For notes, warnings and disclaimers see chapter 1

Scene 17: Good Enough?
(Age: 17)

Kara was drowning in a sea of college application forms and glossy pamphlets promising a bright and shiny future. There were about two dozen schools that were actively trying to recruit her and, while that was great, their sheer number wasn't making her choice any easier. That situation was made that much more complicated by the fact that one of the things she had discovered while trying to tackle the mountain of forms was that the schools expected her to have at least some sort of clue as to what it was that she wanted to do with her life other than 'play pyramid'. Unfortunately she had never really given that particular aspect of things much thought and that was coming back to haunt her.

To make matters worse, there were also all sorts of questionnaires she was expected to answer to let the schools know who she was, why she wanted to attend and so on. Kara hated it when people started asking questions but that didn't mean that she didn't hate answering stupid questionnaires even more. The way she saw it, with people she could usually at least look them in the eye and listen to their voices to get some sort of clue as to what it was that she was expected to say to try to keep herself out of trouble. A piece of paper, on the other hand, was no help whatsoever in that regard and she couldn't help but fear that she was going to mess the whole thing up, especially because her coach had warned her that --even though in her case those questionnaires were basically a formality-- providing an honest, straightforward answer, such as 'none of your frakking business', was not really an option.

In other words, she was expected to take the questionnaires seriously and answer politely and that was a problem because she just didn't do polite... no pyramid player worth a damn did. Simply put, asking your opponents to please pass the ball because you would really, really like to score against them was not part of a winning strategy and Kara knew it. Unfortunately, when she had tried to remind her coach of that basic fact, the man had just laughed her off and told her to try it anyway. The problem was that what he hadn't seemed to realize was that it wasn't that she was not trying... it was just that she was failing miserably.

The truth was that, even though she tried to appear confident and even cocky to the rest of the world, Kara was feeling totally out of her depth. Sure, she knew she was good when it came to playing pyramid, very good, but she was also very aware of the fact that that was the only thing she was good at and all of a sudden she was coming to the realization that going to college on a pyramid scholarship would entail more than just playing the game. Her coach had told her to think of her major as her plan B, but that hadn't really been much help.

The only other thing Kara was passionate about was painting but she couldn't deny the fact that art school did not a good plan B make. First of all there was the fact that --as much as she liked it-- she knew that art was not a practical professional choice, simply because it wasn't something that would ever allow her to earn a steady income in case of emergency... and that was kind of the point of having a plan B to begin with. On top of that there was also the fact that she hated art teachers almost as much as she enjoyed painting. Finally there was no denying that, even if art school were a good option professionally, and even if she didn't hate art teachers, the best art schools still weren't exactly known for their athletic programs and that basically ruled them out.

That left her with no choice but to consider some more traditional choices, and she wasn't the least bit interested in any of them... or rather she wasn't interested in any of the majors she had a snowball's chance in hell of making it in academically. Kara couldn't really imagine herself in business school or anything like that no matter how hard she tried, that was a fact, but at the same time those majors she could see herself being interested in didn't seem much more viable. Sure, ever since she was a little girl she had always been fascinated by space and spaceships, so both astronomy and aerospace engineering sounded kind of appealing, at least in theory, but she knew choosing something like that would entail a huge risk. She knew that if she was going to be going to school on a pyramid scholarship she couldn't afford to end up suspended from the team for failing to keep her grades up and the bottom line was that she couldn't see herself keeping up with the academic requirements of either of those majors.

The thing was that, even though for the most part her grades had been pretty good for the past five years, Kara was almost painfully aware that that was only because her coach had taken it upon himself to make sure that she kept up with her studies. She remembered all too well what her grades had been like before he had gotten involved and she knew she couldn't exactly take her coach with her when she went off to college... not that she didn't want to. In fact the idea of being forced to leave her coach behind was the thing she was dreading the most about the whole prospect of graduating.

No matter how hard she tried, Kara couldn't help but fear that as soon as she was left to her own devices she was going to screw her life up royally and, even though her coach had told her more than once that she would be just fine, she didn't really believe him. Sure, she trusted him but what he was telling her required her to trust herself and that was a different matter altogether. In fact Kara was well aware that her lack of faith in herself out of the court was something that frustrated the hell out of her coach but she really couldn't help it.

That had been a sore spot between them for a while and it had gotten so bad that a couple of days prior her coach had issued her a little challenge: he had told her to choose a top school that hadn't offered her a scholarship and send in her application anyway... without even mentioning the word 'pyramid' in it. Kara thought he was crazy and she also thought that the whole thing was bound to be a waste of time but, seeing how she had nothing to lose, she decided there was no point in trying to argue with him so --much to her dismay-- she found herself with yet another form being added to her already daunting pile. Still, seeing how she didn't really want to waste too much time trying to figure out which school to apply to --and assuming that her coach wouldn't think art school was much of an option either-- she decided to stick to what she knew and what she knew was the military... and the sky.

Sure, she knew it was crazy. After all, she was well aware that when it came to Colonial Flight School there were close to one hundred candidates for each available spot so her chances of being accepted were virtually non-existent but, the way she saw it, a military academy certainly ruled out the possibility of a pyramid scholarship and that was kind of the point. Besides --even though she didn't really think anything would come out of it-- Kara couldn't help but to try to imagine her mother's face if she were to tell her that she had been accepted to the most coveted of military schools and that she had turned them down... especially after that same military had kicked her mom out years before.

Kara knew she was being childish, of course, but seeing how her coach wanted her to send in that application anyway --and seeing how she wasn't expecting anything to come out of it no matter what-- she figured she might as well give it a shot.