Hailey Van Lith despised like the Madison twins. What could happen when Taylor teams up with the Louisville Women's team?
What if I told you one party and a couple hookups could change these two's life forever? Would you believe it?
Read along this...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
BY HALFTIME COACH HADNT TRIED TO PUT THE GIRL IN AND THEYRE UP BY 20 so Taylor felt pretty confident she wasn't going on tonight. She was glad. She could play defense with her girls because she knew how they played. She wasn't ready to get molly whopped by Paige Bueckers. Now you may be thinking well she watched Paige play to, but you should know how unpredictable Bueckers is. Handles like Steph, ankle breakers like Kyrie.
It was 3rd quarter, 2:45 on the clock, UConn was quickly catching up on their deficit. The stadium got louder and the girls got nervous. They were leading the whole game, they couldn't lose it all now. Wallz was screaming from the sidelines, but that's normal.
He can be a saint though. He went through hell and back to get her on this bench, in this uniform. Luckily he had an old jersey from someone else with the same last name, but that means she's stuck with #14. She didn't mind though, it was her number. It was some kind of weird coincidence.
He was willing to put his job on the line for it. He's pretending the girl was injured freshman who had a concussion and just got cleared to play. I mean who would question that?
Taylor couldn't believe it. Going through all this trouble to get someone who hasn't played in 2 years on the team. She had a lot of work to do, she doesn't wanna let him down after everything he's sacrificing.
UConn calls a time out with 7.3 seconds left in the 3rd. The first five on the bench standing up making room for the players in the game.
"Taylor sit, you'll be going in for Alexia." She sits down, shaking her head to herself, taking her uniform shirt off, exposing her jersey.
She didn't argue. How can you argue with 7 seconds? He set up a perfect play on his whiteboard. The players taking a moment to breathe, and get some water. It was only a half so they didn't have much time.
The buzzer went off and the girls went back on the floor while waiting for UConn.
"Just seven seconds of defense." Taylor breathed, thinking to herself.
"Don't be nervous T. I know it's intimidating, but they'll take your nerves and eat em up and spit em right back out. If you're stuck, look to one of us. We're all here to help and be a team." Payton whispered, patting the girl on the back.
She gave her a sincere look, with a soft smile. UConn inbounded the ball, one of their guards Caroline bringing it up the court. She looks around, not having time to do much. Taylor pokes the ball free, fumbling to keep it. She gets the ball, not having an open teammate to pass it to, and with 2.4 seconds on the clock, she dribbles and chucks it from the logo. She doesn't get lucky this time though as it bounces around the rim and rolls out.
They get ready for the fourth quarter with Louisville still in the lead 83-75. "Come on girls. We gotta get more aggressive on defense like Taylor. This is clutch time, don't let them take us over. Now let's get this W."
She forgot how hard it would be to run back and forth with people who run all day. She's just trying to keep up at this point. The asthma not helping very much. She can just blame it on the fact she's a freshman or something later.
She guarded Nika Muhl, while Hailey guarded Paige to save the girl some embarrassment. The two bickered back and forth on both sides of the floor. Taylor and Nika found it quite funny, giving each other little looks and laughing when they would say some dumb shit.
FINAL 99-95
They all shook hands, Hailey and Paige taking a moment to hug each other, and bid their farewells. Paige also giving a hug to Taylor behind her. "It's so nice finally meeting you."
"Yeah, you too Bueckers. It's weird though seeing you after just beating you, instead of cheering you on though." The blue eyed beauty gave the blonde a smirk. She just rolled her eyes and continued through the handshake line.
She made her way to the locker room alone. She can't believe she just did that. Her stats weren't the best, she got a couple buckets, and some assists, but she didn't care about the numbers. She forgot how much she missed being on the court. She was so glad to be back, maybe not better, but she's back.
They loaded onto the bus after changing into the locker room. It was late, so coaches decided to stop at a hotel for the night. Waiting for confirmation and room keys from Wallz, everyone else stayed on the bus, tired. At this point it was reaching midnight and they all couldn't wait to get to bed. Some already passed out in the back.
He goes around handing out the keys, assigning roommates, and going through the rules like usual.
"Now come on, I'm tryna hit the hay." He cracks a smile, helping everyone unload their bags.
Hailey had the room key, Taylor kept close behind. You wouldn't think a hotel would be this crowded at 12:20 in the morning but the more you know.
"Well, looks like we're sharing." Hailey laughed. Taylor following in, noticing the only one queen sized bed.
"Not even a king either." She scoffed.
"Quit complaining Van Lith." Taylor yawned, falling into the bed.
She crawled in the covers, clicking through all the horrendous hotel television channels while Hailey got unready in the bathroom, skincare and all. When she got done she headed to bed, Taylor already softly snoring.
She crawled under the covers and the blue eyed girl awoke again. "Sorry sweetheart."
"It's okay, I wasn't asleep." She yawned, resting her head on the blondes shoulder.
"You did amazing tonight. I really am proud of you." Hailey spoke softly in her ear as she played with her hair.
"Mmm thank you love." She mumbled in response.
"I really did have my doubts, like I thought coach was dumb for doing all this, but now I see it. You may not be the best player out there, but he sees your potential, and so do I." She praised.
Taylor looked back up at her, eyes gleaming, with a smile. She wraps her free hand around, cupping the blondes cheek. She leans in, softly connecting their lips for a moment. In no way sexual, just short and sweet.
She pulls away, resting foreheads together. "I could never get tired of kissing you." The blonde admits. A deep red blush spreads across her face instantly, but it was dark so she prayed it wasn't visible. She pecked her lips again before burying her head into the crook of her neck.
