Good-bye Chapter 3

I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get this up! My fambam and I are moving and it's insane around here. But yeah. I hope you guys enjoy it ^__^

Good-bye Chapter 3

Tony glared at me every chance he got to let me know he was still pissed off. Honestly though, I didn’t care. I got over what other people thought of me a long time ago.
But all the drama that didn’t happen on Sunday happened on Monday.
I woke up from my not so peaceful dreams at nine, got off my trundle bed, and walked out from my carpeted room to the cold wood hallway floor. I walked down the hall, took a right turn, got my daily glare from Tony at the end of the hall in the living room, and as I walked into the kitchen, a bright and cheery smile from Samuel.
Samuel was something like my best friend. I had best friends, but honestly Samuel beat them all. He not only knew everything about me, but he also lived with me and put up with everything I did. He accepted me even when I had my bad days and told me when I was acting like a jerk. He knew when to keep things to himself, but also knew when to tell me things. The phrase, ‘Two can keep a secret, if one is dead’ was proved wrong by him. Samuel, in my opinion, is probably the most amazing person alive.
“You gonna be ok? You have basketball practice, and Alyssa’s gonna be there”, Samuel asked as I sat down to eat.
I looked at him, completely shocked. I didn’t forget about practice, or about Alyssa. No, I forgot about Alyssa being at practice.
I shrugged, “I’ll just do the best I can and be nice to her, it’s not like I don’t want her as a friend”.
Samuel nodded and continued to eat his cereal. I looked at my Mini-Wheat’s and poked one of them several times before shoving it in my mouth. I finished half of my cereal and went to get ready, suddenly not looking forward to basketball practice.
Seven and a half hours later, I was at the church we practiced at. Our school didn’t have a gym, so we borrowed one.
“Hey” Nicky said, with a grin as she walked over to hug me.
I grinned and hugged her, “Hey!”
“I don’t wanna be here right now. I have cramps!” Nicky complained.
“Lemme guess, it’s that time?” I asked.
She nodded and was about to say something, but Britani, a girl on the team, ran up to hug me. Her hugs were dangerous. She hit me in the throat a few times; a few, as in every time.
I moved to the left a little to dodge her shoulder connecting to my throat; it worked, like it usually did.
“What’s up?” Britani asked.
“Not much, just about to go shoot a lil.” I answered.
“Oh ok! I’ll go with you!” she said.
“Okay,” was all I replied.
“Don’t push yourself.” I said to Nicky, returning back to our original topic about cramps.
Nicky nodded, “Yeah, I’ll probably be ok though, you know how it is.”
I laughed, “Yeah, unfortunately.”
When we had any type of pain, by the time Coach Hannah was done with us, it was the things farthest from our mind.
Nicky gave a look of mock disgust. Coach Hannah was our assistant coach, and she loved making us burn those calories. She would make us jump back and forth across the free throw side lines, and suicides were also something she also loved. She- well, you’ll see.
She started us off running eight laps around the court, sprinting every other one, then running to the middle of the court to stretch. After we stretched, we went to the carpeted area on the left side. As if running eight laps wasn’t enough to warm us up, we did a minute-thirty seconds plank, and ‘Up down in out’s.
Half hour after being with Coach Hannah, we had water break and ran back to Coach Hones for actual basketball practice for an hour and a half.
“Annie!” Coach Hones called ten minutes later.
I jogged over to him, “What’s up?” I asked.
“See what Alyssa and Miranda are doing? Go and guard them from making the layup. Whoever shot the ball, guards the shooter, whoever passed the ball becomes the shooter, and whoever was guarding passes the ball, like a rotation”.
‘Of course it’s Alyssa. This won’t be awkward at all.’ I thought with a sinking heart.
I repeated what he said out loud, imagining it in my head. I smiled, nodded and jogged to where they were.
Alyssa gave me a, ‘I don’t know what to think about you anymore’ look like she usually did, her eyes were full of sadness.
I gave her a sad smile, turned to Miranda, and grinned hugely. She grinned hugely back, but there was a question in her eyes. I told them both what we were supposed to do and, after a little confusion, we started.
Miranda was a 15, blond haired, blue eyed, funny, amazing, crazy, and taller than anyone on the team, girl. Everyone loved her.
“Water break!” Coach called twenty minutes later.
Everyone jogged for their water bottles, drinking thirstily. Miranda was the first to be back on the court for our next drill, which was practicing our offense. For any type of play, he called in Rydal and Daniel.
We scrimmaged with our six High School girls, two Jr. High girls, and two Jr. High boys. It was the starting five, Nicky, Alyssa, Miranda, Hannah, and Victoria VS. me, Katelyn, Rydal, Daniel, and Britani. We never kept the score, we just know whichever team Rydal and Daniel were on creamed the other team.
At the end of practice, few people shot around, but most of them talked. I liked shooting around by myself, and for some reason I was more comfortable by myself. It should have been the opposite since pretty much everyone was watching me and I could barely make a lay-up. I’m a terrible shooter.
It was ironic, since my two older brothers were the best on their basketball teams when they were in High School, and I was on the second worst in mine. I hate it. I have absolutely no skill in the whole sports department.
Nicky came out to shot around with me and we ended up playing one-on-one. In the end, of course, she won. The score was 5-0. We went by ones instead of twos like people usually do. Then my mom came. I grabbed my empty water bottle, hugged everyone, Alyssa not included since she no longer liked my hugs, and jogged over to the door where my mom was waiting. I greeted her with a smile and a kiss and we walked out the door.
After I took my shower, I went to find something to eat. My mom was making dinner, and I was super hungry.
A little something about my mom: she’s the best mom in the world. There was so much I could tell her without her flipping out. Except the whole dating thing. She'd probably kill everyone involved. She’s also the best cook in the world. She’s from India but came to America when she was 15. She met my dad helping set up for a concert at the church they attended when she was 18. My dad said he knew from the moment he saw her that she was ‘the one’, and she was. I’d say he scored. Two years later, they got married.
“Is there anything to snack on?” I asked my mom, who was chopping veggies.
“There’s some fruit, and I think we still have yogurt. If we do have yogurt, can you finish it?” she replied.
I nodded, “For sure!”
I love yogurt. Strawberry is the best fruit flavored one, without a doubt. Just as I was about to go out to the garage, Tony walked in the kitchen.
“How was practice?” he asked absentmindedly while rummaging through the fridge for something to eat.
“I-i-it was good” I stammered, “H- How was school?”
'Tony? Ralking to me without glaring, or snapping? Sweet!'
“It was alright” he answered, “Do we have anything to eat?”
“I’m getting some yogurt from the fridge, if we have any. Want me to get you one?” I asked; still shocked he was talking to me.
He nodded, “That’d be great”
I turned and walked out to the garage. Then I realized my eyes were wide and my eyebrows as high as they could go.
‘Relax! It’s ok! He was bound to talk to you eventually anyway. I just didn’t think it’d be this soon’ I thought.
I grabbed two strawberry yogurts, since I already knew strawberry was the only one he’d eat out of peach, blueberry and strawberry, and practically ran to the door. I stopped for a minute, took a deep breath, made sure my face was normal, and walked in. I handed Tony the yogurt, and he handed me a spoon.
“Thanks.” I said.
He just shrugged and motioned for me to follow him.
When we got to the back room, he sat down at his computer, “I still don’t agree and I want nothing to do with it, but because you live with me I can’t ignore you forever. And you should really apologize to Alyssa, she’s really hurting right now".
“As long as you don’t tell mom or dad about us, I don’t care if you agree or not. And I apologized, she didn’t really take it” I replied, looking at the floor.
Tony looked at me with a weird look in his eye, “She said you didn't seem like you really meant it”.
“I screwed my best friend over, believe me, I meant it.” I replied. "Although I did have my reasons for hiding, it still wasn’t right."
“Dinner’s ready” my mom called from the kitchen before Tony could say anything.
Dinner was chicken parmesan, and, as usual, was amazing. It had its own spicy kick. Mom was always experimenting with food, but she knew her spices so the food always came out great. After dinner I called my 13 year long friend, Joy, and we talked for almost 30 minutes about everything and anything. Joy didn’t completely agree with me and Hayden because of his age, but she didn’t ignore me either.
Joy had just graduated and was going to the same two year college as Tony. It was actually her older brothers who introduced us to the college. My mom and dad wanted to transfer Tony to another nicer college. They had amazing teachers, but there were more assaults on this college then any other college around us, and the other college's didn’t offer the classes he needed. But as soon as the classes he needed there were done, he was getting out.
“I have theology tomorrow at 6:30” I told my mom before going to bed at 11.
“At the church?” She asked.
I nodded, “Yes ma’am” I answered with a smile.
She nodded, “Sounds good! Do you think you could find a ride home?”
I hesitated, I hated asking for rides without giving something in return.
“Do you think we could carpool with the Carnow’s?” I asked.
The Carnow’s lived five minutes down the street, and they were on the way to the church.
My mom nodded, “If they’d like to, I’d love to”
I grinned, “Ok, I’ll text El tomorrow cause..” I looked at the clock, “It’s a little too late now”
She looked at her laptop clock and laughed, “Yeah, just a little. What are you doing up? Go to bed!” she said angrily in a joking tone.
I laughed and winked, “Yeah, I need my beauty sleep” I said as I walked to my room for another terrible night sleep.

Tony glared at me every chance he got to let me know he was still pissed off. Honestly though, I didn’t care. I got over what other people thought of me a long time ago.
But all the drama that didn’t happen on Sunday happened on Monday.
I woke up from my not so peaceful dreams at nine, got off my trundle bed, and walked out from my carpeted room to the cold wood hallway floor. I walked down the hall, took a right turn, got my daily glare from Tony at the end of the hall in the living room, and as I walked into the kitchen, a bright and cheery smile from Samuel.
Samuel was something like my best friend. I had best friends, but honestly Samuel beat them all. He not only knew everything about me, but he also lived with me and put up with everything I did. He accepted me even when I had my bad days and told me when I was acting like a jerk. He knew when to keep things to himself, but also knew when to tell me things. The phrase, ‘Two can keep a secret, if one is dead’ was proved wrong by him. Samuel, in my opinion, is probably the most amazing person alive.
“You gonna be ok? You have basketball practice, and Alyssa’s gonna be there” Samuel asked as I sat down to eat.
I looked at him, completely shocked. I didn’t forget about practice, or about Alyssa. No, I forgot about Alyssa being at practice.
I shrugged, “I’ll just do the best I can and be nice to her, it’s not like I don’t want her as a friend”.
Samuel nodded and continued to eat his cereal. I looked at my Mini-Wheat’s and poked one of them several times before shoving it in my mouth. I finished half of my cereal and went to get ready, suddenly not looking forward to basketball practice.
Seven and a half hours later, I was at the church we practiced at. Our school didn’t have a gym, so we borrowed one.
“Hey” Nicky said, with a grin as she walked over to hug me.
I grinned and hugged her, “Hey!”
“I don’t wanna be here right now. I have cramps” Nicky complained.
“Lemme guess, it’s that time?” I asked.
She nodded and was about to say something, but Britani, a girl no one on the team liked, ran up to hug me. Her hugs were dangerous. She hit me in the throat a few times; a few, as in every time. She thinks she's the best on the team, thinks she's funny, and I think she thinks she’s the prettiest there. It's totally opposite. She's the worst on the team, has no sense of humor, and she isn't ugly, but she is pretty unattractive.
I moved to the left a little to dodge her shoulder connecting to my throat; it worked, like it usually did.
“What’s up?” Britani asked.
“Not much, just about to go shoot a lil” I answered.
I didn’t try to make it seem like I liked her; that would be a complete lie. But I didn’t ignore her either. I guess she couldn’t take a hint that no one liked her though, because although I didn’t make it completely obvious, it was pretty obvious. This is pretty mean. It seems like Britani is really trying to be nice and friendly to everyone, but you act like there’s something wrong with her.
“Oh ok! I’ll go with you” she said.
“Ok” was all I replied with a roll of eyes to Nicky as Britini turned away.
“Don’t push yourself” I said, returning back to our original topic about cramps.
Nicky nodded, “Yeah, I’ll probably be ok though, you know how it is.”
I laughed, “Yeah, unfortunately.”
When we had any type of pain, by the time Coach Hannah was done with us, it was the things farthest from our mind.
Nicky gave a look of mock disgust. Coach Hannah was our assistant coach, and she loved making us burn those calories. She would make us jump back and forth across the free throw side lines, and suicides were also something she also loved. She- well, you’ll see.
She started us off running eight laps around the court, sprinting every other one, then running to the middle of the court to stretch. After we stretched, we went to the carpeted area on the left side. As if running eight laps wasn’t enough to warm us up, we did a minute-thirty seconds plank, and ‘Up down in out’s.
‘Up down in out’ were what we called them, but they were actually leg lift reverse sit up. Leg lift, but when the legs go back down, instead of going back up like a regular leg left, we tuck them like sitting on a chair and our hips go off the ground.
We worked ourselves up to seventeen of them, rested, did them again seventeen times, rested, and then did it once more. Then she made us run suicides.
Starting at the baseline you run to the closer free throw line, and then back to baseline. Then run to half court, back to baseline, run to the further free throw line, back to baseline, then baseline on the other side, and back to baseline. Those are suicides.
She made us do those twice, the second time running backward. She also made us do lunges all the way to half court, then sprint the rest the way. We only did those once, thankfully. This was really boring. Did we really need a page explanation of the workout? It’s irrelevant to the plot.
Half hour after being with Coach Hannah, we had water break and ran back to Coach Hones for actual basketball practice for an hour and a half.
“Annie” Coach Hones called ten minutes later.
I jogged over to him, “What’s up?” I asked.
“See what Alyssa and Miranda are doing? Go and guard them from making the layup. Whoever shot the ball, guards the shooter, whoever passed the ball becomes the shooter, and whoever was guarding passes the ball, like a rotation”.
‘Great, of course it’s Alyssa. This won’t be awkward at all’ I thought.
I repeated what he said out loud, imagining it in my head. I smiled, nodded and jogged to where they were.
Alyssa gave me a, ‘I don’t know what to think about you anymore’ look like she usually did, but her eyes were full of sadness.
I gave her a sad smile, turned to Miranda, and grinned hugely. She grinned hugely back, but there was a question in her eyes. I told them both what we were supposed to do and, after a little confusion, we started.
Miranda was a 15, blond haired, blue eyed, funny, amazing, crazy, and taller than anyone on the team, girl. Everyone loved her.
“Water break!” Coach called twenty minutes later.
Everyone jogged for their water bottles, drinking thirstily. Miranda was the first to be back on the court for our next drill, which was practicing our offense. For any type of play, he called in Rydal and Daniel.
Rydal is Victoria’s 13 year old brother. He’s been playing basketball for three years like his only sister. He has broad shoulders and, from boxing him out to get the rebound, I could swear he has a pack of some kind. He has dark, naturally brown hair. It’s so dark I thought it was black when I first met him.
Victoria, also called Vii, is one of our captains. She is one of the best on the team, and a senior. Besides being awesome at handling the ball, she’s awesome as a person. Her dyed, dark, red brown hair fits her pretty face perfectly. She’s 5’6 and very in shape, not the round shape either.
Daniel is Hannah’s 13 year old younger brother. He has dark blond, almost brown, short hair like his 17 year old sister. I’ve been told plenty of his sisters friends have asked about him, I guess that’s the affect of looking 15. I didn’t find him all that attractive, but everyone has their preference. He’s been playing basketball for five years and is one of the best on the Jr. High team. He and Rydal rival each other for the best player on the Jr. High team, but so far Daniel is winning. Unless these characters are going to be important later on, it’s useless telling us all of this information.
Against us high school girls, they crush us. What’s worse is when they play with us, they just play around. It’s a little embarrassing, but it’s still fun to play with them.
As we played around with our defense and offense for an hour, the smell of sweat filled the air, almost suffocating me. It made me weak, but I refused to sit down. If I did, it would make me feel like Alyssa had a victory; not sure over what, but I knew I'd feel defeated. I would think that you’d be dizzy from exhaustion, not from the smell of sweat.
We scrimmaged with our six High School girls, two Jr. High girls, and two Jr. High boys. It was the starting five, Nicky, Alyssa, Miranda, Hannah, and Victoria VS. me, Katelyn, Rydal, Daniel, and Britani. We never kept the score, we just know whichever team Rydal and Daniel were on creamed the other team.
At the end of practice, few people shot around, but most of them talked. I liked shooting around by myself, it didn’t smell like sweat, and for some reason I was more comfortable by myself. It should have been the opposite since pretty much everyone was watching me and I could barely make a lay-up. I’m a terrible shooter.
It was ironic, since my two older brothers were the best on their basketball teams when they were in High School, and I was on the second worst in mine. I hate it. I have absolutely no skill in the whole sports department.
Nicky came out to shot around with me and we ended up playing one-on-one. In the end, of course, she won. The score was 5-0. We went by ones instead of twos like people usually do. Then my mom came. I grabbed my empty water bottle, hugged everyone, Alyssa not included since she no longer liked my hugs, and jogged over to the door where my mom was waiting. I greeted her with a smile and a kiss and we walked out the door.
After I took my shower, I went to find something to eat. My mom was making dinner,butand I was super hungry.
A little something about my mom: she’s the best mom in the world. There was so much I could tell her without her flipping out but didn‘t you say in the beginning that her parents were opposed to her dating anyone? . She’s also the best cook in the world. She’s from India but came to America when she was 15. She met my dad helping set up for a concert at the church they attended when she was 18. My dad said he knew from the moment he saw her that she was ‘the one’, and she was. I’d say he scored. Two years later, they got married.
“Is there anything to snack on?” I asked my mom, who was chopping veggies.
“There’s some fruit, and I think we still have yogurt. If we do have yogurt, can you finish it?” she replied.
I nodded, “For sure!”
I love yogurt. Strawberry is the best fruit flavored one, without a doubt. Just as I was about to go out to the garage, Tony walked in the kitchen.
“How was practice?” he asked absentmindedly while rummaging through the fridge for something to eat.
“I-i-it was good” I stammered, “H- How was school?”Why is she stammering?
“It was alright” he answered, “Do we have anything to eat?”
“I’m getting some yogurt from the fridge, if we have any. Want me to get you one?” I asked; still shocked he was talking to me.
He nodded, “That’d be great”
I turned and walked out to the garage. Then I realized my eyes were wide and my eyebrows as high as they could go.
‘Relax! It’s ok! He was bound to talk to you eventually anyway. I just didn’t think it’d be this soon’ I thought.
I grabbed two strawberry yogurts, since I already knew strawberry was the only one he’d eat out of peach, blueberry and strawberry, and practically ran to the door. I stopped for a minute, took a deep breath, made sure my face was normal, and walked in. I handed Tony the yogurt, and he handed me a spoon.
“Thanks” I said.
He just shrugged and motioned for me to follow him.
When we got to the back room, he sat down at his computer, “I still don’t agree and I want nothing to do with it, but because you live with me I can’t ignore you forever. And you should really apologize to Alyssa, she’s really hurting right now” he said.
I shrugged, “As long as you don’t tell mom or dad about us, I don’t care if you agree or not. And I apologized, she didn’t really take it” I replied.
I had experiences with Tony telling my dad about the relationships I got in. It wasn’t cool.
Tony looked at me with a weird look in his eye, “She said you didn’t seem like you really meant it”.
“Pfft. I meant it. Besides, what did I do wrong? I’m going out with the guy I like.”
Tony’s eyes suddenly flamed, “What’d you do wrong?” He asked, his voice lower than usual, “You went out with the guy your best friend likes”.
I glared at him, “I went out with the guy I like”.
“But your best friend liked him first.” he practically growled.
I laughed, “She had two years to go out with him. Besides, she told me she wouldn’t go out with him even if he asked cause she doesn’t want to date. I just took what she didn’t want.”
“See? That’s the difference between us. I have respect, you don’t”
“As if that’s the only difference between us” I smirked, eyeing his heavy weight and walking away. I fought the urge to laugh at his last comment.
Respect, Tony? That's the last thing he has. He has no patience and isn't afraid to yell at mom, much less me and Samuel. He borrows our stuff without asking, and calls his friends plenty of names when he's angry. I get that people say things when they’re angry, but Tony is ridiculous. I fumed in my head. But aside from all that, he does have a point. What I did to Alyssa wasn’t just disrespectful; it wasn’t what a best friend would hide for a month of. I could have at least thought of her when he asked me. Although I did have my reasons for hiding, it still wasn’t right. So what should I have done?’ I thought. ‘Maybe not hide it, but she would have been even more hurt! Or would she have been?’
“Dinner’s ready” my mom called from the kitchen, saving me from drowning myself in tears. drowning in tears? You were just making fun of him. You said you practically laughed in his face.
I couldn’t let them know I was crying this time, they’d ask ‘what’s wrong’, and I’d have to come up with a lie. I hate lying. but you told Tony that you meant your apology when you really didn’t care at all what Alyssa or anyone else felt. Isn’t that lying?
Dinner was chicken parmesan, and, as usual, was amazing. It had its own spicy kick. Mom was always experimenting with food, but she knew her spices so the food always came out great. After dinner I called my 13 year long friend, Joy, and we talked for almost 30 minutes about everything and anything. Joy didn’t completely agree with me and Hayden because of his age, but she didn’t ignore me either.
Joy had just graduated and was going to the same two year college as Tony. It was actually her older brothers who introduced us to the college. They had amazing teachers, but there were more assaults on this particular campus then any other. My mom and dad wanted to transfer Tony to another nicer college, only problem is the only other college around us didn’t offer the classes he needed. But as soon as the classes he needed there were done, he was getting out.
“I have theology tomorrow at 6:30” I told my mom before going to bed at 11.
“At the church?” She asked.
I nodded, “Yes ma’am” I answered with a smile.
She nodded, “Sounds good! Do you think you could find a ride home?”
I hesitated, I hated asking for rides without giving something in return.
“Do you think we could carpool with the Carnow’s?” I asked.
The Carnow’s lived five minutes down the street, and they were on the way to the church.
My mom nodded, “If they’d like to, I’d love to”
I grinned, “Ok, I’ll text El tomorrow cause..” I looked at the clock, “It’s a little too late now”
She looked at her laptop clock and laughed, “Yeah, just a little. What are you doing up? Go to bed!” she said angrily in a joking tone.
I laughed and winked, “Yeah, I need my beauty sleep” I said as I walked to my room for another terrible night sleep.

It didn’t seem like anything was important in this chapter. There was nothing that improved the plot at all. You gave very long descriptions of unimportant characters and of the practice.
So honestly I didn’t really enjoy this chapter, it just felt kind of pointless.
Oh, and some grammatical errors I’ve been noticing.
First, you need to spell out any numbers. As in a person’s age. Instead of saying they are 17, say they are seventeen.
Also, you’re aware that you aren’t punctuating your dialogue, right? You don’t put any commas or periods between the quotes. It can be easy to miss if you’re skimming through, but it’s a bit careless it you’re writing it this way.
Onto the next part!