it's almost like you never left (Paige Bueckers)

Chapter 12

Just to clarify some info!!
(Y/n was born in Canada, she attended school there up until 7th grade. Then she moved to Minnesota because of her dad's job. She attended school in Minnesota for all of 7th grade. She then moved to Illinois, where her dad finally settled in. He was there for his job, but also because his college was there.)

Y/n POV

Flashback | October 23rd, 2014

Me and my team made it to our conference championship! We played really well leading up to it but our competition for the championship will be tough. Our season runs from August to October for some reason but I don't mind. As long as I'm playing basketball.

Me and this girl named Paige are probably the best on our team. We don't talk a lot but it's not like we don't like each other. I mean we hang out with other people together but we don't talk outside of basketball. Everyone else on my team though, I grew extremely close with. One girl, Amaya Battle, was pretty good. We became close and did everything together. Eating, sleeping, and playing basketball was what we did all day everyday, and we did it together.

October 24th, 2014

We play our championship game tomorrow. I hope it goes well. If we lose I don't know what I'll do. I've worked so hard for this and coming to a new school and new people was hard but trying to win everything was even harder.

"Honey come down stairs" I hear my dad yell.

"Coming" I say as I run down the stairs.

"I don't know how to tell you this but we're moving again" He says. I stared blankly at him and my mom who was standing in front of me. I was really starting to like it here in Minnesota too!

"Where?" I ask with no emotion.

"Illinois" My mom chimes in.

"Okay." I say. I had been used to moving around canada and to Minnesota but it was starting to feel like home. I ran upstairs and cried for an hour. Amaya lived a couple blocks away so my first instinct was to go run to her house and tell my best friend the news.

I quite literally ran there and got there in about 2 minutes. I knocked on the door.

"Is Amaya home?" I asked her mom who had just answered the door.

"Yes. Sweetie are you okay?"

"Yeah I just need to talk to her." I say hurriedly.

"She's in her room." I brush past her and run up the stairs quickly to find her scrolling on her phone in her room. I stand in her doorway and we both look at each other. She knew something was wrong.

"Amaya I'm moving to Illinois" I finally spit out. She runs up and hugs me as I begin to cry. I loved Amaya and I wasn't ready to let her go. We talked for a bit about when I was moving and stuff I didn't even know the answer to.

"Are you going to tell the team?" She asks. It was 7th grade so we were supposed to all play again with each other in 8th grade too.

"I mean I have too. I can't just disappear on them. I think I'm gonna tell them after the game though." She hugs me again.

"I can't let this get to me, we're gonna ball tomorrow!" I say trying to bring up the mood.

"Wanna shoot hoops?" She asks. Amaya has a hoop in her backyard so I of course said yes.

October 25th, 2014

The buzzer sounded. 65-62. We had lost. 65-62. By 3 points. 65-62.

I think I had a feeling we were going to lose. I had played really well in the semifinals game with 22 points and I was averaging 20 points per game. But when it came to the big game. I ended with 3 points and 1 assist. I couldn't tell you how disappointed I was in myself. When the buzzer sounded tears spilled down my eyes. I never wanted anyone to see me like this. Upset, disappointed, and a failure.