Rachel yanks the jacket away from the closet, walks to the front yard and dumps it into the trashcan. The garbage truck arrives right at that moment and Rachel watches it empty the trashcan with a satisfied smile on her face.

The next day morning when she opens her closet doors the jacket is hanging in there.

Shocked and angry Rachel once again grabs it and walks to the front of the house and throws it into trashcan. And just like before she watches it getting picked up by the garbage truck.

But it comes back the following day. Dangling down from the rod, in the middle of her closet, mocking at her.

Rachel terrifying realizes it's cursed and wants to kill her. At night, the jacket hovers above her while she's asleep. Its arms reach out for her neck.

RACHEL WAKES UP from the nightmare, startled. When she becomes aware it was only a dream she feels relieved. But soon realizes the real nightmare has just begun as it feels like tens of thousands of needles have been stabbed into her legs.

She took all the precautions last night. Like soaking in her bathtub filled with warm water and salt. She rubbed muscle relaxant all over her legs. The tube is nearly empty, and she and her room smell like eucalyptus.

Rachel was hoping her effort would pay off and she won't feel anything today. That didn't happen.

Nevertheless, she gets ready and leaves for school. As the day goes on, Rachel feels the pain come and go. Every time she sits down and stands up pain grabs onto her legs like a frightened octopus.

"YOU HAVE A partner for the Rattler Competition?" Ricky Marvin asks Rachel as she's disturbing the bottom of her locker in the hope of finding a heat patch.

Rachel looks up at Ricky cautiously. She doesn't have a partner. But if he's asking because he wants to be her partner, she's not sure how to answer.

It's not that Rachel dislikes Ricky. Ricky is a fellow A grade nerd like her. But they couldn't be more different.

Ricky is tall. Wears sharp glasses. Handsome. Uptight. Snob. Likes to correct people all the time. Is immune to being bullied since his grandfather is one of the school's board of directors. Plus, he's also a Judo champion. He's one of those rare nerds who's up in the social hierarchy.

If Rachel partners with him, she'll have to deal with his arrogant attitude, like many of his past team members have had. He'll surely want things done his way.

"Why are you asking?" Rachel says while resuming her rummaging into her locker.

"Would you like to be my partner?" He says.

See? Rachel thinks. Instead of asking if she would like to have him as her partner, he asks if she would like to be his.

"If you're competing, too, we should be in separate teams. More chance for our school to win," Rachel says, finally finding the bundle of heat patches she was looking for. She keeps them for the painful cramps.

"If we do it together then the probability of us winning is even higher," Ricky says.

"I think I'm partnering with Jessie," Rachel says. Which is not entirely a lie.

"Why?" Ricky says, "She didn't even pass the first round at the Math event."

"So? She's good at Chemistry," Rachel says and starts to leave.

Ricky blocks her way. "Just do yourself a favor and partner with me. Or are you worried I'll outperform you if we're together?" He says.

"The only thing she's worried about is if she'll end up strangling you while working together," Annie says from behind them.

Ricky looks displeased as if he was disturbed while doing an important work. He leaves.

"Outperform me?" Rachel says pointing her hand at the direction Ricky left, "How dare he?"

Annie places her hand over Rachel's shoulder. "Please stop getting angry after the matter of fact. You should've said that while he was still standing in front of you," Annie says.

"But he's scary," Rachel admits. She could never tell him off, or anyone else for that matter, like Annie did. Rachel is perpetually scared of the consequences of her actions. So she likes to act less and less on her emotions.

Rachel goes to the restroom, gets into a stall, and starts sticking the patches over her calves and thighs. She begins to feel better from the appeasing heat, when she gets a message from the coach.

IN THE AFTERNOON, Rachel heads to the pitch where she has been summoned to by Mr. Jaffer. She's walking while thinking about the competition and looking at the floor.

She's sure she doesn't want to partner with Ricky. But she's not sure about working with Jessie. On top of that, since this is a group competition, she has no choice but to team up with at least one student.

Rachel is distracted with going through the list of potential partners and doesn't notice Hector walking across her, who is heading to the pitch as well while talking on his phone.

They bump into each other at the corner near the entrance. Rachel winces from the impact on her shoulder. Hector's phone falls down.

"Watch where you're going?" Hector angrily says as he picks up his phone.

"Sorry," Rachel quickly says, flustered from being spoken loudly to.

Hector heads in first. Rachel follows him, massaging her shoulder, with some distant between them.

Once inside, Rachel sees that the entire team is here and none of them have changed into their uniforms. Usually they would be practicing if they are at the pitch. Today they are by the benches, talking to each other, and probably waiting for the coach since Mr. Jaffer is not here yet.

Rachel sits a little far from them and waits for Mr. Jaffer, too. She glimpses at Hector. He's wearing the brown jacket from yesterday.

Rachel still can't believe it was him that day with three kittens nestled in his arm. How can someone who gets mad so quick could've had the patience to pick up and carry three frightened kittens in one arm under a torrent?

And that smile he had at that moment, Rachel thinks.

Hector is smiling, now, too, at his friends Tate Rebak and Vince Senroi. But they are not the same smiles, Rachel concludes. The one he had that night, it was... warm and kind.

The jacket, Rachel thinks, feeling her stomach grow heavy. She should have left it alone. What possessed her to even pick it up? She wonders.

"Is everyone here?" Jaffer says while coming in. He looks at Rachel on his way. "Come to the front," he tells her.

Rachel gets up and follows him to the front wondering if he's going to showcase her to his team, like a specimen, as the most athletically challenged student he has ever come across in his life.

At the front, Jaffer faces the seats and addresses his players. "As you all know we have grade cut offs for your classes if you want to continue to play football."

There's a murmur among the boys.

Jaffer continues, "I had a meeting with your homeroom teachers. I'm afraid many of you are either failing in one or more classes or are close to fail anytime soon. So I've talked to your teachers and come to an agreement. I've arranged for a classmate of yours to tutor you for the next couple of weeks. If you don't learn from them and get your grades up you'll be off the team."

Among the chatters of discontent Mr. Jaffer turns to Rachel. "Your homeroom teacher recommended you for the sophomores. You'll tutor Hector, Tate and Vince."

Hector immediately speaks up. "Coach, come on. We're not even failing."

"I know," Mr. Jaffer says, "Your grades can be better though. Your teachers agree on that."

"Even so," Hector says, "If we need tutoring, we can just hire us private tutors."

"Private tutors can't teach you in school premises," Mr. Jaffer says, "For the next couple of weeks there won't be any training in the evening. Instead all of you will attend sessions with your assigned tutors. And the tutors will get academic credits in return."

The murmurs of discontent turn into voices of resistance, but Mr. Jaffer stands unperturbed.

Rachel slowly takes a few steps to her side, to reduce the gap between her and Jaffer, so she could whisper, "Mr. Jaffer, I can't poss-"

Jaffer turns to her. "If you do this, you won't have to do your training anymore," he says.

And that was enough for Rachel to nod her head like a bobble-head doll. She'll tutor even the devil himself if she doesn't have to run anymore.

Smiling, Rachel turns to her new students. Then quickly turns away as she was met with Hector's glare. Could he be worse than the devil? But then... those kittens... Maybe he'll be nice to her if she lies she has a cat in her house, Rachel thinks. Or maybe not.

End of chapter