Madison Brooks

Chapter 1

"This concludes the last practice of the preseason, rest your bodies and minds for class and practice on Monday," coach said.

Last season our team clinched a spot in the NCAA women's volleyball tournament, but lost in the second round. It was the first time in ten years that Columbia or any ivy league made an appearance in the tournament. Based on how brutal preseason training was, I'd say that coach Lisa is aiming for gold this year.

As I walked towards the locker room with my best friends and teammates, Marissa and Mica, coach called me, "Mads, can you hold back for a sec, we need to talk." Suddenly I began to feel all jittery, Mari patted my shoulder while Mica gave me a sympathetic look. Hesitantly I took a step towards coach L's office, I knocked on the glass door to make my presence known and then entered.

Having decided to get the first word in, I quickly stumbled over my words and asked 'what's up'. "Madison, as you know this upcoming season is an important one," I began to worry, thinking of whether she would cut me off the roster. I've played volleyball since I was 6, I didn't know what I would do if I had to stop. "Coach, I swear I'll give it my all, I know that this year since Kate graduated I'll be the main setter, but-" "Mads you've got to stop overthinking, I simply wanted to discuss any ideas or plays you may want to run in the upcoming games."

After a quick 30 minute discussion on possible plays or strategies for our first few games, coach named me as the third captain. I was utterly stunned, normally it is only seniors or third years who are captains. Her reasoning made perfect sense, playing all around, and starting setter, I was a leader on the court, and I should carry that leadership with me off the court. The only issue with this was that I didn't have the respect of all my teammates, specifically our Middle Hitter, Mia. She is two years older than me and dislikes me, because, and I quote, "you and Kate can't set for your lives, if you keep this up I am going to transfer," I wanted to tell her to go right ahead but decided against it seeing as she was 6'5 and actually a great blocker.

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Back at my apartment where my friend group, Triple MD live, I threw myself on the living room floor. Why the floor you may ask, it is because lying in bed after practice before you shower is disgusting. Anyways our friend group lucked out when securing the lease for this apartment. Mari's aunt works in real estate and owns properties all over New York, therefore we each only pay fifteen hundred a month. While six thousand a month sounds like a lot, the apartment is in New York City, across from Central Park, and is 15 minutes from Columbia.

Still on the floor, one of my best friends, Daniel, asked me about practice. The girls must have told him how coach Lisa held me back afterward. "Practice went ok, after the 50th wind sprint I kind of just went numb," I knew that wasn't what Daniel wanted to talk about, but if I told him and the girls I just got captain, they'd make me go clubbing, and I hate clubbing. I knew that telling them about being captain was inevitable, but I thought 'might as well push it back for as long as I can'.

Soon enough a clean Mica and Marissa walked into the living room, leaving me to be ganged up on, 3 versus 1. "Come on Maddie, what did the coach want?" "You are way too good to be cut from the team," "Madster she can't cut you, we would lose all our games-" "ENOUGH, I wasn't cut from the team, thanks for the compliment Mari, and to answer your question Danny, I was made captain." And here we go again with the three bombarding me with their thoughts, "Mads that's amazing," "we are so proud of you," "my best friend is captain as a sophomore," "do we get special privileges cause we are besties?" I loved my best friends but sometimes I just wanted to shove their faces full of diced onions.

After we talked for a few more minutes I went to my room to change and shower. When deciding to decorate my bedroom, I decided to just go for it. While I was originally going to hang old photos from my hometown along with other memorabilia, I decided to splurge on myself creating a new personal space, especially since I knew I would be in my room whenever I was home.

Having changed into a pair of sweats and one of my dad's old oversized tees for the night, I decided to crawl into bed with my AirPods and laptop. While it was only six in the evening, I thought it was a good time to get ahead of school with the first week approaching Monday. Mari had different plans though, she bursted through the door, demanding we go out and celebrate my being selected for captain. As I was opening my mouth to complain, Mica came into the room and jumped on my bed, "Madster, if you don't want to go out to celebrate becoming captain that's fine," just as Mari began to pout, Danny stood by the doorway and said "instead we will go out to celebrate my first year at Columbia after transferring from NYU."

Authors Note: If you have read this far I just want to say thank you very much!!!! I promise to update as often as possible and maybe multiple updates a day. Feel free to comment ideas you have for the book or outfits you want to see one of the characters in. Also I will try and respond to any and all comments :))

**PS we are going to meet some new characters soon and get some brand new aesthetics!