I locked hands with Blake as we made our way into the college basketball court of UCLA. I turned up the music on my phone to tune out the questions that were shot at us. I walked into the locker room. Blake gave me a kiss goodbye before going out to the stands. A lot of WNBA stars were here. I sat down next to Skylar Diggins. She gave me a wide smile and hugged me. I took a look at the jersey they had for me tonight. I looked in Skylar's locker. We were on the same team. I looked at the number I had. I smiled.
"You're the only person in women's basketball history to have the number 66." Skylar said. "Why do you have that number?"
"Its my dads old baseball number. Its my lucky number. I've had it ever since I was in middle school." I explained. She nodded. I quickly changed. I put on one of Skylar's headbands to be matching with her. I looked at myself in the mirror. I thought about taking my piercings out, but decided not to. Skylar and I headed out of the locker room to take pictures with fans and sign autographs. Right when I walked out of the tunnel, I saw a fan made sign of me. It was a drawing of me with all my tattoos and piercings that were visible with my jersey on. They also had my glasses on that I wear when I'm not wearing contacts. I thought I looked like a nerd, but my fans seemed to love them. I walked up to the fans that were holding the sign. They were wearing the cancer t-shirts for the cause. I felt behind my ear. Behind each ear, I have cancer ribbons tattooed. I've lost an aunt, two uncles, and a grandfather to cancer. Each ribbon stands for each cancer they've had.
"I like your sign." I said. The youngest girl's eyes widened. I felt tears come to my eyes when I saw her. She was too young to lose her life to cancer. "Do you mind if I give you a hug?"
She nodded her head. I smiled. I opened my arms. She came into them. I held her tight, but not too tight.
"Do you guys want a picture?" They all nodded. A lady who was with the group of young girls ran down the bleachers to take the picture. I stepped down when she was done. She pulled me to the side when I tried to walk away.
"Thank you." she said. I nodded my head. I didn't realize it until now, but I made those girls' day. I walked over to center court. It was almost time for tip off. Skylar was tipping off with Maya Moore. I crouched down and jumped back up. I bent my knees and waited for the tip. Skylar won the tip and hit the ball over to me. I waited for everybody to pass and threw the ball to one of the college students.
Its the third quarter. We're winning by six. I took the neck of my jersey and wiped the sweat off of my chin. I ignored the fact that I pulled one of my lips piercings. The other team inbounded the ball. I backpedaled to the other end of the court. One of the male college players on the other team went up for a dunk. I went to block it. He overpowered me. I fell to the ground. I felt something pop out.
"Fuck!" I screamed out in pain. Skylar knelt down beside me.
"What's wrong?" she asked as she grabbed my hand.
"I think I dislocated my hip." I cried out. I squeezed her hand tighter as the athletic trainer turned me on my back. Skylar nodded. She bit her lip as the trainer put his hand on my hip. I shook my head. I didn't want them to put my hip back in place.
"No!" I cried. "No! No! No! No! I'll play with a dislocated hip. You're not putting it back in place! No!"
Skylar waved her hand at somebody. Next thing I knew, Blake was kneeling beside me and he was holding my hand as tight as he could. The trainer pushed at my hip. I screamed out as I felt it pop back into place.
"Do you want to continue playing?" the trainer asked. I shook my head as tears of pain rolled down my cheeks. He nodded his head. They stood me up. I couldn't walk because of the pain. Blake picked me up. He carried me over to the bench. I watched in pain as my team led the way to victory. Skylar walked over to the bench. I opened my arms. She lifted me up. I wrapped my arms and legs around her. She carried me over to the sideline reporters.
"Ally, knowing your past with this deadly disease, what does this win mean to you?" one of them asked.
"I won it for the people suffering. Each game I play, I dedicate it to them. They're the reason why I have motivation to get up and go through the day." I explained. "This is the least I could do."
"What does it mean to be wearing black at this event? Your team's jersey is black and we know very well that you make it a point to wear black every day and every game."
"Yeah, I do. The reason why I wear so much black is because of what the ribbon means." I moved a strand of my hair up and showed the ribbons to the reporter. "For each color or pattern ribbon there's a certain meaning for it. Many have more than one reason. The black ribbon stands for the those lost in 9/11, mourning and remembrance of the of the Virginia Tech massacre, black lung cancer awareness, there's so much, but the main reason why I wear it is because of the suicide and any form of self harm awareness. That's the one that's most important to me. I'm not just some selfish, full of hate goth girl. I actually care. I wear it for a reason."
~~~~~
Hey guys xx
So I'm sick again. I tried to update earlier, but I was making myself physically sick with stress from a project that's due on Tuesday. My Spanish teacher expects us to write about about a famous person in Spanish speaking countries history, the essay written in Spanish with words that we haven't used or learned yet. He also said that if we use Google translate that he will fail us on the spot. And, he'll know since Google translate doesn't give the words that we learn or will learn in the future.
I hope you guys like this chapter. If you guys wouldn't mind, could you please give me some feedback on this book so far?
Have a nice holiday if you guys have Martin Luther King Jr. Day off. Be safe, but have fun.
Story time: I was watching a little boy earlier so his mom could handle her other kids. He and his siblings are foster kids and they're really troubled. This little boy is developmentally behind for a two year old. He doesn't know at least some colors, which he should at least be learning them by now since he's almost three. I was sitting with him while he played and I was pointing to things and saying the color of them. After I was done I asked him about a few of the objects that I named and he was able to say the colors with the responding objects. I was so proud of him and I thought I should share since he wasn't able to do that before.
REMINDER: A chapter with smut is in the future. I think its about 10 more chapters before the smut. If that changes, which it might, I'll let you know. I'll have an author's note at the beginning of the chapter to indicate that the smut will be in that chapter and I will have stars (*) at the beginning and end of the smut so you can just skip that part if you desire. Again, the number o chapters before the smut might change, and I'll let you know if it does.
xx
Hydie Linn
