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Chapter 1 (Angel in disguise)

Molly Taylor's POV

I felt everyone's presence after my winning shot. I saw how my teammates reacted with an eye full of exhilaration and joy. Everybody hugged me, even my coach, they were in their fine spirits. They are all celebrating, congratulating each other, crying with their moms, friends, and family. I still can't believe it. My teammates kiss me on the cheek, my coach gives me another warm hug with the words, "I'm so proud of you!" I can't hear properly but still manage to hear what he said. I think my body was used to it, always listening to my coach but not obeying everything he said. My body can't move, shocked. I've been dreaming of this for so long that even my body can't believe what I'm witnessing.                                      

Until I heard Stella, "Championship baby" with teary; proud eyes and hugs me. "I told ya!" Then suddenly it sank in, we did it?? For real?? I'd been a loser for two whole freaking years and now I did it? We did it?                              "Yes, you did." She says, already knows what I'm thinking about.                                                                                      

I hug her, "We won," my tears are about to gather. "We did it" I hugged her tighter. She smiles on my back.  I saw Klyde making his way to come after me with a flower. "You did it, love." I release Stella to hug Klyde. "My eyes have been searching for you."                                                                                                                        

 He gave me the flower, and held my waist, looking at me. "Congratulations." I can't see anybody but him, everything around me suddenly disappeared. "You did it," he says once again.

 I smiled, "It's because you believed in me." I pull him close, we're about to kiss. Irritatingly I heard a dog bark, who the hell goes to a game with a dog? It's not even allowed. After taking a glance to see where the noise came from, Klyde vanishes, I look around but I'm just seeing black all black. it feels like I am just a soul and then I felt someone's touching my body, shaking it, but no one's touching me, then I heard a voice, it's like a whisper that's why I can't understand until it goes louder, I think I knew this voice? It's Stella, saying "Taylor! Wake up!!"

I groaned. What a nice dream, it felt real, I don't want to wake up. I want to stay there, it feels so real, the championship and all. Maybe because of my too many thoughts about winning, it joined me in my dream. I throw my pillow at Stella with enough force to make her feel my anger. She looks at me. "What did I do?!" and gave back my pillow. "You just ended my wonderful dream. You should realize that you ruined it."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    "Your dream? About what? Championship and Klyde?"                                                                     

 I'm surprised. "How do you know?"

She laughs. "Maybe, with your actions?" Whatever. She ruined it by the way. "Come on, Taylor. You're not going to continue your dream right?," She said after seeing me going back to my sleep. "And who the hell will make an alarm of dogs bark? Creep."

 I sat down. "Mind your business."                                                                                                                                                     

She's cleaning the floor. "Sorry, I don't have any."

 "Then, make one."                                                                                                                                         

"I will. In the future."                                                                                                                                    

 I stood up to wash my face in the bathroom. "The future is now, Stella." She ignored me or maybe she just can't think right away. "It's Saturday. We don't have classes. You don't need to wake me up early in the morning." I said, brushing my teeth. 

"Well, It's not early. just so you know It's ten-thirty A.M" 

My forehead crinkles. "Who cares if It's ten-thirty? I want to sleep and no one said there's a time limit for sleeping."

 "There's a time limit, Taylor. Do you want to sleep all day? like all day? Maybe you're dead if you are still asleep throughout the day." 

After I exited the bathroom, the bed was cleaned. I wiped my face and drank a cup of water. She immediately approaches me to give her. "You guys don't have any practice?" She asked. I don't know if she's trying to mock me or what. "For sure they have," I noticed her hair is in the water.  "Ew! your hair."

 She looks at it. "It's okay. It's my hair by the way. I will find it gross if it's yours." 

"Both gross." I lay on the bed again.

 "So you're not coming?" She sat down on my rocking chair. 

"Probably. I made a mistake. Even though I think it's not."

 She smiled, "It's because you're always not listening. If I were your coach I'd probably do the same."                              

I stood up to make breakfast. "I'm listening."

"Yeah, but not obedience."

 I ignored her. She continued to watch while I'm cooking. "Do you want me to put this in your egg?" I asked, showing her Magic Sarap. 

"Is that even a question?"

 I rolled my eyes and put on some. She loves using Magic Sarap to her egg instead of salt. She used to put some on mine but I don't like it. It makes the egg sweet so I prefer salt. After making breakfast I put it on my mini table. You know, breakfast in bed. I bought this cute little black and white table for three-fifty pesos only and it's worth it.

While eating Stella starts a conversation. "Since you don't have practice today, I mean you're not involved with your teammates' training. I think you can come with me."

 I swallow first before speaking up. "I think I can't. You will just be going to make me miserable."

 She slaps my thigh, "Hey! That sounds unfair. When did I make you feel miserable?" 

"The day when you asked me to come over then I found out that one of your friends likes me and you made a deal that when I come over he will treat you whatever you want. That's also the day when I lost my trust in you. Punk." When I keep remembering it, my head hurts, she makes me hang out with people whom I don't even know, and even makes me do cringe things to make him do what she wants. 

"Hey, that's the first time I ever took advantage of your popularity. I'm the one who's always having a hard time about it. All guys keep texting and talking to me just to send you flowers and all. Do you know that? It's tiring." I searched for the remote and turned the volume up. "I never ask you to do that." Ps. I'm not popular. Just to let you know.

Later that day, she went out. I didn't come. I slept. Sleeping is my priority, no one else comes close even Stella. Maybe if you'll ask me what my hobbies are, I think I would say sleeping. I don't know if it counts as a hobby but it's the only thing I tend to do. I'm staring at the ceiling with my pajamas. I badly want to come!! I thought. But I'm forbidden. Coach doesn't want me to come. He has long patience about everything but I think I exceeded the limit.

He got mad, very mad. I don't know why he's acting like that, all I did was talk to one of the heads of the school. Well, I remembered him giving me a warning, I just forgot and remembered it after. My phone beeped.

 It's Stella. "Do you want to come?" I'm thinking about it, it's boring here anyway. But imagining myself talking with her friends, and needing to tell a story, I think I'm not in a good mood. I will just ruin their day by not engaging.                                                                 

 "No. I don't feel I can pretend to be kind right now."

 "I know. It's just the two of us by the way. They are about to leave so come over. It's nice here. You will love it."

I sigh. Stella Luke is the angel in disguise.

 "Alright."

 I jumped out of bed and changed my shirt into a black one. I picked up the gray pants out of the floor and wore them. I texted her where the location is. I accidentally saw one of my teammates while waiting for a cab. She let me into her car. It takes about a minute before the "It's okay. I can wait for a cab and, no, It’s okay I can drop you off." ended. I thanked her after dropping me off. It's nine-thirty pm, Stella and I can stay here for hours. I immediately came into the gate. The guards welcome me. This Park has a lot of mini restos. Side by Side. There's a lot of people here, mostly couples. The Christmas lights stand out. Every tent has its lights. It's alluring. Plus the cold breeze wrapping around your body, I felt calm. I like this feeling. I slowly closed my eyes and sigh, and I wish that we can go to the finals. I open my eyes and notice everyone's having fun. I never knew that watching someone can make you smile until I saw Stella waving her hand at me. She's wearing a denim skirt with a black polo shirt, she lets her brown short hair hang. She looks innocent, more like an angel. She doesn't do heavy make-up, just a simple one with orange lipstick to make it more simple. This is the person who's willing to understand even though I am hard to figure out. I sat down. We don't have any tables and chairs here, just a blanket. It's like a picnic. We already have the food here, fruits and meat. I looked around, thank god she picked the place close to the mountain. We're both looking at the sky. What a nice view.

 "Don't think too much." She says suddenly with a calm and worried voice. "Don't blame yourself." She kept talking. "You're going to achieve it. Trust the process."

 I'm still looking at the sky, avoiding eye contact with her. Yes, I am furious with myself. It’s hard and I felt very sorry for my teammates. "I'm okay. I'm not blaming myself. I'm not just in a mood."

"If you'll continue to blame yourself, maybe I should blame myself too."

I felt irritated, I looked at her, "STELLA!!" I'm not shouting just enough conviction to make her feel that she wasn't supposed to say that. She avoided my eye contact and stared back at the view. I saw her brown sad eyes. "I like it here. Please, do not say stupid things. Don't ruin the mood, Telly." I nicely say. She grins at me. "I'm just kidding." She's not. I don't want to invalidate her feelings. I just don't like her to worry about the things she can't control. She's too good to be hurt. I ate the grapes. "Glad we're alone together. I don't need to pretend. I wanted to come when you text me, but picturing myself smiling and telling lies to your friends makes me sick." I can't understand why women love to hear lies compliments. Stella's friends were one of them. We have been together and I always need to say something nice to them. Like, "Oh, your hair looks good today." or "I like your make-up, you look gorgeous." I know there is nothing wrong with saying beautiful things to someone but it should come out naturally, not obligated.

She laughs, "You're just born mean."

"Yeah, and you just born angel. It's tiring, right? Luckily I didn't have a chance to feel it."

"Do you know that sometimes I wanted your personality? So I can just walk free without talking to anyone, UGH!! I badly want to try it, it looks cool. I’m just seeing it in the movies and I’ve never met anyone like that until I met you, that’s also the time when I asked myself ‘Is it real? There’s a person like this in real life?’ And the most shocking ever is, I became your friend, how funny. Next time let’s trade our personality." She makes many expressions while saying those things. "But, I will not be mean." She quickly adds. I laughed. When I'm with Stella I can be everything. She understands when I don't want to talk. Because when I did it to others? They'll just simply say I feel entitled, that's why I'm being like that. They'll say random things that weren't even related to my actions, you know, just to bring up things. If Stella didn't come into my life? Maybe life is much heavier.