OUR SECRET SPOT-Paige Bueckers

PART 1

"Rowan! Have you seen this shit?!" Maggie, Rowan's best friend, teammate, and roommate screams, running into her dorm room. Maggie was a blonde, small, girl, but she knew how to through a punch. She was tough, and ruthless. Almost the opposite of Rowan. Rowan was brunette, tall, and extremely shy. It took her some time to open up to people. Maggie sat on the edge of Rowan's bed, gently dipping the mattress as she shoved the phone in her face.

"What am I looking at?" Rowan asked, confused. "Girl read the article!" Maggie said, as it was the most obvious thing in the world. Rowan snagged the phone out of the blondes hand, scrolling through the article, reading it closely.

As we're getting closer to this upcoming season, let's recognize our star players! For woman's, we have Paige Bueckers and Rowan Koros. These two UConn stars have been breaking records since high school. Both attending Hopkins High School in Minnesota, the two have been fighting for the spotlight since the early days. Rowan Koros, shortstop, for UConns softball team-

Rowan stopped reading, she flung the phone down and looked up at her best friend. "If this is another article comparing me and Paige Bueckers I don't wanna read it" she huffed, crossing her arms. Her and Paige Bueckers have been compared since high school, and they didn't even play the same sport.

Maggie shrugged her shoulders, taking her phone and walking out of the room. Rowan felt bad for flipping out on her but she truly couldn't stand when she brought up those articles. She also couldn't stand the name Paige Bueckers being brought up, forcing the girl back into her mind. Her and Paige had history, a lot of history.

The two girls were both competitive and amazing teammates, they both knew how to play their sport, and they played it well. The hustle never stopped, both earning Softball and Basketballs Gatorade Player of the Year, multiple times in high school. They were brought together by friends, forced to hang out, multiple times in high school. Paige seeing it as an opportunity to make a new friend while Rowan just thought of it as Paige trying to through her off her game and be competitive.

Paige's mind thought that she could confine in the girl, since they both had a load of pressure on them, they could talk about it with one another. Paiges questions to Rowan made her think Paige was trying to sabotage her, trying to get her mind out of the game.

Something Rowan never knew was that Paige actually used to have a little crush on her.

Rowan snapped her thoughts out of her head, Paige Bueckers was the only person who could easily make Rowan's mind go crazy, making her overthink and play poorly. Rowan never knew why the girl had that effect on her, it was weird, but for some reason she just did.

Rowan flipped open the book she was currently reading, 'better than the movies' by Lynn Painter. Rowan was the biggest romance book nerd someone could ever meet. She never told anyone she liked books though, she was to afraid someone might judge her and laugh at her. Instead she liked to read alone, or at night when she knew everyone was asleep...

Rowan flipped through her book, trying to focus on it. But her mind was in a different place, on a different certain someone. Paige. The frustrated brunette rolled out of her bed, slipping on some sweats over her pajamas then sliding out her dorm. She walked down to the softball field, the only place that she felt like she could truly be herself. She always found peace at the field, she loved it.

It was pitch black outside, the turf lights gently shining down on the girl. Rowan payed down in the middle of the field, tossing the soft yellow ball up into the air, for it to be pulled back down by gravity into her hands. She could feel a slight drizzle coming down on her, she sat up pulling her hood up. She walked over to the batting cage, grabbing a knife, some grip, and her batt.

She sat down in her original spot, back on the field. She ripped the grip from the package, wrapping it around her batt. She grabbed the knife from her side and began to cut the grip. "Fucking grip" she growled, frustrated it wasn't cutting. "Ow!" She yelled, she looked down at her hand, a 2 inch, long, deep, cut, filled with red blood covered the side of her hand. Her hand slipped while trying to cut through the grip, the knife cutting her instead. "Shit" she cursed at herself, grabbing her hand and holding it to her chest.

The rain coming down hard as she stood up. The headlights of a car, shined on her as a white jeep pulled up to the field. She could hear the car door slam and footsteps running. She couldn't quite see who it was, the light was flashing in her eyes, blinding her. "Your gonna catch hypothermia with this rain, what are you doing out here so late? Do you need a ride or something?" A girls voice asked. A tall blonde stood in front of her, blocking the light from her eyes. There she stood, mother freakin Paige Bueckers.

Before Rowan could respond Paige loud mouth opened again, "holy shit Rowan! Your hand!" Paige gasped, staring in shock of her hand. Rowan rolled her eyes, crossing her arms "im fine." She huffed. "Uh no your obviously not, your gushing blood. Let me help you" Paige said, taking a step closer. "I don't need your help" Rowan said coldly, taking a step back. "Are you sure, cause it sure does look like it." Paige said, finally looking up from her hand and looking into Rowan's green eyes.

"Come on Rowan, I'll get you out of here" she said, nodding her head to her car. Rowan caved, walking along with her. They kept their distance, hopping in the car, the blonde started the windshield wipers, then looked at her. "What happened?" She asked. She actually sounded concerned, "none of your business" Rowan said, staring out the window. "Did someone do this to you? Tell me and I will kill them!" Paige's voice turned low, she didn't sound like she was joking.

"No idiot, if your nosy ass must know, I was cutting my grip and accidentally slipped and cut myself" Rowan said blankly. This was a normal conversation between the two, insulting each other and teasing nicknames. For some reason it felt different, Paige wasn't doing it back. "Rowan! I need to take you to a hospital or something-" she went to say, "no, no hospitals!" Rowan almost screamed, jumping at the word hospital. She hated that word, that place, everything about it. When she was nine, her grandpa had an accident and got rushed to the hospital, he never came out. Rowan cried for a month straight. Ever since then she hated hospitals, the depressing rooms and nurses that tried to cheer you up.

"Okay okay" Paige said softly, holding her hands up. "What were you even doing out here in the first place?" The blonde softly asked "What were you doing out here?" Rowan snapped at her. The two fell silent, Paige pulling out of the parking lot. "Sorry, I just I hate hospitals, I have a bad memory of them from when I was younger." Rowan said, looking down at her hands. She didn't know why she was telling Paige this, she never told anyone this. She wasn't the type of girl to open up to you immediately, she was quite the opposite, and kept to herself.

"Don't be sorry, I understand. So have you uh seen that article about us? Pretty weird right? How they keep comparing us, I mean we don't even play the same sport" Paige laughs, trying to make conversation. Rowan nodded, looking out the window, she really wasn't in the mood to talk and was not feeling well. She lost a lot of blood. Paiges hand gently picked up Rowan's bloody one. She placed their hands on the center console, she then gently squeezed it. Rowan winced at the pain, Paige squeezed her cut hard.

"Dude stop!" Rowan whined, attempting to pull her hand away, "look if you don't apply pressure to it, then it will keep bleeding and you'll lose even more blood. I'll let you put your on pressure on it" Paige said, letting go of Rowan's hand and placing hers back onto the steering wheel. Rowan didn't want that, for some reason she wanted Paige's hand holding hers, it felt comfortable, and energetic at the same time.

Rowan's intrusive thoughts taking over, as she reached her bloody hand over to Paige's, she peeled it off the steering wheel, intertwining their fingers. "No I like it" was all Rowan said. Paige hid her soft smile, as Rowan turned her head away to look back out to the window. Their hands felt so natural being together, it was weird.