《Become a Star》


 Chapter 1 My Story, My Name

    I was born on 7<sup>th </sup>April 1999 in a small house in the small country of Malaysia. I grew up 2 years with my parents and after that I was sent to my grandparent house, because of financial problem. I love my grandpa and grandma very much. They live in small village in rural area surrounded by deep forest. At the age of 5 until 8 years old, I started to follow my grandpa into the forest and cave to search for Swift¡¯s nests and herbs. Those moments with grandpa were the moments I will never forget. We encountered many wild animals like snake, tiger, fox and wild boar. At first, I was so frightened by them but grandpa taught me martial arts and self defense moves to protect myself. Thus, at the very young age, I learned how to fight and moves swiftly when the time called for it. I also notice that grandpa has weird pupil color. Everyone I met has black pupil color, but grandpa has funny pupil color. He has pale blue color. When I ask grandpa about this, he just smiling and change the topic.


    For three fun years, I spent time with grandpa and grandma until that 9<sup>th</sup> September night, I lost both of them. I don¡¯t know what happened, but when the sun set, the funny and caring grandpa and grandma become so serious and anxious. They asked me to lock myself in the house and gave me a gold pendant with 4 small stones with different colors on it, and command me not to open the door to anyone until the sun rise. I followed their commands and lock all the doors and windows and hide myself under my bed. And things started to change. The calm and peaceful weather suddenly became chaos because of the sudden strong wind and I can hear loud sound like thunder just outside the house. I can hear a faint voice of men and women crying, shouting and screaming at the same time like there was a war outside, but the sound of the wind was too loud for me to hear it clearly.


    I was so scared, so I cried and hugged myself like a baby. I wanted it to stop, and seconds later, I feel so sleepy and vision started to fade slowly until all of the noise became quite and my vision completely dark.


    After hours of sleeping, I woke up on my bed completely fine. I didn¡¯t notice any strange thing at first, and I thought I had a bad dream. So, I called for grandpa and grandma, but I got no reply. From that moment I felt very nervous and anxious. I ran to the door and open it. Its morning already, the beautiful sunshine with cold temperature really refreshing to one mind and body. But, what shocked me the most was the leaves and holes were spotted everywhere. the strong wind may the cause of the falling leaves but what about the holes? At that moment I started to cry and cry calling for grandpa and grandma. I wanted to call for neighbors, but we lived far away from anyone else. Maybe that¡¯s why my parent very rarely visited me.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    I kept searching around for hours, and I can feel my body became weak and sore and I stopped searching and when my stomach started grumbling. I started to head back home with firewood. I went to the kitchen and started making food. I learnt a lot about food from my grandma, so I decided to make their favorite food so they can smell it and come home. At night, I was very lonely. I thought maybe grandpa and grandma had lost in the wood, maybe they were on the hunt for food, so they were not home yet. I love to believe that, but days by days, they didn¡¯t come back.


    And I started to notice things, like I was under my bed during that incident, but why I was on my bed in the morning? Who place me on my bed? Is it grandpa? And I started to feel the changes about my body. The major change was my eyes. My pupil color change from black to pale blue like grandpa. And I don¡¯t know where that pendant anymore. I think I had lost it. my body also became a lot stronger and faster than before.


    Months later, my parents came visit me. I was so happy to meet them again. My mom was so happy, I can see that on her face, but my dad seemed shocked and scared when he saw me, or my eyes? I told them everything about what happened that night to them. Mom wants to call police but dad stop her right away and said that my grandpa and grandma were fine and safe, do not need to call police. I was so ecstatic to hear that, but dad didn¡¯t answer my questions at all when I asked him. Even though mom and dad just came, dad hurried me to pack my belonging and leave with them to the city. After big clashes with dad, I finally agreed to live with them, with my other siblings.


    Grandpa and grandma, I always miss and love you two. I hope you are safe and healthy.


    Your grandchild,


    Abdul Azim.

 Chapter 2 Sepak Takraw

    Azim POV


    Live in the city was awesome. There were many high building and types of transportations too. But, its hard to adapt to new kind of environment, especially tall buildings and bus traffic.


    Dad enrolled me to a place called school. I met many friends and good people there. But I hate study, it sucks. But I love P.E class. There I got to learn to play volleyball, football, and Sepak Takraw. The latter picked my interest.


    Sepak Takraw can be said to be the combination of football, volleyball and gymnastic all blend together to a single sport. It requires three persons in each side and play three touches like volleyball in each team. Leg is the dominant part of the game, which player used to juggle the ball and ¡®kill¡¯ it, while no hand is allowed. Sepak takraw is famous for its aerial battle and outstanding flexibility to backflip or jump longer in the air. The player can shoot the Takraw¡¯s ball like volley shot in football, but more flexible. In simple words, Sepak Takraw is mostly an aerial battle like playing volleyball but using leg to score a point, and no hand allowed to use like football.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    [link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oip5QftZcI</a> ]


    I played with my friends and trained everyday to improve my skill for the district match. An 8 years old Azim was selected to be a striker, one of the three position in Takraw, because of his 135cm or 4¡¯4 height and skill.


    Every day I trained my control and juggled the rattan Takraw ball a lot until I vomit myself and can¡¯t continue anymore. The coach also tested me and my teammates reaction and response because the Takraw ball can move exceed 70km/h and we need to use our body to receive that speeding ball. We trained for months, and a week before the competition started I finally can do the leg split.


    The match went pretty well and we won the competition. But, something unexpected happened to me during the game, and that was the key we won the match. Days after that, my school football coach met me personally and asked me to join football team.

 Chapter 3 The Previous Match

    Flashback no Jutsu


    During our final match with our rival team, we lose the first set and won the second set. So, we need to win the third set in order for us to win the competition. All of us were so tired and run out our stamina after hours of playing to reach where we are now.


    The beginning of the set started with a fast ball serve from the opponent team. Luckily my teammate can handle that shot and successfully redirected the ball to the air. And next was my moment to shine. In volleyball, they have setter and spiker, quite similar to Sepak Takraw. My teammate set the ball to me and I jumped as high as I can and backflipped and hit the ball like a bicycle kick in football. The ball went fast to the opposite court, but unfortunately it was blocked by their player and bounced back to our side. We cannot do anything to save the ball as we see it dropped inside. There went a first point to our opponent, the feeling was too heartbroken to see your shot got blocked and quickly bounce back to your side. I felt like it was all my fault. The game continued and we cannot catch up to opponent¡¯s point at all, there were seven points difference. The atmosphere was not helpful at all when our side started to lose hope.


    At their match point, we still far behind 4 points. They serve the ball and we saved it, the free ball entered their area and ready for finishing move. Their killer (position) jumped and hit the ball hard and it travelled fast to my knee. No, the ball is not even hit yet, but why I see the ball will hit my knee? But at that short span of time, I only need to believe in my instinct over months of intense training. So, I change my posture to receive the ball at my knee and fortunately the ball was kicked directly to my shoe after I change to my receiving posture. The rattan ball flew high to the air. The bystanders and teammates were so shocked over my nice receive because it¡¯s not my specialty.


    My teammate run to the ball and set me a nice toss. I stayed near the net and wanted to jump, but suddenly the image of me kick the ball too hard and it flew outside the court came to my mind. My movement pause for a moment and I decide to do a dummy shot. And the view came again,  it showed the ball went straight to the edge of the court. At that moment, I felt so confuse and tired, but I wanted to win so I chose to follow my ¡®instinct¡¯. I did a dummy shot and the players cant do anything to save the ball and it hit the edge of the opponent¡¯s court. So, its an INSIDE ball! We got a point!If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    My teammates hugged me from behind and hit my head, even the coach looked so joyful. We were so happy over the point we just received. Even it was just a point, but for us, its like compass to still guide us in a game, if we lose it we will be lost. The game continued, but the lucky star was on our side. We catched up to them as our score was 14-14. We needed two points more to be the winner.


    The atmosphere was so intense. Everyone can feel the heat and suspense all over stadium. Other teams and parents came to watch the final match between the two teams.


    Its time for our team to take the serve. My friend set the ball to me and I hit it and make it curve a bit for the opponent to loss control over it. And I also noticed that the ¡®image¡¯ only came to my mind when I was so focus on the ball and during tight time, so I don¡¯t have the full control over it yet. The served ball flew into opponent¡¯s area and it the player received it pretty well. When their killer wanted to hit the ball, I forced myself to focus only the ball, and I can ¡®see¡¯ the ball will hit the net. And the vision comes true. I went to the net to tried to block the ball, but it hit the net instead and fall to their side. So, only one more point.


    I served the ball, but I took a risk. I did a screw serve directly to their body. Screw serve is a best move I learnt during the training. The ball will move really fast and also it has high spin that will injured the other player when received it and it will bounce to the unexpected direction because of its high spin movement. The ball flew to their striker, and he seemed quite shocked but still offer his chest to receive the high-speed spinning ball. Rattan is a solid and hard object, when it hit the striker, surely it will leave a scar to his body for sure. The ball is still connected when his teammates saved it before it fell outside the court and he kicked it into our area. The ball was still high in the air, I saw their formation already collapse with only one player available on the court. So, I decided to directly hit the ball while they still have many uncovered areas and chances. So, I jumped and backflipped and kicked the ball as hard as I can. It went straight to that one player and it hit his hip and bounced outside.


    SCREAM. SHOUT


    That¡¯s what I heard before my friends jump over me and celebrated our victory. We won this competition after all our struggle and hardship. I felt so relieved and proud of myself.