the girl - kate martin

0 - prologue

raegan brunson was ranked #1 in minnesota before she moved. her dad got offered a job coaching for college of charleston in charleston south carolina. her family packed up their things and moved away from their friends and family. she worked to regain her title as number one in the state. she quickly became #1 in the state of south carolina and #3 over all for her graduating class. she got offers from uconn, south carolina, duke, virginia tech, ohio state, notre dame, indinna, ucla, and lsu. she thought about lsu and notre dame, but ultimately decided on her dream school, uconn. she would be joining the #1 in the country, paige bueckers and she was excited. the next generation of huskies looked very promising. she played her freshman year with uconn breaking records set by her mother and others before her. she and paige were competing for best on the team.

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2021-2022 season.

her sophomore year started off strong. they were on a 6 game win streak. uconn vs iowa. they were going against competitors like caitlin clark, who was #2 in her graduating year, kate martin, molly davis, and gabbie marshall. iowa was making their team known in 2022. she knew the game was going to be tough. she dribbled the ball up the court and looked at the clock. there were 2:31 seconds left in the third quarter. iowa up 57-54.

she quickly passed it to nika, who passed it to ice. she shot the 3 up and it bounced off the rim going the opposite direction it was supposed to. raegan jumped up in the air trying to catch the ball against Iowa guard, kate martin. their bodies colliding in the air. raegan secured the ball
came back down to the ground and immediately felt pain from her right ankle to her hip. she quickly passed the ball to nika who was unguarded as she fell to the ground holding her knee. the blonde girl's feet helped brace the impact on the back of her head.

nika leaped up for the 2-pointed and it swished in. the support for her head was removed as kate martin backed away to run down the court. expect raegan didn't get up. she lay there on the ground, clutching her knee. kate subconsciously looked over her shoulder to see if the guard had followed her up the court, but instead, she saw her lying on the ground. kate glanced at the uconn head coach, whom wasn't even paying attention to the girl lying on the court. kate quickly ran back over to the uconn girl and bent down.

"are you okay?" she says to #12 on the opposing team. rae slowly opened her eyes and expected it to be nika or ice, but instead, she saw a glimpse of a yellow jersey and what looked to be kate martin. even though kate feet helped her head, she still felt like she was spinning. she heard a faint whistle and noticed a ref looking down at her. "i think i tore my meniscus, again." the brunette said, a tear running down her temple. raegan had torn her meniscus her junior year of high school, but fortunately, it healed quite quickly, or so she thought. "do you want to get up or lay her?" kate says, softly. before she could answer she was met with nika, geno, a ref, and paige. she heard a faint conversation between paige and kate.

"she said she thinks it's her meniscus," she blonde says to paige.

"dammit, we need her." paige says, running her hands over her face.

"i didn't see it happen, i was trying to get the ball at the same time. i think my feet helped brace her fall though. her head hit them." kate says smoothing her ponytail.

"thanks martin," paige says looking over at the iowa bench. "it looks like your team is calling you over."

"okay. can someone tell me what happened to her, i just want to make sure she's going to be okay." kate breathes, looking down at the girl sobbing and clutching what was now her ankle and not her knee.

"of course," nike says looking up at kate, she had been down on the ground with raegan, holding her hand.

kate nods and jogs back to coach bluder and the rest of the hawkeyes.