“I hate this job!” Anna screamed internally, mentally she was pulling at her hair and yelling but in reality, she maintained her composure and kept her calm, smiling and waving at those that greeted her, the smile didn’t reach her eyes but it wasn’t fake either.
She was just stressed about working as a personal assistant and still on probation.
Could her life get any worse than this?
This wasn’t what Anna pictured for herself, this was not how she had envisioned her life, for someone was so engrossed with sports and immersed with her crafts.
Until that day, that dreadful and miserable day she had that accident and her legs were broken and everyone especially her sponsors gave up on her that she would never walk again.
Since the accident, even after she started walking again, she couldn’t find sponsor and it was a hard thing because they all kept looking at her like she was a work in progress.
And no one was ready to risk it that they should build her up and have faith in her.
They saw her like she was failure.
Anna finally gave up finding sponsors or expecting a miracle to happen with her sport career, she kept telling herself that she had moved on but it was obvious she was berated over the misfortune that befell her.
Her only hope was working for MacArthurs company and being his personal assistant would earn her much money.
She would save most of it all up and throw in the face of those of who had looked down on her and said and she couldn’t do sport anymore.
Anna ached and longed to be a basketball player again, the only one thing that gave her joy.
She imagined herself to be on the court, wearing her favorite black sneakers and pairs of ankle black socks, her jersey bouncing up and down her body as she runs around on the court, dribbling and passing balls and even scoring a few points for her team.
The scene she imagined brought tears to her eyes as she was a good player, a good one, she believed so, her performance before everything went downhill was so great and has earned a lot in the basketball world.
If only she wasn’t to overexcited, but then being to overexcited doesn’t hurt or kill, but it almost killed her, cost her her life but she paid with her legs and basketball career instead.
It was a good game that day, as Anna and her teammates had been looking forward to this particular game considering how their rivals had boasted about how they’d beat them and take the cup home.
Her teammates including her had practiced hard for this one, cause playing against a team that has never lose would be a tough one but they were ready to give it all it takes, to show the world that you can’t keep winning forever, there will alway be a loss.
For a rival team that was so full of themselves and prideful.
Anna and her friends had watched a few matches of their rival, they wanted to know their tactics, level of play and how tough they could be on the court.
She had told her teammates during a Saturday practice that they didn’t come this far to lose, that they didn’t reach the finals to lose to some braggadocios.
Two days left before the Game day, Anna was anxious, she was in the female locker room sitting on one of the bench after stretching her back, legs and hands, she didn’t hear anything, anything like someone’s footsteps creeping up on her until the person spoke.
Anna was startled and almost jumped out of the bench, she quickly regained composure, frowning her face, she hissed, it was one of the rival they were playing against next tomorrow.
“Chicken!” The Female player snickered, Anna didn’t bother looking up at the ginger haired lady, huge, one would mistake her for a man if she didn’t keep long hairs.
It’s another thing to be fit and still look feminine but not masculine.
Maybe she’s a stud. Anna thought.
“How are you preparing for your loss my dear?” An evidence of pride laced in her voice.
“The same way you’re preparing for your loss.” Anna said not bothering to look at her.
The player chuckled and Anna rolled her eyes.
“I see….”
Anna cuts in, “I see you have no sense of privacy.”
“Oh!” The ginger haired player exclaimed, “The word privacy doesn’t exist in my world.”
“But it does in mine.!” Anna retorts, this time, she was looking at her eyeballs to eyeballs.
The ginger haired simpered, “white girls and being fierce. I like the attitude. I hope you use it on the court.” She pretended to bite her face but Anna caught her face and use her hand to slap her lightly, the other lady laughed, spat out the gum she was chewing and left.
Anna stood on edge, her fist curled up and ready to throw a punch, she waited to breathe until she could no longer hear her footsteps. “Fucking bitch!”
Finally the day of the game arrived, everyone in Anna’s team was anxious but masked it up and pretended to be excited.
First half into the game, the rival team were wining, and Anna’s team was behind with three marks.
By the end of first and second quarter, her team were behind with four marks.
Their hearts was racing but they had hope, there was a glimmer of hope that they could beat the other by second half.
The third period soon began, this time it was tough, the watcher could feel the energy and power that oozed out of all the players, there were counter attacks from the rival side but the other team was driven, they were determined.
Ten minutes into game, the scores on the board was draw, nine points on both sides.
It was during the fourth period, Anna team had won, beating their opponents by fifteen points.
The game was a victorious one.
The game that left her over excited, after the celebration, Anna hadn’t been drinking, she had entered her car, put her favorite cassette on, sang along while driving happily, if only she had concentrated maybe she would have seen the car and changed lane to save all of their lives.
Teenagers can be stupid and wild, doing this thing they usually do, getting high and driving on speed and not caring about their mattered lives.
She could have avoided them in that minute she closed her eyes and sang on top of her voice.
The teenage driver, whom she later found out was a boy had bent down to grab the bottle of whiskey and none of his friends eyes was watching the road.
The collision had thrown them all into confusion and the rest was history.
It was when she woke up four days after, she heard the explanation. That the teenagers were fresher in college who were coming back from a party.
Only one out of them had died, the one driving the car, he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and at the time of collision, he was smashed out of his car windshield and through her car windshield and ended up at her backseat.
The rest had suffered injuries just like her but they would heal and serve a few months or a year in jail for drunk driving.
Anna was lucky, she didn’t have to go to jail, there was no blame from her end but in her heart, she blamed herself, if only.
She closed that chapter and focused her mind on her new found job, Allen McArthur has been nothing but nice to her even though he put her on probation, she hoped that she passed so she could start earning better.
Thank you for reading.