Narrative writing for Magazine

Alannah always marveled at how ambitious and persistent Aryan had always
been. She never thought that a single moment could’ve made such a big impact on
Aryan’s life. The day Aryan watched the volleyball player, titled “the little giant”
play at the National volleyball tournament on a night out with his family, he came
running to Alannah very next day, speaking the frantic language of sports.
Alannah thought that Aryan’s interest in volleyball would disappear in a few days,
but she was proven wrong when Aryan told her about getting into the volleyball
club, being Aryan’s childhood best friend, Alannah had never seen him so
passionate about something. Aryan was devastated by the news when he came to
know that his middle school didn’t have a volleyball team nor enough members
interested in it and for the first time, he thought of giving upon his new found
dream, but a part of him wasn’t ready on giving up so early, so he decided to give
the idea of having a volleyball team his all.

Aryan gathered all the people he could convince and most of his team consisted of
people from different sports’ teams. Aryan gave his team all the knowledge of
volleyball and assigned the members preferable positions and his team practiced
thrice a week. Finally, a month later, Aryan’s school was invited to play against a
volleyball powerhouse school and Aryan taking on the role of the captain of the
team could feel his anxiety increase as the match approached. On the day of the
match, Alannah accompanied Aryan to support him

As the whistle was blown and the match started, the atmosphere of the court
tensed. They were only halfway into the match when Aryan realized that there
was much more to volleyball than he had learned and he knew that his
teammates lacked the passion towards this particular sport, as they played it for
Aryan’s sake but Aryan still found himself fighting till the last moment. The other
team had already won a set and now they were single point away from their win,
but Aryan wasn’t ready to let his guard down yet. He took position to receive the
ball, but before Aryan could even blink, the opposite team’s ace spiked the ball
and the ball as speeds the wind past him and the moment seemed to seize and he
felt numb as he was unable to move his legs. Cheers roared from other side of the
court as Aryan stood still in his place. He was caught in his faze until Alannah
came running towards him and shook him out of his trance.

Aryan knew that it was his fault that his team lost, only if he was fast enough to
react to the serve and if his feet weren’t glued to the floor, he could’ve saved the
point. Alannah was stunned to see Aryan’s stubbornness even after losing badly all
he was thinking was volleyball. She said to him crossly “Why don’t you leave this
here and focus on your declining grades? I was wrong that you have finally gotten
serious about your studies, You are a failure you can’t do anything whether its
academic or athletic”. Aryan didn’t say a word and stood in the middle of the
court head down dejectedly. Aryan and Alannah had to separate their ways the
same year, as they got into different high schools and that is when their friendship
grew apart.

One day, the cheerleading squad of Alannah’s school was short on a cheerleader,
so the leader of the squad requested Alannah to fill in for her, to which Alannah
reluctantly agreed. Alannah didn’t come to know what kind of sports match they
were cheering for until she reached the designated place and found herself in front
of a volleyball gymnasium. All the memories of two years before came rushing to
her mind as she recalled the day Aryan lost his first match, but this gymnasium
was much larger and she could see a crowd forming, so she assumed that it was
not a practice but an official match.

Alannah was running late, so she wasn’t sure which set would’ve been playing, but
as Alannah got inside the gymnasium, her eyes roamed around the court until
they locked onto a specific someone. There stood, Aryan in the rival team with his
captain’s jersey on, playing like Alannah had never seen him play before. She was
amazed to see that Aryan’s determination and fondness towards volleyball made
him reach this spot. Alannah watched in awe as Aryan received every ball hit in his
direction, flawlessly and at that moment Alannah realized how different Aryan
had become and the only thing she recognized in him same as before was his
passion for volleyball which Aryan didn’t hold back in showing through his way of
playing. At that moment, Alannah felt sorry for what she did and made a mental
note to catch up and apologize with Aryan after the match.

By: Muhammad Ahmed Asif C-3: Blue