The Secret

Chapter 17

Sky POV:

The last few weeks have gone by pretty fast. Senior day happened and Dorka's parents couldn't come from Hungary so the whole team walked out with her instead.

Then we played in the Big East tournament and won that. Then two days ago we played Mercer in the opening round of the NCAA March Madness Tournament and beat them and today we play UCF, who should be better known as UFC because they play dirty the whole time.

My dad has already told the team to look out for each other because they will play dirty. It's also our last time playing in Gampel this season and the game is sold out so it's going to be a crazy atmosphere.

During warmups UCF was already trash talking us but we just ignored them. We are the team that doesn't talk back, instead we just go out and play and winning is all we need in order to answer to them.

About halfway through the first quarter we are losing 11-7. Paige is dribbling the ball up the court and as soon as she crosses half court she gets cornered. I run towards her so she can pass me the ball since I don't have a defender on me, but then the UCF girl grabs the ball, but Paige grabs it back. So they are both fighting for the ball.

The ref blows the whistle and calls a jump ball but neither of them are letting go. Instead they are aggressively trying to rip the ball out of each other's hand.

I run over to Paige with Evina by my side and separate them. Evina grabs Paige and walks her away from the girl, as Paige starts hyping up the crowd as Evina is holding her.

Dorka and I start yelling at the UCF girls which causes the refs to give both teams a warning and if anything else like this occurs, it will result in a technical foul.

"Paige, Sky get over here right now!" My dad yells which makes both of us walk over to him knowing we are about to get yelled at.

"What was the point of doing that Paige" he asks looking at her

"You said they play dirty. And they have all game. They literally pushed Aaliyah to the ground and she didn't have the ball. I'm not letting them push me around. I'm fighting back." She says slightly annoyed

"Ok then Sky why did you have to go start a fight with the girl" he asks turning to me

"Because I look out for my teammates. They've been trying to reinjure her leg this whole game dad. I'm not letting that happen" I say meeting his gaze

"Whatever. If either of you two do something ridiculous again you're sitting on the bench. Understood?" He says sternly

"Yes coach" we both say before getting in position for the inbounded ball.

The rest of the game UCF continues to play dirty but we fight back, not letting them get to us so easily. We end up winning 47-52. Paige had 9 points and I had 15.

It wasn't the prettiest of games but we pulled through and got the victory.
——

Paige POV:

After the game we head back to the dorm and change into pajamas. The rest of the team comes over and we all decide to watch Frozen in my room.

"Where am I supposed to sit?" Nika asks looking around my room at everyone on the floor

"There's room on the bean bag next to me" Azzi says from next to me which makes Nika walk over and plop down next to her.

Sky and I are currently in the best spot in the room, my bed. Which honestly at this point is our bed because she doesn't sleep in her room anymore. But everyone else is spread out on the floor with blankets or sitting in a chair they brought from another room, or sitting on the bean bag.

"You want the blanket over us?" I ask turning to sky. She nods her head yes so I reach down to the end of the bed and pull the blanket over the two of us, as Evina hits play on the movie.

About halfway through Sky cuddles up closer to me, resting her head on my chest with her arm wrapped around me, so I gently rub her back.

A couple minutes later I notice she actually fell asleep, which is understandable because she has definitely been over working herself during the tournament games. She feels like she needs to be perfect or else people will think she doesn't belong on the team.

I try to reassure her that she deserves to be out there just like the rest of us but she doesn't believe me.

I kiss the top of her head and go back to gently rubbing her back as I focus back on the movie.

At the end of the movie Nika starts singing along to the songs at the top of her lungs. Normally I would be worried that she would wake Sky up but I've noticed whenever Sky is super exhausted she won't wake up to anything unless you shake her multiple times.

"Is she asleep?" Christyn asks standing up once the movie ends and I nod my head yes

"There's no way she slept through Nika screaming" Evina says

"Yea she's a deep sleeper" I say laughing quietly

"Ok you guys are so cute I need to take a picture of you two" Amari says coming over to the bed and taking a photo us.

After she takes the photo she tells everyone else to get in the frame, for a group selfie, so everyone gathers around the bed, being quiet not to wake Sky and Amari takes a picture of all of us.

"Can I post that on my insta story?" Amari asks looking at me

"Yea go for it" I say. Normally I would've said no when Sky and I wanted to keep our relationship more private, but now since we are being more open about it, we don't mind photos of us cuddled up being posted.

Amari sends us all the photo and we all end up posting it on our stories. It's a really good photo, I really like it. Plus Sky looks super cute in it all cuddled up against me.

Shortly after, everyone leaves and goes back into their rooms leaving Sky and I alone. It's already 12:30 in the morning so I decide it's best that I go to bed too since the next few days will consist of a lot of traveling for March Madness.

I am nervous though. I'm nervous that I'm going to move wrong and reinjure myself. I'm nervous that I'm messing up the offense by being back in the lineup. I'm also nervous to shoot the ball because I don't want to land on the defenders feet below me and get hurt again. But I also don't want to let the team down when they need me, so I don't know what I'm going to do. I have to get out of my head.

I look down at Sky sleeping and smile softly to myself. I don't know what I did to deserve this girl but she is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I never want to lose her.

"I love you" I whisper as I kiss the top of her head and close my eyes, letting sleep take over me as I hold the girl I love most in the world, in my arms.