Home Town Girl

24

"Seriously?" Paige says, unimpressed by Jalen's block, "I thought you said we were going easy on them."

"Not that easy," Jalen says, dribbling the ball down the court.

He does a layup and Liv cheers for him. Eye roll.

"That wasn't easy," Paige argues, "You deliberately jumped in the air and blocked her shot!"

Okay, she doesn't need to get that fired up.

"My bad," Jalen says, passing the ball to Liv.

Liv dribbles the ball about twice before Paige comes up and steals it from her.

Liv scoffs, "Rude."

Paige passes me the ball and tells me to try again.

She goes over to Jalen and guards him, keeping him from away from me.

I shoot the ball from the free throw line and it actually goes in.

"Yeah, let's go!" Paige cheers me on.

She's been so nice and encouraging.

Jalen rebounds the ball, running and doing a slam dunk.

"Now look who's showing off," I tell Liv.

"I think I just creamed," Liv whispers to me.

Paige rebound it and runs the ball to our side of the court, shooting a three pointer.

"Threes like Clark," Jalen says with a devious grin.

Paige throws him a dirty look and corrects him, "Threes like Buckets."

"Who's Clark?" I ask and everyone's heads snap towards me.

"You don't know who Caitlin Clark is?" Liv asks me in disbelief.

"I don't watch sports," I shrug.

Paige has a smug look on her face as she tells me, "You don't need to know. You know who I am and that's all that matters."

Jalen laughs as he shakes his head.

"She's like the best women's basketball player," Liv says then glances at Paige, "No offense."

Paige's jaw drops.

"Well Clark never got injured," Jalen says, "If Paige weren't out last season she would still be the most talked about women's players."

"Yeah," Paige agrees, "Who got athlete of the year as a freshman?"

"Sorry," Liv puts her hands up in surrender, "I'm just saying she's the most famous."

I notice Paige's face drop and I can't believe Liv keeps twisting the knife.

"Well she must not be too famous because I don't know who she is," I say.

Paige looks at me and a smile grows on her face.

"I don't know who Kaylie Clark is, but I hope she's soaking up all her so called fame while it lasts because it's gonna be over for her when Paige comes back this season," I tell them, saying her name wrong on purpose.

Paige struggles to hold back her grin as her ego visibly boosts from my words.

"Dang," Jalen says, "What happened to women supporting women?"

We all laugh and just goof off together the rest of our time at the gym.

The four of us go eat lunch together when we leave the gym.

After we eat lunch, we say goodbye and go to our separate cars in the parking lot, but Paige follows me to mine.

"Can I help you?" I ask her, unlocking my car.