Teacher's Pet

Chapter 15: The Game

A/N I was sooo close to seeing them in concert :( But my dad won't drive me the 2 hours to Lakewood, OH so I can see them :| 
And P.S. Sorry if you guys don't understand the basketball part. I tried my best to get as descriptive as possible. But it still might be difficult to understand if you don't know the sport.

There are 5 minutes left in the game and it was tied. The Lady Cougars have the ball and are desperately trying to get the ball into the paint for a lay-up. My girls are on them, though. It's man to man defense. They couldn't get the ball through so they called and set up for a play. I tried to yell for the pick but Lauren couldn't hear me over the crowd. Lauren and Nadia double teamed the girl with the ball which left one girl on their team open. She passed her the ball as she ran to try to lay it up but I ran over and jumped in front of her and fell. The foul was called on me for blocking. As we were setting up for her to shoot free throws the referee's blew their whistles, again. I had fouled out the game.

As my team clapped me off I felt myself tear up. When I sat on the bench, I felt the first tear fall. It's my senior year and not only am I on the bench the last minutes of my final season, as of 10 seconds ago it's my fault we are losing now. She made both shots and now they were leading by 2.

As they game went on we made shots and so did they but they were still leading by two. With a minute left it was their ball. They did a bad pass and Lauren was able to steal the ball away. Nadia took off running and as they got to the basket Lauren passed her the ball and Nadia made the shot. The game was tied again and the Cougars had the ball again. Their point guard just dribbled the ball near half court until the clock hit 10 seconds. Then they quickly ran through a passing play which left a girl open long enough to shoot a 3 point shot at the buzzer.

She made it.

I hung my head and felt the tears leave my eyes. After we told the team good job we silently walked back to the locker room. Our coaches came in before we changed to cheer us up but then handed the floor to me and Nadia. She didn't know what to say so I cleared my throat and started.

"We played our asses off today ladies. We didn't win the championship but we had one hell of a season." I started to tear up again looking at my teams sad faces. I took a deep breath and continued.

"It's me, Nadia, Lauren, and Aaliyah's Senior year so this was the last game of our high school careers as well. But from all the work we've done we know y'all can make it next year. Keep us in mind next season and remember that we have faith in y'all." 

By then tears were streaming down my face. Nadia wrapped her arm around me and spoke after a small silence.

"Y/N is right, guys. And we do believe that you will make it. So, how about one last "Hard work"?"

Everyone gathered in a circle and put our hands on top of one another's. 

Aaliyah yelled, "Hard work on 3!" 

Then Lauren did the count off. 

"One! Two! Three!" 

Then for the last time we yelled, 

"Hard work!"

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Even though my parents were at the game they knew that I would want to spend tonight at Nadia's house with her and Lauren. So after we left the locker room I went out to the front doors to hug them and my siblings goodbye. Then I started to walk back to the gym to find Nadia's parents so they knew I would be with them. On my way there, though, I saw the one person I didn't think was going to show up.