Falling for Friendzone

Chapter 37

I finished fixing my hair and went to tie my royal blue shoe laces when coach came into the locker room.

"Okay ladies, bring it in!" He yelled. We all quickly dropped whatever we were doing and gather in the center of the locker room around Coach and his clipboard.

"Big night ladies, it's our first game of the season, and it's against a very solid team." Coach retold us what we were all aware of.

"I've already went through the game plan so I'm going to head up for the coaches meeting. Everyone be in the gym warming up in five minutes."

"Team on three. One. Two. Three..."

"TEAM!" We were left by ourselves and slowly everyone made there way upstairs. Soon, it was just me and Peyton left in the locker room, go figure. I stood there figeting a bit. There was always a negative aura when we were in a room together, so I decided to end it. I walked up behind her as she fixed her hair in the mirror, so she could still see me.

"Hey Peyton, look, no hard feeling right? I know we don't get along, but we really need to work together if we want to win this game." I told her and she kept fixing her hair. The room was silent, but then she turned around.

"Oh I know we're going to win, and trust me sweetie, it won't be because of you. Just try not to mess up too many times and stay out of my way." She flipped her ponytail in my face and walked up the stairs. I heard her mumble something about being a man stealing bitch, but I didn't really care that she called me that. What I did care about, however, is that that picture was making its way into my head again. I shook my head to discard the thought and just followed the rest of my teams actions by going upstairs.

The moment I stepped into the gymnasium, I looked around at all of the fans, the place was almost packed! I took in a breath to calm my nerves. Looking into the student section I saw Lane jumping up and down to grab my attention. He gave me a huge smile with a thumbs up and I returned a nervous one back at him.

Grabbing a ball, I made my way to the rest of the team to start our warm up routine. I was doing pretty well on my shooting, tonight should go pretty well hopefully! At one minute, the teams made their way to the benches. Coach got his last few words in and then us starters went out on the court to start the game. I got into position and glanced around at my teammates, Katie, Natalie, Kristen, and Peyton, everyone looked ready and I knew it was now or never to show coach I deserved my starting spot.

The ref threw the ball up and Natalie tipped it to Peyton. It turned into a two on one with the opponent, Pey, and myself. I was wide open and she should've passed it to me, but she didn't and went in for the basket herself. She missed it and coach yelled at her for not passing it. She gave me a dirty look but from then on included me in her game.

Back and forth the game drew on. It was close, 20-22, we were losing. Every time we would score, the other team would come right back and score again. The clock was ticking down to 20 seconds and we were only going to be able to get one last shot in.

"Blue! Blue!" Coach yelled from the bench. Yes, I mentally thought. This was one of the plays made for me. 10 seconds. Peyton passed it to Natalie and then ran down to set a screen on my defender. I ran up and Natalie passed me the ball. The fans started chanting. Five....four...three...two... I squared up to the basket and flung the ball into the air.

Swish. I drained the three and the crowd cheered. That may have put us in the lead at 23-22, but it was only half time and the game was far from over.

We headed down into the locker room and I looked up at Lane who gave me a smile. My eyes caught Peyton's and she gave me a dirty grimace. I felt my face heat up, but I just headed down the stairs with the rest of the team.