Oh Ms Believer

1. Samantha

"Go Samantha!!" I heard as I made my way down the court dribbling the ball. I passed it to my teammate who lined up and made the shot. Swoosh!! Three points! We were now ahead of the opposing team by a measly one point. We had to win this. If we win this, we move on to the finals. The championship!

We lined up at centre court and I waited for our team captain and centre to take the tip-off. She'd either pass it back to me or Charlie. I looked at Andrea and looked for the subtle clue as to which way she was going to pass the tip-off. I indicated to Charlie to be ready. It looked like Andrea was going to pass the ball her way. Charlie nodded.

The ball was tossed and Andrea tipped it to Charlie who passed it to me. I dribbled down court a bit and passed the ball back to Andrea. She passed it back up court to Charlie who passed it back down court to Karen. I set myself up under the basket and Karen passed the ball to me. A player from the other team rammed herself into me trying to knock me over. I quickly passed the ball over to Charlie who took it up court just a bit to pass back to Andrea, who passed to me. I set myself up and took the shot. It went in on the buzzer! We won!!! We are going to the championship!! We met mid court and celebrated, giving high fives and whooping it up. Mom and Dad came running onto the court and Dad wrapped me in a huge hug.

Rosie climbed into my lap and wrapped her arms around me.

"Spin, Sammy!" She demanded.

"Okay, Peanut. Hold on tight!" I said to her. She tightened her arms around me. I grabbed the wheels of my wheelchair and spun us around, both of us laughing. Junie was laughing and kicking in her carrier on Mom's chest. Mom came over and hugged me too.

"Great game, sweetheart," she smiled. "I'd kiss you, but you are a disgusting sweaty mess."

I laughed. It's true. I was sweaty. And a mess.

Once we were done celebrating we went to the locker room to start getting ready to go home. Some of us showered at the arena where we played basketball. Some waited until they got home. I showered here. It wasn't that hard. I pulled my crutches out of my locker, got undressed and wrapped a towel around myself, then used my crutches to get to the showers.

I washed my hair, rinsed and then dried off and crutched back to my locker where I went about getting dressed. I didn't bother bringing my prosthetic leg to basketball. I play wheelchair basketball now in a rep league. At school I was allowed on the school team with my prosthetic. I'm not really sure which I prefer to be honest. And both the league and the school would allow me to be seen by scouts. Unfortunately, a professional career might be out of the question. I'm not even sure a college team would take me. But if they have a wheelchair team, I have a chance. Dad says I shouldn't focus on sports to get into college and that my grades are good enough. He doesn't think I'll have a problem getting any number of academic scholarships. I'm not even in my Junior year yet, so I have time, but I'd love a sports scholarship. Just to sort of prove, mostly to myself, that I can do it.

"Okay, Hornets!" Our coach said, rolling into the locker room. "Great game! Joseph, nice shot at the buzzer! Andrews! Great tip-off! Carson, get the lead out next game, huh? What did you get your wheels made of? Cement?"

We laughed. Coach Saunders was tough, but fair. And if she gave you a what for, you deserved it. And Karen Carson had been moving slow today.

"Sorry coach," she said. "Not feeling great."

"Get some rest, I don't need a first-stringer making herself sick. We have two days off until the championship game. I want to meet for practice Thursday night at our usual time. We should be ready for Friday night."

We'd be playing the Cleveland Cavs, another wheelchair basketball team in Ohio. If we win the championship, we might get to go to a national competition. I'd never competed on this level. It was exciting.