Flagrant Foul (gxg)

Chapter 3

What would help with that? More followers online so companies would want you to promote and endorse their products. I had shot up to 1.1 million followers, and while that was good, I knew I'd need more to get the good deals. Still, I wasn't even on campus yet, so those numbers would hopefully go up once I started playing, if I did well, I'd get more followers, and then who knows what would happen. As silly as it sounded, basketball was my life, and I wanted to go pro when I could.

Playing well was my plan either way.

Several of my future teammates also reached out to me, congratulating me on joining the team. But not Tegan. Was she afraid I'd make a scene? I was sure she knew, but I wasn't going to reach out. I'd give her some distance until I got there. The last thing I needed was to make things weird between us, I needed to be able to work well on the court with her.

The fourth of July was a fun time with my mom and uncle Ray. It was a bit of a going away party since I'd be heading up to my grandparents in Charlotte in the morning, and both my mom and Ray were teary by the end of it. Okay, so was I! I was staying in a dorm as a part of my full ride, and I didn't need to pack much other than clothes and my laptop. But if I went to Charlotte now, it would be an easy move before classes started. The last thing I put in my car before the trip was Tegan's pair of shoes.

I'd made the same drive several times before, though always as a passenger with my mom and then either my uncle Ray or my dad before he passed. This time I was alone and behind the wheel of my ten year old Honda CRV as I drove up the eastern seaboard. My little SUV wasn't fancy, running a little bar and grill didn't make a ton of money to pay for new cars, but it was reliable. There was no Bluetooth connection, but there was an aux cord for music, and I had that blaring as I drove.

It was a long drive, but I was able to make it in around twelve hours after a couple of breaks for gas, bathrooms and food. I pulled up to the rambling house that my grandparents lived in with a smile. They'd raised both my father and uncle here, plus my aunt who was out in Oregon now. It was a lot more house than they needed these days, but they couldn't imagine selling it since there were so many memories made there.

I grabbed a couple of my bags and headed up to the front door, then rang the doorbell. My granny answered the door with a smile and pulled me into a fierce hug.

"Oh, my little Reign! I'm so happy to see you!" she cried out. "Honey! Come hug your grandchild!" she yelled over her shoulder to my pops who walked quickly from the kitchen. They'd had my dad young, so they were both still relatively young themselves, and in good shape. I was grateful for that because I couldn't imagine losing them after losing my dad.

"Reign!" my pops said happily as he joined the hug, making me into a sandwich. "Are you hungry? We have lots of food!"

That was the understatement of the century. There was never a time where they didn't have food, and a lot of it. One of the reasons there was a restaurant in the family was because of the cooking in this house. If it wasn't my granny's fried chicken, it was my pops' slow cooked ribs or brisket out on the smoker. There was always food in the fridge ready to be heated up at a moment's notice.

It didn't take long before I had a mess of pulled pork and sweet potato casserole on a plate while catching up with my grandparents. They were just thrilled that I'd be so close for the next four years, and that I'd be able to spend time with them. It was hard living so far from their kids, so I would be the stand in for a while. I was close enough that I could come visit once a month if the team schedule and homework allowed.

"When do you have to go to your school?" pops asked.

"Five weeks. I need to get settled into my dorm and then I can find everything."

"We're going to have you here for Thanksgiving, right? We're trying to get Ray and Tilly up here for it, but I don't know if they can close the restaurant," my granny said while patting my arm. When you run something like a restaurant on Thanksgiving, it can be hard to close since a lot of families like to go out for a meal. My mom, Tilly, usually made a special turkey menu on that day, and anything leftover came home for us. But we were rarely together for it unless I was working too.

"Yeah, I'd love to be here, thanks." I could see myself gaining a dozen pounds at that meal!

"Ooooohhhh! That will be so nice!" My granny cooed. "I love that meal!"

The next five weeks passed in a flash. I got to explore the area and took a few day trips up to Raleigh to see the campus. I took a lot of pictures and made several videos with me in the area, and my followers continued to climb. It made me wonder about Tegan and if she had any NIL deals. She should, but with almost no internet presence I wasn't sure what she could be doing. Maybe she didn't care about the money?

I knew I did. If I could get my parents some money to get my family together because they could afford to close down for a holiday, I'd like that a lot.