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Layne: I’m so sorry, Shay.
Shay: I’m sorry for you, too. We’re both seniors. I’m sorry for all of us.
Layne nodded at the computer screen while Coach continued her speech. Shay gave her a straight-lined smile in response.
“Let’s remember the good news as much as we can. Jessop is at home with her family, and we think, on the mend. You’re all safe and healthy and taking precautions so you can stay that way. The coaches are doing the same thing on our end. We’re going to keep an eye on each other. That’s what matters. We’ll find a way to stick this out together, okay?”
They all nodded, though none of them probably felt like hearing any kind of good news right now. Then, Coach said a few more things, answered a couple of questions, and they all logged off.
Layne leaned back in her chair and tried to process. She’d never play basketball again. She knew that would always be the case: one day, she’d no longer play competitive basketball. But she’d only just started really playing and was looking forward to being part of the first team in Dunbar history to make the tournament. Now, this would be the tournament that never was, and Dunbar would be wiped from the basketball history books. She was still trying to process that when her phone dinged.
Shay: Did I play my last game of basketball already and not know it?
Layne wasn’t a big hugger, but she wished she could go into Shay’s room and give her one because this was probably hitting her the worst. As the best player on the team, Shay was the only one who ever had the remote possibility of being able to play pro, either in the WNBA or in an international league. Now, she might not even get the chance to play competitive basketball again.
CHAPTER 13
Shay was tired of being in her tiny dorm room. She almost regretted moving into a single and not having a roommate because at least she would’ve had someone there to talk to or watch a movie on her laptop with or something. Of course, that would’ve also sucked because that person would’ve basically been around twenty-four-seven and would undoubtedly have annoyed her by now.
She’d installed a Nerf basketball goal over her closet door months ago, buying it for five dollars at the grocery store, and it had provided her the only real opportunity to play some kind of basketball and get her heart rate up a little, too. She had to find a way to get any kind of workout she could in her room, and she hated running in place. She could only do so many push-ups and sit-ups, and she’d done a lot of stretches and standing exercises to try to keep herself in shape.
No one had talked to them yet about their options, but Shay hadn’t planned on sticking around for a fifth year. She was only two months away from graduation and had expected to either be drafted or to have to find a job doing something. In her time trapped in the room, she’d been doing some research on that whenever she had the motivation, and she had a few options; not many, but a few. She could probably coach somewhere and get that part of a career started. She’d make next to nothing being some position coach or assistant, but she’d pay her dues and move her way up. She could go to graduate school, and if she didn’t get another year of eligibility, she could be a graduate assistant here or at some other school. It would mean she’d be in graduate school, which wasn’t something she wanted. She could also petition the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility, if they decided against doing something on a mass scale, and postpone her graduation, taking more classes as a fifth-year senior, but since she already had enough credits to graduate, she could take a few easy classes if they let her.
All of that had been on Shay’s mind, but she’d been more focused on the fact that she might be done playing competitive basketball forever. She’d tried to think about it in a good way. They’d gone out on a win. They’d won the conference championship for the first time in Dunbar’s history, and she’d been the one to make the game-winning shot. That meant something, and Shay tried to hold on to that every time the thought hit her mind, but then, the next thought would hit her. That might be the last shot she ever took in a game, and something about that felt very wrong to Shay. They were supposed to have one more game. At least one more game. She was supposed to get her chance to show off her abilities on a national level and maybe get some interest. She knew now it wasn’t likely that her whole strategy of going to a lesser-known school but playing all four years would work, but she hadn’t thought it would all end this way.
“Hey, Mom,” Shay said into her phone.
“Honey, are you okay?”
“Yes, Mom.” She rolled her eyes. “I still haven’t left my room except to go to the bathroom. I’m fine. Are you and Dad okay?”
“We’re fine. We’re home, actually. Your dad’s company was able to get us on a flight home, even though things are shutting down everywhere. We flew first-class for the first time, which should’ve been more exciting, but we mostly just slept. We’ve been exhausted. We had to pack up the apartment there and get on pretty much the last flight out that we could. I’m sure that’s not exactly true, but that’s how it felt. The airport was packed, and it felt like we barely made it out, but we didn’t want to be stuck over there for however long. Your dad’s company is letting him work remotely. You and your sisters are here. We didn’t want to be over there if something happened to any of you here. If you get sick, I mean, and we couldn’t get back because of the travel stoppage or something. We didn’t want that, so we just got home a few hours ago. Your dad fell right to sleep because I always sleep better on planes than he does, but I wanted to call you and your sisters to let you know.”
“Well, I’m really glad you’re home. I didn’t think you’d be able to make it back.”
“We are, too. And we want you home, honey.”
“Home? Mom, I have, like, six weeks of school left.”
“You’re doing classes from your computer. You can do that at home.”
“Mom, I can’t just leave. The university hasn’t told us what’s going on yet. They could go back to in-person classes tomorrow, and I would’ve gone home for nothing.”
“Shay, you could just drive back, but you’re not going back to the classroom anytime soon. Things are getting worse out there, not better.”
“I know. But I can’t just leave. I need to wait to find out what the school tells us to do. I’m supposed to graduate, Mom. If they tell us that we need to be here, I need to be here.”
“Your sisters aren’t coming home, either, but they’re all in their own places or with their own families now. You’re by yourself, but in a dorm, where any number of them could be sick or could get sick. I’m sure not everyone is following the rules there.”
“I’m in the athletic dorm, Mom. Pretty much everyone here is following the rules because they have to, or they risk losing their spots on their teams or getting sick and not being able to play.”
“Everything is canceled right now.”
“Maybe now, but if they break the rules the athletic director has issued, they might lose their scholarships or spots on the team. It’s a big deal, Mom. People are taking things seriously around here.”
“Fine. I’ll drop it for now. But if they tell you that it’s okay to come home, I want you here, Shay. You can have the basement apartment. It’s yours. We’ll leave you alone, and you’ll be down there by yourself. There’s the kitchen and bathroom and everything now.”
“I know, Mom. I was just home at Christmas, so I remember what the house looks like.”
