Dreaming of Futures Ahead

Just some friends having a talk.

The George Hunter High playing fields are made up of a standard high school sized football field with a track around the outside, and a smaller baseball field. There are two sets of three bleachers along either side of the football field with the middle bleacher being much larger than the two on either side. This gives the stadium a rough capacity of around 2,500 when it is fully set up for a game. Students are freely allowed to go on the bleachers before, during breaks, and after school.
Aura
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Dreaming of Futures Ahead

#1

Post by Aura »

(Aleksandra Prudius continued from Speaking in Colors)

The end of basketball practice always felt the same. Muscles were straining and aching from continual use, and the repetitive motions involved in shooting practice were freshly ingrained in Aleks' mind.

But she wasn't in practice anymore, at least not today. They had been let out a few minutes ago, and now they had free reign to do whatever they wanted. Go home, hang out with friends, go shopping, whatever their heart desired. And at the moment, Alek's heart desired some rest. She sat at the lowest level of the bleachers on the border of the fields. She tapped her heel in the grass below her feet as she looked up at the sky. It was cloudy, and the breeze was really cool and nice. She liked weather like this in the evenings. It was very peaceful and refreshing. It let her think without worrying about the heat of the sun burning her, or a chilling snow forcing her to bundle up. No, this was ideal weather, and she appreciated it.
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Espi
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#2

Post by Espi »

((Rhonda Lawson continued from Slammin' Jammin' Sam))

Rhonda liked practice. If she didn't, she'd never be able to stay on the team. It was hard keeping up sometimes; Sam and Zona were so good, it made her work like ten times harder so she wasn't holding them back. Rhonda tried not to worry about that too much, though; since she'd been told often enough by now that she was doing well. Not that she'd let that excuse her for getting sloppy, of course.

Once they were wrapped up, Rhonda found herself out by the fields, where she'd started to walk home. It was kind of a long ways, especially after the workout, but it was nice and cool out. She fiddled with her phone and a tangled pair of earbuds while she walked. She'd found a neat podcast on historical cultures and practices, and it was really interesting, so she'd been listening to it while she was out a lot lately.

She almost walked right past Aleks because of that. Just as she got the thing to start playing, she noticed her teammate seated nearby. Rhonda paused the podcast mid-intro and waved at Aleks, though after a moment she wasn't sure if she looked silly so she stopped. After a moment she walked towards Aleks, who was taking a breather by the looks of it.

...Hmm, maybe that was a good idea. She could walk home later. "Hey." She said, giving Aleks a friendly smile. "Long time no see, huh?"
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Deamon
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#3

Post by Deamon »

((Arizona continued from Sweat More In Practice...))

Practice was officially over, but Arizona hadn't finished. She'd toweled herself off a little. Changed into her a tank top and her sleeveless Gymshark hoodie and then started doing laps of the playing field. The sound of Scarlxrd thumped through her ears. The shouting and beats forcing her aching body to continue moving. The pounding beats gave her something to focus on. It helped her get into the right mental state. Her body was tired but she pushed it further. The hood gently bounced off her head with each step. A thin layer of sweat had already started to form as she ran. Nothing was going to hold her back.

That was something she had told herself after the practice she had had with Luca. She was going to try not to get in her own head. She was going to work hard and she was going to succeed. The shadow of graduation may have been hanging over some people but Arizona almost welcomed it. She was used to shadows.

As she rounded the far side of the field Arizona caught sight of Aleks and Rhonda at the bleachers. Paying them no attention for the time being Arizona continued running.

She had laps to finish.
V8
Aracelis Fuentes
California “Cali” Fox
Darryl Smith Jr.
Jessica Romero
Roberta “Robbie” Woodvine
[+] V7
G047 - Aliya Kimia Nemati - Blowgun w/ 10 Poison Darts - you're nobody till somebody kills you - "I just wanted to talk." - DEAD
G001 - Arizona Butler - Camping Stove - Dead Bxdies in the Lake Part II - ""We got there eventually." - DEAD
B046 - Bret Carter - Weighted Net - Swerve - "I'll just be on my way and we can all continue with our evenings." - DEAD
G022 - Forrest Quin - Ball-gag and handcuffs - DRUGS SAV3D MY LIF3 - "Abe-" - DEAD
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#4

Post by Aura »

Aleks took a drink from her water bottle, another refreshing thing. She hadn't finished it at practice, so she still had a little bit to spare, and since there was a conveniently placed recycling bin on campus, she figured that it would be best to finish and toss it there.

She looked down when she heard someone talking to her, broken away from the wanderings of her mind in the calm afternoon air. "Oh, hi."

Rhonda was a pretty good friend of hers. They were both on the basketball team. Rhonda was a stronger all-around player than Aleks was though, and Aleks didn't see much point in trying to hide that. She was just really-really solid, while Aleks was better at playing defense most of the time. Sometimes she thought it was because she had a broader frame than most of the other girls on the team, but other times she figured that it was because she didn't like shooting unless she knew she could reach the basket. Either way, she thought Rhonda was a better player.

Basketball really had been on her mind a lot lately. More than she'd like, actually. It was really something to think about. Or maybe talk about, since Rhonda was here now.

"So, uh... practice was tough today, right?"
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Espi
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#5

Post by Espi »

Well, she wasn't the best at reading people, but Rhonda was pretty sure Aleks was brooding about something. She sat down at the bench next to her, resting her elbows on her thighs and twiddling her thumbs in front of her.

"I think it went pretty well." Rhonda was trying to be more confident about herself. In general, yeah, but she knew she was...pretty good on the court? No, she was very good, that was the-well, okay. She was trying not to be negative. She made mistakes, yeah, but it was too easy to sit on them and be sad. So Rhonda was trying not to do that because it made things worse.

Rhonda blinked. She'd meant to add something, but she'd gotten distracted. "Yeah, it went well. I think we're doing well. What about you?"

Oh, was that Zona? Rhonda waved at her, and called out, "Hey, Ar-" but stopped, suddenly dropping her arm and looking over at Aleks bashfully. She hadn't noticed how serious she'd looked with her hood up and now felt kind of bad for distracting her. Arizona was really passionate, and kind of had the tough-love kind of attitude, which was hard to swallow for Rhonda but she knew Zona meant well and wanted her to do her best. People thought she was kind of intimidating which was sad because she really was nice, if you got to know her.

That said, Rhonda didn't want to be the one bothering her when she was focusing. "Uh, yeah. What do you think? About practice."
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Deamon
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#6

Post by Deamon »

Zeroed in on her own movements as she was Arizona didn't notice Rhonda call out and wave to her. Her entire focus was on making sure her legs kept moving, despite their protests. Her legs ached and her arms ached, but the game didn't stop just because you were tired. The higher you made it up the ladder the more intense the games became as well. It was easier to get her fitness to the best level she could manage before she got to college. Then she would have less work to do once she got there.

That was what Arizona was focusing on. Her legs started to burn as she continued to run around the playing field but she only had a couple of laps left. Then she could be done.

Then she got to go home and forget about everything for a while.

Soon she'd be done.
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#7

Post by Aura »

"I think I did okay."

That was the best appraisal that Aleks could think of. She wasn't sure how okay, her performance was, or whether she was leaning more towards the good or bad end of the spectrum, but okay seemed like a good way to describe it. She thought that she blocked pretty well, but she didn't take a lot of shots. She never took that many in the first place, though. But on the other hand, she did make all of the shots that she did take today, so that was good.

Her fingers drummed on the side of the bench. She did have something that she really wanted to talk about with someone, but she wasn't sure how it would be received. And before she could even get that far, she needed to figure out how to turn the conversation in that direction. Her idea was clear, but she hadn't actually planned out her methods yet. So on that note, she decided to try to wing it.

"So, um... do you like being on the team?"
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#8

Post by Espi »

"Yeah!"

Rhonda's enthusiastic response was followed by an awkward pause as she considered what, or really why, Aleks was asking. It was definitely a little deeper than she'd expected out of nowhere. That usually meant something was wrong, and that worried Rhonda.

"I mean, I like it a lot. I love the game, and we have fun together, I think." Rhonda smiled at Aleks, who definitely seemed a little down. She wasn't sure what was going on, but Rhonda didn't want to let her friend be unhappy without at least trying to help.

"Are you not having fun?"
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Deamon
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#9

Post by Deamon »

Finally, Arizona's laps were done. She slowed down and put her arms behind her head as she panted out breaths. It had been hard. Cardio was hard though. That was nothing new. Forcing herself to do it was the important thing. You couldn't get better without the will to improve. She needed to do it. She wanted to be one of the best.

As Arizona was getting her breath back she saw Aleks and Rhonda were still talking on the bleachers. There was nothing wrong with that. But she had thought they were just saying goodbyes. Both of them were good players. They both had skills better than her own in some areas. Plus both were taller than she was.

Once Arizona had her breathing back under control she headed over to the pair.

"What we talking about?" Arizona asked as she started climbing the bleachers.
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#10

Post by Aura »

"What? No, I'm having fun. Really." Aleks hadn't meant to imply that she didn't like the team, and she hadn't expected Rhonda to draw something like that from what she said, so she felt like she had to try to backtrack a bit to explain herself. She didn't want to offend Rhonda or give off the impression that she didn't like being on the team with her. The opposite was true, really. Same with Arizona, who had just joined them.

"Hi Arizona. We're talking about the team." She said plainly. After all, it was a pretty general yet accurate way to describe their conversation thus far. But she was getting really close to the meat of the conversation, and now that she thought about it, maybe having Arizona around as well when she got around to it might be a good thing.

Aleks was slightly hunched over as she sat, her fingers tapping on the bench in a pattern, one after another. She closed her eyes and took a second to breathe. She knew that Rhonda and Arizona were her friends, but she wasn't sure how they would react to what she was going to tell them.

"But actually, um... I was kind of thinking about leaving basketball after this year."
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#11

Post by Espi »

"What? Why?"

Rhonda smiled and gave Arizona a small wave when she finished her laps and stopped by. That smile quickly became a concerned frown as Aleks elaborated on what seemed to have been on her mind. For how long, she couldn't guess, but it must have been something she was eating at her for a while. It was a pretty big deal, after all.

Seeing as it was senior year, it was obvious they wouldn't keep playing here anyway. Rhonda knew Aleks must have meant not playing in college, but she didn't know why. Aleks was into a lot of artsy stuff, and she seemed to really enjoy all of that, but Rhonda didn't think that all that stuff had to get in the way of the sport.

Rhonda glanced at Arizona with concern. She was really passionate about the team, so Rhonda hoped Aleks' decision wouldn't offend her. To Aleks, she asked, "Why not? You're playing good, if that's what's wrong." Aleks was pretty hard on herself--a lot of the team was, really, that just drove them to play harder--but Aleks was definitely not dead weight, even though she seemed to think so sometimes.
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Deamon
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#12

Post by Deamon »

Yeah and?

That was Arizona's immediate thought. Leaving after senior year didn't make a difference. It just meant you weren't going to keep doing it at college. Aleks wasn't going to be the first or last person to do that. Fuck, there would be hundreds of high school athletes making the same decision.

Arizona knew enough to know that wasn't an appropriate answer.

She sat herself down slightly lower on the bleachers than the other two.

"We kill people on the court," She said to Rhonda as she stretched her legs out. "Don't think anyone's play is the problem." Her tone was harsher than she intended, but whatever. It had been a stupid fucking statement.
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#13

Post by Aura »

Aleks looked between Rhonda and Arizona. She didn't think that anything on the court was the issue. But then again, she hadn't gotten around to explaining her reasons yet, so she figures that it was probably pretty reasonable for that to be Rhonda's first guess. She hadn't actually been thinking about performance at all when she had deliberated over this before. She knew that she was a decent player on a good team, but that wasn't part of her reason.

"I like art, you know? I like it more than basketball." She tapped a hand on her backpack, where her sketchbook was contained. "I want to go to art school and focus on drawing and coloring. I want to be an illustrator." She admitted her goals. "But I don't know if art schools have sports teams, and even if I'm in another college, I'm not sure how I would balance everything to make room for it."

She hoped that she was making sense. She was in her senior year of high school, so she had to figure out what she wanted to prioritize for college. After thinking about it a lot, she decided that art came first for her, and she had to balance her schedule around it.

"This makes sense, right?"
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#14

Post by Espi »

Rhonda felt bad for Alexs, worrying about that stuff. Graduation was coming up sooner than later, and it was probably on everyone's minds. She was still waiting on some applications she'd sent out, and every time it popped up in her head it made her feel like she'd suddenly swallowed a marble. It was a big part of their future, especially since degrees were both very important and really bad if you went to school and didn't get one. Or if you got the wrong degree and you couldn't get hired or-

Oh, wait. Rhonda blinked. This was about Aleks. She put her hand on Aleks' shoulder, gently stroking her arm. "I think..." Rhonda paused, not wanting to stumble over her words and make her friend feel even more unsure. "If drawing is really important to you, you should still do that. But, it might be good to check out what schools you like that have teams."

She wanted Aleks to be happy with what she did. It was like, Rhonda liked playing with Aleks a lot and all, but she also liked Aleks in general and if she was worried about it, like, she wanted to give good advice. "And like, if you don't know if you can play for the school, there's other places to play for fun. And if you do that, you don't need to worry about having to let it get in the way of grades, right?"

Rhonda smiled. "Is that helpful?"
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#15

Post by Deamon »

Well, Rhonda ignored her. Cool. Not that it was that important. It just bugged her.

Regardless, Rhonda gave Aleks some decent advice. But there was one thing that bothered Arizona.

In her opinion, Aleks was giving up without trying.

There was no way she could say that though. She knew she couldn't. But it gnawed at her. Aleks was a good player. She wanted her to keep playing. The idea of her quitting bugged Arizona.

She rubbed the side of her neck. Her hood was still up but it was whatever. Her hair would look fucked anyway.

"I agree with Rhonda," Arizona said looking over her shoulder at the pair. "Don't see why you can't try both."
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