Redemption.

Chapter Nine.

CHAPTER NINE

A/N: Loveoflife is the person who made me this banner and some other covers for my books. All praise goes to her as she has done such a good job. Why don't you go and fan her?

     SOCKS UP. Shorts on. Hair up. Water bottle in hand. Trainers on. This was my routine for whenever I had a basketball game. It helped me keep things serious and everything in check so that I would be totally ready for the game at hand.

     I was dressed in a loose white vest top and some light blue shorts. This was the uniform for the basketball team here; even the guys wore the same thing. I was the only person in the girl changing rooms. It seemed that there were no girls on the opposing team. It was kind of sad; it would have been nice to have another girl on the team. It's not always a joy ride having to be on the team with only a bunch of guys.We would be playing against the team from Sacramento. Like us, they didn't really bother with a name. They just stuck the word 'basketball' at the end of the name of their high school. I looked into one of the mirrors that were handing on the wall. Everything seemed to be in its rightful place and it also seemed that I was ready to play some basketball.

     I left the changing room, making sure that I locked the door behind me with the key that Coach had provided me with to make sure that no one else but me would be able to go in there. I didn't like the idea of some guy nosing through my stuff.

     It was a home game so the game was going to be played here, in Roseville High. The other team had made their way here from Sacramento and would probably stay for the after party, and leave late tonight or even early tomorrow. If you remember correctly, Lawson had offered to throw the after party for today's game, and that was where we all would be heading later on. But now, it was time to kick some Sacramento butt.

     I swung open the doors to the gym so that I could walk through only to find that all the guys from my team were already in there and waiting. The crowd cheered, despite the fact that the game hadn't started yet. I jogged over to where my team mates were discussing tactics and joined in on the crowd.

     "Good, you're here. I would have gone in there myself to get you." Matt - the team captain - smirked at me teasingly.

     Even though he was teasing I still blushed. "Sorry. I was thinking." The guys burst out laughing at my weak demeanour, obviously finding this amusing. After the guys had finished laughing at my expense we hurdled and started to discuss tactics.

     Matt was the captain so what he said goes. "I got a glance of them and they definitely have height on their sides. This can be used to our advantage if we stay low, play low. Especially for those of you who are ... lacking in the height department." Matt chimed giving me a pointed look. That last statement was obviously at my expense. After discussing a couple more game plays we broke apart and pumped ourselves up for the game.

     Coach and the referee were discussing something so we had some time before we were thrown into the game. My eyes scanned the bleachers in search of my favourite bubbly blonde. I laughed as I found her with our team colours - light blue and white -painted onto a big white shirt of hers. Av had one of those large fingers on her hands and was thrusting it into the air in my direction, obviously thinking that it would help me in the motivation department when the only thing that it was making me do is laugh. Av was seated in the absolute centre of the bleachers amongst the crowd of people cheering which consisted of students who attended Roseville High.

     The Sacramento students were seated on the other side of the hall, on the other set of bleachers. It was quite amazing to see so many students come all the way from Sacramento just to cheer on their team; it has never been like this before. Hell, they even brought along their cheerleaders, who by the looks of things, were very happy that they decided to come along. They were currently hanging off the arms of some of the guys from our school. It sure was a funny image as the guys seemed to be unable to pry them off, despite the fact that they have very large muscles. I guess the girls over there are just very clingy.