The score was 70-68. We were down by 2 and there was 5 seconds left in the game. We were playing our school rival, the Dawson Spartans, and if we won this game, we would've had an undefeated season and clinched first place in our division. 3 of our starters were fouled out compared to 2 of the Dawson players fouling out. I took a sip of water as our coach drew up a play for us. I was to get the ball and drive in for a lay-up.

The ref signaled that the time out was over.

"Okay Rebels on three." I said while extending my arm out into the middle of the huddle.

"One, two, three"

"REBELS!" The team yelled.

As I waked on the court, the crowd was going crazy. We were playing in a full college sized court. The rivalry of our school was so intense the district had to rent out a basketball arena to fit in our games. The left half of the arena was full of Georgetown Rebel fans chanting rebels while the Dawson Spartan fans were on the right half chanting Spartans.

The ref blew the whistle to begin and we broke from our line formation cutting to different areas of the court. I ran up to the top of the court as my defender trailed then suddenly cut toward the basket. The ball flew through the air and I caught it in mid air and I shot it while still in the air. Just before the ball left my fingers, a girl came up to me and knocked me to the side while still in the air. I ended up still getting a shot up but falling on the floor. I heard whistles being blown like crazy and the crowd erupt into cheers and boos. Suddenly I was bombarded by my teammates who were on the court. They helped me up and I saw my team's bench jump up and down. The crowd was going crazy.

"YOU DID IT CHRISTY! YOU TIED THE SCORE!" My teammate Amber said while helping me up.

The announcer was telling the crowd to calm down since everyone was screaming at the refs.

"Settle down! We have a call by the refs!"

The crowd suddenly stopped screaming all together and listened to what the refs had to say.

"Basket is good. Defensive foul on number 24. Number 11 will shoot one free throw.

The crowd erupted into cheers and boos once again.

I walked up to the free throw line as the crowd continued its screaming. I dribbled the ball a few times and shot it. The crowd held its breath for a moment as it swished through the hoop.

Cheers erupted once again.The Spartans wasted no time and once it went in they inbounded the ball. Once the ball was caught by one of their players, the Spartans called time out right away and there was 3.5 seconds left. We rushed over to our beach while everyone was handing us water.

"Fantastic job Christy, but the game isn't over now. Play the best defense you can. We're almost there. 3 and a half seconds of the best defense you can give. Let's go! Defense on three. One, two, three." The coach preached

'"DEFENSE!" The team chanted.

As soon as we got into our positions, the ref handed the ball to the player and blew the whistle. The person I was supposed to guard cut backwards and I was stopped by a screen for a moment. I stepped around her and saw the pass fly over my head and her catching it. She began to drive into the lane and I sprinted toward her.

As she went up for the lay up and I went up for the block. Then everything was in slow motion. She released the ball as she was in the air and I extended my arm as far as it could go and I swatted the ball right out of the air. She attempted to pretend it was a foul by falling to the floor when she landed.

The crowd exploded. The Spartans crowd were screaming and cursing and the police officers who were assigned to watch over the game were trying to calm them down while the Rebel crowd was cheering and screaming.

The refs waited for the crowd to calm down as I stood there nervously. I knew the block was completely clean but I was afraid if the refs would just assume I fouled her.

The crowd eventually died down and the ref announced the call.

"Block is clean. Rebels win 71-70."

It was complete pandemonium. The some of the Spartan players were crying while my team ran to me and jumped on top of me.

The rest of the night was a blur. Someone threw a celebration party and I was gone after that. We had a playoff game Thursday against the 4th seed but we knew it would be an easy win. The whole weekend was full of celebration parties over our undefeated season and Sunday was a celebration with the team and coach in a restaurant.

The coach congratulated me for my two big plays and then congratulated everyone for a good job.

I couldn't lie, I was enjoying the attention and praise I was getting but I knew I would be over it soon.

At school the attention and praise was even greater. Everyone was telling me how good of a job I did or patting me on the back. When I got to my locker, I saw a bunch of phone numbers with lipstick stains on them. I chuckled and picked one off to read it.

"Great job at the game on Friday! If you would like another round of celebration give me a call"

I chuckled as I ripped off the notes and threw them in the class. I was openly gay and everyone seemed to be cool with it.

Most of my classes were pretty chill, everyone was talking about the game so I basically had a free period from 1st through 3rd period. During 4th period, I had Chemistry and the thought of it made me groan. I knew Mr. Curtin would not want to talk about the game and would make us do work.

As I walked in the class toward my seat, I got praises and high fives. I was surrounded by a group of girls who were trying to get a date out of me but I politely declined to each one.

As the bell rang, the students headed to their seats. When everyone was settled, Mr. Curtain spoke.

"We will have a group project worth 30% of your final grade. You must write a report and PowerPoint on an element and you will have assigned partners and elements."

The whole class groaned and he began calling off names.

"Christy Johnson and Kayla Owens. Plutonium." he read out.

I knew who Kayla was. I'm pretty sure everyone knew. She was the star of the soccer team and half the school was basically head over heels in love with her.

When Mr. Curtin finished reading off the names we were told to group with our partners and work on our project. Before I could even get up, Kayla sat into the seat next to me.

"Hi Christy. Great game you had on Friday. Made the two biggest plays of the game!" Kayla exclaimed.

I took a good look at Kayla since I never really looked at her, I just knew who she was and a general idea of how she looked like.

She was almost the complete opposite of me. She was 5'7 with dirty blonde hair. She had bright baby blue eyes and long muscular legs that added to her soccer girl look. Me on the other hand, I was only 5'3 and I had black hair and light brown eyes. I was basically a little ball of muscle.

"Oh thanks! It was a really intense game I was really nervous about everything."

"You're shouldn't be nervous though, you're such a good basketball player!"

"Eh I'm decent. Nothing special."

"Yeah right Ms. I-scored-the-winning-basketball-and-blocked-the-possible-other-winning-shot." she snapped.

"Um didn't you score a goal at the last minute in the championship game year though?"

Kayla's eyes lit up for a second. "You went to that game?"

"Yeah it was a really good game."

"Oh I'm just surprised you went to a soccer game. Ya know since it's the opposite of your sport." Kayla said while playing with her hair.

"Nah I like to give back since everyone comes to basketball games. And also soccer girls are hot."

"Seems like I may just be your type then huh?" Kayla joked while wiggling her eyebrows.

"Ha ha. Very funny Owens."

"Okay so this project. You wanna come over tonight and work on it? Or do you have practice?"

"No I don't have practice today, here's my number so you can text me your number."

The bell rang and she started to pack up her stuff.

"Cool I'll hit you up later with my address. See you tonight Ms. Basketball-star," Kayla said while walking away and winking at me.