Chapter 12 #2
As they resumed play, Amelia tried to keep her focus on her own game, but her mind kept wandering to Keira.
The current unpredictability of her play forced Amelia to play more conservatively than she would like.
Keira was so talented. It was maddening to watch her waste it on solo efforts when they should be working together.
As their opponent’s lead continued to grow, albeit less rapidly than earlier in the game, Amelia couldn’t shake the feeling they were teetering on the precipice of something.
Either they were going to turn a corner and start improving, or continue their free fall and end up as a heaped mess on the floor.
“Morgan!” Amelia called again; her voice desperate as she sprinted past a defender.
Keira hesitated for half a second and glanced at the hoop, before finally throwing a bullet pass to Amelia.
The speed of the ball stung her hands, but she caught it.
The pass was almost too late, though, and she was almost engulfed by the Raiders’ centre.
With a surge of determination, she launched herself towards the basket and scored.
Their supporters, who’d had little to celebrate thus far, cheered in appreciation.
Watching the other team inbound as she darted backwards, she couldn’t help but wonder if the pass had needed to be that hard.
As they regrouped in defence, she resisted the urge to point out how working together had earned them a basket.
“Nice shot, Preston,” Keira muttered as the opposing team arrived at their end of the court.
“Nice pass, Morgan.” She glanced at Keira, who somehow looked like an angry wild animal and a wounded puppy at the same time. Amelia sent her a wink to try to lighten her mood, before focusing on the opposition player in front of her.
The final minutes of the game ticked away, and while they played marginally better, it wasn’t enough to close the gap.
When the buzzer signalled the end of the match, a pang of disappointment invaded Amelia’s chest. They had lost, again.
Something had to change for the team to truly succeed, but she had no idea how to help them gel.
They’d not been so disjointed in previous seasons, but that had been a lower standard of play, with less pressure.
Then again, they hadn’t had this problem in their earlier games, either.
She looked at Keira, who was crouched down on her tiptoes, head hung low, breathing heavily.
Her anger subsided. The woman looked broken.
The players regrouped by the team bench, faces downcast. Not even Lucy had anything to say.
“Alright, everyone.” Coach Grant’s voice was firm, but not unkind. “We’ll discuss what went wrong and how we can improve before training next week; there’s no point hashing it all out now. Go and get changed.”
The players conducted the usual post-game cheers for the other team and themselves before they collected their things and tidied up the detritus that inevitably appeared on game days, such as empty sports drink bottles, sweet wrappers, and discarded sports tape.
The disappointed home crowd had all but filed out by the time they were done.
Keira hadn’t moved from the bench. She sat leaning forward, elbows on her knees, head in her hands. Coach Grant started to approach her, but Amelia waved her off. Coach Grant raised an eyebrow, non-verbally asking if she was sure. Amelia nodded.
She approached Keira slowly, wondering whether the wild animal or wounded puppy was in play here. She nudged her foot with her own.
“Hey.” Amelia sat down. Keira didn’t respond. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing, I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“We just had our assess handed to us.” Keira’s voice was filled with exasperation as she finally sat up.
Various staff members were clearing away the temporary nets and stands erected for the game. The scaffold for the television broadcast was already halfway down, and the film crew was rolling large black boxes with camera and sound equipment in them out through the double doors. Amelia sighed.
“There was something wrong before you even stepped foot on court. Is it your dad? Is everything okay with him?”
Keira’s face instantly darkened. Amelia wanted to reach out and touch her, but she was worried she might get her hand bitten off.
“The doctor called and asked him to make an appointment. It’s probably nothing.”
“But you’re worried?”
“Of course, I’m worried. He’s my dad!” Keira snapped. “And if I hadn’t been so distracted lately…” she muttered.
“Your dad’s health isn’t your responsibility.”
Keira scoffed, bouncing her knee with uncontainable energy.
“And the appointment could be for anything,” Amelia reasoned. “There’s no point in worrying until you know you have something to worry about.”
Keira stared resolutely forward, and the silence lingered between them.
“I just don’t know what to do. I’m so restless. I want to fix him, but I can’t.”
“I get that,” she said, placing a reassuring hand on Keira’s shoulder as the anxiety radiated off her. Luckily, anxiety was one of her areas of expertise.
“Do you have to rush off tonight?” she asked.
“No, why?”
“You need to burn off this energy. It always helps me, when I’m anxious, to get my body moving.”
“We literally just played a full basketball game,” Keira said, watching Amelia get to her feet.
“I know, but that probably added to your anxiety, not eased it. Come on.” Amelia held out her hand to Keira. “Let’s go play ball. One-on-one. See if you can’t get your ass handed to you twice in one day,” she added with a wink.
Keira stared at her, and Amelia wondered if she’d pushed it too far.
“Oh, it’s on,” Keira said. She took Amelia’s hand and allowed Amelia to pull her to her feet.
Amelia stripped off her damp basketball jersey and reached into her bag for her training top.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Keira watching her every move.
Amelia cleared her throat as she took her top out of her bag, seemingly snapping Keira out of her daze.
Keira similarly changed her top, and Amelia picked up her water bottle to give herself something else to focus on.
They moved to the third court, the only one free of seats, scaffolding, and leftovers from their game. A member of the staff pushed a full cage into the storage cupboard, looking quizzically at the pair as he passed.
“So, what is it we’re doing that’s so important you’re depriving me of a shower?” Keira asked.
“Games of twenty-one. We keep going until you feel calmer, or they kick us out, whichever happens first.” Amelia bounced the ball in Keira’s direction.
“How about we keep going until I annihilate you?” Keira said, using a chest pass to return the ball.
“Then we’d never leave,” Amelia said with a wicked grin.
For the first few possessions, Keira tried the usual tricks she’d been using in the game.
Amelia stayed silent, quietly working hard to defensively shut her down.
Keira tried stepping back and shooting, but Amelia was tall enough to swat her shots out of the air.
Keira huffed and returned to the top of the three-point arc, on the defensive this time.
Amelia dribbled a couple of times, then used her slightly superior speed to run Keira all over the court, before eventually sitting her down and taking an open shot.
Keira glared at her, the effect of which was slightly muted by the twitch of a smile, before she took a deep breath and restarted the drill. This time, she faked to move around Amelia, dribbled in the opposite direction, and used her momentum to get the jump on her, scoring an easy layup.
“Is that the best you’ve got, Preston?”
“I’ve barely scratched the surface,” Amelia said, all joviality gone from her face.
Amelia had barely touched the ball when she stepped back and put up a long, arcing three-point shot that went straight through the basket without even hitting the rim.
The swish of the net seemed to signal a change in pace.
Amelia got up close to Keira, smothering her attempts to move.
She was so close she felt the heat radiating off Keira’s body, and she could see the bead of sweat trailing from her neck and slowly down towards her chest. She tried not to stare, but her momentary distraction meant Keira easily got around her with a quick bit of footwork.
The smirk on her face as they reset the drill again helped Amelia focus once more.
This time, when Keira tried to dribble around her, Amelia swiped the ball from her mid-dribble and sent it flying towards the sideline.
Amelia kept pressing her tightly. Their bodies kept colliding, and suddenly the sports hall became very, very warm.
The staff had finished clearing up after their game, and they were all alone on the court, breathing hard.
Their shoes squeaked on the wooden floor.
The atmosphere in the sports hall had changed; now heavy and humid, like it were preluding a storm.
“Your ball,” Keira said, passing the ball to Amelia.
Amelia stood above the arc, dribbling the ball in and out of her legs, but not moving, as she calculated the best way to get around Keira.
Keira’s eyes twinkled with the lights of the sports hall, and Amelia kept getting distracted by the rise and fall of her chest.
“You scared, Preston?” Keira asked, voice husky.
“You wish,” Amelia said. Stepping in and out of the arc, she teased Keira with fake movements before resetting to the top of the key. Each time she got a few millimetres of upper hand. Eventually, Amelia stepped outside the arc again and sent another perfect three soaring through the air.
“I thought you promised me annihilation?” Amelia said, checking the ball back in to Keira.
Keira didn’t say anything, but her jaw set with concentration.