The bus driver hit a bump in the snow riddled road, causing me to jump a bit in my seat. Louis’s head flopped off my shoulder, waking him up. He sighed.
“Are we almost there?” Louis asked running a nervous hand through his messy hair. I slapped his hand away and went to fix it myself.
“About five minutes,” I said. I stood up and pulled out mine and Louis’s warm up jacket from the overhead compartment and then handed him his duffle bag and got mine too. He smiled.
“Thanks,” He said. I nodded sliding my jacket over my head and then pulled my long brown hair out the neck hole.
“Alright we’re here,” The bus driver said pulling into Roo’s House (that was the gym) at SUNY Canton Collage. Coach stood up and the bus fell silent.
“ Okay kids, errr, I shouldn’t really call you kids, most of you are driving…. But anyways, go in there and play your hearts out. Ya’ll hear me? give them hell,” The boys and I clapped as Coach Todd took a drink out of his water bottle, “ Where’s Hannah?”
“Right here Coach!” I said standing up.
“ Girl, just so you know, they’re gonna be on you like a cat on a June bug. They somehow got a hold of a tape, they know you like that out side shot.”
I nodded and sighed.
The bus had gotten there about an hour early so we could have the gym to ourselves with no Heuvelton boys and no spectators. I’m not gonna lie, we probably looked like a bunch of crazy people, all singing and dancing to different beats, taking free throws and threes, but you know we’re just cool like that.
Coach called us over and we huddled around as the Heuvelton boys arrived.
“Okay….,” Coach begin flipping through the book, “ Hannah shooting guard, Brandon center, Cody small forward, Ryan power forward, and Louis point.”
I didn’t like the idea of Ryan starting, I mean he is good enough but I liked the way Brandon and Caleb worked together.
“All right kids we‘re starting soon,” Coach Todd said.
“Saints on three,” Brandon said putting a fist in, the wrest of us following, “ One, two, three….”
“HEY!” I screamed as someone slapped my butt. I turned around to see one of the Heuvelton boys looking back with a smirk on his face and whistles filling the air as they ran warm up laps.
“YO! WHAT THE HELL MAN?” Louis hollered after him.
“What man? She’s hot!” he said. I held Louis back.
“He’s just trying to get inside your head,” I said into his ear. I pulled him back into the group.
“you okay Lou?” Cody asked.
“Fine,” he muttered.
“Saints on three,” I said, “ One… Two… Three..”
“SAINTS!” we all said on time.
The whole gym had filled up quickly and they even had to put chairs down on the floor and a lot were standing.
“Gah!” I gasped running into the middle of our little group.
“What’s the matter?” Brandon asked, “ A lil nervous?”
“Yeah a bit.” I said looking up at him, he put an arm around my shoulders.
“You’ll be alright babe,” he said with a bit of a laugh.
“Easy for you to say,” I grumbled taking a drink from my Gatorade bottle. The warm-up clock buzzed in the background.
“All right!” the announcer from the division D-league said into the microphone, “ as spectators at this game, we are here to be supportive of our friends and family, so please respect the refs and that means you Saint Regis Falls.” he said looking into the crowd at the people from our town. I laughed a bit, he was right our people could get a little… a little… rowdy to say the least sometimes.
“And now the starters from Heuvelton! Kyle Allen, Corey Labounty, Even Nichols, Jared Nichols,” Twins, they have twins? How the hell does that work?
“and Andrew Constancio!” the boys came out high fiveing each other and hugging, “And the starters from St. Regis Falls! Louis Goodrow, Cody Lane, Brandon Votra, Ryan Duquette, and Hannah? Hannah Caller!” The announcer scratched his head looking at the paper with my name on it. I rolled my eyes slightly as I ran past him, getting high fives and hugs.
Standing on the court, I quickly recognized Corey as the boy who slapped my butt, but it seemed that I was the only one who had.
“Hannah! Number 37!” coach called from the sideline.
No freaking way.
I thought walking slowly to stand beside Corey. Louis pursed his lips from the opposite side of the half court line.
“Sup sexy?” Corey said. I didn’t look at him, instead I stared strait ahead, “Playing hard to get?” Corey came to stand close behind me. I pushed him away.
“Back off twat!” I yelled, pushing him backwards.
“Hannah! FOCUS!” Coach yelled from the sideline. I smirked and waited for the ref to start the game. I tuned out Corey. I tuned out the crowed. I tuned out the other coach who was screaming at his boys.
Our coach stood silent on the sideline, he knew that he didn’t have to tell us what to do. We all knew our jobs, we knew what had to be done. My head was completely blank and I couldn’t hear a thing. For the next 120 minuets time stopped.
Swish.
I screamed jumping up and down as the ball bounced off the hardwood floor.
“And the Saints take home another win!” The man over the loud speaker said.
Louis ran up to me, taking me in a big hug and twirled me around as cameras flashed around us.
"Hello front page babe!" Louis said setting me down, I smiled up at him.
“That’s my girl!” Coach said high fiveing me.
“St Regis falls will be back here at 6:00 next Friday for the section 10 championship against Madrid-Waddington." The voice in the microphone said.
