The Only Promise

Chapter 6

“Ball’s up!” One of the girl’s on my team shouts. I look at it in the air and I jump up spiking it down on the other side.

Everyone in the stands cheers as I score another point for our team tonight.

The referee blows the whistle insinuating for a quick time-out.

“Come on, Ladies. Huddle up.” I say clapping my hands. I lean in the circle a little putting my arms around girl’s shoulders. I wait until everyone is huddled up. “We’re doing amazing out there. Good job communicating about where the ball is and yelling if you got it. Only a few more minutes left in this game, so let’s win now and not allow the game to backfire on us. Lady Hawks on 3.”

I lean back and put my hand in the middle. Everyone stacks their hands on top of each others. “1..2..3..”

“Lady Hawks!” We raise our hands up in the air then get into our positions waiting for the other team to get done in their huddle.

I look over at Aiden who’s benched for right now. She smiles at me and stands up with the rest of the people benched cheering for us. I look back at Hannah and wink at her for her to serve. She winks back and serves the ball. I watch it fly over my head to the other side. A girl from the other team hits it to our side and our team hits it back and forth with theirs for a while. For some reason they decided to fight back. A girl tries spiking it down where I am, but I slide down on my knee pads and hit it up.

“Ball up!” I yell hoping someone will hit it over.

“I got it!” Someone yells on my team. She hits the ball over and it hits the ground. The game ends and I get up fast. I run with everyone else to the girl that scored and hug her in a group hug. “Good job, Shannon!” I yell excitedly.

“And the Hawks win this game!” The announcer says in his microphone. 

I let go of Shannon and walk to the bench grabbing my water bottle. I squeeze on it so water squirts into my mouth. I swallow my water and take a deep breath. I line up with my team and clap the girl’s hands from the other team. I congratulate them for playing a good game.

“Well girl, you  played good.” My mom says as she walks out of the high school with me. She puts her arm around my shoulder. I pat her back.

“Thanks.”

“Kadence, hey.” I stop and turn around. I look at Derek as he approaches me. My mom gives me the look ‘oh it’s a boy. I should leave now’ and she walks away. I stare at Derek. “What do you need?” I ask crossing my arms.

“Good game you played.” He smiles.

“You’re still wondering about homecoming, right? It is a week away.”

He slides his hands in his pocket being shy like he usually is. “Yes.” He puts one hand on the back of his head scratching it. I look behind him as Aiden walks out of the high school with her grandparent’s laughing. She looks at me and realizes that Derek is standing in front of me. She knows he’s always tried getting with me. I look back at Derek.

“I’m sorry, but-“

“But no. I get it.” He says like an asshole. “I shouldn’t waste my time asking when the answer is always no.”

I raise my eyebrow and stare at him. He just pissed me off.

“Okay, asshole, before you interrupted me I was going to say something. I’m sorry, but I already have a date.” Technically, I’m lying, but I’m going to homecoming with Aiden. It wasn’t as a date really, but this will get Derek off of my ass for the first time.