After listening to Coach, we got into formation. Our formation was offensive I was the point guard as team captain, Rose was the shooting guard, three other girls filled the other positions, and we had two members sitting on the sidelines as substitutes.
We got in the position for the tip-off, and the coach of the other team through the ball up. Feeling my heart beat a mile a minute I jumped as high as I could to reach the ball, and my finger connected. I hit it towards Rose, and she began dribbling it up the court.
One of the enemy team members attempted to block Rose, but she stopped and passed the ball to one of our other teammates.
That teammate also began to move the ball up the court before passing the ball back to me where I threw the ball from outside the three-point line. The ball hit the backboard and then scored us our first 3 points.
'This is going to be easy.' I thought as we reposition ourselves.
The game continued in a similar fashion of us winning, but the other team did score some points as well. At halftime, the score was 32:27.
Coach was swapping some of the other players with substitutes, but I was to focus on staying hydrated. I was taking big gulps from my bottle.
After finishing hydrating myself, I looked around again to see if I could see the inspector. I scanned the benches for anything unusual and saw a man taking notes. 'That must be him.' I thought as I spotted the man.
I did some stretches and then went back to talk with the team.
The rest of the match went smoothly up until the final quarter. Their team had substituted some of their members, and they fought a lot more aggressively now. Their tactics and formations had changed since the start. They had managed to close the gap between our scores to a 3-point difference.
It had become a back and forth of scoring points keeping the point difference, it only changing a couple of times by a point or two. Honestly, they were fighting dirty and getting points from fouls. They were saying things to piss me off under their breath.
It seemed my record of violent outbursts has been exposed, but they won't get me that easily. I took a deep breath and tried to focus purely on the game, blocking out everything else.
'I can always just beat them up after the match.' I thought as I gave orders and directions to my teammates
I could see the faces of my teammates, and they were clearly riled up and annoyed as well.
We continued to play, but this time we played more defensively. As long as we can maintain the lead, we can win the game. I gave out orders and commands to our teammates, but Rose seemed to be the only one who was following them wholeheartedly.
"I don't want to have to play into overtime." One of the girls whispered to another.
"Yeah, I would rather lose than stay here any longer." The other girl replied in a similar tone.
Those words filled me with anger. They didn't know the stakes of this game but that wasn't going to stop them from ruining my chances. I couldn't let them ruin the game, but the ball was already in motion, so I couldn't exactly stop and scold them.
'If our defence is comprised then we need to go on the offence again. We must increase our lead before they catch up anymore.' As those thoughts ran through my mind the ball was passed to me from Rose.
I grabbed it and began to dribble the ball up the court. I made a motion to Rose and our power forward, and we went on the offensive. I passed the ball back to power forward, and then she passed it to Rose.
I could feel my heart pounding in my ear and my adrenaline heightening my perception. It felt like every second lasted for 3, and I could see the ball moving through the air towards me from Rose's arms. I went to reach for the ball, but an enemy player tried intercepting it. Using all the strength and speed I could muster I ducked under her arm and grabbed the ball before her. I then hurled the ball back to Rose, and she threw it into the hoop from inside the three-point line. It was another 2 points to us, and there were only 30 seconds left.
Once the match ended instead of cheering like the other girls, I went up to the two girls who had talked about quitting and yelled at them. "What do you think you are celebrating for? You two nearly cost us this game, why on earth are you celebrating? You two pieces of shit wanted to quit when victory was in sight!" My voice grew gradually louder as I scolded them letting everyone hear me.
"How..." One of the girls started, but I couldn't hear what she said because I had already started walking away.
Coach sensed me growing more violent, so she attempted to diffuse the situation. "Alright, girls you can head back to the locker room. Kate, you come with me."
I followed our coach out of the gym, and she turned to me outside the door.
"Am I in trouble, Coach?" I asked, not meeting Coach's gaze.
"Yes, but not right now. That inspector I told you about wants to talk to you." Coach said with a smile as she began to lead me down a corridor.
We stopped at her office, and she opened the door. Inside was the man who was taking notes. He was an older gentleman who looked to be in his late 50s or early 60s, and his most noticeable feature was his thick walrus moustache.
"Hello miss, that was quite the outburst." The man said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"No worries I never could stand people who have no respect for the sport, but you impressed me quite a bit. Please sit down so we can discuss this further."
I sat in the chair opposite him, and Coach sat in the chair next to me.
He coughed and then began speaking. "As you may or may not know I'm from Corinne college, and I and a few others have been visiting the local schools for our sports program. I'm in charge of the school's basketball team, I will be your instructor if you do decide to join the college.
With my recommendation, you have a guaranteed space in our college. If you take this letter, it has a time, date and location for when and where you can apply. If you wish to know more about the college, you can check our website, and if you have any personal questions about our sports program, please contact me at this email." The man passed me a letter and a business card with an email on it. "If you do decide to join, I can almost guarantee your success in the basketball world."
The man smiled at me and then left.
It took a while for me to process everything that had been said, but Coach interrupted my thoughts. "This is great, Kate! I have only heard good things about Corinne college. Why don't you talk about it with your mom when you finished getting changed."
Coach's words knocked me out of my stupor, and I left her office filled with excitement. 'I can't wait to tell Rose about this!'
I rushed through the corridors to get back to the locker room, and I opened the door excitedly. With such a force it created a loud bang scaring everyone in front of me. I was about to apologise for scaring them, but before the words left my lips I was filled with an indescribable rage.
What I saw in front of my eyes was undeniably vile. Just looking at it made all the excitement I had previously felt drain away. I could feel my heartbeat double from the amount of adrenaline that was following through me.
What I was witnessing were the two girls I had yelled at standing over Rose with bloodied shoes. Rose's usually beautiful face was now a mess of blood and tears. The girls clenched strands of her golden hair in their filthy hands.
I had felt the feeling of wanting to kill someone before, but it had never hit me this hard. I had spent hours in anger management trying to learn to resist this feeling, but that was no help now. Kate was the closest thing to a sister I had ever had and right now she was being beaten by these pieces of pig shit!
'I must do something, I can't do nothing, I can't watch her die!' I thought as I began to approach the vermin who had defiled my sister.
"Wait Kate it's not what it looks like..." The bitch tried spouting nonsense to defend herself, but the sound of my heartbeat made it so I couldn't hear her. It grew louder and louder until it was the only thing resonating in my ears.
"Shut up!" I growled as they cowered back in fear.
One of the girls tried running, but I pounced on her and knocked her to the ground. She looked up at me with her eyes wide open. I took a second to enjoy her expression before I began tearing apart her face. I made sure to repay everything she had done to Rose by clawing at her eyes and pulling chunks out of her hair.
After I finished, I turned to the other girl, and she fell to the floor screaming. "Monster! Monster!"
I cackled and then proceed to lacerate her ankles so she could never treat Rose like that again, but as I was ripping into them a voice echoed behind me. "Stop!"
"Kate Carter, I'm Agent Coyle of the magic council, and this is my partner, Agent Meadows. Please return to a human form, and we will bring you under our custody. Do not worry under the half-breed protection act you will not face any repercussions other than a warning."
A female voice, who I presumed was agent Meadows spoke. "You're always a stickler for the rules Coyle. It's obviously her first time transforming, and she will not know how to return to human form. Just knock her out with that magic of yours, and then we can explain everything once she wakes up."
'Human form? What are they talking about?' I thought, but when I turned to the locker room's mirror, I knew perfectly what they were talking about.
Instead of my reflection, I saw a terrifying black wolf that had blood dripping from its teeth and claws. I saw the girls lying unconscious with claw marks adorning their bodies and pieces of their flesh missing.
The other girls in the locker room were looking at me as if I was a demon, including Rose. I had seen the expression of disgust and fear in other people's faces often, and it was nothing new to me, but I had never seen Rose wear that expression. It felt like my heart was about to implode.
"Fine I'll knock her out, but it is part of our job to follow procedure. This is why you're never going to be promoted, Meadows." With those words, I fell into a deep slumber.