Thank you to amiinii and stormdog 11 for reviewing.
Chapter 17
The bell rang at three o'clock and school had finished for the day. Everyone rushed out the classroom to either hurry to get the school bus or walk home if they lived in walking distance.
"Jake, so have you decided if you are going to try out for the school basketball team?" Elliot asked as the two of them left the class.
"Why are you Elliot?" Sarah said as she interrupted their conversation.
"Yeah I'm going to try out," Elliot answered and then he looked towards Jake waiting for him to answer.
"Emm," Jake said as he thought about it, "I don't know if I can be bothered with games and training all the time".
"You are good though dude," Elliot said trying to convince Jake.
"If I were you Jake I would at least go to the trials, you might not even get in and if you do, well you can always change your mind and say you don't want to join," Sarah suggested.
"You're well good at basketball as well Sarah," Elliot said, "Can you try out or are girls not allowed on the team?"
"I would love to play but the rules are girls aren't allowed on the team," Sarah replied.
"Is that a rules made by the school or the basketball association? Because at my last school it was just a boy's only team but we played a team that had a few girls," Elliot said.
"I'm not sure if it's the schools rules or what, but I think each city or state had their own associations and rules so maybe it's different at your old school, so I not sure if girls are allowed to play here," Sarah said, "There was a girls team but then people stopped coming so we didn't have enough players so we had to quit!"
Sarah really did miss playing basketball and in elementary school and middle school she had been allowed to play on the boys team, but now since she had got to high school to basketball coach had said she wasn't allowed to because now the boys would be bigger and stronger and it would be too big a disadvantage for a girl and also a bigger risk of injury.
"Okay then I'll try out for the team," Jake said as he decided he may as well go down to the trials.
"Cool," Elliot replied, "Sarah you should come down to the trails, see what they say about girls being on the team".
"I already asked last year and he said no girls," Sarah replied.
Elliot had convinced her to at least come down and watch, so the three of them headed to the basketball court.
Jessica and Kim were already there and were sitting talking as they waited for the trails to start.
"Is that Sarah, Jake and Elliot?" Kim asked as she noticed them walk in.
"Yeah it is," Jessica replied, "I wander what they are doing here".
Jake, Elliot and Sarah were greeted by Coach Fulton as they walked in, "Jake Baker, you trying out for the team again, you've been a missed in the team since you quit".
"Yeah, well he managed to convince me to try out again," Jake said referring to Elliot.
"And are you trying out as well?" Coach Fulton asked Elliot.
"Yeah," Elliot smiled back.
"Your new here right? And what's your name?"
"Yeah I'm new and it's Elliot Murtaugh".
"I'll go take a seat then" Sarah said as she wandered over to the seats and sat down by herself as she had never noticed Kim and Jessica.
"Are girls allowed to play in the team?" Elliot asked, "Because Sarah there is real good at basketball, probably better than most boys".
"No girls aren't allowed to play, and besides she'd be a bit small if she was up against big players," Coach Fulton replied.
"Who decided girls weren't allowed on the team? At my old school we played a few teams which had girls in it," Elliot said. He was trying his best to see if the coach would even consider giving Sarah a trial.
Coach Fulton stuttered, he didn't know who decided if girls were allowed to play or not, he had never considered having a girl in the team before so he had never thought about it.
"Well I have never allowed a girl on the team before as boys are usually stronger so a girl would have a disadvantage and be at a higher risk of injury," Coach Fulton replied, telling Elliot exactly as he had told Sarah.
"You know Sarah is really good, you're just missing the chance of a star player," Elliot said.
"Isn't she on the lacrosse team? Wouldn't lacrosse and basketball be too much together?" Coach Fulton stated.
"Nah I doubt it," Jake said, "She use to be on the girls basketball and lacrosse together".
Coach Fulton's face light up a bit as he remembered to girls playing on the team, "I remember now, Girls are only allowed to play if they're school do not have a girl's team, so Sarah couldn't play"
"But we don't have a girl's team no more. There were not enough players so it folded," Jake reminded the coach.
"Sarah Baker!" Coach Fulton shouted, "Go get changed and I'll see you on the court. These boys tell me your good"
Sarah was surprised and didn't know how Jake and Elliot managed to get her a trail.
"Elliot, Jake," She shouted as she stood up, "how'd you get me a trail?
"It was all Elliot," Jake replied as he didn't want to take credit for something that didn't do. He picked up a ball and started taking shots at the basket.
"Thanks Elliot," Sarah smiled. Sarah had forgotten about their exchange of words about her and Ethan during geography.
"No bother, now go get changed and show the coach what your made of," Elliot said before Sarah ran off the get changed. Elliot looked up the stand with all the seats on it and spotted Jessica and Kim. He walked up the steps towards them, "Hey what are you two doing here?"
"Ryan invited me and I took Kim along with me," Jessica replied.
"Ryan?" Elliot said looking confused as to who he was.
"Ryan Scott, he's already plays for the team, he's one of the best players, but school rules are everyone had to retrial every year," Kim replied, "But he'll defiantly get in".
"He's my biology partner for our paired project," Jessica replied.
"I see," Elliot replied, "So why did he invite you here?"
Jessica could see Elliot getting jealous and she remembered what Kim had told her about making Elliot jealous. She knew she could use her project with Ryan to her advantage.
"He just did," Jessica replied, even though it was because they were studying after.
"They're meeting up afterwards to do their project," Kim added.
"So which one is he?" Elliot said looking down onto the court where everyone was mucking about as they waited for the Coach to begin.
"The one in the middle with the blonde hair," Jessica replied as Ryan stood in the middle of the court and took a shot at the basket and managed to get it on.
"He's good," Elliot said as he watched him take the shot, "Well anyway I better get over there," Elliot said before he disappeared.
Sarah emerged from the changing rooms a few minutes later and all the boys looked on, curious as to what she was doing here.
"Dude what's your sister doing here?" One of the players asked Jake.
"She's trialling for the team," Jake replied. Some of the boy's mouths opened in astonishment and they all looked at one and other and shared a look of surprise.
"A girl trying out for the team!" one of them exclaimed.
"Okay Baker, show us what you got," Zac one of the best players in the team said as he passed the ball to Sarah.
Sarah shot the ball from where she was standing which was considerably a good bit away from the basket and got the shot straight in.
"Not bad," Zac said, "But we'll need to see how you mange in a match against us boys first before we can tell how good you really are".
Coach Fulton came over and called for silence before he explained what was happening.
"Sarah your pretty good," Ethan whispered to her.
"Ethan!" Sarah said, "I never noticed you here".
"I was a bit late I had work I needed to pick up from my English teacher, but I was here in time to see you take that shot. You just must never have seen me come in".
They stopped talking as they listened to the coach, "As you can all see we have our first ever girl trialling out for the team, Sarah Baker, we also have a few others here trialling who were not on the team last year, Jake Baker is back after quitting, we also have Elliot Murtaugh, Ethan Stewart , James Green and Jason Sharp."
The trails began with a warm up, then some practice exercises before getting into some games to finish. A lot of the boys as well as the coach were surprised to find that Sarah was in fact a good player and could most defiantly play as well as the boys. The coach was also very impresses by Jake, Elliot and Ethan.
"Sarah you got skill," Ryan said as he walked to up when the game finished.
"Thanks," she smiled back.
Coach Fulton called everyone over at the end, "I will put up on the notice board the names of the people who made the team. Just a reminder all players who played last year are not guaranteed to be on the team next year. Now I will have some tough decisions to make tonight because to be fair you all played really well today, well done to you all".
Sarah walked over towards the changing rooms with Ethan. They hadn't spoken much since their date to the cinema on Friday.
"I really enjoyed myself on Friday," Ethan smiled, "We will have to do it again soon,"
"Yeah I had a good time and yeah we will," Sarah smiled back.
"Well I'll text you," Ethan said as Sarah walked over toward the girls changing rooms and he went to boys ones.
Kim and Jessica waited outside the changing rooms for Ryan.
"Well I better go, I got to Emily's to do our project," Kim said as she left Jessica to wait by herself.
Elliot came out first and stood at the opposite side of the corridor outside the changing rooms from Jessica.
"You did good by the way," Jessica smiled as she made conversation.
"Thanks," Elliot smiled back, "Sarah did good though. I think she well impressed the coach, I don't think he expected her to be so good".
"Yeah she did really well," Jessica agreed.
"You waiting to meet Ryan? I'm just waiting on Jake and Sarah," Elliot asked.
"Yeah I am, I think we are just going to my house," Jessica replied.
"I bet he just leaves you to get on with all the work. Doesn't seem like the type who would be interested in school work," Elliot said.
"That is what I thought at first but no actually he does do the work. He is actually really sweet," Jessica said.
"He's a pretty good basketball player as well," Elliot said.
"I know he is," Jessica replied.
Ryan emerged from the changing rooms with a few other boys.
"Hey Jessica, so we going to yours?" he asked.
"Yeah," She replied. Ryan put his arm round Jessica and looked round at Elliot.
"What are you doing?" Jessica asked wandering why Ryan put his arm round her.
"I just wanted to see Elliot's face when I did that," Ryan laughed, "And he didn't look very amused".
Ryan pulled his arm away as they turned the corner and were out of Elliot's site. Jessica was hoping that her friendship with Ryan might just make Elliot a little jealous and that he might actually commit to a relationship with her.
Thanks fro reading and please review.
