📖 The Story Continues
The story doesn't end here.Continue reading the full story adaptation below and discover what happens next.
Reborn to Love Mr. Right – Episode 06
“Failed serve. Ball goes to the red team.” The coach’s announcement drew a burst of laughter from the bleachers. Ivy clapped with exaggerated delight, and Derek settled back as if Arianna’s obedience had been confirmed. To him, the mistake meant she had followed orders. To Arianna, it exposed a weakness she could correct without sacrificing the match.
Her teammate stormed toward her, face tight with panic. “Arianna, I swear to God—” she began. The college scholarship she needed was already slipping away in her imagination. Arianna caught her arm before frustration could turn into an argument.
“I’m bad at serving, but I’m good at blocks,” Arianna said. She remembered enough of her younger body to know that forcing the wrong role would help no one. “From now on, you serve and I’ll block. Trust me.” Her teammate looked skeptical, but the steadiness in Arianna’s voice persuaded her to try.
The red team sent the ball over, and Arianna moved toward the net. Her legs responded with speed she had once taken for granted. When an opposing player drove the ball downward, Arianna jumped and met it with both hands, sending it back into an open corner. The clean point silenced the laughter.
Her teammate’s surprise turned into a grin. On the next rotation, she delivered a hard serve that forced Ivy’s side into a weak return. Arianna was already waiting above the net. Another block struck the floor before Ivy could react, and the score began to shift.
The two girls found a rhythm almost immediately. One served with precision while the other controlled the net, each playing to her real strength rather than protecting Derek’s favorite. Their teammates responded to the change, covering gaps and calling plays with new energy. A game expected to showcase Ivy became a relentless display of everything she lacked.
Ivy’s smile disappeared. She missed an easy receive, blamed the player beside her, and glanced repeatedly toward Derek for rescue. He could offer nothing beyond an increasingly furious stare at Arianna. The more he demanded with his eyes, the harder she played.
Each point felt like the reversal of an old humiliation. Arianna remembered carrying Ivy’s books, completing assignments for Derek, and apologizing whenever their secret meetings upset her. On the court, she no longer had to explain or expose them. The scoreboard recorded the truth without caring whose pride it wounded.
Her teammate slapped her hand after another successful block. “You know, you’re actually pretty good when you aren’t throwing the game,” she said. Arianna accepted the rebuke because it was deserved. The respect forming between them was worth more than the approval Derek had rationed to control her.
The final rally began with Ivy’s team scrambling to stay alive. The ball crossed the net too high, offering Arianna an easy opening. She jumped, directed it sharply downward, and watched Ivy freeze instead of digging. The ball struck Ivy squarely in the face.
Ivy cried out and dropped to the floor with both hands over her nose. The whistle ended the game amid shocked gasps. Arianna landed and looked across the net, startled by the direct hit but not ashamed of playing the point. She had attacked an open space in a legitimate game; Ivy’s failure to react had done the rest.
“My nose!” Ivy wailed. Blood appeared between her fingers as Derek rushed onto the court. He crouched beside her with an urgency he had never shown Arianna, even when she later begged for life-saving surgery. Watching the contrast no longer broke Arianna’s heart. It confirmed that the love she mourned had never belonged to her.
Derek turned on Arianna. “Look what you did!” he shouted. “She deserves detention.” His accusation ignored the net, the rules, and the fact that athletes were sometimes hit by the ball. As always, he believed Ivy’s discomfort mattered more than Arianna’s intentions.
“Sorry,” Arianna said, keeping her expression composed. “I didn’t know she couldn’t dig.” A few players covered their smiles. The apology cut precisely because it sounded reasonable while exposing Ivy’s lack of skill.
Ivy declared that she would never speak to Arianna again, as if silence from her were a punishment. Arianna almost thanked her. In the previous life, she would have rushed forward with tissues and promises, terrified of losing Derek over an accident. This time she stayed where she was.
The coach examined Ivy from a distance and waved off the drama. “Her nose is fine. Take her to the nurse’s office.” When Derek continued demanding consequences, the coach’s patience vanished. “A game is a game. Athletes get hurt, but we don’t cry about it.”
Then the coach addressed Ivy directly. “You need practice. Stay after school tomorrow, and I’ll train you.” Ivy stared in disbelief, having expected Arianna to be punished and herself to be comforted. Instead, the authority figure she hoped to manipulate had identified her as the weakest athlete on the court.
Derek helped Ivy to her feet while glaring over his shoulder. His expression promised that Arianna would answer for embarrassing them. She met the threat without flinching. After surviving death once, the anger of a high school boy held very little power.
Her teammate approached, still flushed from the win. “I was wrong about you,” she admitted. “You’re actually pretty dope.” The compliment was casual, but it marked the first relationship Arianna had reclaimed by refusing Derek’s command.
As Derek escorted a groaning Ivy toward the nurse, Arianna watched them go with quiet satisfaction. She had won the match, protected her teammate’s chance at a scholarship, and shown Derek that his orders were no longer absolute. But when the final bell rang, she discovered the next lie waiting outside the gym: students were calling her a chauffeur’s daughter while Derek’s father stood beside the Taylor family’s Rolls-Royce.
