Chapter 34

On the bus ride home I was finally feeling like myself again. Sara and I sat in the same spot on the back of the bus. We had both changed into sweat Adidas sweat pants with our basketball hoodies that have our name and numbers on the back. Since I was next to the window I was still freezing. I leaned my back against the window and pulled Sara close to me so that she I would warm up. Her head was resting on my chest. I had my arms wrapped around her. I kissed her head and held onto her.

"I love you." I whispered into her hair. She didn't respond, I could tell she was asleep. She had been worrying about me all day. It must have taken a lot out of her. So I let her sleep. I ended up falling asleep too. I only woke up because Braddock hit a speed bump and my head banged against the window. Today was really not my day.

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"Seriously?" I screamed

"Yes babe were playing West Oaks today." Sara didn't even look up from the paper she was working on. I leaned back in my seat and ran my hand through my hair. Kris was a couple desks away. She couldn't hear my ranting because she had her headphones in. Good.

"And how did you not know we were playing them today?" She asked making a face at her paper.

"I never know who were playing. I just show up with the right color jersey." I said rolling my eyes.

"Well if you hadn't lost your temper last time we wouldn't have to reschedule and play them again." She tapped her pencil on the desk.

"I don't want to play them. Braddock probably won't even put me in after what happened last time. And if I'm not in..." I trailed off and ran my hand through my hair.

"Even if he doesn't play you, their team sucks. Mack is the only one who can do anything and if we shut her down were good." She was still looking at the paper but I could tell I was distracting her because she had written and erased the same problem three times. After the fourth time she looked up at me and gave me a tired sigh.

"Look it will be fine babe. And I wont let her near me." At this I relieved the breathe I didn't realize I was holding in. I put my hand on her hand.

"If I don't play then you better be kick their ass."

"We will."

After about 10 minutes of watching Sara do her work the bell finally rang. I had to wait another 5 minutes until Sara finally put all her things away. When she did I picked up her back pack and walked out the door. I loved walking her to class everyday even though it made me late. Because right before I'd leave her at the door I would push her up against the wall and get a goodbye kiss.

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I was so fucking right. Braddock had me sitting the whole first half. Ana was in for me and it was terrible. We were ahead by 8 points but it was torture. I kept my eye on Sara the whole time. Mack already had 15 points by herself. Kris couldn't guard her seriously. Since I wouldn't let Sara anywhere near Mack and Ana sucked too much to guard her that only left Kris. At half time Braddock took us to the side to tell us the facts.

"Alright ladies, we're not doing too bad. But we have to shut down number 5. She has all of their points. Kris I want you to play defense they way you should be. You're standing straight up and she's getting right by you. Ana, play defense and run the right offense when I call it."

Great. He's telling Ana what to do which means I'm not going in. After half time the girls got back on the court and I resumed my place on the bench next to Braddock. Within a minute and a half Mack had already scored twice. One three and one layup. The score was now 47-44. I sat on the bench and tried my hardest not to let my head explode. Kara and Kristina weren't rebounding for shit. Kris wouldn't play defense, Ana just sucks and Sara couldn't get open. A minute later and West oaks was up. The score was now 47-50. Fuck. Braddock was pacing back and forth with his arm crossed. Every once in a while he would rub his beard. That meant he was really pissed.

"Braddock. Please put me in." I was begging at this point. Braddock just gave me a look.

"If I put you in you better play the way you're supposed to. And if anything even starts to look bad I'm pulling you out of there. Hows your ankle?" He asked before I even got up.

"Its fine. I have it wrapped. I'm good to go." He looked down at my ankle so I wiggled it around a bit and gave him a thumbs up.

"Just go get Ana out of there." He rubbed his eyes and waved me off. I ran to the check in and waited. I knelt down and couldn't help but smile. Braddock saw me and eyed me. I just smiled back at him. Mack fouled Kris and that meant she got a free throw. After the first free throw I got Ana's ass out of there and got back on the court. It felt great. As I lined up for the free-throw Mack stood across from me. She eyed me the whole time. I just smiled at her and waited for Kris to shoot. Kris made the shot and the score was now 49-50. I jogged past Kris and said,

"Go guard the other one. Ive got her." Before she could hesitate I was already gone to guard Mack." Mack kept looking at me the entire time she went down the court. When she tried to kick it in she went with the wrong hand. She tried to drive in past me to the right but the ball was still in her left hand. I pushed the ball out of hands, picked it up and ran in for a lay up.

The rest of the game went somewhat smoothly. After the 3rd quarter the score was 62-54. I had shut Mack down almost completely and she was not happy about it. On defense she kept pushing me and trying to start something. But it didn't matter, if she was pushing me around then she wasn't near Sara. Mack went to the top of the key to get the ball. Sara was down low guarding her girl. I could see it in Mack eyeing Sara. She was going to do it again. In one second I let Mack drive by me. I did a sort of spin move and pushed the ball out of Macks hands from behind. Before Mack knew what was going on Sara was already heading down the court with the ball. I kept an eye on Sara for the rest of the game. Every time Mack would even get near her I'd do something to get her away.

There was 30 seconds left in the game. We were ahead by ten points at least. One of the West Oaks posts had just made a basket down low off the back board. Sara went out of bounds to throw the ball in to me. As I got its slowly dribbled down court. Mack was at the half court line waiting for me. The look in her eyes made me laugh. I could tell she was so angry, not only that they were losing but that I was beating her. I had scored at least 20 points on her whereas she had only scored maybe 5 points the whole second half. Sara was running along side me. I wanted to pass her the ball but if I did Mack would be guarding Sara. No way in hell that was happening. 20 seconds. I kicked it in and faked driving in but pulled back. Mack followed me but tripped on her own feet. She fell back onto the court and I heard the whole crowd go "oooooohhh". With her on the floor I held the ball for a little bit, set my feet and shot a 3. The ball swished in the net so nicely that I couldn't help but hold my arm in the air as the buzzard rang. The score was 78-70. I held my hand out to help Mack up but she just swatted my hand way. I gave her a smile and walked away. I felt her coming towards me when she was on her feet. But before she got to me Kris stepped in front of her. What she said or did I don't know. I just walked up to Sara and gave her a kiss.

"That was dirty." Sara said laughing.

"Not my fault she couldn't keep up." I said bumping my shoulder into hers. As we all lined up to give each other high fives I couldn't help but smile. As I passed Mack she didn't give me a high five, she kicked the shit out of my ankle. I almost screamed as I went down. I fell forward on top of Sara who was in front of me. Sara turned around in shock. She didn't know why I was suddenly holding on to her for dear life.

"Just keep walking." I said almost crying. Sara was about to turn around around and tell her off, but I didn't let her.

"Keep walking Sara." I said through gritted teeth. Sara wrapped her arms around my waist to help me back to the locker room. Once there I sat down on the bench and took my shoe off. My ankle was swollen and bruised. Sara went to the trainer to get me some ice. As she was walking out the locker room door Kris walked in.

"Woah Ave what happened to you? You seemed fine on the court?" Kris said kneeling down to look at my ankle.

"Your girlfriend kicked it when we were saying good game." I was trying to stay calm but I was so fucking mad.

"Mack did this?" Kris said in shock.

"Yeah but its fine."

"No its not." Kris said standing up. As she did she started to walk out the gym doors.

"Kris where are you going?" I asked

"I'll be right back." She said

"No wait what're you doing?" I said trying to stand up failing. With that she was gone. What the hell was she going to do?