Chapter 24
Amelia
Amelia stood near the free throw line, glancing towards the crowd. Clara was there with her boyfriend, in the front row next to Sonia and Evie, whose bump was showing now. Clara smiled at Amelia before cupping her hands around her mouth.
“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 about you.”
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.
“Pipsqueak?” Clara asked, confused, looking between TJ and Amelia.
“Amelia once told me she was fed up of being called ‘Perfect Preston’…so I came up with a new nickname. It didn’t catch on.”
“Mainly because Amelia would punish anyone who used it, with extra shuttles or being the kit carrier for the month.” Evie laughed.
“You can do that?” Clara asked.
“Technically, no…but Coach Grant loves me, so,” Amelia shrugged with a grin.
“I only get away with it because she can’t boss me around.” TJ laughed.
“So, Clara, you were saying?” Evie prompted, clearly trying to get the conversation back on track. Clara looked to Amelia for approval, but before Amelia could nod or shake her head, Evie continued talking.
“Look, either I get a childhood story, or I show Keira the text messages Amelia sent me after they first met in the park.” Evie held up her phone in front of her and unlocked it.
“No way.” Amelia’s hand whipped across the table as she snatched the phone out of Evie’s hands. Everyone around the table chuckled. Keira raised an eyebrow at Amelia.
“Clara, please, save me,” Amelia jokingly whispered.
Clara folded her arms and tapped her finger on her chin, pretending to be thinking.
“Ah, I got it. One time, when I was almost eight, I got chewing gum stuck in my hair.”
“Oh god.” Amelia buried her face in her hands.
“Mum tried to get it out, but it was hopeless, so we went to the hairdresser for a new, much shorter haircut.” Clara paused, the others clearly wondering how this would become a funny story about Amelia. But Amelia knew.
“So I come home from the hairdresser, and Amelia, who was mad that our hair didn’t match anymore, stomped off to her room. She came down half an hour later, having hacked at her hair with a pair of scissors, saying it looked just like mine. She was six.”
The entire table erupted into laughter.
“Mum went spare, having to make a second trip to the hairdressers on the same day. Look, I’ve still got the photo.” Clara pulled out her phone and showed everyone the picture of a printed photograph. She and Amelia stood next to each other with matching short haircuts, grinning.
“I can’t believe you’ve got a copy of that on your phone!” Amelia said, both exasperated and delighted.
“It’s one of my favourite pictures.” Clara laughed, then continued more quietly. “It’s the first time I knew you’d always have my back.”
Clara smiled at her, and Amelia returned it, basking in the prism of light that was having her sister back in her life. She looked around the table at her family, her chosen family, and Sonia, who she hoped would become part of her chosen family, and a warmth washed over her.
“Right, sorry to cut this party short, but I have a meeting I gotta get to,” Sonia said, rising from her seat.
“A meeting? With who?” Keira asked.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.” Sonia laughed. Keira opened her mouth as if to ask more, but Evie spoke.
“We have to go too, actually.” Evie slowly scooted out from the opposite side of the booth. “We’re going over to my parents’ this evening for film night.”
“Film night?” Amelia asked.
“Mum is complaining that, since I’m not training, she never sees me. So, film night.” Evie gave a shrug. “I think we’re watching Jurassic Park.” Keira laughed. TJ handed Evie her coat. Clara also got to her feet.
“Not you, too?” Amelia asked.
“What? No, I’m just jumping in their seats. Seem’s odd otherwise.”
“Oh,” Amelia said. Clara chuckled as she and Josh slid into the opposite side of the booth.
“Bye, guys,” Keira said, as the remaining trio waved off the others.
“So, Clara…got any more stories for me?” Keira asked, flashing a grin over the top of her drink.
“Maybe…” Clara teased. “But first, I want to know more about you. I need to vet the person who’s dating my little sister, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Keira said and put down her drink. Leaning in, she asked, “So, what d’you wanna know?”
Amelia sat back and watched her girlfriend and her sister slip into an easy banter, as if they’d known each other all their lives, rather than this being their first time meeting. When Keira made Clara laugh, Amelia squeezed Keira’s hand under the table and sighed contentedly.
It was to be a day of firsts, apparently.
“Dad, I’m home!” Keira shouted as she walked through the door in front of Amelia. This was the first time Amelia would meet Keira’s father. She shifted her weight from foot to foot and wrung her hands in front of her.
“It’ll be fine. He’s gonna love you,” Keira said quietly.
“I’ve brought Amelia with me,” Keira called again. A shuffling noise came from the living room, then Keira’s dad appeared in the doorway.
“Amelia, so good to finally” — he glared at Keira — “meet you! I’m Jeff.”
Before Amelia really knew what was happening, the slender man hugged her. She froze for a second, still not used to parental-style hugs. Eventually, she relaxed and hugged him back.
“Come in, come in!” He waved into the living room. “I watched the game on the live stream. You girls did fantastic.” He beamed with pride. Amelia’s knee-jerk reaction was not to trust it, but then she remembered this was Keira’s parent, not hers. He was genuinely proud.
“Thanks, Dad. Second win, first at home. We’re on a roll, of sorts.” Keira laughed.
Amelia took a seat on the couch.
“Shall I make a cuppa?” Keira asked.
“Oh, we’re out of milk, love.” Her dad sat down, then leaned forward in his chair, as if Amelia was some exotic flower he’d waited his whole life to see bloom. She didn’t quite know what to do with that kind of affection.
"We had plenty this morning?"
"I drank it all." Jeff grinned.
“Oh, er, I could go get some, I guess?” Keira looked between Amelia and her dad.
“We’ll be fine, won’t we?” her dad said, his eyes twinkling.
“Yes, of course.” She smiled at Keira, but she knew her eyes betrayed her nervousness.
Keira looked between Amelia and her father once more.
“It’s okay,” Amelia said quietly, more confident by the second.
“Do you play chess, Amelia?” Jeff asked, pulling an ornate wooden board towards himself.
“I mean, I know the rules, kind of…” She trailed off, distracted by Keira shuffling her shoes back on by the front door, then leaving. She felt a lot less sure of herself without Keira here.
“Eh, it’s easy. I’ll explain it to you as we go,” Jeff said, setting out the pieces. “You’re white, so you’ll start,” he said patiently, and Amelia moved one of her pawns forward. Jeff reached out for one of his, then hesitated, and took his hand back. Amelia looked up at him.
“You really have made her so happy, you know,” he said, his voice cracking. “Thank you.”
He focused back on the board and moved his opposing pawn forward. Amelia was slightly dumbstruck and didn’t quite know what to do.
“It’s your turn, Amelia,” he prompted softly.
Right. Chess. She’d done a lot of new, scary things over the last few weeks. What was one more?