A/N : May contain violence, drug use and talk of abuse.
"Are you ready for this!?" Lauren jumped up throwing her hand in the middle of the huddle.
"Yeah!" The team cheered.
"I said are you ready for this!?" Lauren yelled again pumping up her team.
"YEAH!" the team yelled louder than before.
"That's what I'm talking about! Now let's show those Pirates who we are! No mercy tonight. T A K A on three!" Lauren cheered again. "THREE!" "T! A! K! A!!!" the team yelled and then took the floor.
All the girls took the floor and for once Lauren was looking to the stands. Lauren never once looked in the stands before, if anything good came out of everything that had happened in the last three months, it was now Lauren had more family then she could ever imagine. All the families had came out to the state championship game. There seemed to be a whole section that was only family members of the team. Lauren ran and hugged Chris and Taylor before taking the court.
"Go Lauren!" "Love you Lauren!" The kids yelled after hugging Lauren.
Lauren took the court with the rest of the girls for the tip off.
"Alright ladies and gentlemen this is it, this is the game that we have been waiting for. It's the Riverton Pirates visiting the Eastdale Tigers. Let's see if last years Champions, who are undefeated this season, can pull off another win." The announcer clued everyone in.
"What a game this is turning out to be! The Tigers are down by three heading into half time as the Pirates throw a hail mary before the buzzer. The first half has been a nail biter, neither team has gotten a step ahead of the other. This is the kind of Championship game that people like to watch!" The announcer filled everyone in as the teams went to the locker rooms. "Now to see if the Tigers let Jauregui play more than ten minutes in the second half."
The Tigers took to the locker room with mixed emotions and tired legs. Lauren knew that they needed something to pump them up. Lauren really needed her team to step it up. Even though it was a fair game Lauren knew that they could beat them hands down.
All she needed was something for her team to focus on, and she had the perfect thing.
"Lauren, what are you thinking?" Camila said noticing the playful smirk on Lauren as she handed her a water bottle.
"What do you guys say to playing street ball for the rest of the game?" the team turned and looked at Lauren like she was crazy.
"Lauren are you nuts? Those guys will eat us alive." Jones questioned with at least half the team backing her.
"Think about it you guys. They know our plays. They have studied film on us, you know they have. We did on them too. So here's the thing if we go out there and run no plays at all they won't know what to do. We might be able to catch them by surprise and get a lead for a little while. Then when they least expect it we will go back to running our new plays. We can do this guys we just need to believe it. We are not the under dogs, we are the number one and two teams from last year. So let's go out there and show them why they shouldn't let the two teams join together and become one powerhouse!"
Lauren said all this watching as the girls eyes lit up and their demeanors started to change. Lauren just smiled as all her teammates started to get excited to go play the second half. Finally it seemed like things were actually going Lauren's way. All she had to do was let go of all the bad shit and things started feeling better. Lauren's thoughts went to Chris and Taylor who were in the stands tonight jumping up and down with their posters every time that Lauren went into the game. Lauren just couldn't get the two smiling kids out of her head and it was making her smile brighter too.
