KAI OPENS THE DOOR TO SEE PAIGE WITH A PLATE OF FOOD. "Paige, you don't have to do this." Kai groans out, appreciating the blonde for doing this for her. Paige smiles, setting the plate on the desk before hopping onto Kai's bed. Kai goes to her desk and grabs the food before sitting next to Paige.

Paige raises an eyebrow at her, "I'm not going to spill." Kai says with a playful eye roll. Paige laughs and nods. "You wanna go to a party tonight?" Paige questions, Kai sets her fork down and thinks about it.

"Mmm yeah, what time?" Kai asks in response, taking a bite out of the bacon. Paige grabs her phone and looks at the text from KK, "it's at 10,"

Kai nods, it sounding like fun. Kai holds up a piece of bacon for Paige, her taking it. "You said I could cry on your shoulder when I'm feeling sad, you can do the same for when you're feeling sad." Kai says.

Paige looks at Kai, "going soft on me, Slade?" She jokes to the brunette. "Shut up, I take it back." Kai jokes back leaning her head on the blonde's shoulder. Paige leans her head on the brunettes head before pointing at the plate that still had a good amount of food on it.

"Okay, mom." Kai teases as she eats a few more bites before offering some to Paige. Paige bites the fork making Kai cringe away from her. "Ew, do not do that ever again!" Kai scolds. Paige laughs and grabs the girl before biting down on the fork again.

"Stop it! Oh my god, I can't believe you bite the fork." Kai says with fake disgust, "shut up, let's go to practice."

-

Kai watches the girls from the sidelines, having not taken pictures the other day. Kai smiles at Paige when she goes to the sidelines to do some shooting drills. Paige winks before shooting, it missing by a lot. "Ooo, airball!!" Kai teases.

"Yeah? You can do better?" Paige taunts, Kai smiles and gets up grabbing a ball and lines up a shot. Kai laughs and cheers as it goes in. "I'm coming for your spot, P Boogers!" Kai yells before Paige starts to run after her.

Kai screams as she runs away from the blonde. Kai laughs and hides behind Aaliyah as she was taller than Paige. Paige groans as she tries to go around but Kai moves Aaliyah with her. Aaliyah laughs as she keeps Kai behind her, away from Paige.

"Can't get me now!" Kai taunts the blonde. Aaliyah chooses this time to move, exposing the brunette. Kai shrieks as she starts to run away again. Kai doesn't get far before Paige has a hold on her waist and is hoisting her off the ground.

"No! Paige, put me down." Kai begs, failing her legs. Paige laughs as she keeps Kai off the ground easily. Geno laughs before blowing a whistle and ordering the players to practice as they have a game in two days. Kai gets put down as Paige goes back to practice.

The practice goes by quickly and smoothly. They all go to their rooms to get ready for the party. Kai looks at her phone before deciding to take a quick nap.

Kai wakes up at 9:45 PM. She accidentally slept through her alarm, "shit." She curses as she hurries to get ready, the party itself was thirty minutes away. Kai hops around as she tries to put one shoe on while grabbing other things, leading her to fall. She contemplates lying there but she wanted to let loose again, she trudges herself up and gets ready— more carefully this time.

Kai was able to leave her dorm room at 10 PM exactly, estimating that she'd arrive at the party around 10:30. Fashionably late is better than never. Kai arrives with no problem, it was late at night so the roads were clear.

Kai smiles walking into the house, she was buzzed just from the music itself. Kai grabs a drink and walks into the living room. Her drink drops to the floor. As well as her heart.

She sees Paige Bueckers on the couch, making out with some random girl. Kai had no reason to feel like this— is this how Paige felt when she went to Iowa? Kai watches with tears in her eyes, Paige breaks the kiss and ends up making eye contact with the brunette just before she runs off.

Kai lets the tears fall, not being able to cry on the shoulder of the blonde at the moment— she went to her room. Kai shuts the door behind her before sliding down against it. She hits her head against the back of the door, mad at herself for crying over someone she wasn't even dating.

Kai picks herself up off the ground and slowly gets undressed and into some clothes to sleep in. It's as if the universe was laughing at her, the hoodie she grabbed was Paige's making her sniffle and tears to fall down her cheeks. She wipes them away and climbs into bed.

Kai wakes up with a raging headache from crying the night before. She debated on staying in her room but she couldn't just avoid the blonde basketball player as she was the media director of the basketball team. Kai doesn't do anything fancy to get ready, just a new pair of clothes and her hair did.

Kai grabs her keys and heads down to Ice's dorm room to wake her up, it was something she did now. Kai unlocks the door and walks in seeing Ice gone and two people in Paige's bed. Kai clenches her jaw and leaves the two girls there, not bothering with waking up Paige for practice.

Kai walks the long way to the gym, freezing her ass off because it was early December. She was just glad it was quiet outside so she could think. Kai rubs her arms to warm them up, having forgotten a coat. She jogs into the gym before sighing as the heat hits her.

Kai says hi to the players that were there early and sets her stuff in her office. She hides out in her office, busying herself with some miscellaneous work. "Slade!" Kai could hear from her office. She stays put, not wanting to deal with that mess. She checks her phone seeing that practice has just ended less than five minutes ago.

Paige Bueckers is coming in hot through the door. "Why didn't you wake me up?" Is the first words that come out of Paige's mouth. "I thought your girlfriend would wake you." She retorts, standing up so she wasn't looking up at Paige as much.

Paige scoffs and rolls her eyes, "we just kissed, I was drunk!" She defends. Kai nods, sucking her teeth at the blonde. "I'm sorry for not waking you." Kai apologizes, rubbing her arm anxiously. Paige smiles, "if anyone should be apologizing, it's me."

Kai gives a small smirk, "yeah you should be." Paige nods with a laugh. "You wanna go get lunch?"

-

"You didn't have to pay for me." Kai says as they sit down at Chick-Fil-A. Paige rolls her eyes with a laugh, "you do everything for me— the team. It's time some of us start treating you to things." Paige tells her. Kai smiles at the blonde in front of her as the food comes around.

Kai and Paige eat, talk and throw food at each other. "I'm really glad we went to target together." Paige says as they walk out to Kai's car. Kai stops and turns to Paige. Kai smiles before jumping into the blondes arm. Paige hooks her arms under the girls legs to not let her fall.

"I'm so happy we're friends." The dreaded friend word, Paige thought. Paige nods, glad to be her friend then nothing at all. Paige sets the girl down keeping their hands intertwined. "Can I drive?" Paige asks. Kai smirks and looks at the blonde.

"You can't kills us." Kai says with a pointed look. Paige nods, Kai throws the keys to the girl. Paige ends up not catching them. "No way you didn't catch that." Kai says with a laugh watching the blonde pick it up off the pavement.

"Shut up, you had a bad throw." Paige retorts, Kai raises her eyebrows. "Let's go to the gym." Kai says and Paige nods as they head to the gym.

Kai and Paige arrive at the gym, Kai wanting to practice basketball with the D1 athlete. Kai laughs as she grabs a basketball and does a pass to Paige. "See, you caught that one." Kai says teasingly. Paige mocks her and does a simple layup. Kai follows her moves, barely even getting off the ground but the ball still goes in.

"Okay, K Slade, I see you." Paige says in a mocking way. Kai laughs at the girl who makes a three-pointer. Kai does the same movements, the ball falling short. Paige sucks in a breath at the bad shot.

"Shut up, P Boogers." The brunette says, trying to shoot again. Paige jumps in front of her, slapping the ball out of her hands. "No fair!"

Kai starts to run after the girl who had the ball in her hands. "Ball hog!" Kai shouts out behind the blonde making her stop in her tracks. Kai was too quick and didn't stop causing her to bump into the back of Paige and she ends up on top of the girl on the floor.

"Sorry." Kai says immediately, "hi," she says shyly noticing how close they were. Kai was on top of the blonde girl, their faces inches apart. "Hey," Paige responds, her hands on the girls waist. Kai shifts off the girl and onto the floor. "Are you ready for the game?" She asks, her focus on the blondes side profile.

Paige smiles and turns her head, making eye contact with the girl before nodding.

-

Kai watches the game through her lens as Aubrey prevents the ball from going out, almost landing on the girl taking pictures. Kai laughs as she gets a pretty funny shot that she'll be keeping for herself to embarrass the girl with.

The first quarter goes smoothly for the Huskies, them in the lead by a good amount but Geno likes to go big. Kai listens to the announcers through her pair of headphones to know what was going on better, "and it appears that Paige's older sister is in the stands tonight." Kai almost drops her camera, she didn't know Paige had an older sister. She puts it in the back of her mind to ask her about that later— hoping she won't be in a bad mood.

The second quarter was worse than they expected. The two teams were tied just as the first half came to an end. Some lady was interviewing Paige and there was a taller blonde next to her, that must be her sister. Kai listens in, "so, how does it feel to know that your big sister, Colette Bueckers, is in the stands tonight?" The interviewer asks. Paige huffs loudly, having just played an intense first half of a game.

"It motivates me a lot, she's the one that made me love basketball and I hope to follow in her footsteps and make it to the WNBA."

Kai smiles at Paige's words as they go into their regular asking about the game, apparently Paige was two points away from a thousand points in her career.

The second half starts and Paige lands a bucket marking her 1,000 points. Kai cheers her on while taking pictures of the game as well, wishing she could just cheer the girls on without worrying about getting the perfect shots.

The third quarter is over before Kai knows it, the Huskies are buzzed by the big lead they have over North Carolina. The last quarter does by quickly as well. As soon as the buzzer goes off, Kai is up and running over to Nika.

"Let me see," Kai says, Nika had gotten a big scratch from one of the girls on the North Carolina team. Nika smiles at the girl before giving her a hug. "You're all sweaty!" She complains and the whole team ends up hugging the photographer.

"I have basketball sweat all over me now." Kai says teasingly, the girls laugh at her while they head to the locker room to decide what to do after their win. Kai walks with them, getting an idea.

"Movie night!" Kai announces. The girls agree, wanting to relax at Kai's place. "Food?" Aaliyah questions and Kai nods before excusing herself to call a place for food.

-

sorry the delay my loves

paiges older sister (OC) will come into play much laterrrrr mwah