Ravnica 1: The Star

Ravnica 1: The Star

It was a simple day at Ravnica High School, the first day of classes for every freshman student, the fourth first day of classes for the seniors. It was already at the end of the day, when all of the sports were practicing for their first games of the year, some with new coaches, some with new players, but every single old coach and old player knew that they only had one star player for any big sport.
Many students walked down the same main hallway at Ravnica High, where students entered, searched for their classrooms, stopped to chat, buy a drink, sit down at the lunch hall not too far away, but anyone who was anyone would recognize the strut of the tall, blonde athlete who wore the symbolic red letterman jacket with his name embroidered in white on the back: Boros.
As he strut down the hallway, he only slapped hands with the select few he considered friends: other athletes, tough guys, he winked at one cheerleader, dismissed the hand of the typical nerd, and pointed a finger at his best friend, Daniel Gruul. Sure, he didn’t have time to talk in that moment, because a member of the journalism class would be waiting for his fourth interview in a row, no doubt. So he simply waved once or twice at anybody who was watching and made his way down the rest of the hallway and out the side door into the quad.
Even the quad was happy to see him, he thought. The sun was high, some students turned to see his blemish-free face and his muscular build, even through the letterman jacket. It left some teenage girls with the sheer need to fantasize about him, while most of the guys around campus wished Johnny would leave the school forever. He walked with high strides towards the media center, where he expected the interview would be waiting for him. As per the usual time of him walking across the quad, freshman girls were swooning and watching, to which he would merely turn and give the slightest stare before continuing to walk on. Anything to keep them baited like fish, while he would give a small intimidating stare to any guys who crossed his path. Presently, one girl stepped into his path; she wasn’t bad looking, maybe a seven-out-of-ten in Johnny’s book. An easy ten-for-ten in any other guy’s book. She seemed compelled to use her looks as a bargaining chip.
“Johnny Boros,” she said his name slowly as she got up closer to him, forward enough to run a finger down the side of his chest, “I’ve been waiting for you to show up.”
At first, Johnny wanted to brush her aside and continue, but it would look bad for publicity if he did. Besides, he had a reputation to uphold. He looked down at her a little, checking out every bit of her body, before he looked up and gave a small scowl and a smirk.
“Well, wait no more, babe. Wait no more.”
Without so much as a second thought, he took a slightly forceful hand to the back of her waist, pulled her in, and placed a firm kiss on her lips. It wasn’t very long at all; he released her very soon and walked past her as she remained stunned and motionless, not sure whether to feel absolutely violated or content as to what she was given.
Meanwhile, Johnny made sure to get that taste out of his mouth. It was perhaps the first of many to come in the day, and that girl was definitely not the cream of the crop. He opened the door into the media center and closed it off as he took a few steps into his least favorite place in the entire school, even above the classroom. He took one or two looks around until he saw his coach, someone he could identify with, and walked over to him. Like brothers, he slapped hands with his coach and gave him a firm, quick hug.
“It’s been a while, coach. Where’s the camera crew set up and everything?”
“Now, hold on there Johnny, it’s just an interview, all right? And you want to tell them how this year will not be the one you burn out on. We clear?” His coach gave him a look of demand, but Johnny knew that it was just the coach trying to maintain authority.
“Don’t worry, Sanchez. You have Johnny Boros. I won’t let this team down. I’ll even win it for this team, if that’s what it takes to keep Ravnica on top of the other schools.”
“All right, that’s what I wanna hear Johnny.” The coach nodded once, proudly, as he smacked Johnny’s shoulder in a playful way. “Good to have our star Rebel back this year.”
“Always good to play on an unbeatable team, coach.” Johnny’s eyebrow rose. “As long as those juniors don’t screw up. I’ll be drilling them by the end of the week.”
Before the coach could give an answer to that demand, a shorter girl with glasses meekly tapped Johnny’s shoulder and he turned around quickly.
“We’re ready for you now, Johnny. Right this way.”
Johnny turned once and shrugged to his coach before he was taken towards the interview room in the back of the media center, where they had one home-video camera, one light, and the one girl giving him the interview. She sat down opposite him with a notepad and pen, adjusted her glasses, probably there to try and find fault with Boros, the star of the school. If she was any good at her job, Johnny thought, it wouldn’t matter. There was nothing wrong with him.
“Glad you could take this time to talk with us, Johnny. I’m Caroline, by the way,” she outstretched her hand and he took it, firmly.
“Nice to meet you, Caroline.” As he let go, he pointed out her blouse and smiled a little. “Liking the style, definitely. You wearing that for a special occasion or what?”
She was flattered, easily. She smiled and shook her head without a word. Nerdy girls were so easy to get.
“So Johnny, tell me a little about your team, going into this year’s baseball season. Looking sharp, or not looking too great with all the new guys going in?”
“Well, Caroline, let me just tell you this.” Boros sat like any other athlete, slouched back and still somehow sitting up high. “The Rebels are the top team in the league, three years running now. We have a great team, not just because of our coach or the equipment we can afford now, but also because of how our team works together. I think the new players will only contribute.”
There was a pause as Caroline worked out the rest of the quote onto the pad.
“You’ve said in the past that ‘Stars only score as big as the team lets them.’ Do you think your team lets you score big, or do you think you let the team score big?”
“Caroline, the school knows I’m a good player.” Boros put a large smile on his face and shrugged, full of confidence. “Frankly, I could see it going both ways. I could hit a home run because three other players got a base hit, but I could also throw that fastball to prevent the enemy from scoring a point. It all depends on the situation, but you can always bet that I’ll be the one to make the big play.”
This was where most journalists would try and pin him, he thought, and this Caroline would be no different.
“Now hold on, Johnny,” she began, as predicted, “isn’t there a saying in team sports? Something like ‘there’s no I in team?’ Does that not hold true for the Rebels?”
“Now, Caroline, I do need the team to win at baseball, football, basketball, and everything, but the team doesn’t win the game on its own. A team without a star is a team that doesn’t get very far, remember? There isn’t an I in team, but there’s an I in win. And that’s what I’m gonna do.”
Caroline worked out the rest of that response on paper before looking back up at Johnny with a serious question, as the last one got nowhere.
“Some other coaches have said that maybe Johnny Boros has run out of steam. So how about it, Johnny? Have you lost the instinct to win games over the summer?”
Johnny could have answered many ways to that question. He could have said yes, he could have said ‘we’ll find out,’ and he could have said no, that he did not run out of steam.
“I’m not sure,” at this, he leaned forward a little ways and smiled deviously, “if you meet me at the back of the gymnasium at three-thirty, after you get out of journalism, you can tell me for sure if I’ve run out of steam or not.”
Just as any girl trying to be professional would do, she leaned back a little, sat up straight, and attempted to put the best serious look on her face.
“I’m sure that’s not what you mean, Johnny. After all, it would be a shame if that response were to go in the paper.”
“I don’t think it would.” Johnny got up from his seat. “I’m sure a lot of the student body would agree that it sounds like me, and could do very little about it. Ciao, Caroline.” He waved and began to walk off.
“Now hold on a second!” Caroline called after him. “We’re not through with the questions, here.”
“I am!” Johnny called back as he walked out of the media center, determined to get something to eat before his final two classes and a short practice before going inside the gymnasium to see if ‘sweet Caroline’ would show up.


It was already two-thirty when Johnny found out that there wouldn’t be baseball practice on the first day of school. The Rebels were holding tryouts instead of practice; a fact that completely skipped his mind. The girls tennis team, on the other hand, was already practicing for their first game that would happen next week. He might as well go over there and watch, he thought, and maybe learn how to play the game in case he would need to take on something else.
He despised tennis, however; it was one of those sports that was nothing like a manly sport. Tennis was a game between two guys who ran to smack a ball back across a net until one of them could not smack the ball back. It had nothing to do with strength, which was what Johnny lived for. Then again, he thought, it wasn’t as bad as ping pong, golf, or badminton, where strength was absolutely nothing.
He walked onto the court and a lot of the girls were practicing already, though a couple of them he already knew were sitting back and relaxing, senior varsity tennis girls with nothing to do, really.
“Hey, Lyn. What’s going on, how are you doing?” He walked over and started up the conversation really easy.
“Oh, hey you!” She got up as soon as she recognized him and hugged him tightly. “Don’t you look good for the first day of school, huh?”
“Yeah, yeah.” She let go and he feigned looking around the courts. “You guys gettin’ ready for your first game already, huh?”
“Oh…yeah, we’re hitting with some of the varsity guys out here.” She looked a little bored of the idea.
“Think I should try and get into tennis?” Johnny baited her. She would say yes, for sure.
She gave him an odd stare. “You…play tennis, Johnny? Come on, you hate the sport.”
He nearly laughed. “I don’t hate it, I just don’t play it. Come on, give me your racket.”
“Oh boy,” she commented as she reached onto the bench she was sitting on and gave him her racket. “Are you on a mission to play varsity for all sports or something, now?”
“Nah.” Johnny took one or two practice swings and chuckled a little. “I feel like a dumbass.”
Lyn laughed out loud before she stood up and tried to take the racket back. “Come on, you know you don’t want to play.”
“No, no, no, hold on.” Johnny pulled his hitting arm up a little so she couldn’t take it. “Just, you need to tell me how to do it.”
“Okay.” Lyn slapped her palms together and smiled. “Pretend the ball’s coming at you. Stand with your hands on the racket, face forward, bend your knees a little.”
“Right, right.” Johnny stood at a ready position.
“When it gets close enough, turn to the side, racket goes back by virtue of your shoulders turning.”
“Okay…”
“Then you swing to contact, arm’s bent a little, hit close to your waist and follow through over your shoulder.”
“Does it matter how I hold the racket?”
“Yeah, put it on the ground and pick it up with one hand. That should work for you.”
Johnny did as he was told, got into the ready stance, and completed a single swing.
“How was that?”
“Dorky for you, but not a bad swing for tennis.” She giggled a little.
“Cool.” Johnny moved onto the court directly next to them, where a girl was hitting against one varsity guy and practically muscled his way onto the court. “Just let me take a few shots at him.”
The varsity guy fed him a ball, which he simply let go and didn’t take a swing at. He didn’t move for it, but he did watch it. The varsity guy fed him another ball, which he swung at, slowly. The ball soared back over the net with minor topspin. The varsity player returned it back with little trouble. Johnny saw the ball coming back to his strike zone and prepared for his next forehand. He got into position, pulled back, and swung through at twice the speed of his last forehand, and it soared back over the net with intense speed and topspin. The varsity player got to it in time, but only managed to tip the ball with his racket, and the ball flew straight up and fell straight down. Pleased with his show of strength, Johnny shrugged, walked back over to Lyn, and handed the racket back.
“Was that good?”
Lyn was in a state of both shock and amusement. “You’ve played tennis before, haven’t you?”
“No, I swear to God!” Johnny raised both of his hands. “That was kinda fun though, hitting the ball like that. Maybe it’s not such a bad sport.”
“If you played for us, you’d make varsity guys, easily. I’ve never seen someone who’s never played come out here and rip a forehand like that.”
“Maybe I can squeeze in a game or two for you guys. I’m sure it’d be no problem.”
The bell rang. Classes were officially out of session. Johnny turned towards the bell and sighed a little.
“I’ve got a little thing to do, Lyn. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Practically on cue, Lyn wrapped herself around Johnny and let him go so he could leave.
“Practice with us one time, Johnny! Promise!”
“Fine, I promise!” he shouted as he began to jog towards the gymnasium.

Johnny walked inside of the gymnasium and took a quick look around for Caroline, the meek journalism girl. In all honesty, he didn’t expect her to be there, but it was worth a look around to see if she would be worth his while.
“Definitely a virgin,” he told himself as he took a quick look at the guys still playing sports P.E. basketball. “No way she’s…” he looked once down the courts towards the other side of the gym to see Caroline waving a shy hand towards him, then beckoning him with one finger to the side of the gym. Without a care as to what the basketball players would or would not do if he walked clean across the court, he jogged across the court towards Caroline and stood opposite her with his hands on his waist.
“Showed up after all. I’m glad that you’re curious.”
“The interview could have gone better,” she admitted, then looked back up at him. “Surprised to see me?”
“Very.”
They were in front of the door next to the back of the gymnasium. The door was slightly open, because it would automatically lock when closed. Nobody knew why; the door simply locked when closed. For a few moments, the two of them stood quietly before Johnny decided to break the ice again.
“So what did you think I was going to do when you got here?” He asked, finally curious about his own demeanor. “It’s not like I can just have my way right here, right now.”
“Well it’s not like I was about to let you, anyway,” she gave him a roll of the eyes. “Even if you could. That’s not how it works, Johnny. It’s called a first date.”
From behind the doorway, a familiar voice taunted him.
“Yes, Johnny. It is called a first date.”
Boros looked up and towards the door, almost in fear of who could have been behind it.
“Say that again.”
“A first date, Johnny.” The voice was so familiar, even though the door muffled half of it. “You know, the thing most normal teenage boys do before they consider the other girl’s pants.”
“All right, that’s it.” He turned a look to Caroline in apology. “Excuse me. I’ve got a bitch to beat up.”
With Caroline hanging on his last word, he turned away and shoved the door open.