The muscles in her legs were on fire as she dribbled down the court in her sleeveless uniform shirt and shorts. She paused in the middle of the floor, a guy twice her size after the ball in her possession, she sharply looked to the left and then passed the ball to Aiden. He successfully caught it and continued down the court. She followed him to the opponent’s basket and silently cheered as the ball fell into the white net, scoring another two points. 

A smile never made its way onto her lips as she continued playing. Determination was all she felt and all the audience saw when she had the ball or obsessively attempted to steal it from her opponents. She was never considered a ball hog, but this game was different. There wasn’t a second she didn’t want the ball. She took it every chance she got, losing herself in the game. 

She felt incredible for the first time that week. Her behavior didn’t cause concern, it caused the crowd to roar, and the sound was music to her ears compared to being asked ‘are you okay?’ all week by everyone from teachers to complete strangers at school. She wasn’t okay but nobody had to know that. She would smile, lie, and then move on with her day. A good amount of time was spent spacing out in the middle of class or lunch. The teachers showed concern and she lied to them too. After the first couple of days nobody believed her, especially Aiden but she refused to say anything more than, ‘I’m fine.’  

And then there was Ashley. 

Thinking about her resulted in crying, feeling stupid, and hating the fact that she wanted her in the first place. She didn’t see her around school and it was a blessing. A part of her never wanted to see her again, and the other part occasionally thought of ways to fix things with her, but she mostly focused on not thinking about her at all and exhausted herself with studying, practice, and taking care of house chores. 

The final buzzard sounded and they won the game 67 to 29. Her teammates jumped around out of excitement for the win, hugged, and high fived each other. She was happy with the game but wasn’t in the mood to go all crazy like everyone else. She sat on the bench drinking Gatorade while watching everyone. Aiden looked at her from the floor and then approached her.