Penetrate |Nika Muhl|

back it up

Julien's POV:

It is Tuesday.. the first day of practice and I can't wait to be able to play with the girls BUT the nerves are just now hitting me, all at once. It also happens to be 30 minutes before practice starts which is the worst timing considering I'm about to shit myself.

Margo walks into my room and freezes in the door watching me pace back and forth trying to ease my nerves, "Hunny, calm down it's all going to be fine" she says while grabbing my shoulders and stopping me in my place.

"Paige and Nika will be there and you know Geno will make sure you know everyone, it'll all be fine" she says as I take a deep breath. "Thank you Margo" I mumble as she pulls me into a quick hug.

"Let's get some food in you yea?" She says as I nod my head as we go to the kitchen to make a quick breakfast. I eat my food before heading over to the gym. When I walk in I see everyone standing there just talking to each other.

The freshman are in a group and the returning players are in another group, I kind of stand there for a second not knowing who to go up to when all of a sudden Nika turns to look at me.
Paige notices where she's looking and smiles in my direction.

"Jules!" She yells out causing me to start to make my way over  "hey" I mutter before finally settling next to Nika, I glance over and send her a small smile before everyone starts to introduce themselves. "You're Julien Barker right? 6'2 forward that played for South Carolina State right?" A freshman who I just found out was Ice Brady asks making me nod my head.

"Yea, that's me" I say softly as Nika nudges my side, "she's really good, I looked at some clips when I heard she was transferring here" she says making a smile form on my face as I glance down at her.

"I agree, she's really good" Paige says making my face flush at all of the attention that is now on me, "I'm not all that" I say while awkwardly rubbing my neck. "girl boo" KK says while staring at me, "no need to lie girly, we all know you're a certified baller" she continues as everyone lets a laugh out.

I laugh too, I can already tell that KK could be dead serious but still make the whole room laugh. "Yea Julien, just own it" Paige agrees making me throw my head back with a groan when all of a sudden we hear a whistle.

"Start stretching girls" Geno says as we all look over at him as she walks into the gym "we'll do introductions after but I don't want yall pulling anything" he continues as we circle up to stretch.

Once we finish up we all sit around to do introductions so we can all get to know each other, "yall already know me, im KK and im from Wisconsin" she introduces energetically.

"Im Nika and im from Croatia" Nika says considering she's next to KK, "I'm Paige, from Minnesota " Paige says making us all look at her with a 'be fr" face as she tries to make a straight face before we all burst out into laughter. I happen to be sitting next to Paige so once we catch our breaths I introduce myself as well.

"I'm Julien, South Carolina" I say as some freshman look at me out of realization, we continue introductions before Geno stands up.

"Yall wanna do a scrimmage? Just so yall can feel out how you all play" he says as some cheers leave our mouths which makes a smile form on Geno's face.
"Alright, Nika and Paige are the captains, rock paper scissors to choose who gets first picks" Geno says before walking over to the side with the rest of the assistant coaches.

I bite my lip out of nerves as I see one of the coaches bringing out some basketballs, Paige and Nika stand in front of us both with focused looks on their faces.

They do rock paper scissors and Nika wins making her look over at us, "Julien" she says making a small smirk form on my face when I see the teasing look Paige is giving her. I stand behind her, the team picking continues until there's nobody left.

Nika's team has me, Ice, and Qadence . Paige's team has Aaliyah, Ashlynn and Aubrey on it, Geno gives both teams a ball each and we get to warm up a bit and think of strategies. We each have one side of the court to practice for a bit before the scrimmage actually starts.

Ice and Aaliyah are doing jump ball and Aaliyah wins it. Paige comes down the court with Nika on her I call out a screen once I see Aaliyah making her way over to them making Nika sneak past her to keep up with Paige.

Paige goes to pass the ball to Aaliyah who went back to her previous spot on the court but I see it and quickly jump ahead to get the steal, I run down the court and make a layup before jogging back down.
I see Nika smiling at me and when I walk past her she bites her bottom lip before opening her mouth to talk "time to back your game up yea?" She says before we see Paige coming back up with the ball.

Qadence and I switch who were on when a screen gets played, I'm now on Aaliyah and Qadence is on Aubrey who is literally running around the court trying to get open as opposed to Aaliyah who is a bit more relaxed.

I calm down a bit, trying to read the play as the coaching staff all cheer for us trying to amp us up. Aaliyah makes a layup which I huff out at in frustration.
I take the ball out and pass it to Nika who quickly brings it up the court. I see that they're in a man defense so I try to move around as quickly as I can.

Aubrey was on me and she seems to be trying to double team Ice who passes the ball to me as I make a three as the girls on my team hype me up.
The game goes on for a little while longer before Geno wraps it up, our team winning by 4 points, he has us stretch a bit more so we're not too sore in the morning before he ends the practice.

I go to grab my bag that I had put down when I hear a voice call out my name, I turn and see Nika walking out of the locker room and coming in my direction. "You did really good today" she says once she sees that she has my attention.

I feel my face heat up a bit before I say "thank you, so did you" she smiles at the grimace on my face from having to take the compliment. "Paige and I were going to go get frozen yogurt so i was wondering if you'd want to come" she says as I finish up putting my hoodie and putting my backpack on.

"Uh sure I'm down" I say making her smile at me, "we might invite the other girls too but some of them left already and we don't have their numbers yet"

"Oh I have most of theirs" I say while pulling my phone out as she looks at me with a shocked look, "what.. Geno gave it to me in hopes I wouldn't be so awkward when I got here" I say shrugging of her surprise.

I text the girls in our group chat and tell them to meet us at sweet frog, and that we were doing like some team bonding and telling them to see if they can text whoever isn't in the group chat. "Okay so that's perfect, I'll text everyone to meet us as sweet frog. You drive right?" She asks as I nod my head.

"Cars out front" I say as she looks back at the locker room and then back at me, "do you think I could ride with you" she asks making my immediately agree. "Of course, are we going right now?" I ask making her look down at her phone.

"We were planning on all showering and stuff and then we can meet up" she says making me nod my head and look down at my phone so I could text the rest of the girls, "bet" i mumble before looking up.

"Do you need a ride to your apartment or do you wanna shower at mine, I have some clothes that might fit you" I ask as we start making our way out to the parking lot.

"Oh, I don't want to be a bother" she starts saying before I cut her off, "you aren't being a bother, we're going to the same place anyways after so I don't mind" I explain as she bites her lip. I can't help but look down at her lips as she thinks about what to do.

By the time she realizes what she is going to say we've already made it to my car, I unlock it and open the door for her to get in. I make sure everything is clean as I get in on the drivers side. "We can shower at your place if you're sure it's fine" she says making me nod my head as I pull out of the parking lot.

"I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't comfortable with you being there babe" I say before glancing over to see a slight flush on her face before she turns to look out of the window. i pass her the aux, letting her pick the music as we make our way to my apartment.

(AN: How is it so far yall? I'm not mad at it tbh, it's coming together 😛)