Looking for another girl who's interested with basketball was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Coach Anj gave me free reign to recruit a new member and had asked the boys to do the same. As a result, I had been approached by girls wanting to learn the sport only to realize that they were more interested in rubbing elbows with North and the other varsity players than actually playing basketball. When Coach Anj rejected their application, the girls projected their frustration at me. Great. More enemies at school.
But that didn't stop me from finding my own teammate. With coach's blessing, I posted a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board. But two weeks later and all it had were fictitious names and nasty comments. Either no one from the female population really knew anything about the sport or they were all afraid to be associated with me. You'd probably think my schoolmates eventually got tired of calling me names and dropping snide remarks.
They didn't.
I wouldn't even lie that it didn't hurt. Because it still stung.
But this time, I was determined to make the most out of the chance I was given. Coach was right. If I wanted to play basketball so badly, I had to stop whining everytime I heard comments against me. I had to develop the rhino skin if I wanted to push through.
"For someone who's tall, you are so good at hiding yourself."
I lifted my eyes from reading a chapter in our history book for a long quiz to see North leaning against a bookshelf, his arms crossed over his chest.
This wasn't the first instance that North came looking for me. Since my falling out with my best friend, he appointed himself as my personal buddy like what his cousin had initially planned. But even before our sudden closeness could spark more ugly rumors, I distanced myself from him. I thought he got the message. That I didn't want anything to do with him so I wouldn't stain his pristine image in the campus.
What was he trying to do? "H-hey."
North shuffled closer. "Don't hey me. I've been looking everywhere for you. But as soon as class is dismissed, you disappear. Why are you in such a depressing place?"
Well, I couldn't develop rhino skin overnight. Given that neither Lexi nor I wanted to make the first move, I had to look for a new hiding place to treat my wounded ego and recuperate somewhere nobody could find before I could face them with my chin held high. The corners hidden behind the shadows of the tall shelves in the library was the perfect spot.
"It's one of my talents," I grinned at him, half-concerned that somebody might see us talking, half-flattered that he bothered to look for me. "You know, like Batman. I blend in the shadows." Finding it funny, I chuckled at my own joke. "Get it? It's a disappearing act best achieved when the night falls for someone as dark as me."
He didn't seem amused like what I had expected. If anything, the knot formed by his bushy eyebrows deepened as he continued to stare at me with such intensity that had goosebumps crawling over my arms.
Which of course, made me conscious that I tucked my hair behind my ear. "What?"
Before talking, he reached for a random book from the shelf and scanned through it. "You get hurt when people call you 'matuling'. But it's okay when you use derogatory words to describe yourself. Sometimes, I don't get your logic."
Really. This guy and his ability to shift my emotions in a jiffy. "If you just came here to give me a lecture, get lost, North. I'm trying to study."
The sigh he let out after putting the book back to its slot sounded exasperated. "I looked everywhere for you because an eighth grader is interested to be part of your team."
"You're kidding!" I gasped in disbelief.
"Will I bother to scour through the secret nooks of this school if I were?"
I didn't budge from my position. He said he didn't get my logic sometimes. I could say the same for him.
Another sigh before he extended his hand to me. "Come on. Lunch time's almost over. Meet her at least."
Right. I took his hand and he pulled me up.
"Really, Felicity. How would the right people find you if you keep hiding yourself?" He shook his head, leading the way out of my fortress.
I didn't have an answer to that. I was preoccupied by the fact that my hand was still in his. North only let me go as soon as we stepped out of the library where a girl approached us but the warmth of his touch lingered like a low current buzzing under my skin.
"Hi, Ate Seven. I'm Jade." I shifted my gaze towards the girl. Though she was a few inches shorter than I was, confidence oozed out of her as she stuck out her hand and I shook it. "I heard you're looking for female basketball players."
We ended up back inside the library to talk and North stayed quiet, listening to the conversation. It seemed that Jade contracted a virus and was absent for a full week, missing the club applications. Just like me, she preferred basketball over all the other sports. Since St. Matthew's didn't have one, she signed up for academic clubs her whole grade school life instead.
"I heard you're the only girl who tried out," she mused, a hint of envy in her voice as she looked at me squarely in the eyes. "I wish I were there to witness it. I bet you did well since you made it to the official team. If I were in your shoes, I would have done the same."
I shot North an uneasy smile, not knowing how to handle Jade' kind words. I had been so used to sarcastic laudations followed by snickers as soon as I had turned my back. To meet someone who actually looked up to me was new, for lack of a better term to say. It filled me with warmth and I was sure my cheeks darkened—my version of blushing. "Uhm...thanks?"
"Just so you know, I signed my name on the sheet," Jade said, scrunching her nose. "But someone doodled something over it. I decided to look for you instead. Kuya North helped me."
I liked this girl already. Middle-school students wouldn't normally come up to seniors for a casual conversation. Let alone approach a campus heartthrob like North. It looked like Jade didn't get easily intimidated nor star-struck.
I wanted someone like Jade in my team. "Meet me at the gym after class."
🏀🌞🏀
I told Jade to meet me at the gym so we could play one-on-one. It would help me assess her skill before endorsing her to Coach Anj. Previously, I had told interested applicants to immediately show up for club activities. Only to be scolded by Coach because said applicants avoided the ball like the plague, whined a lot, fixed their hair ties often in the game, got tired easily, asked for substitutions and had more minutes in the bench with the boys than on the court.
"We need basketball players, Seven, not cheerleaders," Coach Anj stressed, clearly frustrated by my first recruits. "We're building an all-girls basketball team, here. Not looking for a random girl to be your partner. There's a reason why I told you we only needed one.other. female player right now. Because we need girls who share the same passion for this sport. Look for people like you."
Pondering on Coach's advice made me recall Mama's journey to becoming a chef of her own food business. The lot who turned her down just because she didn't finish high school or didn't have formal training in culinary arts. There were people like them everywhere who liked to steal dreams, snuff out flames of passion. Mama's experience was the motivation I needed.
I wasn't going to let them win. I would carve out a hole no matter how small just so I could squeeze myself into and if possible, bring along others with me.
That...was easier said than done, though. And I realized that the moment I stepped into the gym after our last class.
I was so confident we'd have the whole place to ourselves. But word did travel fast anywhere because the basketball team was in complete attendance. Even the volleyball team occupied half of the gym. But unlike Lexi's team who had already began practicing, the basketball players (varsity and enthusiasts alike) filled the bleachers facing the court. Gathering my courage, I made my way to an empty space, with my chin up, ignoring how they sneered at me, like predators at the ready to pounce on their prey. North was there too. But he kept an unreadable expression on his face.
"Well, well, well... if it isn't for the Black Lady herself. I heard you have a new recruit."
Cackles followed Brandon's words. The urge to be the bigger person (literally speaking) and walk away than be subjected to insubordination (Because Brandon was named the team captain) overpowered my will to stay.
I was about to turn my heel when I heard the swish of the net and the subsequent silence that had seemed to envelope the place. I whirled around only to see Jade running towards me, her backpack swinging over her shoulder.
"You are such a show-off, Jade." A familiar-looking middle-grade boy who also made it to the official basketball team of St. Matthew's ran after the ball. If I remembered correctly, his name was Zero. He already had the ball in his hands when he belatedly realized all eyes were on us three. "Erm, I'll just sit way over there, okay?" He rolled the ball towards us and I picked it up myself.
Without paying our unwelcome audience her attention, Jade grinned at me. "I'm sorry, I'm late. Did I miss anything?"
I shook my head. "You're just right on time. We have company though," I cocked my head towards the bleachers thinking that perhaps she didn't notice the boys watching our every move. "Are you comfortable with the crowd?"
But she remained unfazed. "No. Are...you?" Jade hesitated.
She wasn't challenging me, I knew. But it sounded that way to me. What would it say about me if I told her I was affected by the crowd? Standing my ground, I puffed my chest. "Nope." I headed under the ring and dumped my bag with Jade following my lead.
"Cool," she beamed. "And Ate Seven, just a request."
"Yeah?"
"Don't go easy on me."
The thing about playing with the San Rafael Voyagers was that cat-calling, trash-talking and any intimidating tactics whether from the opponents or the spectators weren't new to me. Through the years, I had mastered the skill of tuning noise out and focus on the goal. The effect? I could drill in even tightly contested shots. It was a skill I had not yet mastered outside the playing court though.
Playing bente-uno with Jade wasn't different. It was reminiscent of those times I traded baskets with Kuya Six, with our favorite baller IDs on the line. But even before we could determine the victor, players from the neighborhood would join us.
When I swatted the ball that Jade released from the painted area, someone stepped in.
"Grabe, ala 'yang lunus o," was the first words my ears caught the moment my focus got disrupted by someone else other than Jade.
"You know this is a mismatch, right?" It was North and he already had the ball in his hands and I could only blink at him.
"No, it's not," Jade countered. She was red in the face, sweating profusely, but still widely grinning. Like the exercise satisfied her. Looking at her was reminiscent of myself whenever I played with Papa.
"You know it is," Zero chimed in. "You haven't made a basket in like, five minutes now. And Ate Seven's a point away from ending the game."
I gaped at them as they bickered. "Really?"
"What, you're not keeping track?" he asked back, flabbergasted. "You had been utterly merciless with your defense, so far."
"And I'm okay with that," Jade insisted between breaths. "At least she's a better opponent than you, Zero," Jade snorted.
Zero opened his mouth to retort but thought better of it. "Shut up."
"What if we play two-on-two?" North interrupted before the two could even tear at each other's throats though something told me they won't because they seem to be really good friends.
"And you said it's a mismatch. Surely, you don't mean the two of us teaming up against them?" I told him matter-of-factly. I hated to admit it but during club activities, I had seen North play. If there was another person who was good enough to be team captain, it was him. If only seniority wasn't honored.
"Girls versus boys. Fair game, right?" The wink North gave stupefied me.
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Bente-uno = a one-on-one shooting game where players aim to be the first to make 21 baskets