The final buzzer echoed through the arena, a sound of absolute finality.
The world, which had been a chaotic storm of motion and energy, snapped back into focus. I was floating in the center of the court, my lungs burning, my entire body a single, trembling ache.
We had won.
Then, my teammates were on me. A blur of blue and white jerseys, of hands slapping my back and shoulders, of voices shouting in my ear. "Yeah, Kai!" "What a play!" "That shot was insane!"
Ren, our team captain, floated in front of me. The skepticism that had been in his eyes for the past week was completely gone, replaced by a look of genuine, hard-won respect. He offered a gloved fist. "Good game," he said, and his voice held no reservations.
I bumped his fist, a real grin spreading across my face for the first time. "You too, cap."
For the first time since I had walked into the Westwood High arena, I didn't feel like an outsider. I didn't feel like a ghost or a rat. I felt like a part of the team.
Coach Valerius's whistle cut through the celebration. "That's enough. Hit the showers," he commanded. His face was still a stone mask. "Final roster will be posted on the board outside the locker room in ten minutes."
The celebratory mood instantly evaporated, replaced by a thick, nervous tension. This was it. The final cut.
The walk back to the locker room was the longest of my life. The players from Team B were silent and dejected. I saw Jax ahead of me. He didn't look back, but the rigid set of his shoulders, the fury in his posture, told me everything I needed to know. This wasn't over.
I had won the scrimmage, but the coach's words still echoed in my head.
"Right now, you are a liability.". Had I done enough to prove him wrong? Had I done enough to keep that final, precarious spot on the team? The doubt came creeping back, a cold knot in my stomach.
We all gathered in the wide hallway outside the locker room. The large digital screen on the wall was blank, displaying only a simple countdown timer.
09:59
The ten minutes were agonizing. No one spoke. There was only the sound of nervous breathing, the shuffling of feet, the quiet tapping of a dozen players anxiously checking their datapads. It was a unique form of torture, designed by the coach to be one last mental test.
The timer ticked down. Five minutes. One minute. Ten seconds.
The entire hallway held its breath.
00:01 00:00
The screen flickered, and a title appeared in bold, white letters.
WESTWOOD HIGH SENTINELS - 2025 OFFICIAL ROSTER
The names began to appear below it, one by one, populated from the top down.
CAPTAIN: RENVICE-CAPTAIN: LIAM
A few other senior players. Then, the name everyone expected. STRIKER: JAX
His spot was never in doubt. The list kept growing, filling the fifteen primary roster spots. My eyes scanned for my name, my heart pounding with every new entry. It got to the final few. The reserve players. The benchwarmers.
The second-to-last name appeared. Marcus.
There was only one spot left. The last roster spot. The one the coach had called a calculated risk.
The screen flickered one last time. The final name appeared.
SUPPORT/STRATEGIST: KAI
A huge, shuddering breath I didn't even know I was holding escaped my lungs. I read my name again. And again. It was real. Undeniable. I wasn't just a project. I wasn't a temporary tryout. I was on the team.
The players who had made it let out cheers and whoops of relief, congratulating each other. The few whose names hadn't appeared quietly turned and walked away, their dreams dashed.
Coach Valerius stepped out of his office. "That's your team," he said, his voice leaving no room for argument. "Don't get comfortable. This is where the real work begins. I'll see you all tomorrow for film review. 8 AM."
As the team began to file into the locker room, the coach stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. He handed my datapad back to me.
"Your report on Momentum was… adequate," he grunted. From him, it was the highest form of praise. "Your performance today was better. You used your head. You made your team better. You stopped playing like a scared kid and started playing like a strategist."
He gave me a hard, final look. "You earned that spot today. Don't make me regret it."
He walked away, leaving me standing in the empty hall.
I looked back at the screen, at my name lit up in white and blue. KAI. It wasn't followed by a rank. It wasn't followed by a zero. It was just my name, part of a whole.
I was no longer the Unranked ghost. I was a Sentinel.
And this was just the beginning.