Computers, Basketball and Love

Chapter 7

 Yesterday Nikola was supposed to speak with the head of the computer science department about the basketball tournament between the different departments of the college, but they had something come up so he wasn't able to. Today, though, he was able to pin her down and talk to her about it. "Hi Professor, I was hoping to talk to you about the department tournament if you have a few minutes."

"Yeah I have a few minutes before my next class starts. What do you need?"

"Well as you know my roommates and I plan to play in it, especially since we are the only ones that play basketball in the department among the guys. We still need at least one more and I know who I want but I need to get approval from you first," Nikola said with nervousness in his voice. He was afraid that she would say no.

"Why would you need my approval? As long as I remember no one has ever needed approval on who plays in it," the professor asked.

"Well... let's just say that this is a special circumstance. You see, the person I want is actually a girl. I looked up the rules of the tournament and it doesn't say that it has to be all guys. I am also pretty sure she will say yes. There is just one thing. If you say yes to this, when she plays everyone will think that she is a guy."

The professor was intrigued, "Why will everyone think she is a guy?"

"She plays with a friend of hers from another department, who is a guy, regularly. In fact, my friends and I have played against them more than once. She is better than me. She even beat me at a 1v1. However when she plays she disguises herself as a guy because she is afraid that they will stop playing with her."

"I see. I'm guessing she has experienced that in the past." The professor paused for a moment then added, "If she disguises herself how did you find out she's a girl?"

"I tried to recruit her to the college's guys basketball team. So she had to explain why she couldn't be on the team."

"And she's in our department?"

"Yes. It's Cora Lee."

The professor looked shocked, "Isn't she the one that won that beauty contest?"

"Yeah. Her friend entered her in that. She didn't want to."

"If you can convince her to play in the tournament, then you have my approval. And she can disguise herself if she wants to, but she doesn't have to. If she wants to play as herself that's ok too. I don't see why girls haven't been a part of the tournament before anyway."

"Thank you professor." Since he had the professor's approval he went to his dorm to tell his friends. Once he was back at the dorm he told his friends the good news. They were all excited and agreed that they were sure to win. Now he only had to ask Cora. He hoped that she would agree to it. He also hoped that she wouldn't be mad that he told the professor her secret.

The next morning he and his friends got to breakfast first. This was the first time the guys got there first. He saw her when she walked in the cafeteria. He could tell that she had just taken a shower, her hair was still wet. She must not like messing with a blow dryer. He couldn't really blame her, she did seem to have a ton of hair.

Her beautiful ginger hair fell in waves down her back. It stopped just above her butt. She hadn't put makeup on as far as he could tell but she didn't need it either. She wore a pair of tight black pants with a curve hugging sweater that was white and black cowboy boots.

This time of year it was starting to get colder outside but she didn't seem to mind. That told him that she probably grew up not far from here. Not to mention the way she dressed today shows that she grew up in a farming community, which there was a lot of around here.