Max

The week of Districts was starting, and it was just as confusing as last year. Girls played Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and guys played Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

And my hip hurt like hell. I'd been doing what Lonn had said and had stretched every night and I'd been practicing shots so that I wouldn't get too surprised if it started to hurt during a game.

The only thing I found positive about the day was that we left the school at 2:15 and got out of class at 2:00.

"Chicas de baloncesto," the Spanish teacher said, finally catching my attention. I wasn't exactly into the conversation we'd been having about soccer in Spain. "You are dismissed."

Maddie, Jaime, and I all got up, gathered our things, and booked it out of there.

"God, I hate Spanish," I muttered to Maddie when we got to our locker. I threw everything in, glad that we didn't have homework, and then we headed to the locker room where all our stuff for the game was.

We threw on our uniforms - the old ones, that were white with black letters outlined in gold - and I put on some baggy black sweats and my softball sweatshirt over it. I threw my hair into a sloppy ponytail, ripped a piece of tape off the roll in the side of my bag, and slapped it on top of my head.

"Girls, get to the bus now," Jeb called from outside the locker room doors. A lot of the girls took their time in the locker room, which drove him insane. But finally we all got our things ready, and we were on the bus and headed to the first round of Districts.

XxX

For the first round we were playing the Lawson Hornets. Their school was about two hours away in a bigger city. As a matter of fact, they had two gyms. For what, don't ask me.

We got there about ten minutes earlier than we'd needed, so we dropped our stuff on the bleachers and watched the game that was going on. Ours started half an hour after theirs, so we would have fifteen minutes to warm up after.

"Max," hissed Maddie, "is that who we're playing?" She pointed across the gym to the corner of the opposite bleachers.

A group of about twenty or so girls (I don't know why they needed so many) were hanging out there. They were very racially diverse, which was weird for us because in our town we had about fifteen Mexican families and very few African American families. These girls were huge. They all looked incredibly tall. They were all probably about as tall as me or taller, but they didn't quite look it because of their frickin' muscle. I had muscle, but it was long and lean. These girls could pass as bodybuilders. Their uniforms were black and red.

"That's them." I nodded to Maddie.

"Oh, God. They look scary."

"Don't worry about it," I reminded her. "Basketball is about skill level, not size." Which wasn't entirely true. Height could help immensely, but our school had once had a player that was 5'1''.

The game we were watching ended, one team twelve points in front of the other.

"Girls," Jeb called, "come get your warm ups on."

In the locker room nobody talked about if they were nervous or excited. It was fairly quiet, just the sound of zippers of bags and the silky fabric of our warm up tops meeting our game tops.

I was starting to feel pressure as game time got nearer and nearer. It wasn't like I had butterflies flying around, but the nerves were there. The other girls bustled around, hopping up and down or rummaging through their bags to focus on something but nerves. I was the weirdo, they always said. I sat on the bench with my elbows on my knees, just fingering the trim around the old shorts and adjusting the laces on my black high top basketball shoes every so often. It was how I kept myself calm.

Finally we were released to the gym to warm up. They had a song I didn't know blaring loudly and, since Districts were held at the Hornets' school, they got the big cool entrance. But when we jogged out, our student section (which had a surprisingly large turnout for a game so far away) clapped. They were all sitting, though.

Our student section was sneaky. They would let the other student section stand and cheer and chant and laugh while they sat in silence. But generally we got a three pointer within the first two minutes, and they would jump up and scream loudly, which would have the other team's fans in awe.

We warmed up and I was a little bit off. Shots were fine, I just missed a few more than usual. But the running drills killed my hip. I managed to keep Jeb from noticing though. He would pull me out as soon as he knew I was in pain.

After we were warmed up we went back to the locker room, took off our warm ups, and went back to the gym.

They had a local singing group - which consisted of five elderly men - sing the national anthem while everybody stood. They were surprisingly good. We went through the chat with Jeb, did our little chant, and then the game began.

I got the jump ball to Lindsey, who passed it immediately over to Casey. Casey didn't have a clear shot, so she threw the basketball to Jaime. But some girl from the other team swatted the ball to somebody on her team.

Their student section started in an immediate chant of, "You got swatted!" Clap clap clapclapclap.

The Hornets got a two-pointer, and their student section exploded.

I got the ball and passed it off to Maddie. We managed to get the other girls blocked so Maddie could go for a three-pointer. She went for it and, after a very dramatic second or two of the ball spinning on the rim, it sunk through the net.

That was when our student section jumped up and screamed, and that was when the game really started.

Fang

With red war paint under one eye and white war paint under the other, I walked into Lawson High School. It was Districts week and, although I had a lot of homework to do, I didn't stay home to do it. Even though I knew our girls weren't going to make it to State (hell, we'd be lucky to make it to Sectionals) I was ditching my homework for it. I wouldn't be doing much homework the rest of this week either. I played tomorrow, Thursday, and Saturday.

It was just past eight o'clock and the game before ours had just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Lawson girls (who were huge, buff, and intimidating even to me) were four points behind the Nixon Eagles.

I automatically started looking for the girl from the concession stand last week. Her name... There was an m in it. And an x. I couldn't remember.

But I did find her. And she looked just as great as I remembered.

Their game ended with Nixon as the winners.

Have you ever noticed how, after a basketball game at Districts, everything goes up? Lawson's coach jumped up with a furious expression, the Nixon girls jumped up excitedly, everybody in the bleachers stood up to leave, and the cheerleaders were throwing each other up to warm up their stunts.

"Hey, man," I said, nudging Vince, "I'm going to the concession stand."

"Whatever."

I stood up and jogged down the bleachers. As I walked down the hall I was counting my money, not paying any attention to where I was walking. And then I ran into a girl. I didn't budge, but she started to fall. With reaction time only a basketball player could have, I dropped my wallet and grabbed the girl's upper arms, jerking her up so that she regained her footing.

"Um, thanks," I heard a somewhat familiar voice say as I grabbed my wallet and the few dollar bills that'd fallen out of it.

"No problem." Then I looked up and saw who I was talking to. The girl from the concession stand last week. Max.

She grinned. "Oh hi, Fang. Didn't realize that was you."

"Hey, Max," I said, forcing myself to stay nonchalant. "I've got to go before the game starts, but I'll see you Wednesday or Friday, depending on how things go."

"Alrighty. See you soon." Max smiled again and I walked off.

It wasn't until after the game and after Max had left that I realized my driver's license was gone. Shit. I probably dropped it when I dropped my wallet. Damn, I hoped Max had it. I'd have to get in touch with her somehow to get that back.

Wow, I thought, is that lucky or what?

So I forgot to clarify something earlier. Iggy is not blind. In case you didn't realize that.

Anyway.

I figured out today that I'm moving (I HATE YOU, MOM AND DAD!). I don't know when, but I'll just update till I do. So while we're packing and stuff there might not be a lot of updates. I don't know if we're moving in a week or in a few months. But I'll keep you updated.

Review, please!