Chapter Eleven
The next morning when I woke up, I had a splitting headache, for whatever reason. I sat up in bed and sighed, this day wasn't going too well so far. I rolled out of bed and went downstairs, and took some advil, hoping that the headache would go away. I bet it had been from the black eye, or connected to the black eye somehow.
My mom was already up and had a breakfast out for me.
"I made a breakfast for a champion," She said, smiling. And she had. There were pancakes, bacon, and eggs.
"Lots of carbs for energy," She said.
I nodded slowly, debated on whether to tell her about my headache or not. I didn't want her to think that I needed to go to the doctor, because she was so protective, she'd probably make me. I would just have to fight through this headache on my own.
I walked up to the counter and began dishing up a little of everything, although I didn't want to eat too much or I'd get sick while I was playing.
"Geez, that black eye got worse," My mom said. I hadn't actually looked at it yet. I wondered how bad it was now, and if it made me look tougher.
"It doesn't hurt too bad," I lied. I didn't want her to think I was in any pain at all.
"Well that's good, cause it's an ugly one." She said, laughing a little.
I finished off my breakfast, and then went upstairs to get ready. I went in the bathroom to brush my teeth, and woah. That was one ugly black eye, she was right. I guess I did look tougher, now.
After I finished getting ready, I went downstairs, wearing my basketball stuff, but with my letterman jacket from my old school over it. I hadn't had the guts to wear it yet, being at a different school and all, but I just wore it for good luck.
I remember my freshman year, when I got varsity playing time, and first lettered... it was the best feeling ever. Especially since I was a freshman with a letterman jacket.
My jacket was black, with red sleeves, and the letter was read also. The back had Rutherford Redhawks on it, my old highschool & mascot, and then below that read basketball, and track, because I used to do track freshman year, although I don't anymore.
I realized, by getting this jacket out, I really missed Rutherford High. It made me think of all the memories I had had from past basketball and track seasons. I missed my friends, also.
I would just have to put that stuff behind me though, I had to focus and play hard today.
* * *
When I got to the school, of course I had to repititively tell everyone my stupid, fake story on getting the black eye. Guys from the team kept asking me, including Darwin, TJ, Phillip, and even Zack. I looked around for suspects, the people that had attacked me. Maybe they would have some kind of emotion since I'd escaped from them taping me to a locker room bench. But they were all good actors, obviously, because every guy that saw my black eye was "shocked".
"Alright everyone, we're going to start off with the same drills as yesterday," Dykes said, standing in front of us after we'd finally lined up on the base line.
I groaned, and so did some other guys also. I didn't feel like doing defensive drills. Especially since I still had a light headache.
Annoyed, I went into defensive stance like everyone else. Ouch, I was sore from yesterday.
"I hate this so much," Phillip said from next to me.
"I know." I said.
Dykes made us hold our stances while basically running in place, and it hurt so bad. I tried to keep my stance as low as I could, with my back straight up, not bending over. It burned. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he told us to slide around the court. It eased the pain a little but not much, our thighs were still hurting from staying in defensive stance.
We went around the court three times, and then Dykes blew the whistle.
"Okay, now we're going to do dribbling drills, since we didn't get to do any yesterday. Everyone go grab a ball." He said.
Everyone ran at the ball rack, in hopes of getting a ball that wasn't deflated or old.
I was behind everyone, and it looked like I would be getting a crappy ball.
But apparantly not.
"Dare! Here!" I looked over to see Darwin throwing one of the newer balls at me. He had gotten one for me.
"Thanks," I said, smiling, and catching it.
We lined up on the baseline and it looked like mainly freshman got the bad ballls. Sucked for them.
We had two rows, the first row would go and dribble down and back, then the next row would go.
I was a good dribbler, so I had to show it in this drill, to prove I was better than Link, and therefore a better choice for point gaurd.
I did pretty decent, and finished among the first group of people that were done. That was good.
After doing other ball handling things, like behind the back, between the legs, hesitate, pull back, and spin moves, we were done with that and Dykes said we were going to scrimmage the rest of the time.
Scrimmaging was going well. Then someone accidentally knocked me in the eye or something.
It hurt so bad, my hand went directly to my eye.
"Oh my God," I said, putting my hand over my eye. Pain seared through it.
I heard Link sighing.
"Gosh Dare, quit acting like such a girl. This is guys basketball, and this incident is a perfect example as to why you shouldn't be playing," Link said to me.
"Shut the fuck up, Link." I was sick of him, and I couldn't hold it in any longer, even though I really didn't cuss that much anyways. My eye hurt really bad.... and it's not like I wasn't tough, I wasn't even crying.
"Woah guys, settle down," TJ stepped inbetween us, getting in the way of my glaring at Link.
Dykes came over, noticing how we weren't playing, and saw that I had my hand over my eye. Luckily though he didn't notice we'd been fighting.
"Woah woah woah, are you okay?" Dykes asked me, stopping everyone.
"Uh...not really," I said. My eye hurt like hell, and I didn't really feel like opening it even.
"I got hit in the eye again. I think it's going to swell up," I said.
"Here. Go to the training room and get some ice.....Darwin! Show her where the room is, make sure she gets there okay," He said.
"Alright, let's go," Darwin said to me. I looked up at his pretty blue eyes. We walked out of the gymnasium, and into the halls.
"Okay, so tell me the truth. How did you really get that black eye?" He asked me, looking curious, and concerned.
"What do you mean? I told you and everyone else all ready, I tripped and hit my eye on the door." I said.
"Didn't you just hear how ridiculous that sounded?" Darwin asked me, laughing. I shrugged.
"I know it's a lie, Dare," He said.
"But It's not!"
"Come on, you can tell me, it's okay... do you have an abusive father?" He asked me, looking dead serious. He was actually concerned about me.
"What?! No, not at all, Darwin." I said.
"Are you sure? You should tell people about those kinds of things, Dare. They can be serious," Darwin said.
"I'm sure," I said.
"Prove it, I want to meet him. And if anything is wrong about him, then i will hurt him for hurting you," He said to me.
"Woah, slow down, Darwin. And um, you wouldn't be able to meet him," I said, slowly, not sure how to tell him this.
"Why?"
"Because, my Dad passed away two years ago." I said, feeling a pang sadness.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I made you think about all this," Darwin said, feeling guilty probably that he made me bring up that my father was dead.
"It's okay, really." I said, even though I kind of had the urge to cry. I pushed it away, though.
We walked into the training room and he got a bag of ice for me.
"Thanks," I said.
"Welcome," He said and I followed him out the door, pressing the bag of ice to my eye.
"Again, I'm sorry about all of that," He said.
"It's fine, just get back in there and play," I said when we were back in the gym.
He nodded and got back on the court. I scanned the room, looking for a chair. There was one in the far corner of the gym. I walked over, got it, and brought it back over. I sat down and surveyed the rest of the tryouts.
"I can probably play now," I told Dykes when he walked by after I'd been sitting for about 10 minutes. I was bored, and aching to play... even though my eye still hurt.
"Oh no, You'll hurt yourself, wait till the swelling goes down and then if it does, I'll let you do the afternoon session.
"Okay," I said, even though I wanted to just get back on the stupid court.
I kinda worried that this might ruin my chances of making the team. But then again, he'd just said to come back and try to play at the next session, so was he implying that I'd made it through the first round of cuts? Maybe so.
After they all finished, Dykes posted who made first cuts in the hallway inbetween the two lockerooms. I came out quickly and got dressed quickly so that people would still be around. I found my name on the list, near the middle. Thank God.
I had to be back here soon, so my mom was going to pick me up, take me to lunch, and then bring me back. I decided I would just take the ice with me.
I got a text from my mom telling me that she was here. Great, now I could leave right away and not worry about being ambushed.
I left fast, because I was still nervous from everything that had happened last night. But I felt like it wasn't going to happen again, it was just a one-time thing. I could never be to careful though, since I knew that these people were capable of knocking me out, and they would.
When I got into the car I explained to my mom how I had gotten hit in the eye again, but made first cuts.
"Oh honey, maybe you should just stop... you could hit it again this next session," my mom said.
"WHAT?! No, mom, that's really not an option." I said. Was she crazy? After I went through all that conditioning and long hours of training, I was not about to quit because of one of my eyes. That wasn't gonna happen.
"Okay, Okay, settle down...Let's just go get so lunch, and keep that ice on your eye," she said as she pulled out of the school.
We went to one of the three small restaurants in town, a cafe. It was kind of like panera bread, in a way, only actually better. I got a chicken panini sandwich, and it was really good. I guess all restaurants that were owned by families in small towns were destined to be good.
When we got back to the school my mom dropped me off.
"Good luck sweetie. And if your eye hurts too much you should sit down, and get more ice," My mom said, since i had abandoned the ice at the cafe.
"I'll be fine, mom. Love you, bye," I said, then went into the school.
I got a text from Isabella as I walked through the halls.
Isabella: Good luck at your last session girl! I know you're gonna show all them boys up
Me: Thanks :) I'm nervous
Isabella: Don't be! You got this!!
I smiled, Isabella always knew how to cheer me up when I was nervous, or get me pumped before games or tryouts. It always worked.
Me: Lol, text you after (:
Isabella: Okay, byeeeee!
Once I was dressed, I walked into the gym, with my game face on. It was time to play.
A/N: hope you liked it! i'm about to fall asleep now since i stayed up writing this, lol so I'm sorry if there's mistakes towards the end -_- i'll go back and edit later. anyways it would be great if you could vote, or comment!! and even greater if you would tell one of your friends about my story ;) lol, jkjk you don't have to. but i've been trying to promote this story a lot because I want it to be more popular.... so it would help if you could help! well.... like i said earlier i'm about to fall asleep as i'm typing this... so bye everyone and i hope you enjoyed that chapter. :)
-AdriMarie