The Only Promise

Chapter 12

            “Are you okay, Kadence?” Aiden asks catching up with me. I take a deep breath trying to calm down my red face.

            “I hit my bad knee pretty bad.” I say and notice I’m limping. “I’m sure I’ll be able to play tonight at the game.”

            “Are you sure?” She questions my answer concerned.

            “Yes.” I enter the Calculus classroom before she does and I sit down in my seat. I feel a relief knowing that I won’t be walking for a bit. I put both of my elbows on my desk and lean forward putting my hands on each side of my hand. I rewind the scene of when I just fell up the stairs. I can’t believe that happened. I embarrassed myself in front of people coming up the stairs and going down it. I close my eyes, but quickly re-open them when a sharp pain shoots up my knee. I hold onto it and bite my lip hard. ‘Oh let this day go by quickly, please.’ I think to myself.

            The coach presses her thumbs on my knee while she’s crouched down in front of me as I sit on the bench in the gym. I squint my eyes a little and bite my lip. “It hurts?” She asks looking up at me.

            I nod my head slowly. “I’ll wear my knee brace like always. It’ll be okay.”

            “Are you sure? I can sit you out in the first few minutes of the game.” She says letting go of my knee and she stands up.

            “Its fine, I got this.”

            She takes a deep breath unsure she should actually let me play, but I’ve always been the type to get back into the game if I got injured. She backs away and claps her hands together. Everyone turns their attention to the coach, and I put my knee brace on looking at the coach.

            “Let’s go out there and play our best, okay lady hawks?” She smiles and puts her hand out. “Let’s go, on 3.”

            I stand up with everyone else and stack my hand on top of someone’s.

            “1…2…3…”

            “Lady Hawks!”

            The crowd begins to cheer as the 5 starting players go out onto the court and get in our positions. I stand in the circle with a girl standing in front of me. The referee walks to the circle and tells us which way our teams are going. He blows his whistle and throws the ball up in the middle. I jump up as high as I can, and I smack the ball to one of my teammates. I land hard on my bad knee and grit my teeth. That really hurt. I decide to shake it off and run down court helping out my teammates. Lauren shoots the basketball in the hoop near the foul line, and we take off running to the other side. I walk back and forth watching the other team down the court where we scored waiting for their point-guard to receive the ball.

            “Set 2!” The point-guard yells as she approaches the half-court line. She comes my way ready to run so I run up to her and I guard her moving with her every step. She sticks her butt out and I watch where the ball is hoping to steal it from her. She turns to the side and tries to quickly pass it to a girl, but I step in between the two and run down the court dribbling the ball. I do a quick layup and turn around to see it go in. I smile and run back down the court listening to the roar of the crowd.

            The buzzer goes off informing us that it’s half-time, which it’s about time, because my knee is bothering me at the moment. We all sit down on the bench drinking water or just resting.