Foul Shots: A Short Story

The score was 28-26 as one of Gaston’s best shooters approached the line, she was set to take two foul shots. She was a stoutly young girl, who had the slight resemblance of a boy. It was a wonder she was one of their best free-throw shooters when her shot form looked like a cross between a flying squirrel taking flight, and a swimmer swimming. The away team’s bench sounded off a mighty cheer for the girl, then the ref tossed her the ball and all fell silent, so silent that you could hear the girl’s nervous heartbeat flutter from the pressure as she began her shooting ritual. “toom toom toom” echoed the three dribbles prior to her shot, she lined up executed her radical shotform and “swshhhh” sounded the first shot as it sank into the net, suddenly the crowd erupted with cheers for the away team, amongst the chaos you could hear the few exasperated moans and sighs of the fans of the home team. As the girl lines up for her next shot like clockwork she begins her ritual again, then she releases however this time it hits the side of the rim and bounces once, twice, thrice, then swish sounding “BUUMM, BOOM, SWISH” and for the second time in minutes the fans of Gaston erupted into a joyous roar of approval, suddenly the girl's shoulders lifted and you could tell her stress eased, as the score turned 28-28. The ball then belonged to city as they were dribbling down coach Nichole was signaling for a timeout and her pleas were not heard, she began louder, louder, then she went onto the court and signaled in their face and signaled for a time. The ref immediately brought his hands up to the shape of a T simultaneously blowing his whistle, in the notion of