They Could Care Less

18: The First Basketball Practice

"Come on, Thea! Run after it! Get it!" Damon screamed from the sidelines and cheered her on while Thea with a sweaty forehead ran after the ball that went flying across the court, again. They had been doing this for less than twenty minutes and it was just the warm up, yet Thea felt like she was about to die.

"God, I'm out of shape," Thea whispered under her breath and kept running next to the boys.

"Better keep up, Smith," Hussein Jamal slowed down his sprint to whisper to Thea before he ran right past. Thea had learned that Hussein was actually quite a decent guy, he liked to comment on everything that people said and often made people laugh by doing so. He either made you really happy or really annoyed, there was no in between.

"Jamal's terrible at motivational speeches, I'm aware," Ethan suddenly joined her side with a grin and not even a single sign of being out of breath. Thea noticed how he slowed down his pace, just for her.

"You think? He's great at it if you ask me," Thea sarcastically panted and grinned back.

"Smith! Çelik!" Damon shouted, bringing their attention to him. They both turned their heads and stopped, Thea thanked Damon in her mind for the small break, her legs felt like jelly. "I didn't tell you to stop running!" Damon barked. Ethan and Thea instantly picked up their sprint again and Thea's calves were on fire. "Less chatting, more running! I want that ball in your hands!" he shouted and they increased their speed.

"You are incredibly fast!" Ethan breathlessly complimented her while taking deep breaths.

"I am?" Thea questioned. She sat down on the floor against the wall and downed the cold water. The water cooled her down and she felt like she was in heaven, it felt better than coming home to your bed after a long tiring day.

"Yeah, it's a shame you didn't get the ball. Better luck next time, Smith," Hussein joined their conversation.

"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not..." Thea mumbled with her heart pumping out blood faster than she would imagine humanly possible.

"He's definitely sarcastic," another team member said from the benches, taking big gulps of ice cold water.

"Jamal breathes sarcasm," Jackson chimed in and bent down to tie his shoe laces tighter. Thea looked over at Hussein for confirmation, he simply shrugged before he went to refill his bottle.

"Alright team, we have a upcoming match soon. We need to be on the top of our game! Understood?" Damon walked over and knelt down in front of them. Thea closed her eyes to get her heart rate back to a normal pace, but Damon had other things in mind and wanted to continue from they left of as soon as possible.

"Ten Weave In Weave Outs, then we do Box Drills for two minutes!" Damon shouted and looked out on the court, Damon had neatly placed cones across the court and the sight of the distance between them made Thea want to pass out.

"Come on, Smith. You can do it," Hussein helped her up on wobbly legs before they together walked back out on the court. Thea really wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not.

Thea slowly started to walk across the court towards the female locker room. Everything from her hips down felt like they were on fire, her muscles were screaming in excruciating pain and Thea couldn't even imagine the pain she would have the day after. The boys were loudly chatting about some party that Thea could not care less about, she just wanted to get back to her dorm and sleep.

"Hey, Texas Girl!" a voice that Thea knew belonged to Jackson called for her. She looked up and saw a big orange round object fly towards her face, instinctively she caught it before it hit her and she heard the boys go quiet.