"On number 2, Charlton Daniel!"

Hearing his name, the girls in the crowd went wild again. Unlike with Geoffrey where they called his name with some unity, this time, they were out shouting each other as if competing with one another to garner his attention. 

Serena's heart raced as she watched her Adonis canter forward to do his courtesy circle. 

Charlton entered with his horse galloping up the field. He was athletic and erect in his saddle rider while his mallet was facing up. 

"I LOVE YOU LORD DANIEL!!!!"

"CHARLTON PLEASE LOOK THIS WAY!!!!!"

"OH MY GOD!!! CHARLTON!!!!!!!"

Serena wanted to roll her eyes with the ladies screaming. Whatever made them think that they even had a speck of chance? Then, she heard the lady beside Via scream. 

"PLEASE MARRY ME!!!!!" 

Funnily, the girl beside her elbowed her to say "HAVE YOU CHECKED YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR! MOVE AWAY HE'S MINE!"

When he reached the side of the audience, he made his riding pony move at a slower pace, especially so when he reached Serena's position.

Serena looked at his strikingly handsome face, and when their eyes riveted onto each other, his eyes sent her a very clear message. A message Serena liked. A message Serena more than liked. 

He gave her a dazzling smile, his dimple showing and since his right hand was holding the mallet, he used his left hand to show her his thumb crossed with his index finger, doing the heart sign. 

She held her breath trying to stop herself from screaming his name like mad. Gods, she wanted nothing more than to climb the fence in front of her, pull him off his horse, and continue what they were doing in her room earlier. 

Charlton did not have that much time to look at her expression as he doesn't want to make obvious to everyone that he was directing that to her. So, he continued to smile generally to the audience while putting his left hand back on the reins. 

When he was able to line up in the middle of the field beside Kylo, Diether continued with announcing.

"On number 3, Leonard Maxwell!" 

Just like Kylo's turn, the crowd cheered for Leonard. Serena who was frustrated that she can't shout Charlton's name placed her effort at cheering for Leonard. Well, aside from the fact that he was such a hunk. Really kind of makes one more sympathetic about how tied down Guinevere felt with Arthur when she met Lancelot. 

Anyway, Leonard cantered his horse forward, circling and tipping his mallet to the crowd. When he passed by Serena, he gave her a smile of acknowledgement.

"My gawd Serena, please, I want to be your real sister!" Gizel, who was standing on her other side, said as she shook her arm.

"Hey! No fair! Serena, I want to be your real sister too!" complained Milly who was standing beside Gizel.

"You have Paul what's his name again, right?" Gizel asked.

"I already forgot his name too. OOohhhhh my Leonard…." Milly said exaggeratedly.

Serena laughed as she shook her head. She can totally understand them. Then, they heard Diether continue.

"and last, but not the least, at number 4, we have Joshua Pemberton!"

The crowd cheered as Joshua did his courtesy round. Then he lined up to the side his team was on. 

"Now, let us welcome, our school principal, to preside over the official coin toss!"

The school principal walked in the field, waving his hand to the students as they cheered and applauded. The captain of the teams, Leonard and Geoffrey assembled at the centerfield. Geoffrey chose head and won the coin toss, so he chose the opening direction of play. The two of them then went back to line up with their teammates.

One of the umpires donning a striped black and white shirt was holding a white ball in his hand as the players positioned and repositioned their ponies in teams staying on either side of the midfield line in front of the umpire. 

Serena observed that there was a lot of direction the umpire was giving to the players while none of their horses was standing still. Then, at some moment, only understood by the players and the umpires, the umpire threw the ball onto the field between the mix of horses and riders, and the play began.

"There's the bowl in!" Diether came back on the loud speakers. "Hold on! Here we go!" 

--

Kylo was quick on his horse and lost no time to go on the offensive. Wilfred went to chase him but fell short. However, Geoffrey went zipping past Wilfred quickly grabbing the ball from Kylo. 

Charlton went ahead to chase Geoffrey. They were side to side, and he was trying to push him of the line of the ball shoulder by shoulder.

The ball was hit several times up and down the grass playing field toward each team's goals while Diether blared out the play of the ball in terms Serena and her friends did not understood.

"Offside shot by Blue #1, overtaken now by Red #3 with a beautiful tail shot, as Red # 2 takes over the ball with Blue #3 in a strong ride-off position…" Diether plowed ahead with play-by-play action as if he was speaking to knowledgeable audience, which, to Serena's thinking, he was not. The non-stop play was fast and furious. Unlike the semi-final match Serena watched earlier, there was plenty of fluid action to watch.

The spectators, particularly the ladies who were just there to see the hunks, had actually stopped ogling the men and focused their attention on the fast-paced game playing out in front of them. Polo had just gotten a lot more interesting to everyone.

The umpire blew his whistle, and play stopped.

"Foul! Red player #1!" Artemis announced.

Charlton went to pat Kylo's back, "It's okay, good play."

Kylo shook his head. "Geoffrey's on fire today. He's number 3, but it seems like he wants to play all around. He won't even let me get away with a shot." 

--

TBC

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