When I was 4 years old my father died in a road accident, leaving me with only my mother and younger brother. By the time I was 12, I was kicked out of 2 schools for violent behaviour and had spent over 300 hours in anger management therapy. At 15 I made my first friend, and at 16 I realised I wasn't completely human. That last part hasn't happened yet.
I woke up from a short slumber to hear a loud beeping coming from my alarm clock. It showed me the time was 8:23 am.
"Shit I'm going to be late." I panicked whilst jumping out of my bed. The next few seconds were spent fumbling through my dresser trying to find my school uniform.
My name is Kate, and I'm the team captain of my school's basketball team. I was so sleep-starved because I spent the entirety of the previous night talking to the team's vice-captain and my best friend over the phone.
I quickly began putting on my uniform, and as I was tying my tie around my neck, I heard a knock at the door. My mother's voice came from the other side of the door. "Morning Kate, you have some breakfast downstairs. Make sure you eat a lot because you have that basketball game after school."
My mom was a kind woman called Chloe Carter. Ever since my father's death, she had done everything she can to protect both me and my brother. Her occupation is a vet, and she often works multiple shifts to have enough money for us all.
"Ok, Mom." I replied as I tied back my hair into a ponytail. I pulled my socks over my calves and headed downstairs.
When I entered the kitchen, I saw my brother happily eating his breakfast. "Morning Kyle, what's for breakfast?"
Kyle was energetic and always happy. Mom would always refer to him as her 'ray of sunshine' because of how positive he was. He was five years younger than me, but we are still close, and I look after him when mom is busy.
Kyle smiled at me whilst he cheerfully ate his breakfast. "Mom made scrambled eggs!"
When I sat down, mom put a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of me. Remembering that I had to start walking to school soon or I would be late, I began wolfing it down like it would disappear if I stopped to breathe.
After I finished eating, I said goodbye to mom and Kyle and ran out the door. I decided to run to school to make up for the time lost eating my breakfast. The town I lived in was in the middle of the countryside, and at this time everyone was either at work or school, so the roads were relatively empty. As I ran through the streets and past the houses, I spotted a familiar face and decided to stop.
"Morning Kate." A girl with golden blonde hair greeted me.
"Morning Rose," I replied smiling at my friend.
Rose was the best friend I had stayed up all night talking to. She was the closest person I had outside of my family, and I saw her as more of a sister than a friend. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have made it through high school. Whenever I felt like snapping and taking my anger out on someone else, she always stopped me and kept me in check.
I slowed down to a walk, so I could talk comfortably to Rose. We talked about the upcoming match after school and our strategy to win. The team we were playing against was a team from the neighbouring town's school (that I used to attend before being kicked out after a year), and this wasn't our first match against them. We had built a rivalry with this school, and our last match ended in a draw due to a thunderstorm ending the match prematurely.
When we arrived at the school there were a lot of students crowding at the entrance.
"I hate arriving late to school. Everyone always herds together like sheep to get in." I complained as we waited behind the students slowly moving through the entrance. I felt I should start shouting to make them move quicker but decided against it.
Rose chuckled. "I kind of like it. It gives us a break before we get inside."
The school day was uneventful as usual. I didn't enjoy my lessons, so I recovered some of the energy I needed by sleeping. If this was the start of the year a few of the teachers would have shouted at me, but by now they all knew about my violent nature and just left me alone. I never disturbed their lessons, so they never disturbed me, I see it as a fair trade.
At lunch, I ate with Rose, and we discussed our strategies with the rest of our team. I didn't like most of the girls in the team because most of them envied my position as team captain. At the start of the year, one of them picked a fight with me and let's just say they aren't on the team anymore. The others haven't bothered me since.
After lunch, there was only one more lesson until the match after school. The lesson was history, and it was one of the few classes I did enjoy. The culture and beliefs of people of the past always seemed more interesting to me. Don't get me wrong I love living in the age of technology, but living in a time where people believed in things like monsters and magic doesn't sound so bad.
After the final lessons of the day, I headed to the school's gym with the rest of my teammates. Once we got there, we were met by our coach. We all called coach; Coach, but her real name was Miss Greensmen. She hated the name and asked us to all call her Coach.
"Hello, are you all ready for today's match? As I have already told you we will be facing our rivals today. We have invited all your parents to come today, so you better make them all proud got it?" Coach was enthusiastic about the upcoming game, and it was written all over her face.
We all voiced our agreement and excitement.
"Great, start heading to the changing rooms and get into your kit. Kate, I want to talk to you, so you stay here. You can meet up with the others once we finished talking."
I stayed behind confused about what the coach wanted to talk to me about. "What did you want to talk about coach?"
"The headteacher said to keep this quiet, but I think I should tell you. Can you keep this secret from the other girls?"
I nodded to the coach, and she smiled.
"Your parents aren't going to be the only ones observing this match. There is an inspector from a college here to scout talent for their basketball team. If he notices you, he could get you a place in college."
"That's great," I replied to Coach excited.
I think the coach was worried that hearing this would make me more nervous, but I'm confident in my abilities. I had tried many sports as a coping mechanism for my anger, including boxing and martial arts, and I was good at all of them. Basketball had stuck with me and was one of my passions. I was proud of my talent for it.
I reassured my coach that I was fine with a confident smile and ran to the changing room. Once I got there, the girls were still getting changed, but Rose looked upset.
"Are you alright Rose?" I asked concerned.
Rose looked up, surprised to see me. "Yeah, I'm fine Kate. I'm just a little nervous about the game." Rose tried to smile, but I could tell she was still upset by her eyes.
I comforted her by giving her a thumbs up. "Don't worry. Even if you and the rest of the team are useless, I'll make sure to win this for all of us."
Rose laughed. "You can't reassure someone by insulting them, idiot," she said jokingly.
We both laughed, and I started to get changed as well. Once we all were changed coach entered the room to give her usual pep talk.
"Settle down!" She yelled to stop all the girls talking.
"I know I'm usually the one giving the speeches before the match, but this time I thought I would let our team captain give the speech." Coach gestured to me to stand up.
I stood in front of all my teammates, and I felt extremely nervous. Showing off my skill in a match and giving a speech to my teammates were two separate matters.
I had complete confidence in winning our match but giving a speech not so much. I was getting increasingly nervous by the second until I looked at Rose. Her smile made my rapid beating heart slow down.
I coughed and then started my speech. "It's a disgrace that we even allowed that team to draw against us last time, but we have the chance to rewrite that mistake. Let's fuck them up!"
The girls all wore excited expressions, but the coach looked a little stunned.
"Great speech Kate, but a little less swearing next time." Coach sighed but still had a smile on her face.
"Sorry coach, it just kind of slipped out." We both laughed a little and then prepared ourselves for the match.
We all left the changing room and headed back to the gym. I saw mom and Kyle sitting in the spectators' seats along with others' parents. I waved at mom and Kyle, and they smiled and waved back. I tried to look for the inspector, but I couldn't distinguish them from the others.
On the other side of the gym hall was the other school's team and their coach. Our coach went up to them and began discussing the details of the match. I used this as an opportunity to talk to mom and Kyle.
"Hey, sweetie." My mom greeted me as I walked up to the bench they were sitting on.
Kyle also greeted me. "Hey, Kate."
"Hey, guys I hope you enjoy the match because I'm going to win," I said it more for Kyle than mom. After all, he still looks up to me. He would always watch my matches eagerly and would always tell me how cool I was afterwards.
"Wow really, Kate?"
"Yep, I'm going to win so fast that you will be barely able to see it, so you can't blink, ok?"
Mom chuckled. "Don't say that dear or he might actually keep his eyes open the whole match."
We all chuckled, and I headed back to our teammates. Coach came back as well.
"Alright, the game is going to start soon, so you all need to get into formation."