"Another day another boring lesson," I sighed, slumping myself into my chair. I stared at the bored and read the notice:
'Basketball team tryouts after school today.'

I sighed. As much as I wanted to join the team, no girl had ever been able to get in for two reasons, none were as good as the boys and also the members of the team never accepted girls.

Mainly the second reason.

But I planned on changing that. I had been practicing my skills for years just to get the chance of being in a team. Now was my chance to finally break the no girl rule.

"Watch out boys, I'm coming for you!" I thought out loud. People started staring but I just shot them a deadly glare. As crazy as I looked now, soon everyone will see my amazing skill.

The school day seemed to go on forever, my punishment for anticipating the end of the day so bad. When the bell finally rang I picked up my stuff and dashed out the class not paying attention to the teacher giving advice on how to do the homework we'd been set.

I ran straight to the gym where tons of people (boys to be exact) were gathered. The smell of sweat mixed with deodorant made my stomach curdle and I started to feel sick.

"You better get used to this if you wanna be in the team" a voice teased. I turned to see my best friend, Marisa, was standing beside me, smiling.

She was as hyped as I was but wasn't trying to join the team. She helped me to become the 'perfect' player so she could get revenge on the boys for ever doubting a girl's strength. Now she wanted to see if her master plan would work.

The tryouts at our school had quite a few steps to it and I had a feeling id be in school a good few hours and I was more than grateful to Marisa for volunteering to stay with me the whole time.

The tryouts worked like this;
• First you would play one on one with a member of the former team. If you won or tied against him you'd progress to the second round. If no one could beat the player then they'd pick the most promising players out of the losers.
• Then the players who'd proceeded to the second round were split into teams. They would play against the actual team while being judged. They were judged on their ability to work well in a group of 'almost' strangers as well as their overall skill in a gameplay situation.
•The rest was then down to your marks you got on both round. The team was strict about who they'd let in to their group after all, our school was known for its 'perfect' basketball team.

I could feel the nerves getting to me and I started to sweat, waiting for my turn. Marisa comforted me saying how it would be fine and how she had full faith in me. In a way that sort of pressured me more but I didn't dare say in case I hurt her feelings.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. Eventually it was my turn. I walked proudly up to the court facing the member I'd be playing against. I immediately recognised him as the captain of the team. The first year prodigy, the star player, Nakamura Akito. He was a first year like me but was accepted into the team without having to tryout.

I hated him with all my guts. He came from a well off family and got everything he wanted. On top if that he was good looking and AMAZING at sports. Suddenly all my anxiety turned into energy as I got ready to hopefully pound my arch enemy.

"You're (l/n) (f/n) huh? The girl who thought she could actually get into the best basketball team in the world?" He laughed at his own words as I pulled a sarcastic smile.

"That's me. And I'm going to get into this team no matter what so watch out!" I declared and with that our short battle began. I hated to admit it but this guy was really good. He ran with the ball at perfect timing and stole the ball off of me with ease.

I got more and more annoyed by the second. I yelled to myself to up my game if I ever wanted to win. I started focusing immensely and got back into the flow of the game. I was redeeming myself as I swiftly stole the ball off of Akito and intercepted his shoots better than before. As the whistle blew signalling the end of the game, I turned to the score board,
36 - 31 to.....ME?!

I'd actually won! I shot my fist in the air in victory before going up to Akito to shake his hand. He refused to take my hand. "I believe I have underestimated your capabilities miss (l/n) I won't go so easy on you next time." He said darkly and ran off somewhere.

For some reason I couldn't help but smile. "Challenge Accepted!!" I shouted and went to Marisa who high-fived me and bought me a smoothie which i thankfully took.

'Round 1 done, round 2 still to come.' I told myself in an encouraging way. I'd gotten halfway to my dream and there was no one who could put out my fire!