style | p.parker

xii

𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗩𝗘!

𝗜𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗙𝗧𝗛 𝗦𝗘𝗧. midtown's game against south carolina has gone all the way to a fifth set. neither of the teams have won by a lot in any of the sets- so this last game really is a toss up.

the score was 21-20, with south carolina in the lead and they'd been playing for nearly an hour and a half.

"come on, guys, we can do this! we've put out all out here on the court. we got this!" aristyn cheers. something deep down inside her knew they weren't going to win, but aristyn kept going.

aristyn could feel the sweat in her hair but she walked confidently to the back line to serve. she hits the ball against the ground three times before spinning it on her palm three times, then she serves.

the serve goes deep to the back lines before the libero on the other team passes it up. aristyn can tell it's not a great pass and the setter has to move to the ball. she watches as the setter sets it straight to kaleena.

it seems as though time slows for aristyn. she watches kaleenas body angle for a cross shot, directly towards aristyn. taking a deep breath, she readys her hands and moves towards the net. kaleena hits the ball and as it's about to hit the ten-foot line, aristyn manages to pass it up to cecelia.

cece sets the ball to maddie as though they've read each others mind. she backsets it fast straight into maddies waiting palm. kaleena, who should have been blocking, was still recovering from landing out of her hit and forgot. a passer on the other side manages to touch it but they shank it out of bounds winning midtown the point.

the team erupts into cheers. they've never seen this before. maddie hugs cecelia and when they pull away, aristyn notices they're blushing.

aristyn serves one more time but after a long rally they lose the point leaving south carolina in the lead 22-21.

it continues to go back and forth for a while with the gap staying the same and neither team being able to get more than one serve in a row.

the score is 27-26 with south carolina still in the lead. one of their players serves and aristyn receives it. it was a low serve so she had to dive which made the pass a little rocky but cece got it anyway.

𝗖𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗔 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗔 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗢 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘. she could set left to matilda, but she does cross shots right to the other teams libero. if she set middle to lena, that would leave the other team with a hole in the middle for her to tip but she wouldn't be able to hit. then there was maddie. maddie was right behind cece which would require a near perfect backset in order for maddie to hit the ball properly. since the pass was shaky this might be hard and she has a higher chance of being blocked.

in the end, she sets to maddie. cece would always choose maddie especially in a tight situation like this.

she sets high and back. maddie understands and tips the ball right over the blockers but the libero picks it up. it was then, when the libero makes the pass that cece realizes picking maddie was the wrong choice.

𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗜𝗘 𝗠𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗨𝗣. she knew it.

madeline knew she should've never called the set, she never should've tipped it or played it safe.

the libero dives and picks up the tip and it's a free ball over. it's straight back so cecelia is forced to pass.

"setter out!" the team calls, which leaves maddie to take the set.

now, maddie has never been very analytical. she thinks in the box, goes with the easiest and best practical option that will get the job done. so, she sets middle. maddie trusts lena and she's the easiest to set. it's a little rocky but lena manages to chip it.

the chip goes straight into the block. maddie doesn't think she's seen aristyns face become so determined until now. she dives, hand outstretched.

she barely gets the ball up but it's up nonetheless. cecelia makes a pass to outside where matilda is. it's a short pass and tilda pushes it over.

the other teams middle jumps up and smacks to ball right to the middle of the court. aristyn, still recovering, throws her entire body towards the ball. she makes the pass, but it's far away from cece.

"help!" cecelia calls and tilda runs to get the pass but she just barely misses it. the point goes to south carolina, and midtown loses.

𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗬𝗡 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗦 𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗗𝗥𝗢𝗣. she knew this would happen. it would be all her fault because she's not good enough.

"you guys played great," she tells her team, sucking back tears. ranking in the top eight out of fifty wasnt bad and the rest of her team did great. aristyn knew she put her all out on the court but it showed that her all wasn't enough.

cece recognizes her distraught and takes over, "hey, guys, we did great. we fought and we almost won. it was a long five sets and we pushed through the entire time. i'm really going to miss this team but we'll see eachother again. coach actually had something to say."

coach nods, "thank you cece, and aristyn, i could not have said it better. you all did amazing and should be proud. since we placed top ten, we were invited to a volleyball camp back here in dc! the trip will be sometime at the end of this year, after club, so hopefully you all come back with new skills to show!"

this relieves aristyn a little bit, they still get to play together- it's not completely over.

yet something inside aristyn tells her it will be a while until they get to play again.

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗦!
cece and maddie povs???
MY TAYLOR SHOW IS TOMORROW AHHHH

enjoy!

edit: i fixed a bit of the coach's speech because i needed to change the plot as i have better ideas 👍🏻