Sex, Love, and Basketball *Books 1 and 2* (Slowly Editing)

30. Recovery Road (Part 2)

Excuse any mistakes or grammatical errors.

Daniella

"How are you?"

It had come to the point that answering that question was difficult. How was I? I hadn't spoken to Nadia in two months. I was still being punished by coach for missing that game. She went easy on me because Raquel explained everything to her, but I wasn't being punished for missing the game. I was being punished for not notifying coach of what was going on.

It wasn't anything bad. She just had me helping her at her other job which was working at the YMCA. I helped the kids in the after school program with basketball stuff. Shooting, dribbling, defense. The basic stuff. It was all for fun and I actually liked it. It always turned into all the kids trying to get the ball from me while I broke their little ankles.

"I'm fine." I answered Coach Young's question and she scoffed.

"This is pointless if you won't be honest."

"Well maybe you can stop trying to be my therapist and just be my coach." I shrugged and she raised her eyebrows at me.

"That mouth of yours is terrible when you're hurting. That's how I know you're not fine. I'll let it slide for now, but I want you to go see the guidance counselor." Coach said making me groan.

"For what? I got my heart broken. I'll get over it. I don't need to see a counselor."

"This is about more than heart break. Your grades are suffering and I can't play you if you're failing.

"What?! I'm failing?!" I asked sitting up. "How the fuck-"

"Language, Fuller." Coach scolded me and I sighed.

"I'm sorry, but how am I failing? I know I play a lot, but school isn't an issue for me. I'm smart as shit-"

"My goodness, Fuller! Watch your mouth."

"Sorry Coach."

"You're not failing." Coach Young said making me relax a little. "But your grades aren't as good as they used to be. Your professors feel like your assignments are rushed through and that you're doing just enough to get by. You're lucky enough to have that work for you, but I don't need you slacking because once you get in a habit of that, your grades will suffer. And if your grades suffer, this team will suffer because you won't be playing. We need you, Daniella. You are a key part of this team."

"I'll do better." I spoke pathetically.

"I know you will. I also want to talk to you about the game this weekend. Your attitude has been pretty bad lately and we'll be playing-"

"Jade is cool. She apologized last game. You have nothing to worry about, I promise." I said already knowing what my coach was going to say.

"That wasn't all. I shouldn't be telling you this, but I don't want to ambush you. As you know, their school is a junior college and she's looking to finish her last two years of school here. I know she can get a bit mouthy during the game and if she were to try to use that against you, you won't get distracted if you already know."

"Wait, they're a junior college? I didn't know that. How did we play them in conference?" I asked confused.

"Well they're in our conference. It's a little too complicated to explain. I was confused about it myself, but that's not important. What's important is that-"

"We play the same position. She's going to kill me. You saw what happened the last time we had to compete for something we both wanted." I said actually getting worried.