IT WAS SATURDAY and elyse just finished basketball practice. she was talking with her best friend trista before they went back home.

"bye el, i'll see you tomorrow!" trista yelled as she walked through the automatic sliding doors of the gymnasium.

"alright bye!" elyse yelled back. elyse packed her bag, put on her blue crocs, and found her way to her brother's car.

elyse and trista have been friends since first grade, which was the year elyse moved to texas.

elyse was out on the mini court during recess shooting around with a small basketball. trista saw her by herself and also showed interest to the game she was playing.

trista came up to elyse and decided to play with the ball with her and they had the best time ever.

ever since then, they've been inseparable, elyse even being the main reason trista started playing basketball.

elyse's brother, caine, had also just finished his basketball practice. he was sitting at the wheel drenched in sweat.

"soo how was practice?" caine asked as elyse hopped into the passenger seat.

"it was fun. we didn't run much today. you?" elyse asked as she was trying to connect her phone to the car to turn on her playlist.

"it was alright. my coach told my team that we'd be playing a really good basketball team this upcoming tournament. i think they're called rod wave elite? something like that." he mentioned.

the tournament was next weekend and caine's team has been practicing nonstop. caine had practices monday through saturday leaving him with only one day to take a break.

"oh cool. how good are they?" elyse asks. "they have multiple 5 stars apparently" caine said. "ohh goodluck" elyse says wincing.

caine started the car and frank ocean started playing through the speakers.

ELYSE AND CAINE arrived back home and went straight to their rooms to take showers.

once she finished her shower, elyse sat at her vanity to begin doing her skincare routine when she got a notification on her phone from trista.

trista👯‍♀️
Today 5:45 PM

trista👯‍♀️
omg el
rod wave elite is playing in dallas
and im not gonna be there☹️

elyse👻
aw isnt that the basketball team with
those boys you keep talking about?

trista👯‍♀️
yess but anyways i gtg
i needa finish packing for my vacay

elyse👻
oh when's ur flight?

trista👯‍♀️
in like 4 hours😭

elyse👻
shi u gotta go

trista👯‍♀️
yeah...
ttyl🫶
i'll try to talk to u as soon as
this vacation ends though promise

elyse👻
aw bye tris
imy already🫶

Read 5:52 PM
trista👯‍♀️ loved "imy already🫶"

trista's family believed that when on vacation, you wouldn't need your phone, since her parents trusted her and doubted her and her sister would get lost easily and that you should 'live in the moment', so they took their phones away.

elyse went back to applying her moisturizer and wondered why that team name sounded so familiar to her. she got bored, so she decided to go on live.

elyse had recently been gaining a lot of followers and attention on her social media from her basketball highlights and dances she did with caine and her other teammates on tiktok.

once she started the live her fans all started flooding in.

"hey guys i just got out of the shower 'cause i had basketball practice earlier." elyse said smiling at the camera.

she moved over to her bed and laid on her stomach bringing the phone with her.

"let's do a q & a yall. ask questions for me." elyse said.

@alyssa💐
what color are your braces?
@st4rrr
when did you start playing basketball

"i started playing basketball when i was around.. like maybe 6? my dad plays basketball, so i've always been exposed to it." elyse replied while looking for a new comment.

"who's nelson neumann?" elyse asked as she starts to search him up on her computer.

"ooh who dis rrr" she said with a smirk on her face while she looked at the phone. he looked weirdly familiar, but she didn't think much of it.

@neumannsfp
brb making an edit!
@user38843
nelson is live rn
@sienna
shes so real for that
@💸
he's talking about you

"guys this nelson dude is on live? wait i'll try to go on live with this kid." elyse said. she pressed the request button on his live and quickly got accepted.

she bit her nail as she waited for him to load on her screen.

there he was. his curly, dirty blond hair, blue eyes, and sweet smile.

"hey elyse." nelson said with a smile.

"wait you know me?" she said with a shocked expression on her face.

"yeah i've seen all your clips. youre tuff as fuck"

elyse held a smile on her face while she took a peek at her comments before replying to nelson's compliment.

@user4728
nelson's so real for being a fanboy

"nelson you're a fanboy?" elyse asked. "um wha-" "they're saying that you've been talking about me." she teased with her eyebrows raised.

"uh... i mean- i guess i was talking about you" he admitted sheepishly looking away.

elyse giggled at how suddenly shy the blonde was. she also realized that she hasn't followed him back yet, so she clicked on his profile seeing that he also played basketball.

"so nelson, you hoop?" she asked wanting to spark some kind of conversation with him about one of the things she cared most about.

"yeah i do actually. speaking of basketball, i have a tournament coming up next weekend. it's in dallas. dallas, texas." he said.

"oh that's cool. i live in texas, so if i have time i could probably stop by" elyse mentioned.

this small interaction was cut short by a squeaky voice coming from nelson's side of the screen.

"NELSON MOM SAID IT'S TIME TO EAT DINNER" the voice yelled.

"alright i have to go now-" "NELSON" "NILES I'M COMING SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he yelled back with a voice crack.

elyse leaned out of frame to laugh at this.

"ahem... anyways it was really nice talking to you" nelson said clearing his throat.

"would you wanna go live tomorrow?" she asked him hesitantly, hoping to start a friendship with him since she thought he was pretty cool.

"oh yeah for sure. dm me when you're free tomorrow." he replied a smile on his face.

"okay bye yall we're gonna end the live. um, we'll see yall tomorrow." elyse said smiling back at nelson.

"bye guys" he said with his wide smile before the live ended.

ELYSE FINISHED DINNER and ran upstairs to go on her phone, which was charging.

she went through her notifications and noticed that nelson had dm'd her on instagram. she followed him back before reading his message.

Nelson neumann
nelsonneumann2028 • Instagram
200k followers • 4 posts
You both follow each other on Instagram
You both follow overtime and 15 others

TODAY 8:05 PM

Hey the live was really fun today

yeah i really enjoyed talking to you

Would you wanna talk some more?

oh yeah ofc
i'll call u
Reacted 👍 to your message

elyse admired how he wanted to talk with her. she'd never been this comfortable around boys besides her own brother.

they eventually had daily livestreams, something their fans would look forward to. even if they were busy, they would find time to go on live with each other to talk, which they had a lot of fun doing.

isa says!

i lowkey fw nelyse for their ship name, but lmk if yall can think of anything else better

decided i wanted to start this book from the beginning of 2023 summer... wish me luck writing these chapters😭