Love and Volleyball | Paige Bueckers

5

Today is the day i decided i would stop hiding out in my apartment and actually go somewhere. By somewhere i just meant i was going to take a trip to campus. 1. I wanted to be there to watch my teammates practice and 2. Me and Ice are going out for lunch after she gets out of practice. I was currently in the car with Tatum as she drives. "The team really misses you" She says taking my attention away from my phone. "I bet, i'm literally the life of the party" I joke. I've been away from the team for the last 2 weeks, i've only seen Olivia, Karly and Elizabeth because they came to visit. Elizabeth spent her whole visit apologizing profusely. I kept telling her that it wasn't her fault and that accidents happen but she still said she felt bad. The gift basket they sent to be dropped off was amazing though. It had a new volleyball in it, some snacks, a few get well soon cards and a husky plushy which i just found adorable.

"I see you and Paige are becoming good friends" Tatum says. "Yeah, she even followed me on instagram" I say making Tatum nearly slam on the breaks. "Paige followed you and you didn't tell me!?" she yells making me laugh. "I didn't think it was that big of a deal, everyone on the team started following me" I say. "It isn't a big deal, if i didn't have a feeling she liked you" Tatum says. I roll my eyes. "And how the hell did you come up with that conclusion?" I was curious to see what she was going to say. She's only seen me and Paige interact twice. "When ice brought her over the other day, she looked at you as if you were the only girl in the world, and even yesterday she did the same" She says making me roll my eyes. "That's just because she's nice, she looks at everyone like that" I say. "You'll see what i'm talking about" Tatum laughs pulling into the parking lot of the gym.

I reach into the backseat grabbing my crutches before getting out the car. "You look goofy as hell" Tatum laughs taking a video of me as i hop through the parking lot. "Go to hell" i say making her laugh. We make it inside the building going straight to the locker room. I wasn't practicing but i could at least dress like it right. "Y/N" i can hear some of my teammates yell as i enter the locker room. "Hey guys" i smile. Some of the freshman got up to come hug me. "We missed you so much" Isabela says making me laugh. "Jeez what are y'all gonna do when i graduate, i've only been gone 2 weeks" I joke. "They're gonna explode" Olivia says making us all laugh.

After everyone was dressed we all leave the locker room. I go to sit down next to coach on one of the empty chairs. "Glad to see you aren't letting that injury hold you back" she says. "I'm still an athlete" I say making her smile. I refuse to mention how i shelled myself up in my apartment for days and didn't move, coach didn't need to know that one. "Okay y'all got three laps then get ready to scrimmage each other" Coach N yells clapping her hands together. "If you want, we can get you a chair in here and you can work on hitting against the wall" Coach Peter says making my face light up. He laughs going to the equipment closet getting a chair and a pillow for it. "You can't get up and move but this will make it all the more better on increasing you accuracy" He says.

He places the chair a decent distance away from the wall helping me sit down. "Practice alternating from receiving and hitting then i'll give you something to work on reaction time" He says making me nod. I loved how the coaches still found a way to include me in everything even though i wasn't physically capable of joining everyone else on the court yet. My hits were still pretty consistent which is great considering i haven't touched a ball in weeks. After about 10 minutes Coach Peter walks back over with two tennis balls. I raise my eyebrow at him. "This is gonna help you improve your reaction time, you especially need to work on this considering you aren't able to do a lot of moving yet" he says. He takes the balls, one in each hand throwing them at the wall alternating which hands he catches with.

"Do this for a while and then come join us over in the bench, we can use some extra help" he says making me nod. What i'm hearing is he wants me coaching. I smile to myself as I do what he says. I started thinking about this weekend, me and Ice we're gonna take a trip back home to San Diego just for fun. Basketball had the next week off and I myself wasn't practicing anyway because i was injured. Ice also seen this as a good opportunity to keep me distracted. We were leaving Friday night and would be back Tuesday morning. I quickly got tired of throwing the tennis balls so i get up hopping over to where the coaches were. I join them as we watch the team scrimmage. It was fun getting an outside view of how our team played, i felt like as a captain i was able to definitely help my team in the long run when it came to who needed to do what and how we could better work together as a team.

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Herslvt Speaks 🕺🏾
This chapter is another filler chapter 🦕
it's also shorter compared to my other chapters, but the real actions about to start so bare with me ik things are starting off a little slow ‼️ anyway hope y'all enjoyed