Page 13 of Full Court Crush

Lucy puffed out her chest. “Challenge accepted!”

Coach Grant finished the debrief by low-fiving everyone, then offered a few extra words of encouragement to Sienna. Keira hung back, waiting for everyone else to grab their things and head out.

“Hey, Michelle, can I stay and shoot for a bit?” she asked, passing the ball between her hands.

“Sure.” Coach Grant checked her watch. “Just remember security locks up at ten, so be gone before then.”

“Thanks!” she said. She snatched up her phone and texted her dad to say she’d be home late. She’d been trying to give him more space, even though it countered every instinct she had. Coach Grant spoke to Amelia on her way out of the court. Keira tried not to think about why she cared what Amelia was doing.

Keira grabbed a ball and dribbled back over to one of the baskets. Her inside shooting and free throws had been consistently good, but she’d missed more outside shots than she was comfortable with during their scrimmage. She needed to be on top of all aspects of her game, so she started shooting as the rest of the team slowly trickled out.

It was strange being alone in the vast building. The sound of the ball bouncing off the floor or the basket’s rim dramatically echoed around the three-court space, and the silence during the ball’s flight was eerie. Keira’s arms moved with precision, honing the arc of her shots, and making the micro adjustments that could make the difference between success and failure. Her mind drifted to Sonia and their competitive one-on-one games of 21 or playing H-O-R-S-E, and the ridiculous shots Sonia would force Keira to try to replicate, or otherwise get another letter. Sonia would have given her a hard time for the easy outside shots she’d missed during the scrimmage, but she also would have been Keira’s biggest cheerleader for every hard-earned block, steal, or make. With Sonia on another continent, she felt adrift.

Keira challenged herself and started counting her baskets, to see how long it would take her to get to one hundred made shots. By shot ninety-nine, her t-shirt clung to her, her legs burned with fatigue, and her mouth was sandpaper dry. She stepped behind the arc to put up another shot, wanting to finish on a three. She was relieved when it fell through the net. She let the ball bounce and roll away from her while she caught her breath, the sports hall falling silent.

What she wouldn’t give to have Sonia here now. She’d know how to lift Keira when her confidence was low, or how to listen to Keira’s worries about her dad. She’d know how to help her navigate the fact that Keira couldn’t get her new captain out of her head. The way the light danced in her eyes when they caught the sun. How she could be so kind in private, stern when the team could do better, and fair in acknowledging when they’d done well. Keira sighed and closed her eyes. She was here to play basketball and earn a permanent place on the team. That had to be her focus.

Keira opened her eyes and retrieved the stray ball, returning it to the on-court cage. Then she grabbed her bag and headed to the changing rooms. It was already dark outside, and her father was probably already asleep. Showering here would mean there was no risk of their creaky shower pipes at home waking him.

Her every movement echoed around the changing room as she stripped off. She had no need to attempt modesty with no one else around. The shower room had five regular shower cubicles and one larger accessible cubicle. She slipped inside one of the stalls, hung her towel on the back of the door, and pressed the button to start the shower. The shower spurted into life, and the initially frigid water splashed off the tiles and onto Keira’s legs even though she stood to the side, waiting for it to warm up. The small space quickly became humid, and she gratefully stepped into the torrent of water. She closed her eyes and let the hot water ease her aching shoulders, washing away all her hard work, and every distracting thought of Amelia.

Keira was checking her phone as she approached the automatic doors to leave. She nearly walked face-first into them. Looking up from her phone, brow furrowed, she returned her phone to her pocket. She grabbed the door handles and pulled, but the doors didn’t shift. She glanced at the scoreboard on the nearby court. It was only a quarter to ten. Panic rose in her chest. A door behind her opened, and she quickly spun around.

Amelia stood outside of Coach Grant’s office, jingling a set of keys in her hand. Headphones on, she was singing along, loudly and out of tune, to P!nk. She locked Coach Grant’s office, slightly shimmying her hips in time to the music, and turned.

She froze when she spotted Keira. Keira adjusted the bag strap on her shoulder as they stared at one another from the ends of the hallway. Keira smiled at her, the corners of her mouth twitching with contained laughter. Amelia stood immobile for a few more seconds, then ripped off her headphones. Her cheeks turned crimson as she shuffled down the hallway.

“I didn’t know anyone else was here,” Amelia mumbled.

“Clearly,” Keira smirked, unable to resist teasing her captain, and relieved to discover something Amelia wasn’t good at. It felt like being read into a state secret. Amelia’s blush deepened. “Please tell me one of those keys will open these?” She gestured towards the doors. Amelia fruitlessly waved her hand at the motion sensor.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“No, these are for Michelle’s office and some of the storerooms. Players aren’t allowed to have keys to the actual building.”

“Wonderful.” Keira sighed and took her bag off her shoulders, placing it next to one of the tables that peppered the hallway. She sat on the table itself, put her feet on the bench below, and rested her elbows on her knees. This is what she got for trying to give her dad more space. She knew it had been a terrible idea. Her stomach twisted itself into a knot.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’ll ring security, and they’ll let us out.” Amelia walked to the intercom mounted to the wall, just inside the door.

Keira clasped her hands in her lap, watching her knuckles turn white.

The electronic ringing of the intercom droned on with no response.

“Hmm.”

Amelia’s hum pulled the knot in Keira’s stomach a little tighter.

“I’ll try them again in a few minutes. Maybe they’re not by their desk.”

Amelia paced back and forth across the doorway. Keira retrieved her towel from her bag and patted her still-damp hair with it, just to have something to do. She looked down to see her knee bouncing up and down and willed it to stop.

“How come you’re here this late?” she asked, distracting herself from their apparent imprisonment.

“Michelle asked me to review some of the game footage for the teams we’re playing this year. She had hundreds of gigs of video on the server. It was just easier to do it here. How about you?”

“Getting some extra shots in.” Keira shrugged, and stuffed her towel back into her bag. She couldn’t get her hair any dryer.