CHAPTER 1

Brittney woke up to the sound of her alarm at 5:30 am. She already regretted going to sleep so late last night. She knew that she had to be at her basketball practice at 6:00 am, so why can't she just go to sleep at a reasonable time. She had gone out to play bowling with her friends. It wasn't the most exciting thing for her to do but she ended up weirdly amazing at it and being the competitive person she is, she enjoyed winning a lot.

Now she had to be in the gym in 20 minutes. It was around 10 minutes walk since she lived on the campus. She got out of the bed and really didn't feel up for running this morning. So she did what always put her in a better mood. She turned on her Ipod and put it in the dock and turned it up. She went in the bathroom and started getting ready. By the time she was brushing her teeth, she already was bumping her head and trying to sing along while her mouth was full with children's toothbrush with ducks on it, no one needs to know. Getting out of the bathroom she was dancing along the music happily. Dancing always made things better. So she got dressed almost falling a couple of times, because it wasn't that easy to put your pants on while dancing, and packed her bag. She was on her way in few minutes.

Training wasn't too hard. For the most time after warming up they had been shooting, because their coach was not happy with their shooting in the last game which they lost. Coach said that their free-throws lost them the game. Brittany had made 7 of her 8 free throws which is alright. But Brittany was still upset about that, she hated loosing, it made her really sad. Anyways, after 2 hours she was out of the gym and was heading back to her room to get her books and notes to head to the classes.

Her day after the practice had not been very eventful. She had some lectures and got some more homework that she will have to find time for. School was really busy at that point. She had assignments in almost every subject this month and few smaller homework. Ugh, she hated writing. She wants to make movies and videos. That's cool and exciting. But writing essays was nowhere near her top favourite things to do. But she thought that she probably should start, if she wanted to get everything done in time. She knew how easy it was for her to get distracted. She was heading to the library in a bouncy step while rapping along music in a whispery voice, when she got jumped by few of her team mates.

"Hey, Britt! We're going out tonight!"

After getting her shit together from getting pretty scared she said "I'm actually on my way to the library, I have tons of work to do for next week. I really need to get started on couple of things"

"But it's Friday! We don't have a game tomorrow. Let's go out. You know you want to anyways, don't pretend you don't." they teased.

"I really shouldn't. If I go out, tomorrow will be ruined cause I never feel up to doing much after a night out and I won't get any work done again. I can't get in trouble with Professor Richard again!"

They wouldn't back down though "You'll get it done. You still have Sunday. A lot of us are going, it will be amazing, Britt!".

Her best friend from the team Charlie jumped in "Yeah, we're going for drinks and dancing, you love dancing! Just please, no more ridiculous dance-offs this time."

Hmm, dancing does sound fun. And what does she mean by 'ridiculous' dance-offs, her old school moves are amazing "Ugh, I'm so gonna regret it tomorrow guys.."

Charlie jumped in a hug and shrieked in her ear "WOOO! Yessss! Go get ready we're meeting at mine around 9 pm for a couple of drinks before we go. Bye, Brittany!"

You say goodbye to your friends and sight, I guess there won't be any work getting done tonight. Oh well, going clubbing will be loads of fun though. And since they don't have any games this weekend, it could be a great opportunity to have some fun. Homework can wait.

She was almost ready, just checking on her make up. She looked at herself in the mirror. She thought she looked pretty damn good. She was wearing a simple tight navy blue strapless dress that ended on her mid tights and simple black pumps, letting her long and a bit curled hair fall freely. She was ready to go.

She arrived at Charlie's and they started drinking and gossiping, and stuff. They started talking about relationships and one of her teammates asked "Hey, Britt, what happened to that girl that was all over you after that one game last month?"

"Oh, yeah, no.. Not much. I mean, we went out a couple of times, but that's about it. It didn't really work out or whatever, I guess I wasn't really feeling it. She was nice though." You answer honestly.

She hadn't been in a serious relationship since the start of the freshman year. She had been in her longest relationship since the senior year in high school when she and her girlfriend ended things when they were a couple of months in the college. It just wasn't working out. She was quite sad but since the summer before college they had started to grow apart and she saw the break up coming actually. And since then she had just done casual dating or sometimes just hook ups would do, but not too much though. Every girl she had tried dating ended up feeling kind of wrong. Maybe wrong is not the right work, but it just didn't feel the spark or whatnot. But she wasn't that worried. She did well. If she wanted she could pick up a girl every time she went out, it wasn't that hard for her. So she kind of had decided to keep going with those casual no strings attached relationships, they seemed to be working out quite well for her at this point of life.

After they were done chatting and drinking they headed out to the club. As soon as Brittany entered the club, she was dragging her friends to the dance floor. She was quite tipsy and wanted nothing more than go to the dance floor and feel the music. She started dancing and got lost in the dance in just few seconds. After dancing for few songs with her friends, they decided to head to the bar for a drink. When they reached the bar Brittany was waiting to be served. The bartender got her attention and she ordered Gin & Tonic. Then there was a shot glass in front of her and all of them were downing their drinks. Strong alcohol burned her throat. She didn't really like drinking strong drinks straight but before she said anything Charlie was shoving another shot in her hand and she downed that one. It burned even worse than the first one so she almost emptied her gin and tonic.

Oops, that might had not been the best idea as she was buzzing pretty badly already and just had two shots. All of them ordered another drink in few minutes, might as well, she was pretty drunk already. When she got her drink from the bartender she gave him a nice smile and looked to her left.

And that's when she saw her. She lost her balance for a bit and came near to falling off her stool but managed to hold on to the bar. She looked at the girl again. She was still there, Brittany was sure that she was looking at the most beautiful girl she had seen in her life. Then the girl looked away from a conversation that seemed to be boring her and locked eyes with Brittany. Brittany's breath caught. She didn't know if she suddenly sobered up or felt even more drunk. Before the other girl could lower her eyes, Brittany was being pulled away from the bar by her friends, someone yelling something about the bathroom.

All of them went to the bathroom. She actually had to go too, so after getting done with that and when girls were done with touching up their makeup they left the bathroom. Brittany who was pretty drunk by that point, lead her friends towards the bar in hopes she could see the girl again. She really wanted to see her again.

She was looking at me, wasn't she? Yeah, I'm pretty sure she was. I was staring though… Was that the reason she looked at me? Because there was that creepy wide eyed girl who was staring at her? I'm thinking too much about this, she just looked at me cause I was looking at her. That happens.. But sh-

"Britt? Brittany! What do you want to drink? You wanted to come to the bar, what are you getting?" Charlie said.

Brittany thought that maybe she shouldn't drink anymore tonight, she was pretty drunk already. And she really wanted to see the girl again. But she was nowhere to be seen so she ordered another Gin & Tonic. Of course after downing another shot that one of her friends had bought. This was not gonna end well.

And she was right. The next morning she woke up in Charlie's room on an air bed. Not a comfy one for that matter. The first thing she felt was her stomach turning and twisting in a very bad way. She thought she was gonna be sick so she ran to the bathroom. False alarm. She felt miserable though. Her stomach was feeling like she could throw up any second and her head was pounding. Today, going out did not seem as good idea as it seemed yesterday. She felt like crap and her body was aching from sleeping on the air bed. She just wanted to get to her own bed and sleep for ever. So she gathered her things, wrote a note to Charlie and left.

She got to her dorms, got in the shower quickly, put some clean clothes on and fell in her bed and passed out almost immediately.

When she woke up it was around 12 pm and she was still feeling like crap. She was not as sick as before, but her head was killing her on every movement she made. Then she remembered. The girl from last night. She's quite surprised that she remembered that, considering how drunk she had gotten. But she doubted that anyone could forget that face. She was sitting quite far, on the other side of the bar. But she remembered her mocha coloured skin, her perfectly falling black hair and her dark eyes that had locked with hers just for couple of seconds that felt like minutes. Who was she? Will she ever see her again? Does she go to this school? She really wanted to see her again.

The next week was there way too quickly. Brittany was falling back with her homework again and was barely passing one class. She had some problems with that one before, the professor just didn't like her. At least that's what Brittany thinks. So she really needed to finish everything on time for this class. It was early Tuesday's morning and she was writing the last paragraph for the essay that was due in today. She hated herself for going out on Friday. She had rushed her assignment in two days and still was writing last bits before the class. She was stressed and also was nervous about the next day's game. They were playing against Nebraska and last time they had lost by only 1 point. ONE. So school was stressing her out and basketball was not helping when she had a game next day. She was getting frustrated and pretty much just gave up on her essay. It's just gonna have to do.

After that class was over, she tried to squeeze in some homework between classes and then before practice. It wasn't good or anything but she just didn't care at that point. The only thing she had in her mind was tomorrow's game. She was the starting five shooting guard. A lot depended on her as she was one of the lead scorers in the team and she could not mess anything up. She needed to be at her best. She had to be. She stayed for another hour after the practice to do some more shooting and tried to calm herself. The team was great, everyone was in good shape, coach had been pushing them really hard. So it should be fine. It's gonna be fine. She just needs to get her shit together.

It was game day. She woke up after having a good night's sleep cause she had worn herself out last night after the practice. She still had most of the day to spend so she decided to get some breakfast and do some school work as she had been struggling. She did something she enjoys in school, she had finished editing a video for one of her classes and actually felt good about it. She loved making short movies and videos.

The game time was getting closer so Brittany ate some food and started getting ready. She picked her favourite lucky socks, so what that it seems silly? Athletes do a lot of weird stuff. When she had everything she needed, she headed out to the gym. She was one of the first ones from the team to arrive and was happy about that. She changed and started shooting around. Other teammates arrived not that long after and the other team was here also. They had been warming up for a bit when people started filling the bleachers. She was still a bit nervous but the team looked good and coach had a confident expression on her face, so it calmed Brittany's nerves a bit.

Just when the game was about to start in few minutes, she noticed someone walking in the door. It was her. The incredibly beautiful girl from the bar. Here. Now. When Brittany was about to play. Why… The nerves started going crazy again. She didn't need this now. It was great to see her again and realize that she most likely goes to this university too, but now Brittany felt under even bigger pressure.

Snap out of this! Brittany thought. You need to focus on the game. That's what is important right now. You don't even know her. Your team is depending on you. You need to be at your best right now. You need to get yourself together!

The game ended and Brittany's team won by 6 points. She was very happy with the team and pretty happy with herself. There might have been few mistakes she could have avoided, but she scored a lot of points and did really good on defense. She had scored 4 three point shots and some jump shots, it was a good day, her shooting was on her best. While the team was getting ready to leave the court and the crowd was emptying the bleachers, she searched for those dark eyes. And she found them. Looking right at her. The other girl kept her eyes locked on Brittany's and Brittany kept looking right in hers. She thought that even if she wanted, she probably couldn't look away anyways. After few seconds that seemed like eternity, someone who was with the other girl got her attention and she looked away, walking out of the gym. Brittany stood there for some time, taken aback a little. She needed to know her. She must know her. So she run out of the gym and searched for her. She was nowhere to be seen. Brittany slumped her shoulders and walked back in to get changed.