Her and the Basketball Champion

chapter 5

"What the fuck dude!"

I am going to seriously murder the person who's mowing the grass at fucking 9 am. Like, who willingly gets out of bed and thinks 'oh, today I'm going to give my lovely overgrown bush of a garden a haircut while the whole street is sleeping because I want to'?

I drag myself out of the comfort of my bed and zombie walk towards my window, squinting out to look for the culprit of my bad mood.

It seems the person has now run away, sensing the danger, because there's no one out there. I can't be imagining this, right?

Well at least they've stopped thank God Almighty for that.

I sigh, now wide awake, and grab my phone from my bedside table seeing two messages from Lily.

I'm picking you up today.

Be ready. I'll be here in 15.

What the heck was she doing up this early? She never wakes up at nine, especially on a weekend, and never picks me up. We usually just meet up.

I shrug and make my way to the bathroom, stripping and climbing into the shower whilst tying my hair up into a bun so it stays dry. I hate having my hair wet under my hijab. It makes me feel like I have a brick on my head.

I switch on the shower and stand there with the hot water pouring all over my body, making me nearly fall asleep standing up.

I scrub myself with the pomegranate body wash that smells too good to be true and quickly make wudhu before I turn the shower off, stepping out and wrapping myself up in a towel. I stand there for a good five minutes just staring at myself in the mirror and snuggling up in the towel. What? It's comfy.

I hear a door open and resolve it's probable Lily. I gave her a key a while back when I needed her to get something from my house when I was out and she hasn't given it back. I don't mind because we have like fifty keys in this house anyway. Plus she's my best friend, so no explanation needed.

I open the bathroom door and start to make my way towards my room, greeted by a figure lying on my bed.

"Dude, I need to get changed, and I'm not doing it in front of you." I say, pulling Lily by the arm in an attempt to throw her out of my room so I can change in peace.

She stands up and guides me towards the wardrobe, pulling out my favourite pair of baggy khackis and a long sleeved nirvana shirt. Throwing them on the bed, she turns to grab my leather Doc's from the corner of my room and throws them on my bed too.

"Get ready and hurry, we need to be there in 10, and I don't want you to miss it." She urges me towards the bed and I frown.

" What the fuck is going on. What's happening that's so important at nine thirty in the morning on a goddarn Saturday. I'm tired and have already had a stupid neighbour blowing up the garden with that ugly lawnmower of his." I groan out and jump on my bed, falling face down onto the warm blanket.

Lily winks and replies with a smirk.

"You'll see, now hurry up or we'll be late."

She leaves and I take it as my cue to change throwing on the clothes that she picked out and tying up my laces. I keep my hair in a bun so I can put on my scarf hat.

I look through my drawer and find a perfect beige scarf which matches my trousers, and adjust it on my head and pin it up pulling the longer side up over my head and around the side again.

Managing to not make myself look like a toad face, I apply some pink vaseline onto my lips and some eyeliner to my eyes before heading out the door with my phone in hand.

Lily's probably waiting downstairs as she's nowhere in sight, and as I walk down the stairs, I see her standing by the door with her shoes on and a hot cup of tea in her hand. She probably ran to the cafe on the way here, knowing I will need my much loved fix before doing anything.

"Ugh yes thank you, you're my saviour."

"You can thank Jesus when he comes to save us all, but right now we need to leave. The game starts in literally five minutes."

I pause and wait for her to explain what game but she turns and steps outside into the windy air. I rush to grab my black north face puffer and follow her out the door, closing and locking it behind me.

No-one seemed to be up yet as it's a Saturday, so I send a quick message to my mum telling her I'm out for the day with Lily.

She'll see it when she wakes up. She needs her sleep as much as me with all of the stress she goes through at school.

I stride up to where Lily has already walked off and grab her arm, halting her steps.

"Can you tell me what the fuck is going on now. You're lucky that I trust your ass at all otherwise I would have kicked your face in if you came this early for God only knows what."

"Chill. We're going to a basketball game at the court where we were a few days ago."

"Why?" I slowly reply, raising my eyebrows at her bland replies.

"You'll see. Now hurry up. God you're such a slow coach."

"That's probably because I'm trying to think of creative ways to whoop your ass."

"Trust me, okay?"

I huff out a mumble and follow her around the corner to the familiar cafe and we round another corner, turning off the road to the big courts where there is a massive crowd of mothers and fathers along with some people our age who I don't recognise standing around the edges of the fence, clapping as the basketball team run laps around the court, likely warming up before their game.

We stop next to some kids who look like they don't want to be here, and I feel for them, because I really don't as well. I don't get the point of this trip but I wait for some action before complaining again.

"Why the hell did you bring me here?"

Lily sighs and turns to face me. "My brother is coaching this game today, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for you to set your sights upon Jonas. You know, the guy u said was hot?"

I recall.

"What makes you think I want to be here. I don't even know the guy. If he sees us he'll probably think we're stalkers, always showing up when he's playing. Plus, he doesn't even know who I am so that makes it worse."

"That's why I brought you here, dumbass. You can get to know him and then it won't be weird when you come to one of his games. Plus he knows my brother is the coach so he won't be surprised I'm here. He'll probably just think I'm here to cheer on Luke and brought a friend with me. No harm done." She replies.

Well she clearly thought this out.

"Whatever, Professor. You do know the rules though right? In fact I'v told you them countless times."

"I know, I know but It's not like you're doing anything haram. You're only coming with me to a basketball game, standing very far away from boys."

"Have you ever heard of anything called intention. Yeah that still counts my dude."

She shoves me forward so I face plant into the fence and I turn around pulling her towards me so she face plants too.

I laugh out loud and turn towards the courts, instantly locking eyes with Jonas. Well now he knows I'm here. Lovely.

He's laughs, as he watches me step back from the fence and glance up at Lily who waves out her hand to greet him. He probably saw that whole interaction and thinks we're crazy now. Turning to look at her, he waves back turning around again to stand in line with his teammates.

A whistle blows and everyone falls quiet, waiting for the coach to speak.