I opened my locker, grabbed my basket ball uniform, my shoes and my bag and locked it up again. Tonight would be the most important game of the season; we were to play against our lovely neighbors, Ashbury High School. We had both pretty good teams and it sure promised to be a really good game. Everybody would be present, obviously. Not to mention that with all the competition, we would most likely have a fight.
I made my way in the girls’ locker room slowly, taking my time to review all of the other team’s players in my head. There were a of couple girls from the team already there, getting ready for the big game. One of them, Jenna I think, looked up when I came in and smiled. I nodded politely and dropped my stuff on the bench, in the corner and started to change. The other girls came in little groups of two or three, and soon the whole team was present in the locker room. It was very noisy, the girls all chattering, their laughs echoing on the concrete walls and making my ears ring.
Once everyone was ready, I led them out in the hallway, where our coach was waiting. Now everyone was quiet. I could see that some of the girls were nervous, biting down their lip and constantly fidgeting. We all turned to the coach, who then turned to me. I choked a bit, knowing it would be my job to do the speech.
“All right girls, this is it. This is no different from playing against our friends or brothers in the driveway. No different from shooting some hoops in the court behind school, even. I’m not going to lie, they are good”, I said, looking at each girl in turn. “Better than us? Maybe. Are they shaking in there, knowing we are going to beat the crap out of them? Damn right, they are! I know we can win this. We’ve trained for it and I’ve seen you guys work miracles on that court. We can do this. Now make me proud, girls!” I finished, putting my hand in front of me, in the middle of the circle. They all put theirs on top of mine and cheered.
“Okay guys, time to get in!” Our coach said, opening the gym door.
We walked in, all pumped up, and practically bouncing. I scanned the bleachers, where half our school was cheering for us. Everyone was wearing the school colors and a bunch of guys had even dressed up as cheerleaders, waving their pompoms over their heads and dancing in their little skirt. It was ridiculously funny.
On the other side of the court stood the Ashbury bleachers; all their occupants currently sneering at us. They too wore their school colors, burgundy and silver, and had big signs with all the players’ names and numbers written on them. It was cool, but I had to admit, it was nothing compared to our cheerleaders.
I walked to our bench with the girls right behind me, my eyes stopping on the face of someone familiar standing in our enemies’ stands. I sat down, watching intensely as Tara made her way down the stand, leaving the New Boy behind her. She had been talking to him. What did she think she was doing? She waved at me as she crossed the court to our own stands and took a place in the second row, between Ian and some other guy, and I looked back at the boy, who was looking right at me. He smiled and I looked away, feigning not noticing.
The coach gave us some basketballs and we went on the court to start to practice our shots, followed not to long after by the other team.
With the first step onto the court, something rose up in me. Like shedding skin, everything seemed to fall away to leave only the amazing feeling of the ball in my hands and the floor, squeaking under my shoes.
I got every shot in; this was a good sign. Some days, when I was feeling off, or when it was especially hard to escape the memories, I didn’t do that good. I didn’t even used to play at all when I was with Jake. I don’t even really know why I stopped; I guess my life just got so much busy when he got in the picture.
