When Kara's best friend, Maver, moves in with his brother she isn't happy about it.
Logan is nothing like Maver. He's straightforward, crude and just an overall menace. With a complicated home life, a complaint-worthy school atmosphere and Logan's a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Basketball had always made me feel great. The way it got my blood flowing, the energy I let out during it and the satisfaction of doing well were my main drives to play. But, with Coach cheering me on with a twinkle in his eyes from the sidelines, it was hard to focus on only that. Suddenly I wanted to play and I wanted to do more than win; I wanted to make Coach proud.
I'd never had anybody watch one of my games. Maver didn't like basketball. My parents never even bothered to pay attention. I couldn't handle Maver's parents coming to my games because, back before the things about my parents went public, it started rumors about Maver and I dating.
Actually, they'd said we were in an arranged marriage. I could still remember laughing at that with my teammates after the game. Mary would always bring along wedding dress catalogues to cheer us up if we'd lost a game. We'd been a pretty tight knit group.
It's amazing how quickly people turn on you when your parents kidnapped a kid and they think that you knew about it.
None of that mattered at the moment. All that mattered was when Coach's eyes and mine would meet after I made a great play. He looked so happy, so supportive. It was as if seeing me play was the highlight of his coaching career. Instead of putting pressure on me it focused me tenfold.
I had my heart in the game for the first time since everything had happened. Left and right I was making passes, snagging rebounds, setting killer picks and whenever I got the chance I'd line up the ball and shoot. Even the girls couldn't say anything cruel about me this time. I wasn't playing for just myself like I had been. I was playing to make Coach proud of not just me but the entire team.
Even when the game had finished my heart kept beating like crazy. I lined up with the rest of my team noticing the lack of mildly annoyed stares that they'd usually shoot my way. This time they were all grinning. Even I was grinning. It felt good to smile and not worry about someone trying to wipe it off my face.
We passed in a line past the other line of teammates, our hands out gently slapping them along theirs telling them 'good job' and 'great game.' It had been a great game, and not just because we'd won. We'd actually worked like a team. . . . well at least at the end there. The beginning was a little rough but that just happens sometimes.
"Great game girls," the head coach urged us a final time after finishing the after game wrap up. "Keep playing like that and we may have a shot at sectionals."
I gazed down at my sneakers, tying them up with more concentration than needed. It was all I could do not to smile at Coach Matthers. Every time I looked to him it seemed like our eyes just had to meet and butterflies made a home in my stomach. It had been a long time since someone looked at me like they were proud of me and the feeling made me bubbly beyond words. It was a feeling I didn't want to lose.
"Kara," my name was called out to me and I turned to see Mary approaching me, Cristy at her side. "Can you talk a second?"
I looked up through my red hair, no longer pretending to be interested in the knot on my shoelace. Loop, around, under, pull. That's the way to do it. Maver always argued to do it the bunny ear way but I never liked that. Bunnies on my shoes? That's just unrealistic. "Yeah, sure." I straightened up and set my basketball shoes in the duffle bag that Coach and stashed in his truck for me. He'd realized that I always forgot mine. "What is it?"
