Chapter 33

I Think We Broke Her

(Amoni Jacobs)

It should have come as no surprise that the new girl had her own full size regulation court that she could practice on. That and the car showed Amoni that above anything else, the new girl Misha was spoiled. That is, until she met the grandfather who showed pictures of what the Mustang GT looked like when she first got it, how it was little more than scraps of metal that had to be buffered and molded into place before true work could be done.

There were even pictures of a younger, but determined Misha working with different power tools to get different effects, that then slowly over time began to be molded into the shape and sleek design that the vehicle was now.

“She even custom made the doors, taking the regulation doors, then cutting out strips, and folding them inward to give it that wind swept appearance. All the paint, the trim, the weather strips, that was all Misha and her amazing attention to detail.” Phil said proudly as he gushed over his daughter. Or at least Amoni thought Misha was the daughter of the old man, only to realize that she was in fact the granddaughter. A fact that became extra weird when the real mother came home with some cop boyfriend.

No, the man wasn’t wearing a uniform, but he held himself the way cops do, upright and tight. Though he wasn’t a local, that much was for sure, otherwise Amoni would have known him from one of her father’s meetings. Her father made it a point to make sure to host multiple events and parties that celebrate the police, the firefighters, and health providers of the community. Someone that old would have surely come to at least one of those gatherings.

After that, there was a clearly awkward tension that seemed to fall over the room, as Misha’s mother, who looked like she could be an older sister asked.

“So, who are these people?”

Just hearing the question caused Amoni to bristle slightly at the comment.

“These, are Misha’s teammates for the High School Basketball team.” Phil answered in a cool measured response.

There was a strained moment of tension, before the mother continued to press her odd ideology. “Do you think that this is the time to be entertaining guests, Misha?”

The mother changed tactics, going from speaking to the grandfather, to speaking to Misha as if she was a child.

Misha tensed up, her neck and facial features clearly fighting down their first impulse to speak what she was thinking. Fortunately, Phil, the grandfather, used this moment to chime in.

“Of course, I do, in fact, it was I who asked Misha to invite her friends over today. Seeing as they are the reason why she was adamant about going back to school so early.” There was a momentary pause, before Phil then gave the killing blow. “You would have been aware of this, had you opted to stay with us, versus spending the time in the arms of your boy-to…boyfriend there.”

Phil caught himself, clearly about to say boy-toy or something else derogatory and then changed it to be boyfriend. Though at her age, the term boyfriend might also be derogatory. Then again, maybe not, Amoni did not know and all she wanted to do at the moment was to leave.

Fortunately, Amoni was not the only one who was having similar feelings about leaving.

“Thank you for the drinks, Phil, but we should get back and practice.” J-Sweep said.

“Anytime Ms. Jasmine,” Phil said, giving a slight bow from his seated position.

Hearing that, Amoni almost thought that J-Sweep would tear the old man’s head off, which would only add more awkwardness to the otherwise tense situation. Yet, despite her concerns, all J-Sweep did was blush slightly at the statement.

What? Why? Amoni thought to herself, looking from her teammate to the old man, only to then try to look and after a second, Amoni could sort of see it, that old fit man that still had muscles, looks, and a bit of refined culture to him.

Honestly, given a second to take a closer look, it was clear that he did have a certain rugged charm to him that was hard to describe.

“Come on,” Misha said, her tone devoid of emotions, but it was clear that she was thinking something.

“Thank you Phil.” K-Bar said.

“Thank you, Ms. Kami.” Phil said, his voice hitting a deep baritone that sounded both ingenious and musical.

“It was a pleasure meeting you.” Two-Tone said.

“No, trust me Ms. Tamy, the pleasure was all mine.” Phil replied back.

At that Amoni was taken aback as she had completely forgotten that Tamy was Two-Tone’s first name. As she normally went by Tatiyana, her middle name, before everyone took to calling her Two Tone.

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Amoni was about to say something, but then thought better of it, as she too gave her goodbyes to Phil. “Goodbye Phil, we should come back when you can tell us the embarrassing stories about Misha.”

“Oh, I would love any reason to meet with such fine young women as yourselves.”

He actually said that in a way that didn’t sound creepy. Amoni mused to herself, as she got up and followed the other girls to the court outside. This was their second time coming her, after having already gone through Coach Green’s practice and workout sessions. In fact, all of them should be home now, but there was something about the way Misha kept pushing them that made them all want to try just that much harder.

It was indescribable how Misha was able to push and pull them towards newer and better avenues of success.

With five of them, the prudent way to play was to do two on two, with the person sitting out acting as ref.

“Two-Tone and K-Bar against Amoni and me?” Misha asked.

“Sounds good to me, I could use a break,” J-Sweep replied.

That also was something off about Misha, or maybe it was Amoni projecting too much of her own thoughts towards the new girl on the way she would perceive her, as she didn’t think Misha would want to choose her as a partner. Yet, here she was choosing to team up with her over The best Forwards on the team.

“Should be fun,” K-Bar replied, passing the ball to Misha who instantly inbound the pass to Amoni and like that the game had started.

Rather than trash talking, the game, while extremely competitive, took on a more leisurely tone to the conversation.

“So, that’s your grandfather?” K-Bar asked, when she was pressed up tightly, trying to both guard and get into the mind of Misha.

“Yes,” Misha replied.

Of course, Misha was made of sterner stuff, as she just replied, while giving a quick stutter step right, before spinning left that K-Bar instantly bit on, also moving right. At which point it was a quick spin left and Misha was around and getting an open lay-up on the basket.

Inbound to K-Bar. As she approached, Misha went straight to the full court press, halting the advancement of the ball as much as possible. That was an exhausting way to play, but it was effective, especially in small scrimmages like this, so long as you kept contain on the ball handler.

“So is he single?” K-Bar asked, her tone going slightly sultry as it was clear she was still trying to get into Misha’s head with the obvious challenge.

“He is now.” Misha replied, and that response was enough for K-Bar’s trash talking to backfire, as she paused. Nothing major, just an inattentive moment where she let the ball come up to her hand, versus dropping down to keep the rhythm of her dribble. That pause was enough for Misha, as she quickly poked her hand in and swatted the ball away.

Amoni only saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, as one second they were moving the ball forward, and the next, Misha was sprinting past a still K-Bar who hadn’t quite realized she lost the handle.

Then Misha got the ball and a quick lay-up at the other end.

Seeing her move, Amoni could only smile and thank the Goddess that she wasn’t the one who looked stupid, this time.

“Come on K-Bar.” Two-Tone cried out as she went back, and this time she moved the ball up the court.

“So what do you mean by he is now?” K-Bar asked, clearly missing the clue that Coach Green had given them on Monday, the one about Misha having a death in the family.

At that Amoni and Two-Tone both just stared at K-Bar who was no longer trash talking, and apparently just interested in either Misha or her Grandfather, or both.

“His wife, my grandmother, died in a car accident on Friday night.” Misha said coolly, her voice not showing any signs of pain or inflection.

“Oh, my god, I’m so sorry.” K-Bar said.

“It’s okay.” Misha said, turning her head to scan everyone that was present.

At that moment, when she scanned the court, Amoni heard the words and could only feel sadness for the girl. Their eyes locked for a moment, and for that one brief moment, it was clear that Misha was searching for something. There was a coldness to her gaze, one that sent shivers down Amoni’s spine. It was almost as if Misha had expected to see something as she stared down Amoni, but for the life of her, Amoni couldn’t understand why the sudden hostility was present in her gaze.

Then just as quickly as the sudden tension was felt, it was over. Misha shifted her gaze and looked at everyone, including J-Sweep from the sides and seemed to relax slightly.

“You okay?” K-Bar asked.

“Yes, sorry I just…” Misha began, but then her words stopped as she seemed to lose focus for a second as her eyes seemed to scan right.

Oddly enough, in the darkness of night that had begun to blanket the court, even with the dozen or so halogen lights that were installed to show the court in its entirety, Amoni almost swore that she saw something blue shining in Misha’s eyes.

Then just as quickly as the whole event happened, Misha quickly shook her head and then stared at everyone.

“I’m sorry to do this, but I might need to call it a day,” Misha said.

“Yeah, okay.” K-Bar and J-Sweep almost said in unison as they went over to comfort Misha.

“Ah, dang,” Two-Tone also hissed as she went over to comfort Misha.

“What?” Misha asked, suddenly confused by the way everyone was coming to her.

“It’s okay, I know we just met you and all, but you’re pretty cool. If you need someone to talk to, just hit me up.” J-Sweep said.

“Yeah, me too.” K-Bar and Two-Tone added.

Then like that, Amoni found herself standing alone on the court, before she too walked over making sure to provide her own condolences.

“Can you all wait here for a moment?” Misha asked, as she went into the house.

This was good as it was clear that Phil, Misha’s mother, and the boyfriend were all still in there having a heated discussion. With that, Amoni figured that Misha was just going to get her keys and head back out. However, she was surprised to see that Phil, not Misha, was the one who ultimately came out with the car keys dangling on his finger.

“Ho, ho. It is my lucky day.” Phil said, with a mirthful charm that was easy to accept. “Not only do I get a chance to drive the GT, but I have been entrusted with getting you four fine ladies home safely.”

And like that, their night with Misha was over.

As they piled in, Amoni almost felt sad that she didn’t at least get to say goodnight to the odd girl.

“Now, you all must excuse me, as I have been told I have a bit of a led foot.” Phil said jokingly as he fired up the GT, letting it purr for a moment, before he glided out the rocky driveway and finally onto the smooth roads.

“Is Misha okay?” K-Bar asked.

“Yeah, she’s a big girl. Tougher than me, so she will be fine. Today just hit her kind of hard.” Phil replied, before changing the subject to more light-hearted commentary.

“So, which of you all are single, and more importantly, how long should I wait to make my move?” Phil asked, and instantly defused the awkward tension that had been building in the car.

“You are too much.” J-Sweep said, in a tone that was clearly flirty.

Hearing the tone Amoni looked on at J-Sweep, with a bit of shock. And like that, the car ride home seemed to involve three pack members all vying for Phil’s attention, all while Amoni looked on in horror, unable to look away from the scene.

***

(Misha)

The night had been going according to plan. She had already ruled out the four key team members as accomplices to the murder of her grandmother, and her quick scan proved that, especially the way all four had a look of shock. Well, some seemed to put together the pieces of comments made, but none seemed to have been directly involved, which was the key part that Misha was concerned about.

Before she could act as if nothing happened, that is when she received a message to her mind that clearly came from some long dormant command post.

Reaper Operative, this is Fleet Command. Repeat, this is Fleet Command reaching out for activated Reaper Operative. Reply back…

And like that, Misha got the communications encryption and decryption keys that had eluded her and her leadership for so many years.

“It was in the genetic coding for the Reaper class, no wonder it was never found. As we never found a Reaper.” Misha thought to herself, as she gave a quick scan to see if anyone else received the same message.

Then to her shock, Misha heard and felt the unthinkable.

“Fleet Command, this is ReaperOne, I hear you loud and clear.”

And like that, Misha realized that she not only was one of the few who could hear and communicate with the Command Fleet, but worse, she apparently was not the only one who could do so from her planet.