Forever Is Now

Asked And Answered

Author | pov

It is 10 a.m. and the entire Athena High School netball team has been running through drills and plays for the past 3 hours for the 2 p.m. game. It's the senior's last game for the school and the anticipation is high. Both the coaches and players have high expectations, one for a difficult game because the team coming today has won 7 games in a row and because the spectator turnout is expected to be high.

"I'm going to puke," Daphne says holding onto Alliyah for support.

Noel looks at Daphne and laughs, "From what? Nerves or exhaustion?" She asks.

"Exhaustion. I couldn't give a damn whether we win or lose, I just want it to be over," Daphne says and stands up straight when the coach calls them to go through one last play.

Out of all the girls, Noel is the only one who expressed interest in playing netball in university. Tiffany, Alliyah, Mackenzie and Daphne are not interested in the sport as much as she is.

"Okay Ladies gather around!" The assistant coach yells from the locker room that the entire team was using for today.

The girls stand and face her, the head coach steps foward and clears her throat. "Girls. You have carried yourselves this far, it's time for one last game. For some of you, it's the last game of your lives. And for others, this is the game that gets you recognised. One thing in common, it means something to all of us and that's why you have to play like you mean it. Thank you for a beautiful season. 12 wins out of 15 games is the reason why I'm proud to say I'm the coach of this team. I'm not going to say some cliche about enjoying yourselves, that's something you were supposed to be doing all along. This is a good team we're playing against, don't take this game lightly. What I will say is, don't play like you could lose, play like winning is the only option," the coach claps and the team follows. She walks out of the lockers.

The assistant coach steps foward, "the match starts in an hour, you only have 45 minutes to relax and get your heads in the game," that's all she says and also walks out.

Throughout the head coache's speech, Mackenzie's phone had been vibrating in her hand and when she looks at it she sees Wayne's name as the caller ID. She walks out of the noisy locker room, into a hallway and answers her phone.

Hello Wayne

Hello Kenz, how are you?

I'm okay, what's going on?

She found it odd that he is calling her right now. They were supposed to see each other in a few minutes because he said he was coming to watch her play.

My mom is in town.

That's great, I know you missed her.

I didn't say all that but yeah, I'm glad she's here.

I'm guessing you're not coming today.

Being more of a statement than a question. A wave of disappointment ran through Mackenzie but she was not going to tell him that. She immediately bows her head and looks down.

Yeah, she leaves tonight. I offered to her back to the airport.

She looks up and sees Steven walking towards her. He is looking right at her and she shifts uncomfortably, knowing that every time they've spoken, Steven was not very understating of Mackenzie's desire to be as far away from him as possible.