A Game Worth Watching (31 page)

As
she looked around the court, she saw Tom instructing Lauren on how to draw an
offensive foul, Ben showing Shiloh how to execute a blind pass, and Jerry
teaching Ashley a few tricks on how to defend someone twice her size without
getting pummeled.

Riley
climbed the bleachers and sat beside her. “Hey.”

“Hey
yourself.”

He
propped his feet up on the bench below them and rested his elbows on his knees,
turning his head to look at her. “You know you’re brilliant, right?”

Emma
shrugged.

Bringing
her two worlds together had turned out better than expected. She watched the
girls and guys interact on the court. Two months ago she didn’t think any of
the girls would be able to pull off a decent jump shot, much less drive to the
basket and score with some fancy move against a guy. Ashley surprised her most.
Jerry had pulled Cy over to play two-on-one against Ashley, so she could get
more practice at facing off under the basket.

Riley
followed her gaze and nodded toward the court. “You did an amazing job with the
freshman. She looks like she’s been playing for years.”

She
laughed, knocking her knee against his. “Did you ever doubt me?” she joked.

He
shook his head. “Not even for a second.” They watched Ashley hold her own
against the two boys twice her size. A couple months ago they would have eaten
her alive, but now she found her way to the basket each time, no hint of fear
holding her back.

Riley
nodded toward Ashley. “The freshman reminds me of you.”

“Oh,
yeah?” Emma rolled her head in his direction, expecting a sarcastic answer.
“How so?”

“People
take one look at her and think they’ve got her all figured out. She’s clumsy,
small, inexperienced, and no one expects much from her, but after a while, they
realize how much she has to offer.” He turned to look at Emma, and she froze
beneath the intensity of his eyes. “Kind of like you. On first glance people
may see a tomboy, a poor kid, a girl without much to offer the world, but then
they take a closer look, and everything about you changes. They see what I
always see.”

Emma’s
breath caught in her throat, and she couldn’t do anything except stare back at
him, her heart swelling in her chest. He held her gaze for a minute longer
before switching his attention to the guys and girls on the basketball court.
“Most people have a hard enough time getting past one defender, but you take on
two, sometimes three, without fear. You weave through players like they’re
wooden posts, you dribble like the ball is a part of you, and every shot you
take is a testament of grace. Your determination and strength, your love of the
game—when you play, you capture basketball at its best.” He paused and
reconnected his eyes with hers. “You make it a game worth watching.”

His
words shocked her into silence. How was she supposed to respond to that? She’d
seen enough basketball games and watched enough players to know what he was
talking about. Basketball was about the passing, the shooting, the breakaways,
the impossible shots made at the buzzer, coming from behind to win, and every
other moment that caused a person to jump up from their seat to cheer. However,
sometimes it wasn’t basketball but a player that made the game worth watching.
A player whose insightfulness and execution of the game caused spectators to
shake their head in amazement. A player who drew the interest of non-fans to
the sport. For someone like Emma, there was no greater compliment than Riley’s,
especially considering players like that didn’t come around that often. It
wasn’t the kind of praise he would give to just anyone unless he truly meant
it. Emma didn’t know if she measured up to his claim, but it was nice to know
how much he thought of her.

Their
attention returned to the court. Emma couldn’t take her eyes off the freshman.
Ashley beat Jerry with a crossover to the left, saw the slight delay in Cy’s
approach, and slipped between their double-team for the open shot. “She learned
that from you,” Riley said.

Emma
looked at him. If she didn’t stop Riley’s stream of compliments, she’d probably
start blubbering like an idiot. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were
jealous.”

“Jealous,”
he repeated with his eyebrows raised.

She
nodded. “Jealous of my mad skills.”

“Oh,
I’ll show you mad skills.” His arms encircled her as his fingers found her ribs
and started tickling. She laughed, trying to squirm out of his grasp. No such
luck. Her escape tactics were no match for his strength and tickling ability.

“Okay,”
she gasped. “Mercy.”

“That’s
what I thought,” he said smugly, pulling her against him as he leaned back
against the edge of the seat behind him and crossed his feet on the one below.

She
settled herself into the crook of his arm—the one place she felt safe,
protected, loved—and leaned her head against his shoulder. For the first
time in years, she felt completely content.

“Hey
Em?”

She
tilted her head up to look at his profile.

“For
the record,” he looked down to meet her eyes, “there is no better than you.”

For
a moment she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t understand why Riley’s faith
in her never faltered, why he’d chosen her as a best friend, or why he didn’t
leave when she tried to set him free from her, but maybe she wasn’t supposed to
understand. Maybe she was just supposed to be grateful for him.

Letting
the girl in her take over, Emma kissed his cheek, regretting nothing. “Same
goes for you.”

***

The
small crack in time between the end of lunch and the beginning of class was not
to be wasted doing homework or scoring points with teachers. It was about
squishing in a little more time with friends to gear up for the second part of
the school day. The hallway buzzed with chatter and the slams of locker doors.
Emma loved this time of day.

Tom
told a joke. Emma and the guys laughed. It wasn’t much different than usual
except for the part when Madison plowed into their huddle.

“We
have to win tomorrow.” No greeting. No forewarning of the interruption. Just
Madison’s face, inches from Emma’s, stating a fact everyone already knew.

“Okay,”
Emma said slowly. She had no idea where the conversation was headed or if it
even had a destination, so she took a step away from Madison and let the girl
speak.

“Evergreen
High School has destroyed our team for the past three years. We can’t let them
beat us again.” Madison’s hands clamped down on Emma, her fingers digging into
Emma’s shoulders, causing Emma to wince. “We have to
win
. We have to crush them and beat them
into the ground and—”

Emma
would’ve laughed if the girl hadn’t been so intense. Madison and violence? Not
a good combo. “With that much aggression we’ll be thrown out of the league and
banned from the sport forever,” Emma said.

“But—”

“Madison!”
Emma nearly shouted. She pried Madison’s fingers from her shoulders and stepped
out of the crazy girl’s reach. “Relax. We’re going to be fine.”   

“Fine?”
Madison looked at Emma with crazed eyes and flaring nostrils. “What kind of
answer is fine?”

Seriously.
What did Madison expect her to say? She looked to the guys for help, but they
kept staring at Madison like they wanted to clone her and set her loose on the
football field.

“Okay,
how about this.” Emma straightened to her full height and met the intensity of
Madison’s gaze with one of her own. “You want to win? Leave the girl drama at
home and come ready to play, ready to fight for our win. Evergreen may be good,
but they have no idea what kind of team we’ve become. We’re going to pounce on
them from the beginning and not let up until the final buzzer sounds. And when
it does, we
will
have our victory.” Emma left no room for fear or doubt. She hadn’t worked so
hard, endured girls, and suffered multiple moments of humiliation for two
months only to lose twice against a cross-town rival. No way.

Riley
grabbed both of her shoulders from behind and shook her in excitement
while the other guys whooped and hollered, giving each other high-fives.

Straightening
out of her crazed maniac stance, Madison creased down the front of her
shirt, raised her chin, and then placed a hand on her hip. “Okay,” she said,
returning to her usual superior self. “Good. I think we’re done here.” Without
another word, Madison whipped around and walked away.

“Do
you think you girls have a real shot to win tomorrow?” Cy asked.

“You
bet they do,” Tom said, holding up his hand to give Emma a high-five.

Emma
smacked his hand, and then looked around at her friends, needing their support
for the most important game of the season. “I didn't join the stupid team to
lose.”
  

***

Inside
the locker room, all was silent. Sure, Emma had meant every word yesterday when
she told Madison they would win this game, but now, confronted with the actual
task of playing Evergreen, doubt crept into Emma’s thoughts. Anything could
happen. She knew only too well how an off day could swap perfect shots for air
balls and passes for turnovers. The rematch against Evergreen wasn’t just a
game. It was a defining moment in their season and in their lives. Two months
ago no one had expected anything from the Bradshaw girls’ basketball team, but
now that they had secured a sizable number of wins under their belt and showed
people what they could do, things were different. Different because this was
the first time in over a decade that Bradshaw had a shot of beating Evergreen.

Everyone
felt the pressure.

Emma
tried to remain calm, knowing once she stepped on the court she could just play
basketball and leave the doubt behind, but until then there was nothing she could
do except create a list and check things off.

Braids.
Check.

Red
armband. Check.

Game
face. Check.

Beside
her, Ashley clasped her hands together in a death grip and her leg jiggled a
mile a minute as she stared wide-eyed at the floor. The kid was petrified. Emma
reached over and put her hand on Ashley’s knee until the shaking stopped and
Ashley looked at her. Emma gave her a smile. Ashley tried and failed to give
one back.

Even
Coach, with her clipboard tapping against her thigh, wasn’t free of fear. She
tried to give the pre-game speech of her life, but her voice shook with every
word and she talked in circles, so no one gained an ounce of the motivation
they needed to take the court. Maybe that was why the first half of the game
went nothing like how they’d planned. Evergreen sought revenge, Coach Knowles
second-guessed every decision she made, and Bradshaw failed to live up to their
winning reputation.

The
buzzer signaled the end of the first half. Trailing by twenty points, the
Bradshaw Lions sulked as they made their way off the court. With half the game
left, Emma wondered what tricks Coach had up her sleeve to pull the team
together. They weren’t playing badly, things just weren’t going in their favor.
Their shots weren’t falling, they couldn’t get inside for the rebounds, and the
refs let half the fouls go uncalled.

Coach
ushered them into the locker room just as her cell phone rang.

“Hello?”
Coach propped the door open with her foot to let the girls pass and held one
finger up to tell Emma she needed a minute to take the call. “Yes, this is she.
What can I—”

Her
words cut off as the locker room door closed, leaving Coach on one side and the
team on the other. Looking around at the sullen faces of her teammates, Emma
didn’t think they had a chance to win. It was tempting to jump onto a bench,
tower over her teammates, and yell at them to get their heads in the game. Yes,
the image tempted her to smile, but she knew it wasn’t what her team needed.
They sat in silence, waiting for Coach to appear and voice words of wisdom and
strength to inspire them to return to the game and fight for their victory.

Waiting.

No
one spoke. For the first time, surrounded by seven girls, there was merely
silence. No whining, no complaining, no blaming each other. Just silence. Emma
looked at each of her teammates. Shoulders slumped, heads bowed, eyes closed.
The team had already given up. They were ready to give in to the pressure
pushing against them and hand the win to Evergreen. Emma didn’t think things
could get any worse.

She
was wrong.

The
locker room door flew open and eight girls turned to look at their coach, but
it was not her slim, pale figure that stepped through the doorway. Lauren’s dad
took center stage instead. His tall lanky frame and head full of thick black
hair didn’t belong center stage in the girls’ locker room.

“Hi,
girls,” he said.

His
false sense of assurance didn’t fool any of them.

Emma’s
thoughts snapped back to the phone call Coach had answered as the team entered
the locker room, and her heart stopped. She stood, not taking her eyes off Mr.
Thompson. “What’s wrong?”

The
eyes of her teammates bounced from Emma to Mr. Thompson.

“Nothing,
nothing.” Mr. Thompson waved away her question with his hand. “There’s just
been a change of plans, that’s all.”

Change
of plans during halftime of the biggest game of their lives when they were
losing? Seriously?

“Ms.
Knowles has been called away, something about a family emergency, so it looks
like I’ll be filling in for her.” His eager smile revealed how much he totally
underestimated the role he’d stepped in to fill. This game wasn’t a pre-season
practice game, nor was it merely a matter of scoring more points against some
opponent. This was Evergreen High School!

The
girls exchanged glances.

“You’re
joking, right?” Emma couldn’t resist. This was not a time for jokes.