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"Welcome to Psych 101, I'm Professor Price," her female professor spoke. She was happy, most of her professors were women. Of course it was only her first day of classes, but the three classes she did have were all taught by not only women, but black women.

"I'm not gonna make y'all do some corny ass icebreaker, because that takes too long, and social anxiety is a thing," she spoke, relieving Nayeli. She'd done enough ice breakers for the rest of her entire life. "We're just gonna go over the syllabus today, and I'll assign you a reading, we'll start instruction next class," she continued. Nayeli could tell she'd love this class already.

Once the reading was assigned, she gathered her things, and got ready to go when she felt a tap on her shoulder, shocking her. Her heart rate started to speed up a bit but she took a deep breath, trying to relax a bit before turning around to see a pretty light skinned girl with a baby face smiling back at her.

"Hi! You were at cheer tryouts right?" she spoke melodically, voice matching her face perfectly.

"Um, yeah," she nodded, fidgeting with her fingers.

"I knew it was you! You were so good! You been cheering long?" she grinned. She had a very comforting smile, it reminded Nayeli of her Mimi.

"Thank you," she smiled, "But, uh, kinda? I'm a ballet dancer, but I cheered in high school, and I did a few competitions with my team," she nodded.

During time off, or between ballet shows, she often found herself very bored. She didn't like working out with her cousins or her father because she felt like she was in basketball and football bootcamp, so she told her parents she'd try for cheer.

At first, they were confused. She was so stellar in ballet, and cheer was the polar opposite of that, so they didn't understand why she'd want to cheer. But they encouraged her to do anything she was interested in, and when they saw her at a game for the first time, they were astonished at not only how good she was but how happy she looked. For Nayeli, cheer and ballet gave her the same feeling of release and freedom, but in different ways. Flying through the air in cheer and performing a perfect pirouette at a show brought her the exact same feeling of joy, and she wouldn't trade either for anything.

Cheer also gave her a new way to work through her anxiety. Ballet was more of a solo thing, you only had to worry about the way you moved in the routine and make sure you weren't making the troupe look crazy. But with cheer there was an immense amount of teamwork and shared responsibility, and with that came friendship, and bonds she wouldn't have had if she let her anxiety keep her from tryouts that day.

"Well, I hope we both make it. What's your name?" the girl asked, pushing her curly hair from her face.

"Me too, good luck," Nai spoke genuinely. "I'm Nayeli, what's yours?" she asked as they walked toward the door together.

"Oh, I'm Aubrielle, you can call me Bri Bri, or Bri. Or Aub, even though my boyfriend only calls me Aub, but that's fine," she rambled, walking out behind Nai. "Speaking of his big headed ass," she mumbled with a smile as a darker skinned boy approached them and immediately kissed Aubrielle on the lips.

"Hey baby," she smiled at him. "This is my new friend, Nayeli. Nayeli, this is my boyfriend, Caleb," she introduced them.

This was a lot of new people to meet at once, for her.

"Hey," she waved, and he said hello back. "Um, nice to meet you, Bri, but I gotta meet my roommate for lunch. See you at practice, hopefully," she smiled sending another wave her way.

"Okay girl! You be safe out there!" she called.

"Y'all too," she kept the same sweet smile and made her way to the car, to meet Lea at her family owned restaurant in town.

On her way there, her phone rang, and she smiled, seeing her big cousin calling. Luckily she had her apple watch on, so the gps wouldn't get interrupted.

"Hi Dally!" she squealed, making him roll his eyes. He hated that nickname but his sister and cousins wouldn't stop using it.

"Nayeli, I'll hang up on you right now," his deep voice rang through the speakers in her car. At 22, he was a senior in college, graduating next fall with a degree in cyber security.

"Okay okay! Sorry, hi Dallas Rashad Cartier," she snickered.

"Aight, bye bruh," he sucked his teeth.

"I'm sorry! Hi Dallas," she laughed, making a turn.

"Wassup fat head," he responded, sipped from his water bottle. "Where you going?"

"To get some food with my roommate. How are you?" she asked him.

"I'm straight. You liking school so far? How's Louisiana?" he asked her back, rubbing his hand over his waves.

"Louisiana is nice. I been okay, I been sleeping good, thank God. My anxiety been bothering me mostly at night but I talk to daddy before I go to sleep and it helps," she answered honestly. She still struggled with her separation anxiety, but mingled in with her regular anxiety and sometimes she couldn't tell the difference. She knew being states away was probably not the most fantastic idea, but she had to do it for herself. Having access to them through FaceTime and text was a big help, though.

"That's good, you know if you need to you could call me or Reem, right?" he made sure to assure her.

"Yeah, I know," she nodded with a smile. "Y'all are all busy with basketball, though. I know you be tired,"

"Yeah, but you more important than basketball, Nai. Don't forget we family before anything,"

"Sir yes sir," she flashed a smile. "Where's my Reemy?" she asked.

"With his lil girlfriend," he said, mocking their aunt Danae.

"TT Nae is not having that girlfriend mess," she laughed. "Well tell him I said hi and I love him. I'm pulling in to this restaurant, so I'll call you later, or tomorrow okay? I love you Dallas,"

"Aight, I love you too, be safe driving," he spoke.

"You got it dude," she did finger guns, making him roll his eyes and laugh, hanging up on her.

She laughed at her cousin before she gathered her things, and the electric blue Birkin bag she stole from her mom. She was hoping amongst the millions of other bags she had she wouldn't notice this one gone. But knowing her mother, she would.

"Oh hey roomie!" Lea yelled, as soon as she stepped foot in the homey restaurant. She felt like she was at her Mimi's kitchen when she looked around. "Welcome to my mama's restaurant, have a seat, ignore Bebe's kids all over the place, these my cousins, they just got off school," she waved with an annoyed expression.

It made her feel at home, because that's exactly how her house felt when all her cousins were over as a kid.

"Girl I suggest etouffee, she be making the shit out that one," she pointed. "Or gumbo. Oop, you hungry? Let's do both," she said, making Nai laugh. "Mama! Etouffee and a Gumbo ova' here please!" she hollered.

"Nigga that's exactly what you get for wearing slides to the gym,," AK laughed at his teammate who just tripped over his Nike slide. He was about to say something else when Duck very audibly scoffed. "What?"

"There go Jai," he nodded his head at a group of three girls coming in their direction, one of those girls being Jai, or Jailyn, his ex girlfriend. They were together for almost two years before they broke up and she didn't understand the concept of him not having any feelings toward her anymore.

"She deadass? Why she in here?" he rolled his eyes. He knew she didn't play not one sport, so her being at the gym on campus was obviously just to see if he was there. She was dressed in a sports bra and leggings like she was going to work out, though.

"Armani! Hi! What are you doing here?" she asked, making him groan internally. His home training would never allow him to just be rude to a woman for no reason at all, and she wasn't giving him one, yet.

"I'm here all the time, Jailyn," he spoke simply.

"Well I'm surprised to see you, my girls and I come here now too," she kept an innocent smile on her face and he saw straight past all that.

"Cool. Well we're about to go so—"

"Oh so soon? Well what are you doing this weekend? We're having a party at my friends house and you should come," she smirked.

"Game, outta state," he spoke, gathering his gym bag and walking off before she could say anything else to him. Once he met his friends by the door, he sighed loudly and made his way out. They didn't have practice that day, and Armani had no classes, so he was about to go home and sleep.

He hated seeing Jailyn out because it was a reminder of their train wreck of a breakup. He hated to be reminded of that time, and she refused to let him have peace.

"Man we finna eat, let's go to Mama's," their teammate Joshua said.

"Nigga do you have mama's money?" Armani chuckled.

Everyone knew NCAA players were broke lowkey. They didn't have to pay for school usually, but they could only work summer jobs, so they were pretty reliant on their parents. Now, since moving, Armani's parents had much more to spare for him but in most situations he still had the broke mentality.

"Yes! I do, now let's go," Josh laughed, making it to his car. Armani's plans to sleep were now down the drain. He could never say no to food, and Mama's was some of the best homemade food he'd had since living in Louisiana.

Once they got there, they parked next to a shiny red Range Rover.

"Damn that bitch nice," Duck said as they walked by it into the restaurant.

"Hi! Welcome to Mama's, party of three?" the young hostess asked, smiling, showing her bright yellow braces. They told her yes and she grabbed three menus, leading them to a table, right across from two other girls that seemed to be their age.

Armani felt like he'd seen one of them before but he brushed it off, going to look through the menu. He always got gumbo when he came here but there was no harm in looking. Their waitress came and took their order and they went back to talking about anything that came to mind. But for some reason Armani's mind told him to turn around, as the two girls across from them laughed at something while they ate and suddenly it clicked.

This was the girl he watched during cheer tryouts. He finally could see her face, and he was nearly hypnotized. He knew perfection didn't exist but she was as close as it could get. She was still smiling widely from the laugh and he found himself smiling a little as well just looking at her.

"Nigga are you paying attention?" Duck asked, snapping him out of his trance. "I just asked you how your mama and them are," he chuckled.

"Oh, oh they aight. Josefina and Camila started school right before I left so my mama went back to the salon by herself," he nodded. His mom was a hairstylist and during the summer, his sisters worked at the salon with her. "My dad cool too," he informed them. Their food came a few minutes later, and they began eating.

Eventually the girls got up, and made their way out, and for the life of him, he couldn't take his eyes off her. He hoped he'd see her again sometime.