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PS - About your game… I’ll be there <3
Chapter 14
Marjorie
I can’t believe it. My first game as a varsity starter is finally here. As I stand out on the court stretching my legs, Jazmin walks up to me and drapes an arm over my shoulder. “We’ve got this.”
“Hell, yeah, we do.” I put my hand up for a high five, which she readily accepts.
We are about to start our warmups, but I need to do something first. “Yo, Samara,” I shout across the court. When she looks (or maybe I should say glares) over at me, I nod my head toward our bench. “Can we talk quick?”
She sighs but walks in that direction. “If we must.”
She sits down, and I take a seat beside her. Her legs are bouncing up and down like mine so I know she’s just as nervous as me.
“We need a truce,” I say after a minute of silence. I’ve been meaning to talk to her about this for weeks, but every time I’m about to, she says something that pisses me off and I change my mind. It needs to be done though. We’re teammates, and we need to work together if we’re going to win this game. “I’m not sure why you hate me so much, but you need to push that aside. This game… this whole season… is really important to both of us, and we’re not going to get anywhere if we can’t work together.”
“I don’t hate you.”
I scoff. Who is she trying to kid? “In what world?” I force a laugh to try to keep things light between us.
“This one, Madden. Sure, you drive me nuts, but it’s not because I dislike you. You’re so good at everything you do. I’m pretty sure you’re perfect. You drive me nuts in a good way. It causes me to push myself. Makes me want to do better. Does that bring out my competitive side? Hell, yeah. But, that’s only because competing with you forces me to be better.” She laughs and shakes her head. “I can’t lie. It does piss me off that no matter how hard I try, you’re still better than me, but that’s just more reason to work even harder. I refuse to let you be our best shooting guard.”
I didn’t expect to hear any of this, so now I feel completely stunned. “So, we’re cool?”
“Of course we are. Listen, everywhere else, you’re the competition and my biggest foe. We play the same position, and I have a need ingrained in me to be the best. But out there—” She points out at the basketball court where the other team has started to warm up. “We have a common enemy. With the two of us and Jaz, there is no way we’re not going to kick their ass. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“So, we’re good?”
“For now.” Samara stands up but turns around and sticks her fist out for me to bump it. “Let’s go make Griffin Hill our bitch.”
“Let’s do it.”
With that taken care of, I’m ready to go. As we do our shooting drills, the stands start to fill up. I tell myself not to focus on that, but I can’t help it. My whole family is here and Jocelyn and Abby are also sitting with them. Lydia sits with a big group of our friends, all of them decked out from head to toe in our school colors. Even Frank, Payton, and Eli are at the game. They are sitting in a neutral zone since Payton goes to Griffin Hill. If someone didn’t know any better, they wouldn’t be able to tell since she isn’t wearing any Griffin Hill clothes anyway. She probably doesn’t want her school friends to think she’s a traitor for sitting with the Capital Creek fans though, hence their spot away from everyone else.
All of the JV players are sitting in the row behind the varsity bench. Genesis smiles and gives me a thumbs up when she sees me looking over at them. I have to admit that I like her a lot more ever since she drove me home from the party that night. I still don’t understand why she refuses to push herself, but to each their own. She hasn’t tried to invite me to church lately, so maybe she’s done trying to convert me now.
Coach calls us over to the bench and my heart rate picks up because I know that means it’s time. He looks around at all of us as we huddle around him. “All right. For most of you, this is your first time starting in a varsity basketball game. After losing so many seniors last year, no one is expecting anything from us. It puts us in the perfect position to shock them. I have no question that this team can do just as well as the team from last year. You all just need to believe it. So, let’s go out there and show them that Capital Creek doesn’t need to rebuild. We’re here. We’re just as strong. We’re not backing down. Let’s do it.” He puts his hand in and we all put ours on top of it. “Creek on three. One… two… three…”
We shout “Creek” all together and I hope it sounds as intimidating as I think it does. I shake out the last of my nerves and head out onto the court. It doesn’t take long to find our rhythm, and by halftime, we are winning twenty-eight to twenty-two, eight of those points coming from me. All we have to do in the second half is keep our lead, which is exactly what we do, winning the game with a score of forty-two to thirty-six. I end the game with thirteen points, which is more than anyone else on my team.
Lydia sprints onto the court as soon as the game ends and wraps me into a tight hug. “I always knew my bestie was amazing, but damn. You killed it, girl.”
“You really did,” my brother says from where he is standing behind Lydia.
Abby has her arm around his waist and is nodding enthusiastically. My sister and Jocelyn make their way up to us next, and Morgan pulls me into a hug that’s somehow even stronger than Lydia’s. “You were amazing. I don’t know if you heard us, but Joc and I were screaming so loud. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard Joc yell before, so you know you were killing it.”
Jocelyn’s face turns red and she stares down at the ground. I don’t know why she always seems to get so nervous around me. She’s known me forever at this point. “You did awesome. It was so cool to watch,” she says as she continues to look everywhere but actually at me.
My parents are close behind and congratulate me next, followed by a bunch of my other friends from school. As I’m finally making my way back to the locker room to change and get my stuff, I hear my name being called.
I look over to see Eli waving his hands at me. Frank is no longer with him, but Payton is. I smile when my eyes meet hers. In the few weeks since I opened up to her about my mystery girl, we’ve been talking more at work. It’s not that we didn’t talk before, but opening up to her brought us closer and it feels like there is a friendship forming there. There’s more to her than I realized.
I stop right in front of the two of them and place my hands on my hips. “Thanks for coming, guys.” I focus my attention back on Payton. “Even if you were rooting for the losing team.”
“You lost?” Payton smiles and there’s a weird flipping feeling in my stomach. What the hell? Maybe I should have eaten more for lunch. I’m starving now.
Speaking of which… “Have you guys eaten yet?” I ask them. “I’m starving.”
