TOMBOY

🏀THREE

Sasha took a deep breath as she placed her hand onto the door knob, next pushing it open slowly, only to grimace at the cracking sound that announced her arrival.

The large clock on the living room wall read 8pm, and accounting on the fact that school ended at 3, she knew she would have some explaining to do. The smell of spaghetti filled her nose, and while she wasn't hungry she knew she would have to make an appearance in the dining room anyway. She could hear the familiar sounds of silverware tapping against the glass plates, as her family silently ate their meals. She decided to take a chance and make a beeline for her room, but the sound of her name being called from the other room told her that she wasn't fast enough.

"Yeah?" She asked, slowly sauntering under the arch that created a entry way into the dining room.

Her mother and father were sat at the opposite sides of the table, while her four brothers sat around it. Quan, her fraternal twin gave her a knowing look that she read well, while Ty gave her a taunting smirk. Mikey was in his own world as always, drawing underneath the table even though his parents told him not to, and little joe who was too young to even know what was going on. Joseph looked up from his plate, his glasses on the bridge of his nose as always.

"What time does that clock say?" Joseph asked, pointing to the grandfather clock in their dining room.

"Eight, sir. But before you ~"

"And what time, does school end?" he cut her off.
Sasha didn't respond, and Joseph looked over to his sons Quan and Ty.

"Do you two know?"

Quan looked up at his father, "2:50 sir"

"2:50, would you look at that" he laughed sarcastically, "So my clock must be wrong, because that one says 8:05 at night. Where the hell have you been?"

"I made friends" Sasha shrugged, not wanting to admit that she also went to tryouts, "And I lost track of time"

"You bet your sweet ass you did, don't wait until your last year to get involved with these little boys" he said pointing his fork towards her and her brothers snickered.

"Sasha and boys?" Ty laughed, "Have you seen her dad?"

"Hush up" Myda scolded her son as she hated hearing the truth, "Now Sasha sit down and eat your dinner, it's already getting cold"

"I'm not hungry, I had pizza" she shook her head, "Mind if I go out to the court?"

Her parents gave her the same uninterested look, and she knew she should probably stop while she was ahead. So far they hadn't blown up at her for being five hours later coming home, so she decided to take what she could get. She sat down at her designated spot that was between Ty and Quan, and twisted her lip when she realized her plate was different than everybody's else's.

"What's this?" She asked, although she knew it was her half eaten meal from the night before.

"You didn't eat it last night, so you get another chance tonight. I told you, no food wasted" Joseph said proudly, actually amused with himself for coming up with the petty punishment.

Sasha rolled her eyes, but began to scarf it down in efforts to get the whole dinner in her stomach within minutes. She just wanted to get the rest of the night over with, so she could wake up the next day and have the news of if she made the team or not. She was sure that she did, however seeing it on paper meant more.

"How was your first day Sasha?" Her mom asked, trying to break up the tense silence in the room.

Myda was a middle aged woman, who was small in stature and in presence. She was the shadow of her husband, and most of her decisions in life came from the man she had been with for over twenty years. If it was one thing Sasha hated about her mom, it was that she failed to have a mind of her own. She wasn't anything like the strong women that Sasha read about in the romance or drama novels, or even on TV. She was docile, and easily manipulated, something Sasha hoped she would never be like.