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“Work study?”
“In the last year of your program, you’d be a grad assistant for us,” Coach explained.
“Me?”
“Yup. You’d make next to nothing, and it would all go to school, but that’s my offer if we can get you the extra year to play for me next year.”
“Okay. Yeah, deal,” Layne replied, feeling like she had nothing to lose anyway. “I’d shake your hand, but…”
Coach laughed and said, “Shake it when we’re through this, okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Coach.”
“This is still a long shot, Layne. Don’t get your hopes up. If they say no and you still want to stay, though, I could use you as a grad assistant next year. You’d just have two years to pay for instead of one.”
“Right,” Layne said.
“Well, it’s almost time,” Coach told her after checking her watch. “Let’s get back out there. I’ll start on the stuff I need to complete for you tomorrow.”
Tonight, they were about to find out if they’d done enough, despite losing the conference championship, to make the NCAA tournament. They still had a great record against some historically tough opponents, and they hadn’t lost in a blowout all year, so everyone was hopeful, but their fate rested in the hands of some committee that reviewed all the details and selected sixty-eight teams out of the entire country. Eight teams would play in the First Four, which brought those eight teams down to four teams, and those four teams would join the main bracket. They knew there was a chance they’d be in the First Four, and it would mean having to win one more game just to earn their spot, but if that were to happen, they’d just have to win that game and six more after it to win the whole thing.
Layne and the coach went back to the team room, where most of the team members were already present. The conference had set up a camera to capture the team’s reaction to, hopefully, making the tournament, which made Layne feel a little bit better about their odds. She sat in a chair toward the back of the room and saw Shay walk in. Shay looked around, and Layne expected her to sit near the front, as far away from Layne as possible, but surprisingly, she didn’t. Of the three chairs in the back row that were spread out a bit, Shay took the one next to Layne and turned a little toward her.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hi,” Layne replied, probably sounding a little shocked that Shay was talking to her.
“We’re about to find out, huh?”
“Yeah. Crazy.”
“I’m… I’m nervous.”
“I know. Me too,” Layne replied.
“If we don’t get in, I can’t see myself being drafted by anyone in any round, you know?”
“We’ll get selected, Shay. I’m guessing, as a fourteen or maybe a fifteen seed. Our record is good. We played a few ranked teams.”
“Yeah, but is it good enough?” Shay asked.
“We’re about to find out, I guess.”
“I just don’t want to be done yet. I feel like I’ve got more in me. Does it feel the same way to you? Maybe not because you don’t really want to go pro.”
Layne looked around the room and, at the same time, remembered that part of the reason she wasn’t with Shay anymore was that she’d kept things from her. This wasn’t the same as being sick and in the hospital, but if Shay was actually talking to her, maybe that meant something.
“Um… I might come back next year if Coach can get me another year of eligibility. It’s a long shot, so it’s not likely to happen, but if it does, I feel like I’d be better by then. My lungs are stronger now than they were at the beginning of the season. And I’d know I would be coming back this time, so I could work out and–”
“What? What happened to your internship?”
“They’re not doing it anymore. Not for now, at least. I found out yesterday. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do, and I guess I landed on finishing the program here if I could.”
“Finishing grad school?”
Layne nodded.
“Oh, wow! That’s a good thing, right?” Shay asked her.
