Oracle {Book 1}

Tryouts, Part 1

Chapter 15

"All right ladies, line up!"

Coach McCarthy was in her Adidas track suit like she always was. Navy blue with the stripes at the sides, cause she thought nobody would take pink too seriously.

Ella had spent weeks preparing for these tryouts, even though she was mostly doing it to get her mind off of everything else. It relaxed her, and if she didn't make this team, she'd be bored out of her mind. She was a good player, but she wasn't Michael Jordan. She'd go to the one park in Forks and play at the basketball hoops. She had wanted to play with someone, but when she asked a couple of boys, they just laughed at her. She was too afraid to ask Charlie to play with her, and Bella was too uncoordinated.

So, she basically ended up practicing herself.

And today was the day finally.

Me and about 30 other girls made three lines, one behind another.

"Ok ladies, warmups!" Ella knew what that meant. Suicides.

The girls went three at a time, one girl from each line. They ran from their starting points to a line a quarter if the way up the court, then ran back to the starting point, only to run to half court, and back, then down three-quarters of the court, back again, and then al the way down and back again.

This was the only reason Ella had even started running. She hated it, and it was rough in the beginning, but this is where it paid off. When it as her turn, she jogged to the quarter, making sure not to sprint to waste energy. She managed to finish before the other girls in her row, then moved to the back of the line.

If she didn't make this team, she wouldn't having anything normal to do.

"Remember ladies," the coach yelled as the next group of girls went, "there are only three spots on the varsity team. Everyone who doesn't make it will go to JV."

JV was like failure to Ella. Not many freshman got to play on the varsity team. Unless you were like Dominique, who made the team in her freshman year because her entire family were athletes. My entire family was clumsy, soft spoken, and uncoordinated. Ella was adopted, yes, but she had none of those traits. She was different, and she had something to prove.

The next drills were dribbling. The coach made us dribble up and down the court for what seemed like forever. Some girls kinda overdid it and tried to dribble under their legs. Some were successful, but the basketball slipped through the fingers and they ended up running across the court to get it. She looked at the coach who was shaking her head at them. Ella considered for a minute if she should try it, but then decided against it. She didn't want to risk it.

She dribbled down the court as fast as she could, making sure to keep her eyes up and balance the ball between both hands at the same time. She couldn't mess up, if she did, it would be over. She noticed the coach watching her, and she decided to try harder. She was relieved when she got back to her line. The coach was now looking down at her clipboard and writing something. She really hoped it wasn't something negative. After doing that two more times, they moved on to free throws.

Free throws were her strong suit. She could easily make 6 or 7 shots in a row, and she did. She never missed a shot. Ella felt like she was on fire. She felt invincible, but she made sure not to look too cocky. She didn't want to jinx anything.

Afterwards, the coach made us do the last exercise of the day. She split us into groups. I was grouped with four other girls. Some people had to alternate with others because there were too many girls to be put in groups of five. There were six groups, with two extra. She counted us off and we became group four.