The Brighter Side of Things

Chapter 4

The Voyagers almost won the game. According to the footage, it was sheer luck that the Archangel's team captain drilled in a buzzer beater three. I already heard an emotional version of this when the whole team hung out at our garage to grumble about the results of the game. All the while, I could only spout meaningless words of comfort failing to connect with their emotions. Now, they had calmed down and were ready to discuss points for improvement.

And I wasn't going to complain. Post-game analysis sessions with Kuya and L was the closest I could get to seeing the team in action so I always pored over the video.

From what I observed, it was a defensive miss. On Kuya Six's part. He got too excited he forgot that a win was not yet definite until the game clock ran out. But I didn't want to rub it in so I didn't say anything. Just like how it normally was during post game-analysis sessions, I watched with them and listened to their comments. They hardly asked for my opinion so I didn't offer them. I was sure they had already discussed those glaring mistakes anyway.

"You weren't anywhere near the court, were you?" Kuya Six already sounded like he was accusing me, his eyes burning holes into my forehead. He really did have a radar. It only took my stammering for him to figure out the truth of my whereabouts on that game day and he groaned. "I knew it."

"I was only there for a minute, I swear! And I didn't plan on going there at all. Mama wanted something cold to drink and Aching Bey's was the only store left selling palamig. I didn't want to go home empty-handed," I defended because I was never a good liar.

"That's four out of four, Seven," he stressed, enunciating each word for emphasis. To make me realize the gravity of my sin. "Not including the games of GSW, Ginebra, or UP that you watched."

Like a deflated balloon, I sagged on the couch, acknowledging he was right. Their loss was my fault. "I know."

"Can't you take one for the team? For once?"

That was how the post-game analyzation session ended. Which was nothing new too. Whenever the Voyagers lost a game, Kuya L and I reviewed it together. Somewhere in the middle of watching it, I'd slip about my watching the match. Or my merely checking Twitter or Facebook for updates. Apparently, even checking social media negatively affected the teams I rooted for. Was my curse that powerful? I couldn't help but think I must have done something so terrible to humankind in my past life that I had this scary ability.

While a part of my brain was thinking of ways to on how I could make it up to Kuya Six, another was telling me, in Lexi's voice, that the loss was not my fault. That it was already an ultimate sacrifice on my part not to be at the game.

It was how I had been taking one for the team for a long time now.

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Peg for Alexandra "Lexi" Alonzo is Kim Kianna Dy of the De La Salle Women's Volleyball Team