One Shots

gym | kyrie irving

The rest of the girls met me inside the gym since it was freezing outside. We usually practice out there, no matter the weather but today it was below freezing so we decided to meet in the gym.

I sat on the bleachers and stared at the basketball players, running up and down the court. They had fifteen more minutes before their gym time was up. Their practice goes from 8am to 12 and it was 11:46. I bounced my legs up and down, trying to stop myself from being impatient.

"Girl chill." One of my teammates, Dijonay, said before smacking her gum. She looked just like the girl from the Proud Family with the same name. That's so ironic.

"D I'm chill. They just need to hurry up." I looked down at my white cheer shoes then up at the court. A couple dudes were sitting down, causing the coach to yell at them.

"I wish Sweeterfield would." I said, referring to our cheer coach. The coach got in the boy's face, yelling. You could see they didn't like each other. "I would've slang that bitch." I said. D laughed while we watched the scene unfold.

"Go sit with the cheerleaders. You got something in common with them." The coach pointed at us. What that tall ass dude got in common with us? I put my hand on my cheek, thinking of what he could've meant. "Y'all some bitches."

I leapt up before putting my braids in a tight ponytail. I went through my cheer bag and pulled out my scarf that I wrap around my edges when we're practicing.

"Don't do nothin stupid." One of my teenmates, Olivia said. "That man just called us some bitches. Ion know bout y'all, but I'm not no damn bitch."

I crossed my arms and walked down the bleacher stairs. I walked through the floor, causing all the basketball players to stop playing so they wouldn't hit me.

"Get off the court. We still got ten minutes." The coach said while checking his golden watch.

"Well I'll only take one." I said while catching the bouncing ball. I put my foot on it and looked at the coach. "I don't know if you said what you said out of anger for your player, but don't bring my team-" I said before the coach blew his whistle in my face.

"I said get off the court!" He yelled in my face. He was so close that I could see the leftover lettuce in his back teeth.

"Okay and I said I'll only-" He interrupted me again by blowing his whistle in my ear. It took all of me not to backhand this old fool.

"I'm not gonna say it again. Get off the court-" I interrupted him by continuing my sentence. "Don't bring my team into your team's drama. Whatever y'all got goin on, it's between y'all. Don't bring my girls into it." I said while rolling my neck and doing all kind of hand gestures. "And most definitely don't call me a-" He blew his whistle in my face again while my coach walked into the gym.

"Sweeterfield, get your girls. Her specifically." The basketball coach pointed at me. "Why are you girls even in here? We always have this gym."

"It's freezing outside Allan. Just hurry up. You've been in here for almost four hours." My coach said from the bleachers. I smiled and rolled my eyes. He needed to talk to somebody in his age bracket because I'm not the one. I'll smack his old ass unconscious.

"He called y'all what?" I heard her say from across the court. Her mouth dropped. I looked at the basketball coach then at my coach. He was about to get what's coming to him because once she's mad, she goes the fuck off. And she will not stop until someone's crying or leaving. Hopefully he'll end up crying. That'll be quite a sight to see.

I walked across the court and back to the bleachers once she was over there in the coach's face. The rest of the team had gathered together on the bleachers. I rolled my eyes and pulled my black Nokia out my bag.

"Aye, preciate ya for gettin us out of practice. A nigga was tired." I looked up at some dude with dreads all hugged up on D. I waved him off while taking my scarf off. "It wasn't nothin."

"Yeah forreal. Nigga get on my damn nerves." Another player said. Then a discussion popped off on how he needs to be fired and how we could help him either leave or get fired.

"Just lose all y'all games. He would get fired for sure." My teammate, Lauren, said. I shrugged. I didn't really care for him, but him getting fired would be sad. He has a family to take care of. But it's not like he can't find another job. I shook those thoughts out of my head when I saw him storm out of the gym, saying a cuss word with every step he took. The boys laughed before dapping me up. Most of them walked out but a few stayed, talking to the girls.

"Come on ladies! We only have an hour in here!" Our coach said. We all got off the bleachers and met at the middle of the court.

"Alright. D's side, practice the half time cheer. Lauren's side, practice the chant about our mascot." Coach said. She basically split us up by how much rhythm we had. Lauren's side was the no rhythm side, and D's side was the energetic side. We always get everyone hyped up, even more than the majorettes.

"Ooh, its hot in here! There must be some blue devils in the atmosphere!" D yelled the beginning of the cheer. I did my part of the cheer, a series of backflips then a wave to the crowd, but there wasn't a crowd. Just one boy in the bleachers. I waved and he stared dead at me. No one else but me.

Practice ended an hour later. I went to the bleachers and packed my stuff up.

"You did good." The boy said. He was the same boy the coach was yelling at.

"Thanks." I said while throwing my black bag over my shoulder. "You gon tell me ya name or what?"

He laughed and held his chest. "Bold self. I'm Kyrie. Future NBA star."

I rolled my eyes. Cocky ass. "Mhm, I bet."

That was the last thing I ever said to him. Literally that year, I saw him on the NBA draft. He was drafted first to the Cavaliers. Wow.