wavelength | bnha [01]

01. - origin

THE STAGGERING DIFFERENCE between Ka' Niyah and her elder brother, that her parents found astonishing, was the fact that one was a natural born prodigy, with set goals for the career they wanted to pursue as a hero. While the other was a rose petal balancing above a roaring fire, not particularly motivated by anything other than her step team, and running track.

Our protagonist happens to be the latter.

No doubt was it an eye opener to Ka' Niyah when her family moved to Japan and she was left with no choice but to quit step because there were no other teams around. Losing your main ambition really puts things into perspective.

Her parents already signed her up for track, allowing her to do so because 1) it wasn't a contact sport and 2) because it actually might get her a sports scholarship. That way she could become a successful doctor or surgeon, and make something of herself in life.

The girl wasn't all too sure about spending eight or so years of her life studying, but she didn't have anything in mind and the salary was a whole lot more than ok.

Whenever she thought about what her life held in store for her, she would come up blank. Nothing was there except her parents words telling her that if she became a doctor or surgeon, she'd be set. Sure it wasn't all that appealing to her.

But it was a future.

Not the nothingness that came up when she tried to think of one.

•••

PRE- ONE FOR ALL
WINTER - - PERI SCHOOL YR.
MUSUTAFU, JAPAN

Ka' Niyah huffed out a breath visible in the cold winter air, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Her dark, cocoa brown eyes flickered dully across the court at the supposed rousing game of basketball mere feet away from her. On her lips, she wore a periodically deepening frown.

She'd turned her neck into a hangar for the scarf her Grandfather had knitted her for Christmas. The hand that wasn't squished against her cheek was pulled to her stomach, slowly numbing — as cold temperatures will do to human skin.

Winter was her least favorite season. She hated how it nipped at her nose, and made her chattering teeth feel like an AK-47 rounding off bullets (it always made her head hurt). Plus her feet were always cold.

It also meant no track, but she wasn't all too peeved about that. It just meant that she had more free time on her hands. And she didn't mind everything being just a little quieter.

Frequencies resounded from the court in slow waves, ebbing and flowing; the squeaks and scuffles of sneakers on the ground coinciding with the rhythmic bounce of the ball was almost iambic in nature.

And yet she couldn't be more bored out of her mind.

Her phone had died ages ago, but she didn't bother taking out her earbuds because she didn't want anyone talking to her. Partially cause she wasn't in the talking mood, and also because she didn't quite know the language yet.

She could pick up a phrase here or there, but she certainly wasn't fluent. Not like her brother was.

Darius's face was of complete focus from where she sat, he passed the ball to the power forward, the ball went in, and earned them the game point.  She watched as they patted him on the back, no doubt complimenting him on his skills.