KYLIE'S ZEAL(REWRITING)

CHAPTER 2

“Be good dear, I love you so much"

“Yeah mom, love you too" I reply getting down from her car.

“Bye Kylie, see you"

As much as I don't spend much time with mom, the little time I get with her always seem like she disturbs me. “I have to stop waving to her now" I say to myself, shifting my focus away from mom's moving car to my high school gate.

“Hey Kylie wait up!"

I think I might recognise that voice, so who is it this time around, let me just act like I care to know, turning back, I don't like what I see. It's Zoe Westwood, Zoe is one of the few girls that gets to represent the school female basketball team if the school qualifies for the competition, she's one of the best basketball players the school has, she has won quite a number of medal representing the school basketball's team. So I don't like her because she's so overwhelmed by the number of medals she has won, talks about them the slightest chance she gets into a conversation and believes she's the best, well record actually has it that she has won more sporting medals than any other female student in the history of the school. Nice record, but she's just too bitchy for me.

“Hey there"

“How is it going with you bitch" Zoe asks giggling

“I guess am fine"

“Okay then I will see you on the pitch, maybe I will get to teach you about my winning skills" Zoe replies running off shouting some other student's name. There we go again this slot even called me a bitch and rubbed her winning skills at my face, did I care? No! Oh my, I need to run off to my culture class.

**********

“You've all shown improvement from the last time we met, it good to know a lot of you are dedicated and moving out of your comfort zone for the team's glory" coach Lance addresses us after a very tiring training session. We had just finish training for endurance and adaptability, it was a thorough one.

“But as it is, this is a different competition, and I would like to attack it differently. We won't be using the school's official strategy, we need to come up with something different this time around which everyone has to learn and adapt to in the next 10 weeks". What does the coach mean by that, he scares me every time he emphasises this competition, I am never really good at school, being a pro basketball player is everything I can think of aside school, this competition means a lot to me, I not only needed to qualify, I needed to win too.

“We need to select a new captain and I will do that randomly now, while in the course of the training, we will choose the official captain and probably an assistant also" coach adds. Why has the coach decided to torment us? I will definitely find someone here who agrees with me that Zoe will be our captain for sure.

“Kylie..." Did I just got called by the coach or is it just some little imagination in my head

“Get up Kylie... Or do we have a problem?"

“No coach.. We are good" I reply rather disappointed. Coach it seems we going to have some problem, I don't think am ready to cope with being responsible for a team at this moment, I thought in my head.

“You will be the captain for the school's female basketball team till I say otherwise, come see me before you leave today"

“Congrats babes! I knew something was different about you, I decided to teach you my winning skill and now you have taken my position too.... How well it goes for you, we will see to it!" Zoe says
Oh my God! She cannot mark me out as her enemy right?, that's the last thing I want now. Not that the student in the school likes me or something, but no one has had to deal with me physically before and if Zoe is willing to take me on as her physical enemy, am not ready for that.

**********

“Holy Mary!" Max jokingly calls me while I walk down to the coach office. Max is one of the few students I roll with in school. But right now, am not so in the mood to talk to him, he's such a jerk and will end up adding to my sore.

“Get out of here.. Naughty dick!"

“It's not like you've seen it right"

“It not worth seeing bro... If you will excuse me, I need to see the coach" I reply covering my out, trying to hold back my laugh, he's supposed to ruin my day, but I just ruined his.

“Come in" the coach shouts after I applied a few knock on his door. “Oh Kylie, it you, wasn't expecting you until the 7th period"

“I decided to come now since I am not having lunch"

“You don't like the school's meal or what? You're a veg right?"

“No coach, nothing close to that, I don't just feel like eating"

“It okay, just be careful not to catch ulcer" coach adds laughing

“I will be sure not to" I reply giggling.
My last 15 minutes with coach was the most tense moment I've ever had with him. He discussed how I had to be responsible for every team mate, and how it was my responsibility to keep the basketball pitch in place as well as every other equipment used for playing the game.
“Handle that with care, that represents your authority" says coach handing me the team captain's band.

“Alright coach, bye for now!"

**********

We've been training for the past two weeks and with less than eight weeks to the qualifiers, it doesn't seem like the team has improved that much. I personally don't think I have added a thing or two to myself, coach makes training even worse by introducing an entirely new pattern of play, and now I have to be a captain “how does he want us to learn all these in such a short time" I say to myself, little did I know it a bit louder than I thought.

“We just have to give our best, we will be fine"

Who the hell gets into an uninvited conversation. Who could it be this time I try to confirm when Laura came running. Laura Smith is one of the few girls I admire in high school but we never really got along all these years obviously because of my lone nature. We are both in 10th grade, she's the brightest student in my class and one of the leading student in the school, she has a few academic award to back that up, I don't really know much about her family, but she acts like someone from some wealthy background, not that she throws it at people's face, I guess you can't hide class, she's quite popular too, the only thing that turns me off about her is that she's friend to Zoe. Well what can I do? It not like I can choose a friend for someone else.

“I didn't know I talked that loud"

“Oh it don't matter! I should apologize for intruding" she speaks softly

“Never mind, I needed someone to talk to anyways"

“Oops! At your service ma'am" she says giggling and continues talking

“Coach wants the best for us and that's why the last couple of weeks hasn't been so nice on us, I think if we can focus more, in no time we would be perfect!" She speaks softly again

The thought about the coach wanting us to resume the basketball pitch as early as 7:00 am starting from tomorrow if we are ever going to make it to the final thirteen that will represent the team crossed my mind, what cruelty is that? Laura hangs her mouth wide open like she's been calling out my name for ages, that signals time for a reply

“Oh... I know right, we would be fine" I finally reply, while we part ways. Laura waves to me as I left her sight.