overtime | clark & martin

twenty-two.

"Look!" Jessica says as she skips over to Caitlin who was warming up on the sideline. She holds up a Seattle Storm jersey with the number 1 on it. She flips it over to show the Muhl on the back and Jessica is beaming as she shows off the jersey, "I am now the proud owner of a Nika Muhl jersey!"

"Congratulations," Caitlin tells her, "You are one step closer to being less annoying!"

"Ha," Jessica responds as she folds the jersey neatly, "Don't be mad because Nika is awesome."

"I'm not mad about that," Caitlin says with a laugh, "I'm just amused that you're out here collecting jerseys."

"Hey, people started giving them, I just accept them. Soon I'll have a jersey collection that I will show to my children who have no choice but to be exactly like me and love basketball," Jessica states.

"Oh really? How many kids are we having?" Caitlin asks.

"I'm having two, a boy and a girl. You're having as many as you and Connor desire," Jessica says with a fake smile. Caitlin laughs as she continues her warmup. Before the game, Caitlin comes over to the sideline and holds her hands up.

"Ten me?"

Jessica laughs as she high-fives Caitlin, "Good luck."

Caitlin smiles and winks at Jessica before taking to the court.

The game starts and things are fine until Seattle goes on a run taking an early lead. Caitlin was doing good, driving to the basket and easily getting by her defenders. But on the opposite end of the court, Caitlin was getting easily outmuscled by her opponents, something that was evident when Jewel Lloyd backed Caitlin down and scored easily.

Caitlin hits a quick step-back jumper and points over to Jessica as she runs down the court. Jessica gives Caitlin a dramatic thumbs down which makes her laugh as she gets back on defense. The action doesn't go unnoticed by one of the Seattle players who looks over at Jessica and then back at Caitlin with a smile on her lips.

In the second quarter, Caitlin comes off of a screen set by Aliyah, knocks down the three, and heads down the court. Victoria Vivians, who had been guarding Caitlin and had also observed Caitlin's sideline glances, bumps into her.

"You're not shit, Rookie."

"I just scored on you," Caitlin says, "Shut the fuck up."

"I bet your girl over there doesn't think you're shit either-"

Caitlin steps closer to Victoria, "Don't speak about Jessica-"

Victoria smiles, "Jessica huh? Maybe I'll go tell her what a bit-"

"You know what-"

Aliyah comes over, her arms around Caitlin's waist as she drags her away from the other player. Victoria is laughing as her teammates come over and try to take her away from the situation. The referees stand between the two women, preventing the situation from escalating any further.

"She was talking about Jessica!" Caitlin explains to Aliyah.

Aliyah looks at her confused and then over at the sideline, "Jessica? Why would she be talking about Jessica? Why do you care she's talking about Jessica?"

NaLyssa comes over, "What was that?"

"She was talking about Jessica?" Aliyah says confused and NaLyssa's eyes widen.

"What did she say?" NaLyssa asks, "Actually it doesn't matter. You honestly should have hit her-"

"No, she shouldn't have because then she'd be ejected," Aliyah says, "Let's keep our heads leveled, okay?"