Early Start
1385 Words
I woke up to my alarm buzzing at four in the morning. My shift last night didn't end until one this morning but I had still set my alarm on the off chance I could actually pull off ball and everything else going on. I silenced the alarm and rolled over looking up at the ceiling. What do I do? I called out to the dark room. Silence filled my ears. I hadn't gotten used to being alone yet I couldn't bring myself to take the master bedroom either. My house was two stories of emptiness and memories. I thought of what my dad would have wanted me to do. He was the glue that held us together before he died everything was easy all I had worried about was ball. He loved watching me play, He played when he was in High School but claimed he was never good enough for collage and plus my mom had found out she was pregnant at that point. He said ball had been his passion until he got to be a dad then he realized you could have multiple loves. Tears stung my eyes like they often did whenever thoughts of my dad surfaced. My throat had tightened at my sudden rush of emotions, I tried to swallow it back. He would want me to be happy. At some point ball had made me happy, really happy. I took a deep breathe and pulled myself out of bed. Okay I thought to myself, this is it.
I pulled up to the abandoned parking lot at school. The sun hadn't even started to rise yet, stars were still out to play. I walked towards the gym as the cold air nipped at my bar legs, I had worn some Nike short shorts , and an over sized t-shirt with the sleeves cut out with a sports bar underneath and my old tennis shoes. My hair was in a messy loose ponytail. I made my way into the school and heard shoes squeaking across the floor. I rounded the corner and stopped when I saw Coach Jordan running suicides. He was shinny with sweat and his normally shaggy hair stuck to his forehead. I put my gym bag with my change of clothes down and started stretching. Finished Iran to fall in line with him as he ran. He just looked up and gave me a smile as we continued to run. We ran and ran until I couldn't breathe with probably wasn't much Coach K was right I was out of shape. He saw me struggling and slowed his pace. "Do you need a break?" He asked not even breathing hard. I furrowed my brow at him and started breathing more audible. "Who.. Me? " breathing was even harder while I tried to talk. "I can .. do this... all day" I said as I fought to get more air in my lungs. His laughter had me furrowing my brow again. "Come on take five " He stopped running and began walking as did I throwing my arms up so air would find its way to my lungs. We walked over to the water jugs he had on the bleachers. He tossed me one and a sweat towel. "Glade you decide to take me up on my offer." Once my breathing became less frantic I looked to him "I know I was bitchy yesterday, but thank you for agreeing to help me." He nodded We were both quiet for a minute taking in some water. Looking at his bare arms over my jug and thinking about them steadying me when we had first meet, my mind ran over the idea of his arms wrapping around me. "So what position do you like?" He asked. I started coughing as water went down the wrong way. He looked over at me with a raised brow. I managed to cough out "What do you mean?" as my mind was still on inappropriate thoughts. " What position do you play?" He asked with the corner of his mouth turning up. I could feel my face heating up and looked away from him. "Uh I did play point guard but that's Ashley's position now." I rubbed my neck still filling embarrassed. "Okay, we can work with that." He said picking up his basketball. Lets play one on one." It was an innocent invitation but my mind immediately went elsewhere. What was wrong with me? I mentally shock myself and we started a game. After a while he was up by four and it was my ball, driving to the basket he set up a screen. I ran into him and we both went down. I fell right on top of him. "Ouch' We said together. "I am so sorry " I told him trying to get up. I looked at him and noticed he was looking at me too. We both just started causing me to blush, as I pulled myself up. He stood right after. "Are you okay?" I asked not looking at him. "Ya a beautiful girl fell on me, I think I'll be alright." He answered "What?" I said looking at him and he tossed me the ball, Your still down by four, take it from the key." He acted like he hadn't just called me beautiful. We continued practicing and he ended up beating me by two. There was just enough time for me to shower in the locker room and get dressed. I exited the Locker room with wet hair and Coach Jordan was waiting there his hair was also wet. "Here is a training schedule for you." He said as he handed me a paper. I looked down at it and noticed I would be with him everyday of the week for like a month and my scheduled after school practices would now be a private session.. "What if I don't make the team?" I looked up at him. He looked into my eyes. "
They'd be stupid not to let you back on the team, your good." The warning bell rang telling everyone they had five minuets to make it to class. "See you during reading." He said moving over towards the bleachers as students filed in.
I looked over my schedule he had giving me through out my day. It looks like i'm going to have to discuss my schedule with Cal if I end up making the team. This training schedule is defiantly going to be taking over my life. As I was sitting in English I heard two girls, Alex and Kara, from the team talking about Coach Jordan. "He's so hot, I'm so glad we get to stare at him during practice." Alex gushed "Just wait till the over night trips, We will get to see him in the pool." Kara basically cried. "You know he's only like twenty four, I heard Coach talking about him just getting out of collage." Alex smiled. "Oh my gosh I also heard he was single!" Kara sighed just as the bell rang . I probably shouldn't care with what they had said but them gushing over him was making me jealous. Those feelings stuck with me up until I met up with him again for training. "Hey Jones." He called over as I was coming out of the locker room wearing my gym uniform. I looked up at him still feeling anger over the girls cooing over him. "Just call me L.J." I said to him starting to stretch. He watched me for a moment before testing the waters with conversation again. "If your upset, maybe we should run first." He suggested as he bend down into his own stretches. "I'm not upset." I snapped. Taking a deep breathe looking over at him. "Look, it's no big deal, Just some stuff some girls said ." I explained. "Okay he said standing almost cautiously, then lets go run on the trail at the end of campus, give you some space to clear your head. My heart did little jumps at the thought of being alone outside of school with him But I had to remind myself no matter what I fantasized about, nothing was going to happen between us. "Okay." I answered
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