nobody's pov
october 10th
3:30 pm
today was the day of basketball tryouts, and the friend group had been in the gym for the past two hours, supporting their friends with their tryouts. however, during tryouts, the coach had been stricter with nalani, making her do extra stuff that the boys didn't have to do. it was now during break, and those trying out went over to those on the benches.
"so, it's clear coach is a sexist asshole." ryu rolled his eyes, "as if its not obvious enough."
"uh huh." nalani said as she clicked her tongue, sitting down next to kai and hugging the girl, "watch me not even make the team."
"ew, you're all sweaty." kai told the elder, "yucky, nana."
nalani looked at the girl, wiping her face on the kai's shoulder, using her shirt as a rag. the girl let out a laugh, pulling nalani into her grasp, "you've been doing good, so don't let an ugly old man make you feel like you're not."
"ugly old man." kaui laughed at kai, grabbing a towel from his bag and pressing it against his forehead, "he is ugly."
"if he doesn't allow you on the team, i'll throw a riot." daehyun told the girl, "start a revolution."
"start a riot." phan laughed, getting up and handing daehyun a water bottle, "don't dehydrate yourself, loser."
daehyun gasped at the younger, taking the water bottle from him, "aw, he cares for me."
minh cooed at the two, "shockingly enough."
jian laughed at the elder, resting his head on hyunsoo's shoulder, "so, how long until try outs is over?"
"half an hour." ryu responded, "i'm tired."
"can't wait to be cut off the first day." nalani said, "so cool."
"na, you're not gonna get cut off in the first day." tuah shook his head, "coach would be stupid to cut you off."
nalani hummed a response, as the group talked with the others for a bit, up until they had to return back to the court. once they returned to court, coach made nalani play with one of the boys trying out, just to test her.
—
4:05 pm
"oh my god, i'm so tired." nalani said, resting her head on kaui's shoulder as they waited for coach's finalization of the day.
"you did good, nana." kaui reassure the girl, patting her head, "you kicked dustin's ass when you played against him."
daehyun nodded his head, "you're really good nana, coach would be dumb to drop you from the team."
the five then fell silent, as coach made the group listen up. coach cleared his throat, "i don't usually do cuts the first day, but i also don't have girls try out."
nalani rolled her eyes, looking at her group of friends who's expressions immediately changed.
"i'm doing this for the sake of not wanting the boys to be distracted, so, i'm gonna have to cut you kekoa." coach told the girl.
"no way." daehyun immediately disagreed, "she's proved to us that she's better than all of us in only two hours, and you have the audacity to cut her when she can carry the whole team?"
"she's done so much more than we have, and you're cutting her?" kaui questioned, "why her?"
"if boys get distracted by someone who clearly just wants to play a sport, then that's the boys fault and they should be the one getting cut, not nalani." ryu argued, "that's not fair."
