Her Only Hero

Chapter 3

The cold shower brings me comfort. As the water washes over my head, and down my entire body to my feet, I relax and let my mind empty.

While I get dressed, I listen for sounds from downstairs. Anything that could let me know if I have to face Mum before I leave. I stay as quiet as possible and tread with soft steps on the wooden floors. On the way down, I avoid the stairs I know will squeak.

At the bottom of the stairs, and outside her door, I hear her loud snores. Knowing I'll be faster out the door than she'll be out of bed, I forget about tip-toeing the rest of the way.

As I walk past the counter, an old, half-torn piece of paper catches my eye. Scrawled on it in thick black pen reads:

DORIAN
DO NOT LEAVE THIS HOUSE!
YOUR GROUNDED
YOU NEED TO WATCH MISTY TODAY

I scrunch the paper up in my hand and toss it across the kitchen bench. Ignoring her pathetic threat, I walk out.

If I were her, I would have given up trying to ground me years ago, but she still thinks she stands a chance. I want to laugh. She has no chance at keeping me here.

I drive the familiar route to the basketball courts and pull up to find Axel and Wyatt already there, tossing the basketball between each other.

I'm greeted by them and soon after, Jonah arrives. We dish out insults and criticism for being late like they all did to me yesterday, despite him arriving only a minute after me.

After a few jokes and short conversations, Jonah steals the ball from Wyatt and runs onto the court. "Come on," he says. "Let's go losers. Who's on my team?"

"I dibs Wyatt's team!" Axel shouts, and I smile and roll my eyes. I wonder how Wyatt feels to have the three of us always fighting to be on his team, since we all know Wyatt has the skill to win in any sport.

Like always, our game starts off normal, but when Jonah and I start losing, we ruin the proper game and do whatever it takes to get points. While Axel dribbles down the court, Jonah stops defending him and picks him up around the waist instead. He runs him all the way back to the other end and drops him off on the ground. While Axel laughs, Jonah snatches the ball from his grasp and throws it to me.

Before it reaches me, Wyatt jumps in front of me and catches it. He runs it to his hoop without dribbling once and throws it from the three point line, sinking it with ease.

We decide to end that game and switch partners to start another. In the first ten minutes, Wyatt makes his fifth shot while Axel and I fail to get a single point. After the sixth, the game becomes chaos. I get the in the ball and when Jonah tries to defend me, I turn and run the other way. We run half way across the park and only stop when we reach the fence around the courts and field.

After three hours, a phone rings from the bench holding our stuff. I recognise my ringtone and head over to it while the others fool around. During the short walk, my body becomes very tense with my suspicion on the name I will see. I near the table, spot the name 'EVIL', and I turn and walk away without picking up the phone.

"Your Mum?" Wyatt asks, and I give him a nod.

We start playing while the ringing continues. When it stops, my muscles relax and I put my focus into the game, but seconds later the ringtone plays again and the game comes to a halt.