Prologue. (1/2)

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A girl swiftly navigated through the opponents line of defenses, while still being checked. She decided to take the risk and ask for the ball. Her teammate, hesitant, but seeing out of options, put a halt to a run and passed the ball. The girl immediately started dribbling, hopping to drop her checker. Once she did, she immediately navigated into the D and got the basket. This was expected from basically everyone who knew anything about her except her name and sport.

The last training session for the District Team before the matches was wrapping up and clearly, the final selectors had a lot on their hands to go through as the only player who probably had her spot confirmed on the team, Arika, walked off while sweating bullocks from the 1 hour extra long warm up she'd taken over the match. It paid off since she did, infact, score a lot of hoops like usual. After quick pats on the back she did some stretches and stuff, which most people would usually skip. The only reason maybe the boys team, that were supposed to have the next match, asked for extra warm up was to stare at her. She didn't care. Soon, she left the latest of all the girls to home.

" Maa, I'm home! " she called out with enthusiasm in her voice, seeming pretty excited to talk about her match and day.

Her mother and father however, didn't reciprocate the warmness. She started to register what was about to come her way next.

" Wo.. Papa ka transfer revert nahi ho paya. " (That.. We couldnt revert your fathers transfer.)
Her mother broke the silence soon enough while her father returned to his call, retreating to the balcony. At first, she thought they were joking. Maybe they'd received the call from her coach about her selection and chose to play a prank. She soon found out that wasn't the case and angrily stormed to her room. 

How could her parents do that to her? While she was finally at the peak of her game? Just the thought made her want to scream into a pillow, but she held calm.  A few minutes later, her father walked in.

" Hey, Michael Jordan " he said, trying to bring a light in her mood.

She didn't want to say anything.

" Listen, we can sort your sports thing out! " He said, rather excitedly. She was still dull and didn't bother replying much other than 'hm?' 

He sighed and said, " With your talent, I'm sure you can prove yourself as a threat in the top academies of the place we're shifting to. Then its just childs play for you until you reach nationals! " 

This made her livid inside. It took MONTHS worth of dedication just to get noticed by her school team coach as a good player, and a whole YEAR to make the school team that would play ' District - Level ' Sports.

" No. " She said, quite bluntly. Her father had expected that, and all though Indian parents were notorious for not listening to their kids, this time he decided to once again, be the outlier.

" You can stay here in Delhi, you remember your friend, Shivani? The PG she stays in is run by a good friend of mine. " He hesitantly gulped out. He didn't want to leave his daughter behind in his new start in a new city, but if she thought it was the best for her sporting career, well, then whatever could he do?

She said anything. This was another thing they'd joked about; her having to live away from her parents in a situation like this. Now it had materialized, and when faced with the situation, she found no answers. Her dad tried to reassure in everyway he could that it'd be all alright. Maybe that look of reassurance and a gentle rub on the head was all that took to get it all in order.

Of course, moving in with Shivani and all wasn't easy to do, like, at all, but she managed. Through teary eyes and well-felt goodbyes, Arika found herself being comforted by her friends parents in a PG room that was pretty much an extension of someone's already built house. Apparently, that someone happened to go to their school but Arika couldn't be less bothered to figure out who it was.

She just needed a big nap.



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