Conditioning The Heart

C h a p t e r 9. Wins and Win-Overs 🥳👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏾

It's the end of halftime we're tied. We head out of the change-room and back onto the court. I make eye contact with Zeke and he gives me a thumbs up. I smile and send a thumbs-up back at him.

I can hear him cheering during the game and it makes me smile every time I hear him. I hold my head a bit higher and make my back a bit straighter as I walk onto the court feeling confident. My team is hyped and ready to work hard to pull off a win.

The referee blows his whistle for the other team to inbound and the fight continues.

It's now the end of the third and they are up by 4.

Coach Leigh is writing furiously on the board, telling us what we need to do. I see all of the girls are soaking this in, I just hope we can pull it off. Deep down I know we can win, we are still in this but we need to step it up this quarter if we want to.

I feel the nerves start-up in my stomach and I look over in Zeke's direction. It's like he feels my gaze, as he turns his head to me almost instantly. He winks at me and makes a silly face. I laugh quietly at his antics and it distracts me from my nerves. I smile at him and turn back to the board, as my nervousness fades away.

2 minutes left and we're down by 2 again. I strip the ball from the opposing player and rush down the court for a fast break pass to Sam who gets the layup.

We're tied now.

The other coach calls a timeout and we head to our benches. Our coach tells us to run our press and when we get out there that's exactly what we do.

The other team has the inbound on their side and we set up our press. I pressure the inbound, Clarke covering the right side and Sam covering the left. Our other 2 starters are in the backcourt.

The inbound goes to the left side and Sam immediately crowds the girl who has it as I rush over to double-team. We manage to get her to panic and hold it and I rip it out of her hands. I rush to the basket for a layup and we're up by 2.

1 minute and 30 seconds left.

We play hard defence and offence for the rest of the game, intercepting their passes, and Clarke hits a clutch, contested 3 to make our lead up to 5. The clock winds down and we did it! We won!

I hug my teammates, elated that we won. We line up for the handshake and I lead them in cheers. We go to the change-room and our coaches give us their little spiel. Once they leave we all let out a big cheer.

I get changed and head out with Clarke and Sam, once we are out I immediately look for Zeke. I see him standing against the bleacher's laughing with Ellis and Justin. I walk over and he splits off to come to me.

Once he's close enough I squeal " We did it!". He smiles at my enthusiasm and lifts me up in a bear hug, I hold on tight and he spins me around. When he puts me down I smile big at him.

" Thanks for today, you really helped me. Your cheers from the sideline made me smile the whole game" I thank him.

" No worries, Linnie. You're a great player and I'm glad I got to watch you again" He replies.

" I'm glad you were here," I tell him, looking into his eyes. I startle when I feel butterflies in my stomach. But these are different from my nerves. These feel... right in a weird way.

"I have the best news for you. But you can't tell Sam. It would ruin the whole surprise" He says.

" I promise. What is it?" A whole range of ideas are going through my head and I don't know what it could be.

He lowers his voice " Ellis is going to ask Sam to semi". I gasp. That was not what I was expecting. But I am so happy that it's gonna happen.

Our semi-formal is in 2 weeks and basically it's a school dance where you get to dress up and party with your friends. I was hoping Ellis and Sam would go together and now that it's happening, I am way too excited.