"We're gonna lose," Quinn says, the girl who had exploded the basketball, surprisingly, wasn't that good during the practice.

To say that practice didn't go well would be a huge understatement. My lack of ability to keep hold of the ball while running up the court was my biggest issue, and somehow not the worst of the group. At least I could get the ball into the hoop most of the time, but most of the girls couldn't get it in if they had a year to do it. Zoey was good, but one man does not a team make. I think that's the saying.

"No, we're gonna lose bad," Tasha corrects her, sitting next to her on Zoey's bed.

Vicky groans, "my legs are sore."

"My hair is sore!" Nicole says.

"My ego is dead," I say, flatly.

Zoey looks at us all, less upbeat than this morning. "Well, we still have three more days to practice, so maybe-"

"Face it, Zoey," Nicole cuts her off. You're the only girl on our team who can play this game! The rest of us are suckish."

"No, you're not," she denies.

"Yes, we are," I say.

Quinn sits up, "is 'suckish' a word?"

"No," I say, pushing her back down. She jumps back up when a basketball comes through the window and knocks into Zoey's shelf.

Zoey leans out of the window slightly to shout at the criminal who did this. "Hey, you could've hit somebody!" She shouts down.

"I tried!" A voice comes back, and I watch the window, confused. I'm guessing this is one of the boys who challenged her. "See ya Friday!"

Nicole cradles the ball, pulling the note out.

"What's the note say?" Quinn asks and we all watch her read it out.

"Girl's got no game, you're gonna lose." I sigh.

"It's not even clever!" I protest, releasing my hair from its ruined braid.

Nicole pulls on the underwear tied around the ball. "What's this?" She asks and I grin as Zoey leans in to tell her. Nicole screams and I laugh, before leaving the room to get cleaned up.

With the morning coming too fast, I find myself pulling on a cami top and sports shorts, hoping that I don't sweat too much, at the very least. "I'm not ready for this," Delilah groans.

"You're not even playing," I say, eyebrow raised. She shrugs, pulling her bag over her shoulder. "What's in there?" I ask.

"Sketching stuff, I'm gonna draw the game." I stare at her, amazed.

"As it's happening?" Jennifer asks, equally as impressed, as Delilah just nods. "Well I'm really glad to be on the bench now."

"Lucky you," I say. "I wish Vicky would take my place, but she said she'd only do it if I died."

"We'll bury you with your ego," Jen says, and I laugh, heading down to the court.

The boys are practicing when we get there, and for the first time I see that we're competing against people who know how to play the sport. Perfect. I'm comparison, we're messy. We are all struggling and I'm already feeling slightly queasy about playing in front of people. I find my brother as he comes to the court and pull him aside.

"Why are you here?" I ask, and he smirks.

"Can't I support my dear sissy?" He asks, and I roll my eyes at him. "I would never miss the chance to watch you look stupid," he says, dropping his sweet act.

"Well, don't be loud," I say, fired up. I stomp away and begin to dribble a ball, as Nicole tries to make a shot. It misses.

"Hey girls," one of the boys says, "a little tip, try to make the ball go in the basket!" He laughs and I scoff.

"And here's a tip for you," Zoey says, "try to make words not come out of your mouth."

I laugh at her comeback, and make a shot. It goes in and I do my best not to react and seem dorky. The boy scowls at my success, leaving.

The game begins soon after, with the boys taking the ball first, and immediately scoring. It's a shambles the whole way through, with Zoey being targeted as our only decent player. As much as I hate to see a jerk doing well, the guy who made fun of us is a good player. At one point, the ball is passed to Nicole, who quickly passes to me in a panic, and the ball smacks me in the face. I don't fall, somehow, but my nose starts to bleed and I'm sent off. Vicky takes my place, while the games continues. Zoey joins me not long after when the boy wrestles her for the ball and elbows her nose.

I run over to see if she's okay, while the boy scores again. The crowd boos him, and I feel myself smile, especially when I realise my nose has stopped bleeding.

"Are you okay?" A boy asks Zoey, his hair is pretty memorable, so I'm sure I haven't met him before.

"Yeah," Zoey says, but find the blood on her nose and groans. "That's not good."

"Twins," I say, showing her the dried blood on my own face.

The coach comes over, again, and takes a look at her. Her injuries are worse than mine, for sure. My nose only bled a little, she just got hit in the face. "Okay, let's see," he says.

"Sorry, dude," the boy says. "Better watch where you're going."

Zoey lunges for him, and we all hold her back. "Hey," the coach says, and pulls her away. "Come on, everybody, back to your benches."

"Here, drink this," Nicole says, handing a bottle to Zoey.

"Can she still play?" Quinn asks, as the coach looks at Zoey's nose.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea." He wipes her nose with a fresh cloth, and I wonder how many he has available. "In fact, I think you should go up to the nurse's office and let her take a look at you."

"I'll go back out," I say, not wanting to forfeit the match. "I'm ready to, anyway."

"Excuse me," Nicole says. "But have you noticed she the only girl on our team who can play this game?"

"Yes," he says, "I think everyone here has noticed that." I frown.

"That's not very encouraging." He just pushes my towel back to my nose.

"Great, now we have to play another half," Trisha says, as the buzzer goes off.

"Can't we just quit? This is humiliating!"

Quinn says, and I grow frustrated.

"Wouldn't it be more humiliating to just give up?" I ask.

Quinn thinks about it. "No!"

"Maybe we should just forfeit," Nicole says. "Zoey?" She asks the blonde, and our leader.

"You guys forfeit, I'm playing!" She gets up and Vicky takes her spot.

"Yeah, you go!" She says, and I roll my eyes. "Hey, you haven't died, you're luckily I took your place at all." I sigh and get back onto the court, dreading the second part of the game.

Dana shows up as Zoey gives her pep talk and comes over to us. "Can I play?"

"Um, we kind of have a full team," Zoey says, but Quinn takes her chance.

"Bye!" She runs, not even towards the bleachers.

"I guess you're in," Zoey says.

"You any good?" Nicole asks, and tosses the ball to Dana. She shoots it straight in and we all watch, thankful for her help.

"Now, just pass me the ball whenever you can and stay out of the way," she says, and I roll my eyes, but am glad I can relax a bit.

"Works for me!" Nicole says.

The game goes much better for us with two good players, and I even manage to score once with help from them. I'm feeling pretty good, until I realise we have barely any time to get the points we need to win. Dana shoots with two seconds the spare.

And misses.

The game ends and we al huddle together. "It was close," Zoey says. "Just not enough time."

"Well, look who lost," I look and see the boy from earlier who's coming over to us. "Hope you learned your lesson," he says.

"I sure did," the coach says. "How would you two girls like to join the basketball team?"

"What?" He says, angry. "Coach!"

"Ha," I say, pointing at him, victoriously.

"I'll think about it," Dana says, but Zoey isn't playing it cool.

"What about you, Zoey? I think you'd make an excellent point guard."

"Sure, I'll play."

The boy gets angrier, "Coach, I play point guard!" I laugh slightly.

"Yeah, sometimes things change!" He walks off as the boy keeps complaining.

"Coach, are you seriously gonna put a girl on our team?" He asks.

"Hey," Zoey says. "You catch on quick, for a guy." We laugh and go to leave. "Bye teammate." I'm the last to leave and he grabs my arm, pulling me back.

"Hey, don't laugh," he says, sour.

"Shut up," I say rolling my eyes. "You're just a jerk, and people are allowed to laugh at jerks."

"You don't even know me," he argues. "How can you know I'm a jerk?"

I turn back to face him. "I just do, jerk."

"If you knew me, you wouldn't say that!" He says, as if to say got you.

"Oh, really?" I ask, laughing. I walk away with him following me, now.

"I'll prove it!" He shouts, jogging to catch up to me. "I'll make you like me." I stop in place and turn to face him.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Please?"

"Wow, the jerk has manners," I mock, walking away, again. He doesn't follow.

"You'll see!" He shouts, from behind me.

I don't tell the girls about this, although I do ask who he is, and Zoey tells me his name is Logan. I say he's annoying and get ready for our party, which we have planned to celebrate our victory of sorts.

Nicole calls a toast, as I munch quietly on my pizza. "Turn the music down," she says, shushing us all. "Okay, for rallying the girls together and showing the boys that we're just as much a part of this school as they are, let's hear it for Zoey!" We cheer.

"Thank you, thank you," she says. And for our MVP, who kept us from getting our butts kicked, give it up for Dana Cruz!" We cheer again as the sour girl allows a smile.

We all dance and enjoy our pizza when the boys show up. The boy with the bushy hair says an awkward hello as we all watch them, closely.

"What do you want?" Dana asks.

"Well," a new boy says. "Me and the guys just came down here to tell you that we're sorry for playing a little rough today."

"Yeah," the original guy says. "And that not all of us guys here at PCA feel the same way as Logan." I roll my eyes at the mention of him.

"Thanks," Zoey says.

No one moves. "Is that it?" Dana asks.

"No, um, we also heard you got pizza," the second boys says.

"And cake!" The bushy haired one adds.

"Oh," Zoey says, playfully. "So you want pizza?"

"And cake."

"Well," Quinn says, loudly. "Give 'em some food, turn up the music and let's get this party started, yo!" We all freeze at her awkward behaviour. "What?"

We laugh and the party is resumed. I bring the second boy some pizza, and cake, and introduce myself. "I'm Michael," he responds.

We spend the rest of the party dancing and eating our food, until our dorm advisor tells us it's time to shut it down. I think about how fun my mom will find this whole thing.

After the party, when we're in pyjamas, we go to the bathroom to fix up the urinal.

"Is it ready," Nicole asks, and I nudge Delilah excitedly. She had been the one to design our new art piece.

"Almost," Quinn tells us, as she finishes up.

"Are you excited, Lil?" I ask, and Delilah grins.

"Oh yeah," she says.

"It's so cute," Jen says, as the girls stand up.

"Ta-da!" Zoey says, and we cheer.

"How do you start it?" Nicole asks, and I go over to it, grinning.

"Like this," I say, flushing the urinal. We watch as the little decorations begin spinning and cheer for our homemade fountain.

Yeah, this is my home, now.