Their first actual team meeting just began, the news of the draft buzzing around the league, today is exactly one week after the draft announcement, Hannah has spent the last few days reading articles about the team, while Yuki deleted all of her social media, all of the fifteen athletes are already in the Bobcat’s arena, all of them sitting in a circle looking at the coaches, the only people standing waiting for orders.

Hannah hates everything about first days, she feels like she is back at highschool, there’s introductions, whispers, cliques, expectations and the worst of it all, you are stuck with these people for at least six months.

She bites her bottom lip, feeling the eyes of her teammates on the back of her head. She feels as though she is some kind of alien wearing the skin of a human, almost like her body is not supposed to exist.

Heavily blinking, she focuses on what the coach says, it’s important to hear what people do and how they do it, she needs to hear it, she needs to pay attention, she needs to be better, this team can’t blow up, she can’t ruin another team.

“Like I was saying, I will work you to the bone, I don’t want any lazyless on my team, you can be bad, you can be dumb, you can be annoying, all of that I have ways to fix, but if I see any of you not putting the effort to win, for whatever reason it may be, I have no fear of beaching a superstar, of trading a hall of famer, of just straight up humiliating you in a 1v1, don’t give up people, we will win this ring or my name isn't Laura Alarie.

The now coach sits on the edge of the not so comfortable hospital bed, she doesn’t move, just staring at the floor as the news hit her again and again, she doesn’t hear a single word that the doctor said after “broken ACL” she is old, way too old to lose a season, she was already falling behind, on her last years, and even that was taken from her, basketball was never kind to the Alarie, but she fought, she made it hard, somehow gained a ring in the middle of it.

She is stubborn, she is angry, she is human, she can’t keep playing, she can’t keep trying. She needs to stop, the competition is not for her anymore, she needs to find something else for her. And she tries, God does she try. After retiring she goes back to college, finishes her degree in mathematics. It is fun, she works a few years as a background analyst for ESPN, until she gets the call.

Léo wants her to coach a team, he offers to let her choose all of the players and gives her a three contract. Before he could name a single price she was already packing her bags, math is fun, competing is her life. She wants to win, but she needs the competition.

“Now, we will go one by one, introducing ourselves, you all know the drill, exactly like we did in the first grade, name, age, position, and whatever other flair you want to add, but make it quick, there’s fifteen people here and I’m really old, can’t be here for a whole season.”

That gets a small amount of laughter, probably most of them out of politeness, everyone wants to be on the coach’s good side, Gabriel takes center stage, an easy smile on his face as he says, “I’m the assistant coach, I will work more as a counselor because I have a great personality, killing smile and I’m super humble, you can talk to me about anything, and I will let Laura know, the name’s Gabriel Vicario

Hair tied back, tight sleeveless shirt and a idle smile on his face, Gabriel listens as this meeting continues, he is way too tired to actually pay attention to the story that Luther is saying, being the head scout of the Los Vegas Sparks is a hard job, the team is always contending so most of the time they don’t really have any actual good picks, the last five years they haven’t managed to get a single top 10 rookie, usually getting late first rounders or a normal second round player.

“...and because of that, I think it would just be better to ship this pick in the trade with Annika, it may not be much, but it does sway the trade to our side.”

“But sir, Monica may be unproven, but she is really good, I know that she can be a star, before her injury she had five points per game with fifteen assists. Imagine what she could do with good teammates around her.”

“She played with Clark.”

“Are you saying our roster has worse efficiency than an undrafted Caitlyn Clark?” Gabriel fires back, the annoyance rising in his voice, it's the third second round pick they want to trade away.

Luther scoffs, “Gabriel, you got us Cunningham, you should be happ—”

Hitting the table, Vicario yells, “That was six years ago!” He presses his eyes on his hands for a second before continuing, “I want to work, I just wanna work, that’s all I want. The first rounders get developed by the coaches and I just do nothing the whole year… just let me work.”

Luther purses his lips, he takes a moment to pour the orange juice in his cup, he did enjoy the work Gabriel did for him all these years, but they have a very good system, and he just doesn’t fit it anymore. Slowly, he begins, “There is… an opportunity that you may like, this new team, the Bobcats, is searching for an assistant coach. I can put a good word for you, you would probably get less money but you would have way more say in what happens.”

The smile is not just his resting face, he doesn't just feel happy, he feels something different, he is filled with hope, “yes, that would be great, I— thank you.”

Gabriel paces back and forwards,  passing behind each of the players, almost like a game of duck, duck, goose. Laura found it immature, but Gabriel insisted that it would be fun, and suddenly he stops in one of the girls, touching her head.

She gets up, a woman in her early twenties, light brown skin, circular hazel eyes, standing a little over 6 feet with a lean build. She has fluffy afro hair that increases her height by a few inches, wearing a green jacket over her uniform and black short shorts, “Hi, my name is Cia Fall.

“Who would you choose to shoot it, Mike? Twenty seconds on the game clock, the Moons down by 2 in a close game seven, I would pick the veteran, Patricia may be having a bad game, but there’s no way you put the last shot on the rookie.” Vera, one of the commentators asks, her voice becoming everything that Cia hears while their last timeout slips away.

Her couch says something, she doesn’t hear it, instead the answer from Mike cuts through all of the noise, “The same one that went 5/17 today? Fall may be young, but she stepped up this series and this game, she deserves to shoot her shot.”

She wipes away the sweat accumulating on her forehead, looking forwards, she meets the eyes of Patricia, they haven’t talked this whole year, something about hazing the rookie, when she brought it up to other people they said she should just “rough it out”. The scowl on her face appears before she even begins, “Let me shoot it,” All of the eyes turn to look at her, the coach stopping mid sentence, feeling the pressure to keep going, she adds, “ I can make a three, if we go to overtime we’ll lose, they’re in a better shape than us.”

Patricia scoffs, she quickly leans forwards, undertones of pink painting her white skin, an orange, radiant uniform hangs loosely from her body, smooth brown hair escaping her ponytail and falling to her chest. Blue eyes staring at Fall like she is hearing something crazy, slowly she gets out, “You will miss it, you’re not ready.”

“Oh so you can talk to me outside of the court? That 's crazy.” Fall bites back in almost a whisper, but loud enough to overcome the conversations happening on the stands.

“You are not ready. Just follow the play.” Patricia says, fixing her posture right after, her tone saying like it was final, eyes wandering back to the timer, Cia quickly following, learning that there was no more time to argue, their timeout already on the cuff of ending.

The coach slaps her clipboard two times and ends the discussion with their plan, “Veronica, you will pass to Fall at the middle of the 3 point line, right there, Astol and…” Cia didn’t hear the rest of it, she could already see the play, they had done it hundreds of times in practice, She gets the ball in the middle, the ones that can’t shoot set screens while Veronica and Patricia run a circle around a screen and Fall passes to the one with the best chance of making it.

The buzzers brings her out of it, and for the first time in the night she finds herself in front of Hannah, the other girl is way less tired than she is, Cia is not that tall, but close to Court she sure feels like it, while the other girl keeps her arm on Fall’s shoulder, ready to run at any point, the ball is thrown.

Just like it was supposed to go, Fall quickly steps out of the three point line, receiving the ball just a second before Hannah can close the distance, her teammates are already stepping inside the perimeter to set the screen. But she doesn’t need it.

She is on fire tonight, Hannah is too small. She can do it, she knows she can. She grabs the pass while the clock is still on 20.92 seconds, and before it reaches 19 the ball is already in the air. There was just a small miscalculation, she was too slow, or maybe Hannah was too fast, the tips of her fingers touched the ball. That would usually be a small diversion but an insignificant one, she trained for years on how to catch and shoot, she did thousands and thousands of shots just like this one, but not when her whole year is on the line.

She watches from the floor as all of the nine players on the floor accompany the ball with their eyes, but they didn’t need to, the high pitched ringing sound shuts all of the fans, the rim shakes, Rim grabs the rebound and she is immediately intentionally fouled, Patricia trying to grab the ball from her and reaching in and contacting their bodies.

Hannah didn’t move, for Cia it felt like they were the only two people in the world, even though she could faintly hear the screams of the crowd angry at her, Court’s eyes finally land on her, looking down, with the same neutral expression she had the whole game, she says, voice firm, almost like in a greeting, “good shot, maybe next time.”

“I am 24 years old, I usually play at the three but I can play at the two if necessary, this is my sophomore season, I averaged 6 points per game, 3 rebounds and 6 assists in my first one, I played for the Moons and we lost in the first round to the Sorcerer—” The small forward can’t end her sentence.

“You bricked the winning shot,” the player to her right says without looking at her.

“Yes, I bricked the last shot, but I had 25 that game… so technically the only reason we even were in the crunch was because of me,” she tries to explain herself, feeling the heat traveling to her face, she remembers everything from that night, and everytime it’s mentioned all of the feelings come back, the silent locker room afterwards and the loud press conference afterwards. She looks at the player who did all of it to her, Hannah’s words ringing in her ears when she finally locks eyes with the one person she watched play again and again.

Yuki gathers the attention of everyone as she points out, “I watched that, I think it was the right call, better than the other options at least,”

The same player that interrupted Cia raises her hand and asks,“is it true that you and Bailey got into a fight after the game and that’s why you both were left unprotected?”

As the chatter begins to build up, Gabriel claps his hands over his head, getting the attention of the people, “All right, we are not talking about the past, we are talking about the present, you…” He points at the woman that just spoke, finishing his sentence, “introduce yourself please,”

Letting out a sigh, the woman gets up while Cia sits back down, the difference in clothing is the most noticeable one, she wears a pink cropped with a heart shaped cleavage so tight that Hannah wonders how she can breathe, pair that with the red miniskirt and her clothes show more skin than hide it. She has one heart tattoo right under her left eye, the red contrasting with the blue of her eyes. Beginning in the messy bangs of her forehead and going far beyond the waist her curly blonde hair is only outshined by the bright smile on her face, just shy of 6 feet with a curvy body and a penetrating gaze, she is famous for partying right before games, and Yuki can certainly see her doing it.

“Yo, pleasure to meet you all, I’m the best shooting guard in the league, and look out Hannah because I might as well be the best point guard too,” she lets out a laugh that is accompanied by some of the players, “Do I need to say my stats? Stats ain’t even that for real because the games change a lot, not only that, but everyone should know the name: Dina Larianoova.

No team wants to be tanking, between players stepping up and trades at the deadline on the first day of the season everyone wants the same thing, to win a ring. But only one team can make it, and only sixteen can reach the playoffs, the other fourteen have to make the most out of a bad situation, and that is exactly what the Houston Jaguars did, their star couldn't play the first half of the season because of a hip fracture received from a flagrant foul  courtesy of Tatiana. Their second option started in a slump and their roleplayers were not stepping up, the atmosphere in the locker room was already awful, there was just one thing to do.

Trade and tank. They need first rounds pick and they have the assets to give it, giving young players time, focusing on building chemistry outside of the game, next year is going to be different, with a small amount of luck they get a top 3 pick, and their star will already be healthy, with almost a year of playing less minutes but recovering just fine they can make a come back and hopefully win it al—

“Stop, stop, stop, it’s my flashback I’ll tell people about it, tanking is for cowards with no back bones, that don’t deserve a spot in the league, my name is Dina Larianoova, as you just read, and I am fine with playing for the worst team in the league, but I’m not gonna sit by and let we purposefully become it. Sit down, and check what your main character did. What? I’m better than Hannah and Yuki outside and inside the court.”