Survival Of The Fittest

((Sam continued from I Think I Know You))

Sam straightened up from a set on the chest press and grimaced, gingerly lifting her foot off the ground to straighten out her knee. The joint protested immediately, and she hissed out a curse between her teeth. A few days after the incident and there was little more than an ugly mass of bruises clustered around her kneecap, any kind of motion causing surges of pain through the swollen flesh. She could get around okay, but it hurt like fuck and she sure as hell wasn't going to be taking to the court again for a couple weeks. Honestly, she was supposed to be avoiding physical activity altogether but she got bored easy and she'd go nuts if she couldn't let off at least a little steam. 'Sides, she was only working upper body, that was fine.

The pants-wettingly scary doctor's visit had gone down okay in the end. The news was much more positive than Sam had dreaded. Nothing was busted, just bruised and a little tweaked. Nothing that was gonna do any permanent damage or derail big plans for ball. Maybe she'd be slow starting training for the summer league stuff, but she'd been keeping her hand in since before the injury. Nothing severe like what happened with Aleks and the car accident, which was still kind of fucking Sam up that her girl was in hospital because of some shitty driver

What was a wash was the D.C. trip. Seven hours on a bus was hell-to-the-no when she was taking like ten minutes to get up the stairs at home. And y'know, what was waiting in D.C.? A shitload of walking around, most likely! So nah, she wasn't going and that sucked ass.

Especially when, well, here was the deal. As much as Sam was still steamed with Quinn for her bullshit, she hadn't stopped thinking about what had been her mind up to that point. This could be, probably was the last chance she'd ever get to hang out with some of these guys, for sure as an actual group. The folks she'd spent high school with, was friends or friendly with, was teammates with others. That was a scary thought, and scarier still for what now felt like a missed opportunity. Like, fucking shit, how many times had the team ever got together outside of games? She'd already played with them for the last time ever, and while that'd been on her mind at the time it'd also come with the massive high of going out with another championship. Now, they were never all going to be together at the same time ever again.

But hell, maybe she needed that reality check, a reminder to freaking try. Yeah maybe they wouldn't all congregate together again but she could make an effort, she could stay in touch. Was just about tweaking how you approached things. She'd see if it stuck. Sam hoped it would stick. She'd have to ask Ms. Bautista about applying some of her methods to how she thought so it didn't just become another 'I should' that never happened.

She was starting small today with 'Zona. 'Zona was easy to hang out with and easy to lure to workouts. They were still going different places after this, even if it was side-by-side it wasn't the exact same path.

Sam eased her knee out again, glanced over to Arizona.

"Yeah, think I'm done here. Don't wanna push it. I can hang 'round though."

((Arizona continued from D⃣ D⃣ F⃣ H⃣))

And here they were. Killing time. Arizona had one earbud in because she was an antisocial extrovert. They were, for all intents and purposes done. Basketball season was over. They'd won their final championship together because obviously. Sam got MVP because of course she did and it had stung because it always stung. But soon they'd be spreading out across the country. Once the summer was over that would be it. They'd scatter to the wind and see each other when they played. Arizona didn't hold out hope they'd keep in touch. It was hard to do and people forgot. If you were away for long enough you'd drift apart. The memories would fade and become dreams. Hazy and untrue. Moments warped based on how they wanted them to be rather than the reality.

"You better." She said with a grin.

Sam was hurt. Quinn was the culprit. The story had made the rounds but the real details hadn't. It was like how people knew something had happened with her and Luca. No one knew quite what though. Arizona nodded as Sam got up. As she settled into place she ran a finger across her phone and selected Decapitataz before popping her other earbud in.

She smashed the first set out easily enough and switched the song to Nuka Cola. She upped the weight from what Sam had it set to. She'd been hitting the gym hard since the season ended. The results were starting to show and she was proud of it.

The second set went as easily as the first until the final two which actually required some effort.

The weight went up a third time and she forced another set out.

When she finished one earbud came out and she took a quick drink.

"You know if it was me girl could've got dropped."

Arizona gave her a grin and kept right on going. Hey, Sam could respect that, and being honest it hadn't been much of a workout at the point Sam was stopping. Maybe could call it a light workout, if you were being generous. Very generous.

Anyway, her teammate—dammit, she basically couldn't say that anymore, could she?—her friend sat herself down and got right to nailing the routine hard, on a mission. Dayumn. Sam admired the commitment, and well sure, a little of Arizona, too; sweat trickling down smooth, toned muscles. Looking wasn't a crime, and it wasn't as if anything was ever gonna happen there.

The slightly dirty thoughts gave way to more subdued ones shortly after as Sam's previous train routed its way back onto the rails. In a couple months, they'd be four, five states apart and fully diving into the college life. Would they see each other after that? There was always next summer and spring break and whatever, but going from seeing someone every day and then again outside of school, multiple days a week, to not seeing them for maybe a whole year? Hell, plans could come up, there could be commitments keeping either or both of them from coming back to Chattanooga. Like, fuck, if even the gen-u-ine dynamic duo of the Owls drifted apart, then what hope did other friendships have?

'Zona spoke up again, taking Sam off guard. She'd basically forgotten she'd had Quinn on her mind, took a redivert to catch herself back up.

She shrugged. "She got heated. You right though, she's a dumbass."

Sam glanced away, knuckling her forehead. She was annoyed and all, but she had bigger fish to fry. She just—shit, man, how did you bring up something like this without sounding corny?

Arizona nodded as she spun her phone around in her hand. She hadn’t been joking. There was also more she could have said. But knew she wasn’t an angel when it came to keeping her cool. Luckily, Sam wasn’t hurt bad. If she had been then there would have been a talk with Quinn.

In the meantime Arizona upped the weight and attempted another set. It was slow, painful work. She didn’t make it to the final count at first. Another attempt followed and she got the last two out with a grunt.

“Fuck yeah.” She breathed as she stood up.

As she had been preparing she couldn’t help noticing Sam. Her friend seemed elsewhere. It was more in her body language. They had spent too long around each other. Plus, Sam wasn’t the best at hiding her emotions anyway. There were only a few things it could have been. The season was over and school would soon follow. It didn’t take a social genius to figure it out.

After a quick sip of water Arizona asked the question. She had a good idea what the response would be.

“What’s up?”

Caught up in her own head was a place Sam was used to being. Her brain was like a hamster wheel, something she could run on for hours and hours. A hamster wheel on she didn't know, a trampoline or something—something which could send it bouncing wildly all over the place as she scampered around from idea to idea, the flow changing with distraction or inspiration. Usually that didn't matter in social situations, just meant she circled back around to previous topics quite often or made great leaps from one subject to another. Sometimes, though, it did mean that another person might need to summon her out of that space, and that was Arizona here again, ironically getting distracted from the person she was already actively thinking about. Thanks, brain. Like, she'd just given a thumbs up and a whistle a couple ago to show the appreciation for her going hard for a fourth set, literally right then, and here she was with glazed eyes looking off into space.

And she still wasn't ready to answer this question directly. Time to be a teen soap opera.

"Just thinking 'bout college and finishing up with, y'know—" Sam gestured around her with both hands. "Everything. Probably seen some folks the last time we ever gonna see them. Been thinking about keeping up with folks I care—I'm tight with. Don't wanna only see y'all when it's game time, or make it all about ball in the first place. Feel me?"

"Yeah, I get you," Arizona said, and she did get Sam. She'd been considering it herself. But it wasn't as big a burden to her as it appeared to be her friend. That was the irony of the situation really. Sam was all about basketball. More than Arizona was, but Sam was the one scared of falling out of touch with everyone on the team. Then again, Arizona supposed the team was Sam's main form of social interaction within the school. She wasn't aware of her doing all that much else around the place. Arizona hadn't been aware of Jonah's cancer though. It wasn't out of the question that she just didn't know.

She got up and moved to the pec deck.

It was always going to happen. Some of the team were going to move away from 'ball while others stuck with it. She and Sam were the two locks for sticking with it. The scouting reports they'd seen even out of high school made it obvious people wanted them. Arizona wondered if she saw it differently because of her family situation. Her parents had moved from the Cook Islands to America before she had been born. As a result, she only saw her extended family whenever they went home. That was once or twice a year at most. That was family though and family worked off different rules to friends.

"We have the holidays and stuff. Could always organize a spring break get together." Arizona said as she put her towel and water down. "Although not actually at spring break, for Aleks' sake."

There was another pause as she completed a set.

"Indiana's always said that if people really want to stay in touch they'll find a way."

"Yeah, yeah, for sure. Sounds good. Just a meanwhile kind of thing, you know? Like shit, if we can't make time while we're busy at college then--" Sam trailed off, sighed, shook her head. "Yeah, guess Indy's right."

She didn't think she sounded convincing to herself or to anyone else. This was harder than it should be. Like damn, pick up the phone. Couldn't be that hard, right?

Right.