Two Hearts

The ball went in the hoop without touching the board, or the ring. The sound of cheers and shouts echoed throughout the whole gym. The white wolves have won their final match for the eliminations.

\"Yes!\"

\"We won!\"

\"We\'re off to the finals!!!\"

\"Yes!!!\"

The White Wolves were cheering loudly. They were on their way to the finals for the second time.

\"Hey guys! Congratulations in making the finals!\" a girl with long wavy brown hair came up to them.

\"Thanks, Ea! We wouldn\'t have done it without you.\" the captain of the basketball team said.

\"What are you saying, Bill? All I did was bring you water during your practices and games and watch your games. That\'s all I did.\" Ea explained, confused.

\"That\'s the whole point. Because of your help and support, we were able to win.\" Bill said, smiling brightly.

\"Well, I\'m glad I could help you guys somehow. I felt like a burden to you guys when you practice.\" she explained.

\"No, no, no. You were never a burden to us. Oh, we\'re having a victory celebration later at my place. Wanna come and join us?\" he asked.

\"I\'ll see. I have a lot to do. Oh, I need a picture of you guys. Come on!\" Ea said and went to take their pictures.

\"We\'ll see you later Ea!\" Bill called before he exited the gym.

Ea sighed. She deliberately stayed behind so that she could shoot some hoops. It has been a while since she last shot a ball.

\'Okay, since I\'m alone now, I could play for a while.\'

While she was dribbling the ball around the court, she didn\'t hear the gym doors open and a figure slip inside. She positioned herself and released the ball. It went in the hoop without touching the board and ring. She then ran to retrieve the ball. She was startled when she heard someone clapping behind her.

\"That was a good shot.” the stranger said.

\"What are you doing here?\" Ea asked.

\"I could ask you the same thing.\" the stranger answered.

\"Shouldn’t you be in the victory party with the others?\" Ea asked.

\"Shouldn’t you?\" The stranger answered.

Ea was getting frustrated with the person in front of her. \'Why me?\' she thought to herself. \'Please answer my question with real answers not with questions.\'

\"Could you please answer my questions? With real answers, not questions.\" She voiced out.

\"First off, I am here to retrieve my jersey. I left it in the shower room. Second, I was on the way to the party when I remembered that I left my jersey. Satisfied? Now it’s your turn to answer my questions.\" The stranger said.

\"I am here because I wanted to play basketball. I don’t think I will be going to the party because I’m not really part of the team anyway and I might be a nuisance to the basketball players. Are you satisfied?\" She replied.

\"Of course. I’ll leave you to whatever you are doing.\" The stranger said and left in the direction of the shower rooms.

Ea sighed, turned around, shot the ball and retrieved it. She repeated shooting the ball several times until she was satisfied with her shooting skills, for the time being.

\"Well, I’m off.\" The stranger said. \"And you might consider going to the victory party, Ea. You might find out what you really mean to the team if you do. I’ll be waiting. See ya!\"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

At Bill\'s house, the party was lively and everybody was happily celebrating.

\"Where\'ve you been, John?\" Bill asked.

\"I came from the gym.\" John replied.

\"Why?\"

\"Got my jersey.” He paused. “Guess who I saw.\"

\"Dylan?\"

\"Nope.\"

\"Mark?\"

\"Nope.\"

\"Alex?\"

\"Nope.\"

\"Come on, tell me already!\"

\"Ok. Ok. Keep your pants on.\"

\"I\'m not wearing pants.\"

\"It doesn\'t matter!\"

\"Does too.\"

\"Does not!\"

\"Does too.\"

\"Not!\"

\"Too.\"

\"Not.\"

\"Not.\"

\"Too. Ha!\"

\"It does matter, does it?\" Bill asked, cheekily.

\"I fell for it again? Darn!\"

\"Now tell me who it is, already!\"

\"Ea was-and maybe still is-in the gym.\"

\"Wha? Why? I asked her to come...\"

\"Did...did she tell you anything about something bothering her?\"

Bill nodded. \"Yeah...just this afternoon, after the game, she told me that she felt like a burden to us.\"

\"That\'s the reason why she\'s still in the gym at this time of the night.\"

Unknown to the two players, another was listening in on their conservation. And unknown to them both, that because of their conversation, a guest left in the direction of their school gym.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The bounce of a basketball was heard outside the gym. He stealthily entered the gym and the sight that he beheld made his breath catch in his throat. Ea was dribbling the ball tiredly. She was sweating hard and her hair was plastered to her face, framing it. She looked exhausted. With one last shot, she sat down on the floor. She took long breaths.

\"What did he mean, \'what you really mean to the team\'?\" she said aloud, thinking that no one can hear her.

\"Exactly what he said.\" a voice said not far away.

Ea swiveled around to see who was in the gym. \'Why didn\'t I hear him enter? Am I going deaf?\' she thought.

\"What are you doing here?\" Ea asked.

\"I could ask the same for you.\" the stranger answered back.

\"Not again!\"

\"What do you mean again? I haven\'t talked to you today.\" the stranger said, bewildered.

\"Did John send you to check on me?\" she demanded.

\"No.\"

\"Then what are you doing here?” she demanded once again.

\"Well, I wanted to know if what I heard was true.\"

\"And that is?\"

\"Do you really feel like a burden to us?\" he asked quietly.

Silence followed the question that was asked.

\"Well, do you?\"

\"Why do you want to know?\"

\"Because...\"

\"Well, yeah...I do...\"

\"Why?\"

\"Because, I don\'t know for sure, but I feel like I\'m pulling you down somehow. I know that you\'re holding back, especially you, while playing.\"

He was shocked. \'How did she know that we were holding back?\' he thought.

\"I was right, wasn\'t I?\"

\"If I said yes, will you come to the party with me?\"

\"Well, all right! I\'ll just go and change.\"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

It was after half an hour when Ea and the stranger arrived in Bill’s house. Bill, having heard a knock on his door, opened it and was surprised to see his teammate with Ea. He was glad that someone was able to get through Ea’s stubbornness.

“Well, look who decided to drop by.” Bill said, happily.

“Ea!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard John call her name. Ea was surprised that everyone even acknowledged her.

“Hey guys.” She said.

\"Well, looks like you have a weakness after all.\" One commented.

\"Doesn\'t everyone?\" she retorted.

\"Well, yeah. But we were wondering if you even had one because you never seemed to be deterred.\" another replied.

\"Well, now you know I have a weakness. Your next problem is that you don\'t know what my weakness is.\" Ea said, mysteriously.

\"Aw...Come on Ea! Tell us!\" they whined.

\"No can do! You need to find out yourself. Anyway, what have you guys been doing? Don\'t tell me that you\'ve been waiting to know what my weakness is?\" She joked.

\"That\'s one of the reasons...\" Bill joked back.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

In one corner, two people were talking in hushed voices.

\"What\'s the big deal if she has a weakness or not?\"

\"How should I know...what I\'m wondering about is why they acted proud and happy when she arrived.\"

\"Well, let\'s go find out.\"

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

\"Ea! No! Stop it!\" someone shouted, laughing.

Everyone looked at the corner where the shout came from. To their surprise, they saw a team member who, at the moment, was rolling on the living room carpet with tears streaming down his face.

“Well, well, well…it seems that you have a weakness too, Mr. Stone.” Ea teased.

He took a deep breath before answering.

“Doesn’t everyone?” he repeated her explanation.

“Stop copying me.”

“Stop copying me.”

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play it, hmmm, Mr. Stone?”

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play it, hmmm, Ms. Johnson?”

“Well, you’re nothing but a ‘second rate trying hard copy cat’”

“Well, you’re nothing but a ‘third rate trying hard copy rat’”

“Well, fine!”

“Well, fine!”

“Knock it off, you guys!” Bill shouted.

“I’m a girl, for crying out loud!”

“You are?”

“Whatever. I’m leaving. It’s late.”

“No! It’s not even half past 9 yet.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I need to do my homework.” Ea stood up abruptly.

“Oh, come on Ea, stay for just another while.”

“Please?”

“Well, fine. Just for another thirty minutes.” She huffed and sat back down.

She refused to look at anyone at the party and pointedly ignored \'Mr. Stone\' and Bill for the rest of the evening. 30 minutes later, she stood up and headed toward the front door when 2 girls approached her.

\"Hey look. It\'s Ea.\" said the girl with red hair.

\"What is she doing here? I thought she was with her geeky friends studying in one of the not popular part of town.\" said the one with auburn hair.

\"It\'s nice to see you, too.\" Ea mumbled. Out loud, she said, \"Hello, Cheryl, Sandy.\"

Both looked at her with disgust and with a few more insults, bumped her on both her shoulders and left to talk to the jocks. Ea was once again on her way to the front door when somebody stopped her.

She sighed and turned to look at who stopped her. \"What is it?\"

\"You\'re leaving already?\"

Ea fought the urge to say, \'What do you think? Going to the loo?\' but instead, she replied, \" It is 9:30, and I said I would only be staying for another thirty minutes, Bill, or have you forgotten?\"

\"I\'m just asking, no need to be irritated.\"

\"Well, I\'ll be on my way.\"

\"Be careful.\"

\"I will.\"

Bill went back to his friends with a final wave at Ea. Ea was about to walk out of the door when (surprise, surprise) someone stopped her once again.

\"What now? At this rate, I won\'t be able to get out the door.\" Ea said irritated.

\"Whoa! I just wanted to ask if it\'s okay for me to walk you home? It\'s kind of late and I want to talk to you, alone. Not to mention that you are a girl.\" the person said.

\"Well, alright.\" ‘I can’t avoid you forever.’ She thought, inwardly sighing.

They both walked out the door and headed for the direction of Ea\'s house in comfortable silence. After a few minutes, she decided to ask what was on his mind.

\"So, what did you want to talk about?\"

\"I just want to know what happened to my best friend. She has been distant for a few months.\"

\"Maybe she\'s moving on, maybe growing up and you just refuse to let her go, since she was your friend since you were born, and you were used to having her around.\"

\"That\'s true. I wonder what happened, though.\"

\"Well, she found out that she needs to meet other people, besides you of course, because she can\'t be with you for her whole life. She decided to meet other people without you knowing.\"

\"But why pour all her attention to her studies? Why didn\'t she tell me? I am her best friend, after all!\"

\"She was scared, scared of your reaction. Scared that you won\'t approve of her being with others without you by her side. She decided to keep it to herself until she thought it was the right time to tell you.\"

\"And when did she think the right time would be?! When I\'m old? When she gets into an accident or something?! When her life is in danger?\"

\"I was scared! Listen to what you are saying! I was scared of a reaction like that! I was scared that you will be very angry and...and...and leave.\" She stopped walking.

He stopped a little ahead of her. \"You were scared of me leaving? You thought I would leave you because you wanted to meet others? You could have just told me so I wouldn\'t have thought that I did something to hurt you badly.\"

\"But you did. You were always busy, going out with your friends. You left me all alone with no one to talk to and share what is inside. That was the only reason why I poured all my attention to my studies. I did not want to go to parties that involve our school because I would have met you and I knew that I would have to tell you, sooner or later.\" she looked at the ground, her hair covering her face.

He suddenly moved closer, tilted her head up and looked her in the eye. \"I, Tom Stone, will never leave the side of his best friend and understand every decision she makes. I will also support her in everything, just that it does not harm me, in any way.\" he grinned.

\"I, Ea Johnson, will never leave the side of her best friend and tell him every decision, except the personal ones, and understand his every judgment. I will also support him, given that I will not be harmed in any way.\" she smiled.

They held their gaze, eyes twinkling. After a few minutes, they found each other in a sweet embrace, under the light of the full moon.

A/N

This is my first fanfic. I first posted it in Fictionpress.com then I thought that I could post it here. Please review because I want to know if I have to change some things in the story. Feel free to comment...good or bad. It\'s alright. Through this, I can make the story more to your liking. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to tell me. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.