x LAURA x"So, how was basketball tryouts for you?" I ask Donreneé at the lunch table outside. We were lucky enough to find an empty one, although someone had left their drink and Doritos on the table, which I happily ate. Shit, they wasn't finna come back and eat it any time soon, it seemed.
"It was intense as hell, but I feel like the team really is a family," she said, dipping one of her sweet potato French fries into some honey mustard sauce she had brought to school. "If you're gonna join, you have to get Coach's permission though, or Khloe's. Tryouts were this summer." I wish I had known that, but Southwest had notified me too late that I couldn't come back there.
Polly snorted. "She lets you call her Khloe?"
Donreneé frowned, "I didn't realize she preferred to be called anything else."
"Demon," I answer for her.
Rhi nudged my arm, smirking, "Laura here would know. She's partnered up with Demon in y'all's little buddy system." Don's eyes widened. "Really? She seems...reserved when she's around my team. What is she like?" I dig into the Doritos bag, trying to come up with the best explanation of Demon's weird demeanor.
Suddenly, the doors that from the cafeteria burst open. Demon and two girls flanked behind her, angry expressions on their faces. "Shit, they're headed for us. What did you do, Laura?" Polly turned to me. My hands started to shake, so I hid them in my lap, rubbing my finger across my soft flannel in a way to comfort myself. "I don't think I've done anything," I whispered.
The entire courtyard's attention was on us as Demon made it over to our table. Someone nearby snickered, "They must not know who's table that is."
I gulped, and picked up my Doritos bag with shaky hands. "Guys, maybe we should leave," I whispered to Polly, Donreneé, and Rhi. Demon and her entourage made it to our table before we could stand. She glared at all of them until her eyes reached mine, softening somewhat. "We were sitting here," she stated bluntly.
Blunt. That's how I could describe Demon. She was blunt with her intentions and her actions. She was blunt when she flirted with me, when she felt something was hers, when she wanted her table back.
"Sorry, we can move. We didn't know," Polly mumbled. Rhi and Donreneé began getting up but I scoffed. I was used to blunt. Jessica was blunt, and Rhi could be the same way when they wanted to be. "Y'all sit back down," I told my friends, shooting Demon a look. I wasn't afraid of this girl no more.
What could Demon possibly do?
"I don't see your name on this table and you guys weren't here all of lunch. Baby, if you wanted your own table you should buy one of them folding ones from Big Lots. They be like $90. I thought Northwest folk like y'all," I gestured to the nosy ass courtyard and her trio, "could afford that type of stuff."
Demon chuckled to herself as the younger looking girl to her left cracked her bruised knuckles and the girl to her right glared hard at me. "Get up, now."
"What's up with this hard act? Like you wasn't tryna fuck earlier," I rolled my eyes, grabbing my things and looking over at my friends. "C'mon. Lunch'll be over in fifteen minutes anyways. They act like they too good to stand up."
I heard an obnoxious ass scoff. "You was tryna do what earlier?" I looked up to see the girl who had been glaring at me all up in Demon's face. "Yet, you did all of that to," the girl stopped talking, shaking her head, "you're right. This between us is over."
"Dior, don't do this shit right now. I was tryna get us the table so we can all talk. We gotta lay down some boundaries. I'm sorry for letting my anger get to em." The courtyard was eating up this drama, phones pulling out as Demon and this Dior girl argued. The other girl with the bruised knuckles tried to step in between them and Dior slapped her.
"Always tryna fuck up shit between me and Demon!"
"They're together," I whispered to Polly.
"Yup," she sighed. "C'mon, let's leave before we all get suspended." We joined another table in the courtyard that was half full. We watched from afar as the Dior girl accused Demon of cheating on her, and they hurtled insults back and forth.
"This is so messy, but I'm living for it," Rhi shook their head, laughing. "I feel bad for Syn. She's just tryna be the middleman in all of this," Donreneé commented, "She's always the sweeter one during practices with the trio."
"I don't know if I wanna be on the basketball team now," I comment, bitterly laughing. Maybe the track team will be the way to go. Therefore, I'll be far away from Demon and Dior's drama. They wouldn't be on two sports teams, right? Jessica is gonna eat up all this drama once I tell her what's happened.
"Is she still gonna be your buddy after this?" Polly asked me, twirling a blue curl on her finger.
"Who knows," I shrug, "I just know that I can't afford to be surrounded in any drama. I can't get kicked out of Northwest." I stood up, dusting my hands off, "Matter of fact, I'm going down to speak with Mrs. Seabarn right now. I gotta make sure she knows I'm not apart of any of this." I felt proud of myself for finally taking charge of my future.
"I'll go with you. Demon and her friends are notorious for jumping people," Donreneé commented, "Plus I'm non varsity captain. They wouldn't consider hurting me." An unsure look crossed her face. "Hopefully."
"Hopefully," Rhi echoed, sitting down as they looked at both me and Don standing. "Y'all be careful. Text me and Polly if any shit goes down. I can fight a little bit and I been watching a lot of action movies recently," they winked. "Exactly. We got y'all," Polly said, giving me a high five.
I took a shaky breath and walked past Demon and Dior arguing as Syn yelled into her phone. "Man, I just know they're gonna go hard on me and my team once we start practices again," Donreneé groaned.
"I'm sorry about all of this," I told my friend genuinely. "If you and the rest of the group want to stop hanging with me, that's understandable. I'm a chaos magnet." We walked through the cafeteria, people staring at us with mixed emotions as we left from outside. "I don't know about the others, but I'll stick by your side. All I can say now is that if you weren't popular before then now you are."
Period, period! We got Donreneé (5'7), who's the non varsity girl's basketball captain for the sophomores and freshmen. She's 15, an Aquarius, and straight as hell. She's a little tomboy at times and she's from New York. Her birthday is February 12, 2006 and she's the best loyal friend you can have. Her full name is Donreneé Tiffany Feur (I'm horrible at names guys, I know). Enjoy!
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𝑇𝐻𝑅𝐸𝐸 𝐷𝐸𝑀𝑂𝑁𝑆
RomanceSome sh*t is going down at Northwest High, centered around their girl's basketball team. Will Laura figure it out before she falls too deep into the hoop? With basketball, comes the players... (inspired by a book on my old account, found the picture...