grip had loosened against Burny's wrist. Burney then continued to walk off as the Hershal team followed him out of the gym.
Just before everyone left, Frank turned around and mouthed the words "Thank you" to Novis.
"Wow that was crazy did you see that?"
"I heard the rumours but never expected to see something like that."
The students continued to chatter about what just happened but that only lasted a short while. Their attention soon shifted to the two female members of the VSW team.
"We did it, we're finally in the quarter-finals thanks to them."
"Did you see how amazing Ashley was?"
"Yeah, and I didn't expect Scarlett to be able to be so sneaky, didn't a Hershel team member go after her, how did she survive?"
The day was over and the kids of Montem couldn't wait to go online and brag about their victory against Hershal. Before many schools might have considered Montem's win against Eton a fluke but now that they had even beaten Hershal, a semi-final regular. It was clear that the Montem team this year was no fluke.
Dan had decided to get a check-up with the school nurse who said he was fine and just needed to rest for a few days and make sure he didn't do anything too strenuous on his body. While everyone else decided to head home.
Novis had finally arrived home and when he entered the front door his brother was there to greet him.
"Congratulations, I saw you win your game against Hershel," Bill said with a smile.
Novis's eyes lit up.
"Really, how did I look taking on their captain Frank, were there some cool shots of me."
Bill was too afraid to say anything to his brother, so he decided to just take him to the computer and show him instead. The two of them watched the reply together and Novis body started shaking.
"Bro are you okay?" Bill asked.
"WHY! WHY! WHY!" Novis shouted.
After watching the video together, he realised that it had completely skipped out his fight with Frank, to concentrate on Ashley's fight with the three members of Hershel. Would Novis ever get the recognition he deserved?