✅ My Sister's Problem

133. Game Over

As we resumed the game, there were people all around cheering for every move. This wasn't any kind of event that people would have heard of, so I was sure that the majority of the crowds were people who played themselves. They knew when we were playing well, and I guess that we were good enough to impress plenty of the casuals. Of course, Hugo was good enough to get anyone cheering, or gasping in awe. But I liked to think that I was getting better as well. And Nadine was really getting into the game now, starting to be competitive.

"About these secrets..." I taunted Hugo with a smile, as I returned from recovering a wild ball that had somehow escaped the court.

"A bet's a bet," he said. "You know that. Meghan knows that." I glanced over and saw Meghan standing with Niall and Lindy. That explained why she was here, anyway.

"So what do we do?"

"If you win, I'll tell you what's the biggest secret I haven't shared with you yet. If I win, you do the same. I don't know what secrets we've still got, but..." He shrugged and moved away, ready to resume the game. And then I knew that he would expect me to share a real secret. There was no getting out of this one. And I couldn't think of any secrets that were even close to the things I'd already told him; so we had to win this one.

The score stayed close. I think in the whole game, we were never more than four or five points apart, and most of the time the difference was only one or two. And that was where we were up to coming to the close of the game, running back and forth, desperately trying to adapt our tactics faster than Hugo could see through them. And then I saw an opening; one tiny weakness. I darted to the left, changed course, and turned around. Passed the ball across to Marco on the opposite side, and waited for Hugo to shift his focus over there. Hugo ran towards Marco, and Nadine shifted to mark me. But they weren't moving quick enough, and when Marco passed straight back to me, I was ready to take two steps and then shoot from where I was standing. It was a high shot; Hugo was halfway between me and Marco, too far away to intercept; and Nadine's instincts were honed for hockey, meaning that she didn't think to jump until a crucial fraction of a second too late.

We all held our breath as the ball danced around the rim of the hoop, and then fell through. The crowd cheered. We were a point ahead; and that was all we needed. With only a minute left, this would be the end of the match. And even with the weird teams this time, it felt like I had finally proved myself against Hugo. I gave him a smile as we restarted; and double-checked that Marco was watching the basket. There wasn't time for anything complex now, all we had to do was stop him getting a long shot in.

We all started to move at once. I kept my eye on Hugo, getting closer while staying between him and the hoop. A weaved side to side, determined not to let him past me. And then he passed, low to the ground, and I didn't dive in time. Nadine managed to catch the ball this time, and I couldn't tell if that was luck or judgement. But she was too close to the hoop; behind us already, because we'd been focusing too much on Hugo for the last minute. And I realised that she hadn't had the ball for several minutes now; Hugo had been getting us to focus only on him, and that had to be deliberate.

Nadine took the shot, but missed. The ball bounced off the backboard, and then came right back down. But before we could guess which way it would bounce, Hugo was already there. He caught it in one hand, and passed it straight back to Nadine to take her shot. We all knew that he could have scored then, and there was nothing we could have done to stop him. But he wanted to let her get the point, and it only seemed fair to let her have a chance. She stepped closer, sighted on the hoop slowly, and then tossed the ball like she was repeating the exact sequence of movements they showed in some book. It wasn't fluid or natural, but it was good enough.

Two points. And then the game was over. My first instinct was to congratulate my friend; and I could see from the look in her eyes that she would be back to play with us again. She'd finally picked up what Hugo tried to teach her, and I knew that I would enjoy testing my skills against her as she got better. But before long, my attention was back on the spectators, and their chant of "Secret! Secret!"