Angel Full of Flowers

❁ 10 ❁

After all the girls had introduced themselves, Zinnia assigned everyone positions. There could only be five people on the court, so because there were ten of us, there would be two games.

"Camellia, you'll be going in first as a power forward."

My eyes widened in disbelief. I knew that everyone had to have a turn but I didn't want to go first! "I-I don't think you should put me in yet!"

Zinnia gave me an expression that made me zip my mouth shut. This was horrible! I planned on watching the other girls play first just so I could get a good idea of how this game operated. We only knew as much as Zinnia had explained to us. I wept on the inside. The other team seemed to have quickly established their positions as well. Zinnia yelled at us to get out on the court as soon as possible. I hastily went to fill up my water bottle before the game began.

Coming back from the water fountain, I saw a plethora of girls come in through the front entrance. My palms were beginning to sweat. From the corner of my eye, I spotted a blonde.

A-Angel actually came?! And he brought a bunch of other girls with him to watch! Oh great, now I'm going to make a fool of myself in front of the whole student body.

"Camellia," Zinnia smacked me on my back, "look alive!"

I felt the air completely exit my lungs. I set my water bottle down on the side of the bench and nervously walked to where Zinnia had told me to on the court. Most of the girls were shorter than me, but at the end of the day, that wouldn't matter.

I took a peek to see if Angel was watching. He was intently smiling directly at me. I quickly looked away. Gah, he's going to make fun of me for years to come!

Zinnia, and what I assumed was the co-captain of the Lunacrest varsity basketball team, both faced each other in the center circle. My ears rang as the crowd began to roar. There were three minutes before the game began.

I looked at Iris and she gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up. I gave her an anxious smile in return.

3...2...1... start!

The buzzer went off and the referee threw the ball up. Both Zinnia and the other girl sprang off from the ground. Zinnia smacked the ball first. The shooting guard from our team took the ball and moved down the court. I watched as the other team stole the ball away from her and started to run to my side.

I panicked, not knowing what to do. But at that moment, I remembered what Zinnia had said about how the power forward's job is to muscle out buckets and fight for rebounds.

Right as I was about to make my way to retrieve the ball, I tripped over myself and fell hard on my face.

Zinnia yelled, "Stop making out with the floor and get up!"

I peeled my face off from the floor to find that the other team had made a score. My whole face was on fire. I could hear the crowd laughing, including Angel. He seemed rather content. To be honest, it actually made all my worries disappear. If I could at least help him forget about his horrible birthday, then maybe I wasn't such a failure after all.

I stood up and dusted myself off. The game began once again and they accidentally passed the ball to me. Someone shouted for me to run, so I did.

The referee blew the whistle. "Violation!"

I stopped, confused. Zinnia walked up to me and said, "You're supposed to dribble the ball while you run, not carry it."

I scratched the back of my head and nervously chuckled. She sighed and patted me on the shoulder.