lose ⤷ a. banks

chapter 4: district 5 vs the hawks

Vienna sat on Camari's driveway, gulping down her oatmeal. She was very curious to hear how Cam's date went and anxiously waited for her to come out of her house. Larson forgot that he had practice on Wednesday so they had to reschedule for Thursday. Vienna finished the last bite of her breakfast right as Cam came out of her front door.

"Soooo," Vienna said in a teasing tone, "how was the date?"

Camari rolled her eyes slightly but then smiled as she stared off into the distance. "It was...it was really nice," she answered. Vienna had never seen Cam like this, genuine and giddy. She narrowed her eyes at her friend, questioningly. "Whaaaat?" Cam asked, irritated by the look on Vienna's face.

"Nothing, nothing," Vienna lied and started up the car.

"He's actually really nice, you know. I think that since you met him through hockey, the aggressive side in him just showed more."

"Cam, he calls me names and insults me all the time," Vienna scoffed, looking over her shoulder as she backed out of the driveway.

"Well, do you know any boy in our grade who is super nice to girls?" Cam challenged and crossed her arms.

Vienna thought for a moment. "...Isaiah Wright?"

"He's gay," Cam sighed. "I meant guys that are available to date."

"Well then they're all jerks and you wanna settle for one of them just because you can't find anyone else?" questioned Vienna.

"No—I'm just saying that maybe you're being too judgy!" Camari yelled.

"I'm trying to look out for you, Cam!" Vienna shouted back. "But clearly you don't care," she muttered and rolled her eyes.

The car grew quieter by the second, the tension growing with it. Neither of them said a word as they pulled into the school. They both got out of the car, swung their backpacks over their shoulders and walked in silence.

Later at lunch, Vienna saw Cam sitting next to Larson but of course Larson was with McGill and Banks so she decided to eat in her car by herself. She waited for Cam at the end of the day to give her a ride home but instead she saw her get into Larson's car.

All day Vienna had tried to get this fight off of her mind but she just couldn't shake it off. She felt bad for the way she acted and she wanted to talk things out with Cam. But it would have to wait because she had to deal with bigger things first:

The game against her old team.

—

"Hawk, Hawks, Hawks, Hawks..."

"One, two, three, four, five! One, two, three, four, five!"

The District 5 team watched from the bench as their opponents warm up. Coach Bombay was not yet present and nobody was sure if he would be. Vienna stared down her old teammates and felt her palms start to sweat as her nerves kicked in.

Larson and McGill skated over and propped up their helmets. "Hi girls," Larson taunted. Dave Karp was about to throw himself at the two but Jesse and Terry held him back. The boys skated away, waving with smirks on their faces.

"Jerks," Dave muttered.

Just as the Hawks began their "win" chant, Coach Bombay showed up. He looked like he did not want to be there and Vienna wasn't sure she wanted him there anyway.

"Alright guys, gather round," Bombay ordered. "Win! Win! Win! Win!" He attempted to start a cheer.

The team looked at one another, confused, as some mumbled along with Bombay, "Win? Win. Win..."