Page 84 of Full Court Crush
“Let’s go Blizzards!” Clara hollered.
Amelia grinned. She wanted to win this game, of course she did. But having her sister there in the stands supporting her, and her girlfriend sprinting up the court into offence, she felt like she’d already won.
She relaxed her shoulders and accepted the in-bounded ball from Asha, then dribbled it up the court. Scanning the offence, she put her exemplary game awareness to good use. Lucy moved to set a solid stance behind the defender marking Keira, who hadn’t seemed to notice her presence. Amelia brought the ball to her hands at the same moment Keira darted around the pick, her defender unable to move around Lucy to keep her marked. The remaining defender chose to stay on the taller Lucy, meaning Amelia could send the ball arcing over everyone else to land perfectly in Keira’s grasp. Keira went in for an easy layup despite the trailing defence.
“Whiteout!” the commentator celebrated amid loud cheers from the audience. “Morgan scores, with the assist from Preston, making the game 70-72. Can the home team go the distance? Give me a cheer if you think they can!” The commentator stood up behind his booth and raised his arms upwards. The crowd cheered even louder.
The Blizzards sprinted back to defence, setting up a half-court trap, exactly as Coach Grant had planned on her whiteboard. The entire bench was chanting ‘defense!’,the home supporters in the crowd quickly joining in. Coach Grant was pacing in front of the bench, hands in her hair, shouting encouragement. Even normally laid-back TJ was on his feet, clapping and pointing. Occasionally, he grabbed onto coach Grant to make sure she didn’t drift onto court or get in the referee’s way.
The shot clock ticked down. Asha hustled hard on their ball handler, shunting them towards the sideline, near where Lucy waited. Keira, Amelia, and Sofia set up a zone around the remaining opposition players to shut down the passing options and get a vital turnover. Within seconds, Asha and Lucy had the opposition ball handler pinned between the sideline and the halfway line, desperately looking for a Hail Mary pass as the seconds ticked down. The player Amelia was marking darted out from behind her, receiving a bounce pass from her teammate, and the Blizzards were forced back into a zone defence.
“C’mon, hustle, hustle!” Coach Grant yelled. The Blizzards smothered the players they were marking, careful not to sag too much and leave themselves open for a pick. With three seconds left on the shot clock, the player Asha was marking stepped outside the arc and put up a floating three-point shot. The seconds it took for that ball to descend were agonising. If they scored now, it would surely put the game out of reach. Amelia put her back to her player and nudged her backwards, arms outstretched behind her, boxing her out. The ball glanced the edge of the rim, rolled tantalisingly across it, and rolled out the other side. No score. Amelia sprinted forward and snatched the ball from the air. Immediately, she passed to Keira, already broken free of her player, and they sprinted up the court.
Their opposition quickly put together a scramble defence, smothering Keira as the seconds ticked down. A two-point shot would take them to extra time, but a three-pointer would win them the game, with minimal chance of a comeback by the other team.
With four seconds left, Keira stepped outside the arc, faking the shot so well Amelia almost didn’t see the pass coming her way.
Almost.
The double team the opposition had set on Keira meant Amelia was completely free. She caught the ball and set herself in her shooting position an inch outside the three-point line. Time slowed down and the surrounding sounds faded away. Her mind focused on the number of times she’d visualised a shot like this. She knew she had the muscle memory to do it, but after playing nearly the full forty minutes, her body and her mind were tired. The entire season training under fatigue had built to this point.
She sprang upwards, sending the ball into a graceful arc through the air. The court stilled. The buzzer sounded while the ball was still in the air. Amelia stumbled when she landed. The whole sports hall held their collective breath.
With a satisfying swish, the ball fell elegantly through the net.
The court erupted into noise as the scoreboard changed to 73-72. Keira sprinted over to Amelia and collided with her in celebration, then picked her up, spinning her around. They laughed with glee as the bench flooded onto the court in celebration.
When Keira put her down, Amelia couldn’t help herself — she put possessive hands on Keira’s waist and pulled her in for a brief, highly charged kiss. They broke apart, grinning. Keira’s eyes were dilated with equal parts joy and lust. Lucy bowled into them, wrapping her arms over each of their shoulders.
“We won! We wooooooooooon!” she yelled, then ricocheted off somewhere else like a pinball.
“We won,” Amelia said softly to Keira, which somehow made Keira grin wider.
The table at the pub was alive with laughter and celebration as Amelia, Keira, TJ, Evie, Clara, Clara’s boyfriend Josh, and Sonia enjoyed a celebratory meal after the game. Amelia snuggled up against Keira in the corner of their booth, with Clara on her other side. Josh sat on an extra chair on the end, while the other three occupied the other side of the booth.
Sonia was regaling them with a story about Keira’s freshman year in college. She had been older than the other freshmen, but still had to endure the same rites of passage as her younger teammates. Including washing their shared uniforms.
“And then..” Sonia said, wiping the tears from her eyes, “we pulled the kit out of the bag, and all of the white lettering had been dyed pink. The athletics association refused to get us a replacement set, as it was new, and I don’t think Keira ever lived it down. We had to play in a blue and pink kit all season.”
Amelia laughed along with the rest of the table before glancing up at Keira, who had turned bright red.
“It wasn’t my fault someone had left a rogue red sock in the machine.” Keira groaned. Amelia squeezed her thigh reassuringly.
“That’s enough about me. Clara, got any good, preferably embarrassing, stories about Amelia for us?” Keira asked.
“Yes! Oh, please, please please please,” Evie said enthusiastically. “I’m limited in how I can get my kicks at the moment, and this would make my day.”
“More than our win?” Amelia asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Duh,” Evie replied; TJ laughed.
“Just remember I know Jenna, and I have plenty of stories aboutyou.”
Evie waved her away.
“No one cares about that right now.”
“I doubt Pipsqueak has ever done anything embarrassing in her life,” TJ said, then gave a hearty laugh.