A week later, the funeral for Jessica was held and every teacher along with most students were there. The school had given students an optional day off after the funeral which most of them took. A lot of teachers took the day off too.
The day after was a fight to get out of bed and go to work but Kaycee knew they had to. They had to get back to normal.
"I have to do this Chase. I can't just let the girls go, they need somewhere to go and someone to come to. I know I'm grieving too but we're all doing this together," She tried to explain as she got her coffee ready.
"I know. Just be careful with them, they're fragile still,"
"We aren't?" She sighed, leaning against the counter, "They need normalcy. It's not gonna be the same but if we have to spend the first few practices crying, I don't care. As long as we're all together,"
He nodded and handed Adeline to her before kissing her head, "I'm gonna go get ready,"
She nodded and sat with the baby, playing with her and smiling a little at her sweet little laugh.
It took a few minutes before the 3 of them were out the door and both dropped Adeline off before heading to school.
They didn't speak much in the car or at school for that matter. A lot of the classes were mostly talking and Kaycee honestly let her students play on their phones for half of the class but they made it through.
Practice started immediately after school and for the first time in a week, and she was happy to see all of her players make their way in and sit on the bleachers.
"Alright girls, let's circle up," Kaycee called, waiting for all the girls to come over. "Sit,"
All of them sat as well as Maddy and Kaycee on the gym floor.
"Alright. I know it's weird here without her. So we are going to spend this practice, as a team, talking, crying, and working out our emotions. And if we get angry, we take it out on a ball," she explained, looking around at all her players, "Anyone have anything they wanna say?"
Silence fell over the gym, leaving the AC vents to be the only sound.
"I miss her," Sadie spoke quietly, keeping her eyes trained on her hands in her lap.
"Me too," Jamie said as she grabbed Sadie's hand and gave it a squeeze.
"This is rough to go through girls. It's hard on you, it's been hard on us too. But like Kay said, we're gonna get through it together," Maddy nodded, "So we can dedicate this season to her. Jess wouldn't want us all in here crying for her. What do you think she'd say to all of you right now?"
"Get off your lazy asses and get moving," Sadie said, letting a little smile slip as she thought about her best friend's favorite phrase.
"Alright so do we want to do some drills or do we want to talk?" Kaycee asked, looking at all of her players.
"WWJD," Sadie spoke up, looking at her team, "What would Jess do?"
Kaycee smiled at her and nodded, "Alright, circle up. We'll start easy,"
They all got in their circle and started to pass the ball back and forth, even pulling Maddy and Kaycee into it. By the end of practice, the girls were smiling, laughing and the team had adopted a new phrase, "What would Jess do?"
