Take me out of the past | Paige Bueckers

13: Brianna

Brianna was getting ready to go to the 8am morning practice, Jules was still asleep so she was trying to be quiet. She put on some black denim shorts and a blue uconn t shirt, her hair was in a claw clip and she was only wearing mascara. As she was shutting the door she heard a faint, "good luck Bri" coming from Jules, Brianna smiled knowing that by now Jules had fallen back asleep, but it was good to know her best friend wanted the best for her.

She was walking to the courts with a notebook and pen in a uconn tote back, for today she was just going to make notes about each of the girls, how practice worked and how she was going to set this documentary out and what she wants to include into it. She had her laptop in the bag too but she preferred written notes as it helped her with the whole thinking process of planning things.

She got to the gym, walking inside past all the equipment and opened the next door to reveal the court. Geno gave her a welcoming grin, Geno already knew what the plan for today was in terms of the documentary so she decided to take a seat. She was the first one there so she took the time to get out everything that she needed. All the girls erupted into the court minutes later, all but one. The tall blonde was missing, but Brianna didn't have enough time to think about that when all the girls swarmed over her taking turns to hug her and say hello. "Where's the camera bribri?" KK asked. Brianna giggled at the nickname but proceeded, "just taking notes today, filming will start next practice." KK jokingly looked annoyed, "so I got camera ready for nothing." She replied in the sassiest voice she could muster before a small laugh escaped her mouth.

"Okay girls, wait where's Paige?" Geno questioned, no one responded. "It's 8:00, if she's not here by 8:01 she'll be doing suicides after practice." Geno proceeded. All the girls looked at the clock, the hand moved to 8:01 but Paige was nowhere to be seen. Everyone was looking around, until Paige burst into the doors visibly out of breath, "I'm so sorry coach, really. Like so so so so so sorry, my alarm didn't go off, I made it though, only a minute late. Pretty impressive huh?" Paige said all at once before taking deep breathes to recover. "Fuck she's hot" Brianna thought to herself, quickly shaking the thought away and pretending she never thought it. "No excuses Paige, suicides after practice." Geno let out, but he wasn't actually mad at Paige, more amused that she had to stay behind after practice. "Coach please" Paige begged, knowing it wasn't going to help. He just ignored her and then explained the drill that they would be doing for practice.

Brianna made notes, she really wanted to capture the raw passion each of these girls had while practicing, so she noted it down, drawing an arrow away from it and labelling it with candid shots. She was writing some more things down, only noticing all the girls were getting ready to leave once they began saying bye to her. She really needed to keep writing whilst she was in the flow, until she saw Geno approaching Paige. "I can leave." Brianna said to Geno, "no it's alright, stay as long as you need." Geno answered back, continuing to walk to Paige.

"Paige, you're my star player, I need you to be on time all the time. You're supposed to be making a good example for the freshmen. Next time, if you think you're going to be late, let me know before hand. Now get started with your suicides, you can leave afterwards kiddo." Geno lectured Paige, but in a way that showed that he cared and was actually helping her. Paige took it, "thanks coach, also when can the team come round for dinner, I miss Kathy's (Genos wife) cooking." With that Geno giggled and left the court.

It was just Paige and Brianna. The silence was deafening. Paige was doing her suicides while Brianna finishing off her notes. Once Paige had finished, she began walking towards Brianna. Brianna could feel herself getting flushed and more uncomfortable every time Paige took a step closer to her until they were face to face. "Bria?" Paige half whispered. Bria. The nickname only Paige called her, the name she hasn't heard in years. Brianna tried to speak, but her mind wouldn't let her. "Look, we're going to have to see each other everyday, I know I'm probably not the person you would really like to be friends with, and I get that, I really do. But the team are getting weird about me and you, some even think we used to be a thing. Don't worry, I told them that that's not what it was but they're still suspicious. And I'm sorry." Silence fell between the two girls. "I'm sorry too." Brianna answered back looking up at Paige, glaring at her piercing blue eyes. "Are you busy right now?" The blonde asked quickly. "Not really." Brianna replied. "Wanna get food and catch up, it might make things less awkward, plus at some point we're all going to have to hang out outside of practice, and I don't want us to be all awkward in front of the rest of the team, they love you and I won't hear the end of it." Paige blurted out. "Yeah I guess."

Both girls walked to the car in silence. "Was this a good idea, probably not." Brianna thought to herself, but she couldn't turn back now.