My Therapy

Chapter 21

Adriane's POV

Today, I have basketball tryouts. I signed up for it with Ella's deal that I would not lose time for her.

Ella visited her mom today and will just return as soon as I'm finished with tryouts. She said she doesn't want to stay at the apartment without me, cause it's boring.

I arrived at the gym I guess a bit early, I still don't see any of the players around nor the coach. I went towards the locker room to get changed. On my way to the locker room I heard noise coming from it. Maybe someone's earlier than me.

I swung the locker door open and saw two people standing in front of each other kissing - it's Stephanie and Amber.

"Oh s**t! Sorry!" I quickly turned around my face turned red. "I'm sorry, I didn't know someone's already here. I'll just leave you two" I said walking away.

"Don't be silly, Adriane. It's okay, go and get changed" Amber said laughing at me. "I'll see you guys in a bit" she said and left the locker room. I looked at Stephanie and she blew a kiss at Amber.

"So, uhh. You and the coach are uhh.." I tried to complete my question. "Yes, she's my partner. Don't worry about it the team knows, but for Amber's sake just don't let any of the other professors know" Stephanie answered, able to guess what I was about to ask.

"You bet, I'm sorry if I have interrupted you. Maybe next time, try locking the doors" I said and she laughed. "I totally forgot that today's the tryouts for new members, so that kinda slipped our minds" she said giggling "Do your best later, I have a feeling Amber won't take it easy on you" she threatened.

Well, Stephanie was not joking when she said that. For start, Amber made us jog 20 laps around the court with sprints in between each lap. Then planks, sit ups and she also made us frog-leap across the court. That's just for warming up, we also did dribbling, passing, shooting and rebounding afterwards. I have a good stamina but this routine is intense.

"Alright! 15 minutes rest then we'll separate you into two teams. The new ones and the players" Amber instructed.

So there're 8 of us who came for the tryouts and there are 10 existing players. We're clearly outnumbered. One of the newbies sat beside me, she's Meg (if I recall her name right). She's also a stud with short blonde hair that's shaved on the left side, a lot taller than me - maybe she's 6 feet tall.

"We need you if they'll have the captain (Stephanie) play all throughout the game. You can match her speed" she said. "Yeah you can count on me" I said while taking deep breaths.

The game started and as expected the players' team are giving us a hard time. Stephanie's really good, her defense has improved since the time she challenged me. I barely scored because of it but she can't score that much either. Meg is doing her best to score for the team, she makes sure to get all rebounds and that's our advantage towards the other team.

"What's wrong Adriane? You're having a hard time with me today?" Stephanie said challenging me. "Just wait" my short reply to her and smiled. I missed this, it's been years since the last time I played basketball and I almost forgot the hunger I feel whenever I want to make a score in a game. 

"Less than 1 minute"Amber yelled. The score is 43-45, the players' team leads us by two. I called a time out for our team. All of us  are tired, "We need to get the captain away from Adriane" Meg said. "I've been trying to screen her but she's too fast" a girl named Josie said. "Let's try to screen her twice, we cannot double team her since they'll be on defense on inbound" another girl spoke, her name is Ivy. "Okay, let's do that. Meg, get the rebound whatever happens" I said and looked at Meg, who nodded in agreement.

Less than a minute and we're on offense, Ivy will inbound the ball to me. Clock's ticking and as soon as I got the ball, Stephanie is on my face grinning. "Now's your last chance" she said. I did my best to lose her, but she's really good. I saw Ivy trying her best to get away from the player defending her. 

At the corner of my eye, I saw Josie so I ran towards her so she can screen me. Stephanie quickly stepped aside evading the screen, then Ivy came out of no where to screen again. Stephanie did not expect that so she got caught on Ivy's screen "s**t!" was the only word I heard from her when I ran towards the ring. Two of her team mates came up in front of me but compared to Stephanie they're slow. I managed to get through their defense, their center is the only one stopping me now. I can quickly get through her but my team's all tired. I decided to challenge her, I ran towards her not making any changes on my direction so she would block my shot. 

"Don't!" Stephanie yelled but it's too late. I positioned myself for a lay-up and their center jumped in front of me to block the shot.

*Prrrrrrt*

I heard Amber blew the whistle as I let go of the ball, that made me smile. The ball went in to the ring, "Foul! Basket counted" Amber said. My team cheered and their center kicked the ball in anger. 

I shot the free throw which gave us the lead 46-45 and there's only  20 seconds left. Our team did their best to defend until the game ended. 

"That's a wise play" Amber said to me. "Thanks" I replied. After the game, out of the 8 newbies Amber picked 5 including me, Meg, Ivy and Josie. Then we all went in the locker room to get changed. While in the showers, Meg spoke to me "You're really good, how come you haven't joined the team yet? Are you new here?"

"Yeah, I just came here in Canada a few months ago. I want to practice Psychology here that's why I continued my studies" I replied to her "That's great, I'm majoring in Physical Education like Stephanie. I was not able to join the team before cause I'm still recovering from an injury" she stated.

We all parted ways after and I got in to my car. I twisted the key to start but the engine didn't start. "What the?" I tried again, still no response from the engine. Great! maybe I'll just take the bus, I said to myself and stepped out of the car.

"Something wrong?" someone said, I turned around and saw Amber. "Yeah, my car won't start. I'll just take the bus home and call road assistance to take care of it. "Come with me, I'll give you a ride home" she offered. 

I was hesitant to accept the offer but Amber insisted.

"Just let me know if I'm going the right direction" Amber said. "Yeah, just straight ahead, my apartment is just on the corner of Taylor Ave" I replied. "Really? I used to live there!" she said surprised.

"For real? My girlfriend was the one who got the apartment, I just moved in with her a few days ago" I stated.

"How long you've been with your girl?" Amber asked. "We started dating a few months ago. How bout you and Stephanie?" I threw the question back.

"We've been together close to a year since I became the team's head-coach" Amber said as we approached the apartment.

"Thanks again for the ride, would you like to come in for some coffee or tea?" I offered. "Nah, maybe next time. See you in training!" Amber replied and drove off.

*****

Ella's POV

I visited my mom today so I won't miss Adriane that much while she's on tryouts.

I also asked my mom a simple recipe and tried it on her kitchen. She frankly told me that the meal I cooked is horrible and she's proud of Adriane who managed to eat it without getting ill. So much for a loving mother, eh?

As I approach our apartment, I saw a familiar car on the opposite traffic. I looked at it but since the road's dark I can't figure out the license plate.

No, it can't be. Why would she even be around the apartment, I said to myself.

I opened the door and saw Adriane on the couch speaking to someone on her phone. I kissed her and she kissed me back as she finishes her call.

"Who were you talking to?" I asked. "It's the road assistance, my car won't start earlier so I left it parked near the gym."

"What happened? Did you take the bus going home? You could've called me, so I can pick you up" I said to her. "It's okay, our coach gave me a ride home" she answered. "That's nice of him, how was your tryout?"

"I made it to the team!" she said with a big smile and hugged me "Also, our coach is a SHE, not a HE" she continued.

For some reason I felt uncomfortable knowing that her coach is a girl. "I hope she doesn't find you attractive nor any of your team mates or I'll rip all of their heads off" I warned Adriane.

"Ooh, scary! That won't happen cause my coach is a stud and I don't care about other girls. I'm more worried if they found out that my girl is so damn hot" she replied with that gorgeous smile I've always loved and kissed me.