"It was Quinten."
"Here! Try it on!" Quinten jumped back as she pushed it against his face. He froze momentarily before he coughed, faking plugging his nose. "Ew! They smell like sweat!"
They were new gloves.
"Come on Quinten! Just look how big they are! Like twice the size of normal gloves!" She pulled his hand and pushed it toward the opening. He shoved her into the lockers instead, "I said no Wally. Now screw off."
"Have you confront him?" Coach asked. Wally shook her head, and it was the truth. She only plotted. "I was going to after Monday's game." She nodded thoughtfully, looking at the plaques on her wall before she shrugged. "Don't do any permanent damage." Wally thanked her and left the office to visit Sasha.
"Please don't make me go to practice." She mumbled, muffled through her pillow. Wally rolled her eyes and lifted it off her face, "I know who it was and I know what I'm going to do. Also you don't have to play until you can hold stuff again. You aren't useful otherwise." The last bit sounded a little harsh but it was what Coach had said. If Sasha notices or care she didn't show it, instead she simply nodded and maneuvered the pillow back over her face.
Monday's game came and went. They won, two more games and they'd be in the finals yet again. It was their last away game for three weeks, the next three games would be home games. Wally didn't mind. Her girls slept as she stared at Quinten, asleep now but screaming later.
She tied his legs to the footboard and his hand to the headboard, leaving enough room to slip on Sasha's glove and tie those tight around his wrists. She stopped a moment as he stirred but tightened the knot a little more before she took a step back, examining her work. She thought about waking him but decided it'd be a better surprise in the morning. She'd collect him for morning practice. Maybe. Other than that she couldn't give less of a shit. He deserved this.
The whole Hive was buzzing with whispers of screaming coming from Quinten's room despite seeing Coach with Kayla upstairs and everyone else being accounted for in the common eating breakfast. Wally smiled into her coffee.
She kept smiling until she went to his room, kicking the door shut. "Are you fucking insane?" He yelled, "What happened Quinten? I heard screaming and got worried!" She pulled off the gloves mercilessly, pushing him down as he screamed. "Eat shit dickbag." She spat, highfiving him. He screamed again and Wally rolled her eyes as she cut him loose, leaving him with a simple reminder, "Remember! Practice starts in twenty!"
Sasha knew exactly who it was as soon he picked up his racquet. He stifled a yelp and stepped on the court. She wrote notes of him performance for the most part.
15 could improve his stance
15 needs to work on keeping a hold of his racquet
15 needs to catch the ballAnd other such things. Coach smacked her in the back of the head when her gave her the notepad and sent her on laps around the rink for the rest of practice. Not that she minded.
Game after game passed. They were secured for finals. Three games from now they'd be walking away with a trophy carrying Alina. Or rather, Wally would watch them walk away with a trophy carrying Alina from the viewing box high about the Hornet court. As soon as semi-finals hit, she was sentenced to watch from afar, run her notes down during half time, and then jog back up for the remainder of the game.
She hated it. Watching from a tv screen in the air conditioned room with all it's nice couches and strong drinks. It wasn't right. She should be in he middle of it hearing the fans scream the fight song and cheering right along with them. Not to mention the creepy men who tried to sit too close or put their hands dangerous places. She didn't know what was worse, a hand on her or being asked for a refill as she passed by, or, god forbid, "Are you lost?" Because a child of her age should not be hanging around adults drinking and barely watching the game as they made business transactions and had girlfriends or boyfriends on their laps the same age as Wally.
She usually said a quick hello in Latin, which only had once been understood, and they left her alone. None of them knew she spoke English. None of them needed too. Though they thought it meant they could comment on her as she sat less than a foot away. Wally kept her hands by her sides. Punching a woman for referring to her as, "That hooker-in-training they send up here," wasn't worth what Coach would do in response.
While she had concealer on her tattoo now, one day they would know. They would realize they sat in the same room as Hallie Cornwallis, 04 and part of Alina Hart's dream team and they will regret it. They will regret it when she's on press duty and they ask what she was doing all this time and she leans into the mic and says, "Hanging our with all those assholes in the viewing box,"
Maybe not that last part. Coach would have her head.
So for now, she quietly watched from afar, scribbling down notes on the other team and notes on her teammates if need be.
Three games were left. The Cardinals, the Trojans, and for the first time ever, the Bulldogs who usually were out with the announcement of the fall banquet. This would be interesting.
There would be two weeks free of games before finals began to give athletes time to "rest up". There would be no resting for the Hornets. Coach best it out of them. Night practices, aside from the normal ones, were now not only just for Sasha. There was also not only morning practice, but early morning practice from four in the morning to six. They were practicing for twelve hours a day, constantly excused from classes they would pass anyways. Losing wasn't an option. Excellence was the minimum requirement of being a Hornet. Anything less would be best out of you.
Wally was sentenced to the outskirts of the rink because, "You'll get in the way, keep on your notes," she didn't argue. She knew better too. So she walked the edges of the rink with her notepad.
Fight after fight broke out on and off the rink, tensions were high and people were losing sleep and were more sore than ever. Wally's faith never lessened. She believed in her team. She was her team.
YOU ARE READING
The Hive
ActionBruh I read a really good fanfic based on AFTG at like 13 and thought I was Very Clever to recreate it with my own ocs uh I can't find it now but this is about as unoriginal as it gets ladies and gents -- Hallie "Wally" Cornwallis has spent a major...