Chapter 48

"What am I going to do?" I asked Kris as we sat in class on Monday. I had both hands in my hair because I was stressing so much.

"Stop with the hair." Kris said calmly to me.

"Look it's not that hard. We can figure something out. I'm sure we can find a great way for you to ask Sara to prom." She said as she physically grabbed my wrists and set them on the table.

"Kris you know I suck at this stuff." I said banging my forehead a bit too hard on the desk and ended up leaving a red mark on it.

"Ave chill out. We will figure something out I promise." She said laughing at the red mark on my forehead.

"I just want it to be perfect." I said running my hand through my hair.

"Okay well we could always do the thing guys do and just ask her in the cafeteria with a huge poster and flowers?" Kris sort of asked.

"No I don't want to do something like that. I mean I want everyone to know that I'm going to ask her but the cafeteria sucks. I seriously hate that place." I said looking down at the paper we were supposed to be doing. I wrote my name on it and pushed it to the other side of the desk.

"What if I did it during practice. I'm sure Braddock would let me do something." I said sort of excited.

"You really are a basketball for brains." Kris laughed.

"Shut up." I groaned putting my head back on the desk

"What if you decorated her room? Thats a thing right?" Kris said while twirling her pencil in her fingers.

"Mmm I don't know maybe. But what would I decorate it with?" I asked messing with my eyebrows. Another habit I need to break.

"Good question." Kris asked.

"I mean I could decorate it with Christmas lights and write out 'Prom?' little lights." I said shrugging my shoulders.

"Yeah you could do that." Kris said not seeming all that excited about the idea.

"What am I going to do Kris? Prom is in two weeks, and I don't have a clue what to do. And we have another cross over game this Thursday. I'm running out of time." I said starting to freak out because today was Tuesday and next Friday was Prom, and the championship game was the Friday after prom. Theres too many things coming up.

"Why don't you ask her at half time of the game? Its public and its not the cafeteria. And the rest of the team could definitely help out with the details. And it involved basketball so you can still be a ball for brains." She said this so nonchalantly that it took me a second to register it.

"Oh my god Kris that's perfect. And I still have two days until the game. We can work on the details tonight and I can ask Braddock tomorrow. It's perfect you're a genius." I said happily. I raised my hadn't for a high five and Kris just rolled her eyes and hit my hand with hers.

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Its Thursday night and I am so nervous. I worked out all the details with Kris on Tuesday after practice and then with Braddock on Wednesday. After I got the okay I was so happy but right now I was so freaking nervous. The team were playing is from some town called Fowler that's like 3 hours away. West Oaks had beat them by all least 20 points which means we'd beat them by more because we beat West Oaks, and Mack. Ha.

We have 30 seconds in the second quarter and I can already feel my heart racing, not because of the game but because there's only 30 seconds between me and this stupid promposal. I take the ball down slowly, by the time I cross half court there's 18 seconds. I decide to just hold the ball until the buzzard rings. It wasn't too hard to keep the ball especially because they were in a zone defense and wouldn't come out past the three point line. The score was 54-22 and we were ahead. When the buzzard rang Kris and Kara and Kristina all gave me a thumbs up. Sara was in front of me walking back to the locker room.

"Hey Ave you good?" She asked turning around to look at me.

"Yeah I'm good why do you ask?" I asked trying to run my hand through my hair but then realized it was in a pony tail, so I adjusted my headband.

"Because we're way too far ahead for you to be this jittery." She said picking up a towel that was on the bench and then throwing it at me. I was covered in sweat. I wiped my face and said

"Yeah I'm good. I just really want to do good this game." It was the only thing I could come up with and I know it didn't fool her but she just ignored it and kept walking.

When we got back to the locker room Braddock gave me a little wink as I walked by. I just smiled and walked to the bench and took my spot next to Sara. Kris, Kara and Kristina were sitting across from us on the other benches and the rest were on the floor in between us. Braddock then gave us a really short speech and said that we needed to get out there and have some fun. It was about 3 minute speech which means we still had 4 until half time was over. As we were walking out Braddock said

"Sara can you stay back for a minute?" He said it sort of sternly and Sara gave me a worried look. I just shrugged and walked out. Thank god Braddock was so cool. As soon as I was out the door Kara and Kristina and I ran to the other side of the court where we had hidden the giant poster and the basketball under the bleachers. Ollie was in front of the locker room standing as a look out to tell us when Sara was coming, and Kris had run to the stereo system and set up everything. Everyone in the crowd had a confused look on their face until we rolled out the poster. Kara and Kristina were lined up at the half court holding either end of the poster. I heard the whole crowd go "aawwweeee" as soon as it was opened and they could read it. On the poster we had written "I'm Gonna Shoot My Shot and Ask You To Prom." On the ball I had simply written "Prom?" In a sort of fancy font in silver sharpie outlined in black sharpie. When I gave Kris the thumbs up she spoke into the microphone and said "Would Sara Lots please come to the gym?" A couple seconds later Ollie gave us the thumbs up that she was coming. I signaled Kris and she started playing the chorus of "Over My Head" by the Fray. Specifically the part that says '8 seconds left in over time, she's on your mind'.  I felt like my heart was about to come out of my chest. My hands were shaky as I held the ball. I was standing in the middle of the court with the giant poster behind me. God this was embarrassing.

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Sara's POV

Something was off. Ave has been acting super uneasy the whole game. Even as we walked to the locker room she kept playing with her headband. I hope everything's okay. After Braddock gave an unusually short pep talk he asked me to stay behind, which was weird.

"Whats up coach?" I asked hoping I wasn't in trouble. I had been having a pretty good game. I mean I had already scored 10 points.

"I wanted to talk to you about your shot." He said while rubbing his short beard.

"Is there something wrong with it?" I asked really confused.

"No, you're having a really good game. But when you're shooting make sure you square your feet. There were a couple of shots that you had that if you had just squared your feet you would have made them." He said looking at the timer on his phone. We still had about 4 minutes until half time was over.

"Okay I'll make sure to set my feet before I shoot." I said looking down at my feet. I started to walk off when he said

"Another thing, make sure you keep your elbow in." He said looking at the timer again.

This was weird. Before I could say anything else I heard someone on the sound system say "Would Sara Lots please come to the gym?". I turned back to look at Braddock but he just shrugged his shoulders and shooed me off with his hand. As I walked out of the locker room I saw Ollie standing by the door. When he saw me he gave someone a thumbs up. As I rounded the corner I saw Avery standing in the middle of the gym with a basketball in her hands. Behind her was this giant white poster with maroon and black letter that said "I'm Gonna Shoot My Shot And Ask You To Prom" There was a little orange basketball in the bottom right corner and my number in the top left corner. It was so cute. I walked closer to Avery and I could hear all of the crowd behind me clapping and screaming. As I got closer I saw the ball that said "Prom?". As I looked at the poster and then back at Avery who was in our matching maroon and black jerseys I saw that her hands were shaking, but she had the biggest smile on her face. I couldn't help but smile. I felt the tears of happiness start to form in the back of my eyes but I stopped them because I didn't want to start crying in front of all these people. When I finally got to Avery her face grew a bit more serious and she asked

"So whats your answer?" I just covered my mouth and nodded my head.

"Of course I'll go with you." I said smiling. Avery's smile was so happy and bright. I had never seen her smile this way. She then gripped the ball in her right hand and pulled me in by my waist with her left hand and gave me a kiss on my lips in front of all these people. As she kissed me I could hear the entire crowd clap and scream even louder. After she pulled back I saw her look over my shoulder and make a somewhat apologetic face. I turned around to see Braddock standing by the stands with his arms crossed giving us a look. I just laughed. A couple seconds later the buzzard rang.

"I guess that's our cue." Avery said as she pulled the ball up and handed it to me.

"I love you." Was all I could say as I looked at the ball.

"I love you too." She said as she grabbed my hand and led me back to the bench.I could hear Kara and Kristina trying to wrap up the poster behind us. I looked down at the ball and back at Ave. I love her, more than anyone in this entire world.