𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬, kate martin

TEN. big ten

march 6th-10th, 2024:
iowa city, iowa & minneapolis, minnesota
big ten tournament

The Iowa Hawkeyes were to play Penn State's Nittany Lions for the first round of the tournament. Although this time, as they prepared to face up against teams they'd played before, it was different. Not just for the fact that it was high stakes and that the team was hoping to remain back-to-back champions, but they were without one of their guards— Molly Davis.

Practices leading up to the Big Ten Tournament had been draining to say the least. The coaches were really cracking down hard on the little things— they got on Caitlin for her passes not being hard enough, for Hannah lingering in the paint just a split second too long, for Gabbie allegedly not putting enough pressure on the ball on defense. Name it and they'd yelled at the team for it.

Although for Tatum and Sydney, they've experienced the brut of everything. The two juniors had always been rotated in and out for practices, but more attention was directed their way as the coaches tried to figure out which one of them would fill the starter position.

The day Tatum and Sydney had realized it was down to between the two of them, they both sat down in solidarity, coming to the agreement that whoever the coaches chose would ultimately be a great fit to rise up to the challenge.

Sydney had ignored Tatum's insistence that the blonde would be getting added to the starting lineup. The Affolter girl had two more games on Tatum when it came to starting, having gotten her career debut start against Kansas State. Much earlier than Tatum's sole season start versus Purdue.

【 XOX 】

It had been the morning of the day before they'd leave for Minneapolis.

Caitlin and Tatum walked into The Dandy Lion to meet the rest of the team for breakfast. The morning had a chaotic start: Jada had left the apartment to go pick up Kate because she assumed Tatum had already left, but the junior had merely been in the shower and with her car in the shop at the moment, Tatum had no ride. Luckily Caitlin had come to her rescue.

The pair of brunettes headed towards the back of the restaurant to where their friends awaited them.

"Hey there they are!" Jada motioned to the two girls as they came up to the table, seeing that the one behind them with the rest of their teammates was full. She had been tasked with keeping an eye on the door since she was the only one on that side of the table.

Caitlin slipped into the booth next to Jada and Tatum waited for her to get situated before sliding in next to her, not noticing the way Kate had given her a quick look up and down.

"What took you so long?"

The city's superstar snorted while Tatum rolled her eyes lovingly, "Oh I don't know why, maybe it was cause my roommate left without telling me?"

Jada quickly came to her own defense as Tatum laughed. "I thought you were already gone!"

"That literally makes no sense," Tatum shook her head, chuckling at Jada's lack of common sense so far that morning. "I live with you, why wouldn't we drive together?"

"Wait isn't your car in the shop?" Sydney leaned forward.

Jada palmed her face as Tatum pointed to Sydney, gesturing for Jada to pay attention. "Syd remembered and not you?"

"I'm sorry! I forgot." Jada hung her head in embarrassment.

"Your car's in the shop?" Kate questioned. Odds were that if she had known that, then she wouldn't have let Jada leave without Tatum.