High school

Chapter 16: Lets Go Lions

December 12. Tuesday.
Jordan, Isaac, Matthew, Jessica and I all walked into school together. As we walked in Jordan and Isaac got high fives and hugs from students, even teachers too. They won their game yesterday and they even talked about what happened. Everything seemed fine. But now it was my turn, the game was today. I was ready.
We were all going to our first period, everyone had classes on the first floor while Isaac and I had classes upstairs.
"So Jordan told me about our kiss." He smirked and looked at me for a reaction.
"Uh he did?" I laugh nervously. I didn't like talking about feelings like that. I mean I never thought of those kinda of feelings and I don't think I have feelings for Isaac like that. Yeah it's been a crazy couple of months and I got to know him, but like him? Probably not.
"She was just trying to turn us against each other. She knew how important that game was to you guys." I said adjusting my bag, I was walking up the stairs a little quicker. This was getting awkward.
"Then that must mean.." he stared off, I turned around to face him. I was about two steps higher than him. We're were eye to eye.
"Must mean?" I tilted my head a little.
"That must mean he likes you. He got pretty upset didn't he?" He said it so simply. He looked disappointed though.. Boys are complicated, what's his problem now?
"Eh? You think so?.. he's just my friend. He known me.. practically my whole life. We're just close, is all?" Why am I explaining this?
"Wish we were close." He mumbled but I heard him. Does he like me? I mentally face palm myself. There you go running your mouth about Jordan when Isaac is pretty straightforward telling me he likes me. Guess all the flirting was for a reason. Ugh, what should I do?
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Isaac's POV
"Wish we were close." I mumbled it but I guess she heard. Her face tighten a little. Great. Now I made things awkward. I mean I know Jordan likes April, but she's really different than I expected. She's changing, I can feel it. She's a little more opened. Did I like her? No.. I just cared for her a lot. That's all I swear. Yeah that's it, I cared about her.
"Isaac?" Her says my name and I looked up.
"Yeah?" I says gripping my book bag strap tighter.
"Do you like me?" She's asked it so easy. I forgot who I was dealing with.. April Jones. This girl was tough. Then I thought about it. Did I? After a few thoughts I made my decisions.
"If I did, it wouldn't be fair to Jordan, so sorry not cakes, I would sweep you off your feet in a second. Your all Jordan's." I say giving her a friendly smile after. I said it won't no hesitation. That's how I really felt. I seen her face relax a little.
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"If I did, it wouldn't be fair to Jordan, so sorry not cakes, I would sweep you off your feet in a second. Your all Jordan's." I relaxed because I was kinda happy. If Jordan liked me like Isaac said it would be pretty awkward and I don't think I'll be able to handle it. A smile came across my face when I thought about it again. Jordan likes me?
"What are you smiling at? You should be disappointed THE GREAT Isaac Chandler has rejected your love." He said it in a stupid voice, pushing up his chest.
I lean down and kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear. Dumbass. Then turns to walk back up the stairs, leaving him there shocked.

The bell rang, telling me know that fourth period was about to begin. When I was walking I noticed the crowded hallways were empty. Deserted even. Where did everyone go? I kept walking maybe I'm late and everyone is in class already. As I was walking I started feeling nauseous, I ran to the bathroom. I went into a stall and started throwing up. When I finished I got up from the floor and headed to the sink. My head was spinning, what's going on? When I looked it the mirror, my nose started bleeding. I quickly got some tissues and held it against my nose.
"What's going on?" There when she appeared next to me. She hadn't come to me in a while. I was hoping she forgot about me. She walked up to me, I know what she was going to do. I had enough and pushed her hands away from me. I didn't wanna see shit from her. I was done being nice.
"Oh so you're feeling tough?" She spat out.
"Well I just gonna show how you were going to die. But since you're misbehaving, I guess you'll have wait and see." I looked at her blankly. My chest was getting tight, like I couldn't breathe. I'm going to die?
"This was the day, when I completely stopped wanting your friendship. You replaced me, forgot me. This is the day our friendship died. So it's only right, for this to be your day as well." Evil. That's all I thought when I looked at her.
"Go lions" she said then she disappeared. I stood there, trying to come down my breathing. Get it together, April. You were doing so well.
I walked out the bathroom, there were a few kids quickly making it to class. I hurried along, shaking my head trying to forget her. I walked into my class right on time. As usually I sat with the group. I was quiet, I didn't wanna tell them, especially Jordan. But I guess they could tell something was up, they stared at me.
"Alright, tell us what's wrong?" Jessica spoke first, spinning her pen in her hand. "And don't even bother telling us it's nothing." We were a little closer, friendly towards each other but we still had our little attitudes. I didn't even bother arguing. I told them all to lean in. We were sitting at a rectangle shaped table was it was pretty easy.
"Just now when I was on my way here. I didn't feel well so I went into the bathroom, I started throwing up, then my nose started bleeding. She showed up and told me.." I couldn't finish it. The words wouldn't come out. I took a deep breathe.
"She said I'm going to die.. today."
They all stared at me with widen eyes. I looked down and my hands that were in my lap, they were shaking slightly.
"No way.. that's not happening. We won't let it." Isaac said with a serious tone. They all nodded in agreement.
"She said this is the anniversary of when our friendship died... my first game." I trailed off me thoughts. That's when it hit me. Last school when we were sophomores and my season started. I remember seeing her, she came to the game. I was walking out of the school with Jordan and I saw her, it looked like she was walking over to me, but I was pulled in a big hug by Jordan and my teammates. When I turned back around she was gone.
"Wait we don't knowing that's the truth though.. I mean she showed you that Madison was supposed to die, but she didn't right? Maybe she's just trying to scare you, what did you show you anyway." Jessica said. That's when I mentally face palm myself, why didn't I let her touch me.
"I didn't want her to touch me, so she said it would be a surprise now."
"Then you're gonna have to watch your back and be careful." Matthew said shaking his head slowly. I nodded in agreement.
"We'll make sure nothing happens when we're around though." Jordan said giving me a smile. But I know he was scared. We all got silent, thinking probably. It begins with me.

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For the rest of the day I'm been paranoid. It's messing with my head badly. I barely been paying attention in class, I'm afraid a freaking airplane crashes in and kills me. Or I'm eating lunch then suddenly start choking or for crying out loud, I fall down the stairs and hit my head or something. Today was important to me. It was after school now and I was in the gym, working on shoots for the game. I had some killers three's. In a half an hour, it was game time. I had to get my mind off it this. Or else the team might suffer from my lack on focus. That's when Jessica walked in, she slowly walked over to me and sat on the floor, crossing her legs. She was wearing her cheerleading outfit and holding blue and white pom-poms I gave her my attention.
"Yeah?" I said holding the ball.
"You feeling okay?" I thought for a moment, no I wasn't. How am I suppose to feel okay when I was just told I'm going to die and I don't even know when. I shook my head no.
"Listen April.. I know you're scared, but you're the strongest one in our group. Mentally I mean, you been dealing with her and didn't even realize." That's right. That incident in the bathroom a month ago, she was already dead in September. She's been slowly driving me crazy.
"Yeah.. I guess so." I turned back to the basketball and continued shooting. Eventually Jessica got up and headed back through the door. Thanks Jess. I thought and continued shooting.

It was now 4:30. The game was about to start, I felt a little nervous, but my nerves disappeared when I saw a huge sign with "Ape #1" on it. When I looked to who was holding it, it was Matthew, Isaac and Jordan. They're so embarrassing, but to make this screen more embarrassing. My dad had blue and white paws on both side of his cheeks and a shirt that said
"My daughter plays basketball and she's a small dunk". Embarrassing. That's all I thought. My team and I were on the court doing layups and talking about the plays were gonna run. The then buzzer went off which told us the game was about to begin. The starting five was me, Abigail, Tiffany and Raven they were twins. Both were tall and skinny with black hair. Tiffany  had green eyes, while the Raven had blue eyes. Sometimes it was difficult to have both of them on the court, but that was our secret weapon. And the last person was Aurora. She had red hair, which totally made you wanna stare at her. She had brown eyes. She was the feistiest one on the team, but it was helpful because she hard with effort. When we walked on the court we looked at the opposite team, they looked okay, but didn't mean they weren't good. We shook hand with each other.
"I'm jumping." Abigail said as she walked into the middle. Good thing too, because if we wanted the ball first, she needed to pass it to one of her teammates. The referee bounced the ball once and threw it up, Abigail knocked it over to me and I caught it. Let the games begin.

It was second half, the score was 32-28. We were in the lead and the crowd was going crazy. The cheerleaders just performed their lion cheer. Our coach was telling to keep the hustle and let's try hitting our three's. She subbed out everyone that was playing but me.
"I need you guys to get April open for a shot." We nodded in agreement. "April, if you don't have a shot, pass it or just go up for a lay up alright?" I shook my head, I was ready. We put our hands and counted to three then shouted Lions. It was our ball and I was bringing it down the court I passed it to one of my teammates and cut to the basket. They kept passing it around like monkey in the middle, when finally I was at the three point line and I got the ball. I did a fake shot and ran to the basket. When I was running towards it, I heard something that made tripped and fell, which resulted in the ball going out bounds.
"Mommy would be so proud." Those words repeated over and over. I rolled on my back was staring at the ceiling now. She started. Which only meant I was going to die soon. My teammates helped me up. I looked towards the audience and I saw Isaac, Matthew and Jordan looking at me worried. I mouthed the words "She's starting I jogged down the court. I guess they realized what I said they stiffen in their seats.
A few plays later the score away 33-32. My team got a foul shot but only made one and the other team was stepping it up. The other team shot was missed and I grabbed the rebound, my coach was screaming "fast break" which meant my team I had to jetted down the court and do half court passes to score quickly before the other team could set up their defense. I began running with the ball, none of my teammates could get open so I kept running guess I gotta try and score. The girl that was guarding me was a little smaller than me, but kind of fast which meant if I ran to the basket she would just try and blocked. But I had an idea, I faked to my left, did a cross over and she stumbled back. I decided to take the shot. It felt the ball was in the air forever. That's when I heard the sweet sound of the ball hitting nothing but net. The crowd went crazy, they started shouting "Ape" and my teammates were cheering. I smiled, that's exactly what I needed. 36-32 with only a minute left in the third quarter. Let's go Lions.