Anger (noun) A strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility Left crossover then through the legs.

Sweat dripped from the tips of my fingers and onto the hard wooden floor. The sound of shoes squeaking against the floor echoed through the hall but my focus was solely on the sound of the bouncing ball. Each bounce directed the movement of my feet; the rhythm of the ball determined the tempo of my speed.

Turn left, fake pass then JUMP.

A blur of red and black whizzed past me, the ball leaves my hands before she even gets a chance to jump. It sails through the air and I know it'll go in before it does. It spins on a prefect angle and it goes straight through the hoop. My feet reached the ground again and I hear the crowd go wild. The buzzer sounds and I feel Atsuki jump on my back, yelling in my ear.

"WE WON! I DON'T HAVE TO GO INTO PROSTITUTION!" I haven't the slightest idea what she's going on about but if she doesn't get off of me I will flip her over my shoulder.

"I'm going to give you three seconds to get off me" "Here I was thinking I was going to have to jump someone -" "3" "The only person I'd consider jumping is that piece of ass from -" "2" "Seirin High. I'd jump that guy faster than you could say -" "1"

"Basketball – he is one nice looking ARRRGHH" I grabbed her by the hair and flipped her over my shoulder, making sure she landed hard on her back. She groaned for a second then looked up at me and started laughing hysterically.

"You're crazy" I muttered before brushing past our captain and walking off towards the locker room.

"Hey! Number 8!" I turned around at the sound of my jersey number being called to see a short brown eyed brunette running at me with a grin on her face.

"What do you want? And my name's not 'number 8', it's Asami" I stared at her coldly waiting for her to scoff and walk off in a huff like people usually do when I'm like that but instead she just completely disregarded my cold attitude and laughed."My apologies Asami, I just wanted to say how well you and your friend" She jerked her head towards Atsuki who was still laughing on the floor "played today".

"Is that all?" I looked at her, bored with the conversation already. I really wonder why people bother telling another person how well they played, its like 'yes I was there'.

"My name's Riko Aida" She smiled, placing her hand out. I stared at for a second before turning around and continued on my way back to the locker room. She's uninteresting.

"Asami, Wait! Why don't you play for a high school team instead of this... no offence but crappy team?" I admit, the only reason my team made it this far was because Atsuki and I. I turned around to back to her and cocked my head to the right.

"Do you play for a team?" I asked: she looked taken aback before quickly stuttering out an answer. "Well, I uh, I coach a high school -" She scratched the back of her head, blushing slightly. "I asked if you played not coached" "Well, no but -"

"Why don't you play?" "Well, I'm not really interested in playing but you could play for a much better team than this -"

"No one bothers to let someone who barely reaches 5'8 – let alone a girl play for their team" I watched her look at me in surprise.

"But the rules say that they need a solid reason not to let someone on their team, they -"

"They know that but when I did try out, I didn't get the ball once, they refused to pass the ball to me"

"That's not fair -" "That's a nice story" "Come to one of my training sessions" Is she serious? As if.

"You're annoying and I wouldn't come to one of your training sessions even if my life depended on it" With that I turned around, ignoring her protests and walked back to the locker room. Now don't get me wrong, I'd like to say that usually I'm not so mean but there is nothing worse than someone trying to teach you how to a play a game that I was born to play. Literally, my father was a legendary player and wanted his son to be one too, unfortunately for him he got stuck with me, a daughter. I'm ever the disappointment. Ever since I was eight I vowed that I'd be better than a son could ever be.

I entered the room expecting it to be full of rowdy girls who only play basketball to see hot guys but came to an empty room. Everyone must have cleared out, that girl wasted a lot of my time, how annoying. Like I don't know that I should be playing for a better team but no one even gives me a second glance, when I went to the try outs for my high school the coach looked at me and get this, told me the cheerleading tryouts weren't till the next day and then directed me to the sewing club. I

shit you not, he said to me 'Cheerleading tryouts are tomorrow' and proceeded to direct me to the room in which the sewing club took place and not only that but he almost molested me. I shit you not.

*Flashback* Three rules to remember before I do this Rule 1: Do not insult anyone Rule 2: No swearing at anyone Rule 3: I am not to hurt anyone physically I can do this.

I walked into the hall and saw boys running up and down the court performing suicides. I observed for a while, seeing that most of the team was pretty talented, there were a couple of guys whose skills were almost on par with mine. I surveyed the room looking for Sensei Kazami, the basketball coach, I saw him sitting at the benches behind the basketball shelves writing notes on each person so I slowly made my way over to him. Now before I had entered the hall, Atsuki had warned me that Kazami was known for being a bit of a pervert and used to be the coach of the girls' volleyball team till there were 'certain' complaints made to the principal so now he's stuck with the basketball team.

I stood directly in front of him and waited patiently for him to finish off his notes. He looked up at me and suddenly smiled brightly, showing slightly brownish teeth that looked like they hadn't been washed since the age of the dinosaurs. I flinched slightly at his face, he looks like a rapist on drugs, it also doesn't help that he has the shiftiest moustache I've ever laid eyes on. He placed his clipboard beside him and stood up abruptly; surprised I took a step back so that there would be a gap between us but he stepped forward and closed the gap. Shit. This is it I'm going to get raped, say goodbye to my virginity. Remember; go for the lower region if he tries anything.

"And who might this lovely lady be?" He grinned at me in that ' I will rape you ' sort of way

"It's Asami Uzuki" He smiled again and blew the whistle that was hanging from his neck, indicating for the team to get a drink.

"Well Asami, I'm terribly sorry to inform you this but the cheerleading tryouts are being held tomorrow" Is this his idea of a joke? Does he honestly think I'm trying out for the cheerleading squad? Deep breaths Asami.

"But the sewing club starts in about three minutes or so, so you better hurry up" he continued "It's down the corridor and turn right"

He smiled and put a hand on my shoulder.

Why is he touching me? Why is his hand moving slowly down my arm and onto my elbow? Is this even legal? I smiled uncomfortably and brushed his hand off my arm.

"I'm actually here to try out for the basketball team" The last high school I had attended allowed me to play but refused to let me have the ball and I was later reduced to water girl. Happy times. That was sarcasm for those of you who have trouble detecting it.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" I don't see what's so funny. He dropped to the floor, still wheezing and coughing, laughing hysterically I think I mean it sounds like he's impersonating Atsuki when she's singing but I can't be too sure. At this, a second year, Hetsuya (I think his name is) came towards us and helped Kazami up while asking him what was wrong. This has to be the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Someone please just shoot me. After Kazami regained his breath he looked at me again and took a deep breath.

"That was the best laugh I've had in a while" He wiped the sweat from his brow "but there's no way I'm letting a girl play for this team, that'd be ridiculous"

"I don't see what's so ridiculous about letting me play" I said through gritted teeth. He hasn't even seen me play before and he thinks I'm not worthy of playing for his team.

"I don't even think there are any players – male or female – that are your height" He jeered "There's also the fact that you're well... a girl and the fact that you don't stand the slightest chance against the Generation of Miracles, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard and trust me I know these things, I hold the record for being the best coach"

Screw trying to be polite, I did not come here to be rejected by some sexist, Hagrid-beard wearing, child molester before I even get the chance to play. He even wants to bring some random shit about 'Generation of Miracles'. Fuck this.

"The only thing you have the record for is having the smallest prick between those skinny legs of yours, you perverted peasant." Yes, I called him a peasant. Eugh, that counts as an insult. Damn

There goes Rule 1

"How dare you insult me, I am the -" he spluttered, now completely red in the face.

"No, shut the fuck up" Rule two, gone.

"You shouldn't speak to the coach like that" I turned around to face Hetsuya looking down at me in distaste. Where the fuck did this motherfucker come from?

"Excuse me? If you could be so kind to piss off, that'd be great thanks, you overgrown troll" I turned back around to the coach who had his mouth wide open and was looking at me like I had just told him I was pregnant with his child which would be disgusting. No idea why I thought of that.

"You shouldn't talk to the coach like that" Hetsuya repeated from behind me "Or to me in that case, you're a girl, your place is below us. You tramp"

With that I turned around and pimp slapped him straight across the face. Well, there goes Rule 3 *End of Flashback*

Needless to say, I was banned from the hall and now have to attend detention instead of social clubs. It's not like it was the first time that ever happened, why should anyone give me the chance? I shouldn't think about that, it'll just piss me off. I pulled on my shirt and packed up my clothes. I heard the door slam behind me and loud singing coming from the doorway must be Atsuki. How I even became friends, no - actually best friends with her is beyond me. She doesn't even like playing basketball that much, she only plays because she's a gambler.

She bets on everything, that's probably why she was ecstatic when we won the game and claimed that 'she didn't have to go into prostitution', knowing her she probably did something stupid like bet her body or some shit that we'd win. She started playing in middle school after our shooting guard sprained her ankle and Atsuki had bet twenty packets of jellybeans that'd we win. We were going to have to forfeit since there were no reserves – not many girls enjoyed playing basketball, Atsuki loves jellybeans (she loves anything with copious amounts of sugar in it) and so she played and turned out to be really good. Eventually, after getting used to her annoying habits (like eating your food, singing obnoxiously and loudly everywhere she goes and randomly falling asleep midway through a conversation) I started hanging out with her and now we're pretty much best friends.

Most people think she's a weirdo – she is but she's probably one of the only people I can tolerate for longer than a couple of minutes. She's really cool.

"Hey Asa-chan" I turned to face Atsuki at the call of my (stupid) nickname. Why is she looking at me like that?

"What?"

"So, I may or may not have betted that'd we'd win by twenty points at least" She twirled her honey coloured hair as she looked at me nervously.

"But... we won by fifteen" I looked at her, deadpanned.

"I know, which is why I lost the bet" At this she started slowly stepping backwards towards the exit. I don't understand where this conversation is going.

"How much did you bet?" I sighed reaching over to my bag, she's probably just asking for money. Does she think I shit out money or something?

"Well, cute story, you see... I bet this girl that if I won she'd give me that guys number – the one from Seirin – and that if she won, you and I would go to her some of her training sessions"

"Why would you do that?"

"Well she coaches the Seirin team sometimes so either way, I'd get to see that hottie" She smiled and looked up at me. Usually I'd be angry at this but I'll let it slide since we just won.

"Fine, who did you bet?" "Riko Aida" Forget all those nice things I said about Atsuki.

"You have five seconds to run before I Spirit Bomb your face" Anger is the word that is most fitting, I'd say.