It was now 8:30 am and we were all currently in the car, on the way to my volleyball gym for a long day of tournaments.
Walker had a late flight, so he didn't have to be at the airport until 8:30 pm, in 12 hours.
I was in the passenger seat, Walker behind me next to Mo-who was in the middle since she's the shortest of them-and Aryan on the other side.
Mo had the aux for once, since Walker has it everytime we're in a car.
We arrived at the MVD gym and we got out of the car-around 8:45 now-and I immediately went into the locker room to change into my jersey. I didn't want to before we got in the car, sue me.
2 teams had already secured their final spot, Purple in 6th and Green in 5th.
Before we even got in the car earlier, James told us that he had torn his ACL, so he couldn't play, and Jenna was sick. He'd still be there, just couldn't play in the game, so we were down 2 players.
🏐🏐🏐
Travis, Brandy, Josh, Lily, Brett, and Payton were out on the court as our 1st set starting six, and they were struggling against the white team.
Not like they couldn't get the ball, but that Lily, Brandy, and Brett didn't work together in the front row to block, so spikes kept getting through.
It came time for Scarlett and I to switch in, Scarlett in the middle with Brandy on the left and me on the right, closer to the stands.
It was Travis's serve, and with Scarlett and I blocking, we got our score back up quickly.
🏐🏐🏐
After we won the game, we still had about 2 and a half hours before we had another, and during this time Red was playing against Blue.
I went up to the stands where my friends were with my parents and laid at Walker and Mo's feet.
"Tired?" Mo chuckled, looking down at me.
"I woke up and then had a game an hour later, so yeah." I grumbled, drinking some of my water.
"We got you a gatorade." Walker offered, holding the blue drink out to me.
"Who's we?" I said, looking up at him and Mo.
"Ok it was me and Walker, but in everyone else's defense...yeah they have no defense." Aryan laughed as I took the drink from Walker.
"Well thanks anyways." I laughed softly, taking a large sip.
"Well you did great." McKenna smiled. "I think your teammates might need to work on jumping the net."
"Oh, honey." I giggled at her wording of it, putting the cap on my gatorade.
"It's blocking girl." Walker added, making Kenna laugh in embarrassment as Javon and Aryan teased her.
"In other news." Travis said, walking up and sitting beside me. "That puts Purple in 6th, Green in 5th, and White in 4th. Red's going to win this, so blue is gonna be 3rd. Then we're going for the crown."
"How do you know Red's going to win?" Abby asked from her spot beside Mo.
"Because they have Brady Noon. He may be a bit shorter than his teammates, but he has a high vertical and he can move." Lily explains, joining us.
"That's him right there, number 4 on the red team." Brandy says, pointing down at the court.
The guy she pointed at was wearing a black jersey, meaning he's a librero for his team. And I could see why, he moved across the court super fast. Like blink and he teleports.
"He's one of the best libreros in the league." Josh grumbles, changing his court shoes for crocs. "I can't come close to that guy."
"Oh come on, you're an awesome librero." I assure him, doing the same and slipping on my crocs.
"Yeah, he's just a bit cuter." Scarlett jokes, poking Josh's arm.
"Is he? I didn't notice." Payton says from her spot beside Javon, looking down at the court.
Scarlett was right, he had good looks. Not as good as Walker's, but good.
He had black, short hair and he looked pretty strong for our age, although he also looked a bit older.
He was also absolutely humbling the blue team on their serves right now. He starts as middle back, and he just keeps getting perfect receives.
"Travis, Brandy, Payton, Brett, and Scarlett." I call, popping a piece of gum into my mouth.
They all answer 'yeah' at the same time and I point down at the court.
"He always starts middle back, and look at how easily he's getting the ball up." I say, making Walker nod.
"From what I've seen, you guys tend to serve right to where he is, so try not to go straight to him." Walker finished, catching onto what I was saying.
"They're right." Scarlett nods, sitting down in front of Josh. "If we do that, he'll just keep stealing the ball for his team."
🏐🏐🏐
Soon the Red vs Blue game was over, Red having won by a landslide and putting Blue in 3rd place.
I was starting to get a bit nervous as we waited out the 30 minute break period Red had before the championship game.
Walker, Aryan, Keith, Abby, and Mo decided they wanted to sit closer, so we all moved down to the 2nd and 3rd rows, which happened to be the rows behind the majority of the Red team's players.
Scarlett and James continued talking about Brady Noon-without realizing he was sitting right in front of Walker, Aryan and I.
"Scar..quit." Payton whispered, but James was talking too close to Scarlett for Payton's whisper to make it.
"Yeah so if we want to avoid Noon getting the ball, none of us can serve straight for him." James spoke, making Brady Noon turn around at the sound of his last name.
"Oh gods." I groan quietly, burying my face in my hands as I get the worst second hand embarrassment I'd ever felt.
"Did one of you just say my name?" He asked, looking over our mixed up group.
"Delphi looks like she's getting ready to throw you under the bus." Travis laughed, looking back at James.
"Yep that would be James here." I answered, pointing behind Payton to James.
"He's the local idiot." Walker added, making me hold back a laugh.
"I like you dude." Brady grinned at Walker. "You play?"
"Nah, just here for Del." Walker answers, looking over at me quickly.
"So is Leah!" McKenna said suddenly, pointing at the gym door where Leah Sava Jeffries was walking in.
"She actually came." I smile, waving her over as Brady and Walker kept talking.
"I'm Brady Noon." He says at the same time Leah sits beside me. "But apparently you already knew that."
"Yeah." Scarlett nods, her face red with embarrassment as the buzzer sounded, meaning it was time for stretching.
"I gotta go." I say, standing up at the same time the rest of my team did.
"You got this." Mo said, quickly doing our handshake.
"Go get 'em Delphi." Aryan added, fistbumping me as the Red team left the bleachers.
"Either way, I'm super proud of you." Walker grinned, hugging me.
I nodded as I hugged him back, his cologne surrounding me. "Ok, I got this."
Walker chuckled and pulled away as I crossed the court with Brandy, setting our stuff on our chairs before we started stretches.
🏐🏐🏐
Immediately something weird happened. While we were doing warmups-suicides to be exact-Brady kept looking at me.
Weirdo.
I guess nobody else noticed as we headed off the court so the Red team could use the full court to practice spiking or whatever.
🏐🏐🏐
First set went to us, but Brett twisted his ankle and Lily tripped over him, landing on her shoulder. So they both had to join James on the bench, leaving us with no extra players.
Second set went to the red team, but two of their players and Scarlett all got injured, so now we were down to 5 and Coach Heather called a mandatory time out.
"We are either going to have to forfeit, or Travis and Josh will have to scramble with back row." Heather gave us the ultimatum.
"But that never worked during practice." Travis said, his tone worried.
"We know." Coach Mike sighed. "But right now it's our only option."
"No it's not!" Brandy exclaimed, looking back at me.
She's right. It's not.
Walker's here.
"What's it gonna be, black? Forfeit or continue?" One of the refs asked Heather and Mike.
Heather gave me and Brandy a look before answering. "Give us 5 more minutes."
"You got it." The ref said, walking away.
"What're you two talking bout?" Payton asked, her country accent slipping in like it does when she's nervous.
"Walker's here." I told them, earning a confused look from Payton but a look of realization from Heather and Mike.
"Would he do it?" Mike asked, Heather clearly wondering the same thing.
"Do we have a jersey for him?" Travis added. "Or kneepads?"
"I brought mine." James spoke up. "They're clean and they should fit him. He can use one of the practice jerseys."
"Go get him Delphi. James, get them out. Mike, go tell the ref we have an emergency sub." Heather ordered.
I ran off, sliding the majority of the court since it was faster. I miraculously landed right in front of Walker, who was laughing at me.
"We need..you..to sub in." I said, standing up and catching my breath.
"Say what now?" Javon raised his eyebrows, but I ignored him.
"Look, 4 of our players are injured and that only leaves 5 of us to play. Please Walk." I ask again, and he sighs and nods.
I pull him up and we run back across the court, everyone confused about what was going on.
Since we didn't have time for a locker room trip, Travis, Josh, and I held up jackets around Walker's torso so he could change into one of the practice jerseys.
He was already wearing basketball shorts, so all he had to do was pull on some knee pads and he was ready to go. James's shoes also somehow were Walker's size, and James let him wear them with no complaint.
We now had Josh middle back, Travis on his left, Jenna on his right. Walker middle front, Brandy on his left and me on his right.
With Walker playing beside me I had more fun as we went into the third set-Red's serve.
They managed to score 5 points on us before Walker and I got a perfect block and they panicked, the ball falling to the floor.
We circled up in the middle like we always do after a point.
"Blocking. That's obviously their weak point." Brandy whispered. "Always go for the block."
We went back to our spots and it was Josh's serve. He scored us 3 points before Brandy and Travis collided, missing the ball.
"Crap. Sorry guys." Travis apologized as we went back to receive position.
"It's alright guys, come on!" Lily called from the bench.
"Communicate, communicate!" Heather called as Brady Noon served the ball, sending it straight toward Josh.
Josh-who obviously wanted to show he was better than Brady-wasted no time getting it up and to Payton, who set the ball.
I jumped for it, but faked them out and Walker spiked it, which none of them realized until the ball was barreling to the floor.
Brady Noon dove for it, but when it hit his hand before it hit the floor his team wasn't paying attention, making it hit the ground again.
🏐🏐🏐
The set continued on like that. Gain a few points, lose the ball. Gain a few points, lose the save.
I have to say, Brady Noon is an impressive librero. I still would choose Josh over him by friendship, but he's impressive.
It was nearing the end of the set, Red: 23, Black: 24. It looked like we would take it, and it was Travis's serve.
Problem was, he served it straight at Brady Noon.
Bump, set, set.
Bump, set, spike.
Bump, bump, spike.
Block, bump, set, spike.
Block, set
Bump, set, fake, fake, spike
Point.
We win.
Brandy and Payton started cheering the second the whistle was blown, coming to the middle and doing the courtesy group hug we always did.
Walker had one of the biggest smiles on his face that I'd ever seen. Like there was no other way he'd rather be spending his last hour for a while with his friends than playing volleyball beside me.
I hugged him as soon as the group hug broke apart, laughing with him as we did after game courtesies.
So this is Brady Noon btw
We gonna age him down a bit so he's ~1 year older instead of 3