Ali isn't here yet. She hasn't reached yet and that's causing the entire team to panic.

"Listen up," I start, demanding everyone's attention, "What if the tradition doesn't happen today. That doesn't change shit. We'll still play our best and we'll still win. To hell with tradition," I step into my captain shoes to lift the spirit of the remaining team.

"Hell yeah!" Eli cheers. The team follows, joining in on cheering with their Center player and our most enthusiastic team member.

"To hell with tradition!" everyone calls out, running out of the room towards the field. I take one final look at my phone which is lying in my locker. 

"Maybe she's late," Eli says, walking beside me, "Maybe you should try calling her."

"Maybe," I reply, trying to keep my head in the game. The thought of Aliana ditching hurts, but I'm going to let it change the outcome of the game. I quickly remove my phone, dial her number and wait for her to pick up the call.

She picks up on the 5th ring.

"Hi," she replies, sounding breathless.

"Hey. Where are you? Are you almost here?" I ask, a little unsure of what she's going to say.

"Uhm.." she starts, trailing off.

"You're not coming, are you?"

"Listen, I really gotta go. I'm busy. I'll talk to you later," she says, hanging up.

It feels as if someone has punched me in the gut. Shaking my head off of all ridiculous feelings, I push all thoughts out of my head as I concentrate on the game ahead of me.

To hell with tradition.

Running out, the cheers which had almost died down after the entire team had run out pick up the volume again, the whole crowd joining in to cheer for me. Cheerleaders are already doing their routine to cheer on us. I catch Amanda's eyes as she's doing the routine. She winks at me and continues. I cut eye contact with her and look around the crowd, my eyes still searching for one particular person even if my brain is saying no. After a whole sweep, I give up my hopes. I'm about to get in position when suddenly, my eyes catch sight of someone running into the bleachers, frantically looking around. I fix my gaze on her. She looks at the players before her eyes finally set on me.

She's here.

I wave, letting her know that I've seen her, immediately feeling a lot better. She then does something which completely catches me off guard.

She puts her fingers to her lips and blows me a kiss. 

Aliana completes the tradition.

Almost instantly, a full-blown grin takes over my features, causing me to chuckle. I perform the action of catching the kiss mid-air and holding it to my heart. She laughs and looks over at Mia, who is watching us with amusement dancing over her face and shakes her head.

Immediately, I look over at Eli, who probably was also watching us. When he notices me looking and the smile on my face, he laughs and announces to the entire team.

"The tradition is complete, boys!"

A cheer breaks out from the team, and I look back and wink at Ali.

It's going to be a good game.

⋈ ⋈ ⋈

It was a good game, indeed. In fact, it was one of our bests and deep down, I want to believe it was because of a certain brunette whose gesture has made my day.

"Boys, everyone played well today. Keep up the hard work and don't party too hard tonight," our coach Mr Patel says. He's a softie underneath his hard exterior and all of us respect him immensely. We nod our heads and he nods back and leaves.

After taking a shower, Eli and I walk out of the locker room and see Aliana and Mia waiting by their car. Mia is talking animatedly about something, and Ali is listening to her with a smile on her face. I walk towards them, causing Ali to look at me and smile even wider. She says something to Mia which makes the little devil turn around and smirk at me. Aliana starts walking towards me. I turn to tell Eli to wait, I see him walking towards his car backwards and mouth, "I know."

"Grasshopper, you certainly showed up early today," I smirk at her, without any actual accusation in my voice.

Her expression immediately turns guilty and says, "I'm so sorry. Mrs Warren wasn't letting me go and as I can't say no to her I had to wait back to complete my shift. I rushed here as soon as I could."

"Don't worry about it. I got my kiss, although it wasn't the one I was expecting."Surprisingly, a pink blush takes over her cheeks and she looks at the ground. I hadn't seen Ali blush this much. It's honestly the cutest thing I have ever seen. She quickly regains her composure and replies, "What's the rush, Wright?" using my last name as a pun.

"Oh, there's rush, Palmer. There's rush."

She rolls her eyes at me. She looks utterly beautiful. I clear my throat and decide to speak up. "You should come to the party with us. I'm pretty sure the team wants to meet the girl whose kiss saved the game."

She looks uncertain for a second before nodding and smiling at me." I'm bringing Mia," she decides.

"I would invite Mia myself, but I guess she has already gotten an invitation," I say while pointing behind her, where Eli and Mia looked like they were having a jolly little time. Eli more than Mia.

On second thought, Mia doesn't look jolly at all.

Both of them notice us staring at them and Mia calls out, "Are we going to the party or not?" Aliana laughs and replies back, "We are."

I've found my new favourite sound in her laugh.

⋈ ⋈ ⋈

The gif was me when I thought of Ali and Nay's cutest non-kiss kiss. I fangirl over my own characters AHHHH. Love that movie btw.

 I know, I know I had said I would update within an hour or the next day but stuff came up ahaha. Sorry, my bad. It's also a small chapter but I couldn't merge it in the earlier chapter. It was getting too long. BUT HERE IS 12.2!!! And I had lied lolll, there's a 12.3 to this!!!! I hadn't meant to make it as 12.3, I was just gonna go with 13, but it's a continuation of this chapter and this whole thing so I said, why not? That'll come normally on Saturday. Anyway, it's Monday here, I'm in the middle of an online lecture as I'm writing this.

So, Question of the week!

Q. Best drinking experience of your life? (If you don't drink, just tell me about the best day/night of your life)

Okay gonna go now! Ciao! Talk to you later!

Love,

Anushka <3