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Shelby is walking down to her dorm room when she spots Toni Shalifoe, gym bag thrown over her shoulder, heading towards the basketball court. She halts, because she just has to look at her, and admires how her long hair are already up in her unmistakable pony tail, her arms shown because she is wearing just a tank top, her legs available for her eyes to see since she wearing some shorts, and how she is being sun-kissed.
Shelby keeps looking at her for what feels too much time, and if someone were to see her standing they would probably ask her if she was okay, when suddenly Toni turns around and looks at her.
She freezes, admiring her eyes, that are now golden thanks to the high sun, and goes through her head about why she could look at her (beside that she was putting a hole in Toni’s head for the way she stopped to look).
She nearly waits for Toni to start walking towards her to ask in an annoyed voice why she was staring at her, until she sees Toni’s best friend Martha coming from behind her, and that’s when she understands that Toni hasn’t been looking at her, but more at someone behind her. She deflates, embarrassed and hoping not to be seen, and with a sad feeling she starts moving towards her dorm room again, turning just once again back to look at her retreating form.
A few hours later, she is in her dorm room, hanging out with her best friend Becca, pretending to study but instead just talking about their own business.
And as usual, after a while, the subject just ends up being Toni. Shelby quite literally can’t get her out of her mind, and even though Becca knows that, Shelby states it again, for clarity.
“You have to do something about it Shelbs, you have been moping around for her for months now.” Becca was right, she has been a goner for Toni since she first saw her during the first basketball match of the year.
“I want to! But it’s like she doesn’t even see me, and when she does, I feel like she sees through me, never interested enough to look at me for good.” She says.
“Literally everyone looks at you all the time, you are always the hottest everywhere you go, there is no way Toni has never noticed you.” Becca states, Shelby blushing by the end of her sentence, but doesn’t really know if she believes it or not.
“If she did, then she isn’t interested. Maybe I am not her type.” She throws back.
“You are everyone type.” Becca says, smirking at her. She really knew how to make her feel more confident.
“Ugh, I can’t do this anymore! I have tried starting conversations with her, tried to be obvious I am into girls, and still nothing. So yeah, I may be attractive, but what if she just doesn’t like me?” She says, and Becca’s heart hurts a little at that too, she has seen how Shelby looks at her, has heard how she feels for her.
“She doesn’t’ really know you, Shelby. How can she? You talked about exchanging pens or notes for classes, not about your traumas.”
“It doesn’t feel like she wants to anyway.” Shelby answers.
“okay then, you just have to ask her out. Make it clear. Do something obvious for her, and leave the ball at her court at that point. You can’t possibly go on without an answer.” Becca says, hoping she could convince her best friend.
“Becs…okay, let’s say that I want to, how do I do that? I have never done it.” She answers, almost shyly even though Becca knew everything about her.
“You have some experience, just hang to it. And yeah, they are about sex, but it’s something. Put the confidence you had to get to those moments, and use it to ask a girl out.” She says, referring to Shelby’s one night stands, since she has had a few since college started.
Shelby takes some time to think about it, wanting to let her best friend suggestion get to her, wanting to believe her. Because she wants to try.
Shelby groans, and after that she says “I just don’t know what to say, or how to say it.”
“You will have to be obvious about it, and also make it sound funny. You obviously have a lot of feeling towards her, but we can’t blow her mind with a declaration of eternal love before you say hello to her.” Becca says, laughing at the end of it, Shelby sometimes could put her foot in her mind so bad she might end up doing something as embarrassing as that.
“How can I sound like I don’t have too many feeling towards her? She is always in my mind, and she is not even paying rent!” She says, serious. Like what she just said wasn’t the corniest thing ever said by man-kind.
Becca starts laughing out loud, tears in her eyes and belly starting to hurt after a while because she just can't stop laughing at that, everytime she wants to stop she hears again that line in her head and she starts laughing harder.
Shelby at first looks at her like she is crazy, but after a few moments she rehearses what she just said and starts laughing as well, her best friend’s laugh contagious too.
They are able to stop only after a while, both still trying to recover, and when Becca is finally able to reply she says “That was the dumbest but cutest pick-up line I have ever heard. She has to know about it that.”
And now Shelby looks at her like she is crazy for a second time, because there just no way she is going to Toni and say that to her face.
“What? I am NOT n-o-t going to Toni and say that to her face!” She understands immediately she has given Becca another idea by the expression she has.
“Then don’t say that to her face! Go to one of her matches, bring a poster board with that written on it, make sure she sees it and then leave it up to her!” She says, like it was a brilliant idea. For Shelby, it was definitely not.
“Are you for real? Now you want me to say that in front of the whole college?” Shelby says, stunned by it, but entertained by the idea too.
“Not the whole college, Shelbs.” She says, even if she herself felt like it was an half lie, the woman basketball team was pretty famous. “Be cool about it, go to the closest row near the court, and hold it up only when they are entering, maybe when there are some breaks and Toni might be looking at the crowd.”
Shelby starts imagining it, and the idea makes her chuckle now, even if it was insane she could imagine Toni confused look and it was enough to have her soften.
“Probably some other teammates will see it too, some people close to you as well, but not everyone. This way, you will make it clear, while being funny, and she can choose what to do with that information.” Becca adds, trying to convince her.
Shelby doesn’t know what to answer at first, still going throw the mental image, and Becca smiles at the expression on her best friend's face.
“It would be mortifying if she sees it and doesn’t do anything about it.” She says, sounding sad about the idea already.
“I know, but this way you can at least move on. It’s been months, Shelby. You deserve an answer, this is a way to find it.” Becca says, softly. She believes it with all her heart. It takes another few moments for her to answer, after a while she says, nodding,
“I can’t believe I am agreeing to this.”
Becca squeals and brings her into a hug, glad she could convince her into doing this, and starts laughing too.
“Can’t believe that too, to be honest.” She says.
“The next match is in 2 days, we need to find a poster board!”. Shelby says excited once she realizes that, and removes herself from Becca’s tight hug, getting ready to run out of the door to find one.
Toni Shalifoe is the capitan of the Woman Basketball team of her college, and she is a pretty fucking good one if you ask her.
She is point guard, the one that runs faster compared to everyone else and orchestrates the team’s offense. That’s what she reminds herself all through the pre-match rituals, and then she looks around the room filled with her teammates, on different stages of getting ready as well. They had already done the warm-ups, and are back in the locker rooms one more time before the match starts, while hearing the public getting in the arena.
Today should be a good show, Toni thinks.
It’s one of the last final games of the season, and they are competing for the championship. Today might be the day they bring their score up to a few points to their main opponents, that had lost their game the day before.
A tension fills the locker room, and all the girls stand in front of their coach, Gretchen Klein, that does one of her long ass speeches about womanhood and the power of girl friendship or some shit.
Even if her rhetoric were…unconventional, to say the least, somehow they were one of the strongest team in their league, and the whole team worked pretty well. Once her speech is over, as the captain Toni starts a speech too, this one a little less friendly and a bit more intimidating speech (not that coach Klein couldn’t be when she wanted), remembering everyone how they needed to win and not to get distracted. Once she is over as well, the girls all get close and start cheering, hearing the fans outside starting to do the same.
They all get finally called to enter the court, and they stand in line anticipating the noise of the fans screams, the vibrant lights and the energy of the game.
Shelby decided on a standard white poster board to write the sign on, the line “You live in my mind, could you at least pay the rent?” written with in a black sharpie, and the word "Toni" written in uppercase letters and with the addition of a #3 after the name, since it’s Toni assigned number.
The poster board it’s currently hidden in her backpack, not wanting to let other people see it without a reason, as they agreed with Becca, while they look for the best seats. They had arrived early enough to have the ability to choose the best one, and they opt for some that are facing the home team bench. Toni would also have to walk past her on her way in.
She feels lucky Becca is free and she is able to be there with her, this way the time passes faster and she can at least make sure Shelby doesn’t backtrack out of embarrassment. People keep getting in, and a few sets down from her Shelby recognizes Martha, Toni’s best friend, seating there.
She is so close she could very easily see the sign if she were to turn, and Shelby doesn’t know (she does, actually) if that’s good or not, because if Toni were to not see the sign, Martha would for sure let her know.
Martha sees her and Becca, and waves at them, they had talked a few times and she has always been kind towards them. Where Toni could seem a bit rough sometimes, she could tell Martha was the opposite, and that’s how Shelby knew Toni had to have a soft spot, otherwise she couldn’t possibly match with Martha.
Shelby starts blushing the moment she sees Martha getting up from her seat and starting to move towards them, but luckily keeping her belongings on her previous seat since the ones closest to them had been occupied already.
Once she is near them, she smiles and starts conversating by say “Hey, nice to see you here!”
Becca starts talking, saying “You too. Wouldn’t want to miss it, seems like a fun match to watch.” She says, but Shelby gets the undertone and very nearly throws a mean glance at her.
“The biggest of the season so far. Should be packed soon enough.” She says, referring to the amount of people getting in the arena by the minute.
“Can’t wait to watch it!” Shelby nearly exclaims, and then gets bashful, because she was not talking about the game and from the way Becca is looking at her she understood that too.
“Me too, and I am so eager to see Toni, she was pretty stocked for this match.” She says, smiling.
“We are too.” Becca says, smirking. Martha watches at them confused but curios.
“Great! Then I will leave you two it, enjoy the match!” Martha says happily.
The two girls say their goodbyes too, and wave at her again. Shelby lets out a long breath, and then pinches her best friend in her arm.
“Oouch! What was that for?” Becca asks, acting puzzled.
“You know what for!” She replies, not believing for one second she doesn’t know what that was for.
Becca grins at her, “In a few hours you will tell me to pinch your arm because you won’t believe it while going all “Owh, toni asked me out! Owh, she looks so g-“ she is interrupted by Shelby's hand covering her mouth, trying to look angry but not managing to do so, a little smile playing on her lips too.
“Shh. You can’t know that.” Shelby says, hoping instead that her best friend had a way to see the future and be sure of what she was saying.
“You will see. Now go, start taking the poster board, it’s nearly time.” Becca says, smirking.
And that’s when Shelby feels the anxiety growing, because Becca was right, the game is about to start.
Toni ties her right braid harder once she is in the tunnel, and then moves it back her head, while seeing the first teammates moving down the tunnel and getting welcomed by the roar of the arena.
Once it’s her turn, she shows off a little, looking at the stands and signaling the fans to cheer harder already. The arena is packed tonight, and it’s not easy to identify one person in the stands, however she is a pretty clear vision of the closest row, and she is used to finding Martha’s usual seat by now, so she spots her pretty easily and nods in her direction, before reaching their team bench and moving once again closer to her teammates, ready for one last indication from coach Klein before the start of the game. The girls all listen, and then cheer in unison, before setting into the court, Toni moving near the referee for the captain's meeting. After that, she moves towards her position while attempting to tune down for as much as possible the roaring sound of the arena, waiting for the moment the ball will lift in the air. When that happens, it’s game on.
The ball moves around pretty quickly during the first half of the game, her feet moving quickly over and over again all around the court, stealing balls from the opponents, trying not to get fouled and not to foul as well (failing sometimes, in her there was still a bit of that anger she had in the court in high school as well), and sinking shots after shots. Her senses coming back just to hear the cheers of the arena everytime she scores a point, the ball falling perfectly inside the net. A surge of pride courses through her everytime she sees it entering the net perfectly, and a grin spreads on her face right after it, a tiny way to celebrate the point before getting back to focus on the game.
It’s the half time, they won the first period and lost by just a few points the second one. She was sweating, anxiety and a bit of anger cursing through her veins at the feeling of not being in complete control of the game that could put them in the first place of the standings. She is back in their locker room, standing in circle with her teammates. Coach Klein explain in details how to improve their game in the second half. She listens to her talk and then end it with a “C’mon, girls! You have to win this.”, before clapping her hands and nodding for them to get back to the court, also giving them those few moments off where they wait for the referee and can think about the suggestions she just gave them.
Toni goes through all the new indications in her mind while walking to the court, thinking about her solo prestation as well and trying to understand how to elevate their performace, when she goes to look at her best friend, in need of some comfort from her.
She goes to spot her, but from the position she is in that moment it takes a while to see the area Martha is in, that's when her eyes spot something that her mind just tells her to take a better look at.
And that’s when she sees it.
A girl, no, Shelby Goodkind, holding a sign. Which was pretty odd enough, from what she knew. She didn’t care too much about that Goodkind girl, she seemed to perfect to be real, and even though she was hot and Toni knew she was a lesbian, she didn’t give her much thought. It’s not like she could be attracted to any hot girls that were seated two rows from her in her social work class, or four in her diversity and cultural competence class. Or that always found a way to start some conversation with her, or that always had a spare pen with her, and even without asking she found a way to understand when Toni needed one.
So no, it’s not like Toni give her much thought.
And she wouldn’t have given much now too, thinking that whatever was going on was for sure for one of her teammates anyway, if not for the way her mind was screaming at her once again to pay some closer attention for one damn time.
She walks a bit closer, knowing she still had some moments to do so before the game started again, and focused on what was written on the sign.
That’s when she read her name, followed by her assigned number, and then the line “You live in my mind, could you at least pay the rent?”.
Toni had a lot of different options she could choose to react, the first one was to laugh at the line, because it was cheesy and adorable at the same time, the second one was to freak out because it was a line referred to her, but she opted for the third one, which was to smirk. (She hoped Shelby would mistake the blush creeping up her neck as residual sweat from the game, even if she had just cooled down, and not it being option 4).
She goes to lock eyes with Shelby’s green ones, and even though the arena is bright as fuck, her eyes seems to shine more than everything else. That green was so captivating she usually didn’t look at it because she didn’t want to get lost in it.
She saw a soft smile on Shelby’s face, and spotted perhaps a blush, her cheeks getting even redder when she winked at her, trying to act more confident than she was really feeling.
Her thoughts got stuck on how Shelby was looking at her. They got harshly interrupted when she heard a whistle ringing in the arena, her mind desperately trying to catch up to the game again, trying not to think about how Shelby Goodkind just took a poster board to the college biggest game of the year so far, just to throw a pick-up line at her.
Shelby had never seated so close to the court, a bit embarassed at the idea for some reason she now couldn’t understand, because wow seeing Toni sweaty so close to her was doing things to her.
The ball kept being tossed around the whole court, but her eyes couldn’t handle being away from Toni’s body for more than 10 seconds. Her muscles kept flexing, sweat was covering her body, her braids that she only wore to the game moving around her and she could only think about how soft they must be in her hands, she just looked so good and Shelby was too gay to notice anything else.
After the first half of the game ended and during which Shelby did anything but focus on her basically, Becca literally shocked her out of it, taking her shoulders in her hands and moving them, before saying “Hey, you there? Are there any thoughts going on in your head beside how hot Toni looks right now?”
“No.”, Shelby admitted. Couldn’t even bring herself to care. Becca knew anyway.
“Perfect. But we still have a plan to put in motion, and the poster board is still in your backpack, and now it’s the perfect time to take it since they have the longest break on court once they get back. So, what do you say you take it out and try to show it to her? So maybe you can actually tell to her all the things going through your mind?”
Shelby agreed that she should take it out, but in order to tell Toni what was going through her mind she would have to wait like, one month into a relationship before being able to tell her about it.
Shelby went to open her backpack and take the sign out, a shaky breath leaving her when she did so, while Becca was grinning next to her.
Once Shelby closed the backpack and had it in her hands, she gave Becca a panicked look because was she really about to embarrass herself like that?
“Shelbs, you can do it. Remember that it’s because you deserve to know, and if it goes well you might be going with Toni on a date by the end of next week.” The last part is what convinces her to do it. Because Becca was so right, and the butterflies in her stomach were bigger than the scared part of her brain that was telling her that she was too scared and embarrassed to go through it.
Before that part can become bigger and gain control, she takes the sign more steadily in her hands and brings it over her head.
And now that she has to hold it for a few minutes and not for just one second like she had imagined (like Toni would have seen it right away), she feels embarrassed for good.
She was thankful that only a small part of the arena could see her, beside the two teams. Becca squeezed her thigh once she does it, and throws her a comforting smile. Shelby keeps it steady, and after a while the anxiety turns down just a notch, she knew the game was about to start and there wouldn’t have been a better chance than now, seeing that the other breaks were too short, and that if they won probably there would have been too much confusion to notice her.
She keeps her eyes on Toni, hoping she could somehow feel them, and starts appreciating how good she looks once again. She seems a bit in her own world, probably thinking about the speech they all just had with their coach, when her head turns towards the crowd and give a confused look towards her area. Shelby breathing stops for a second, because it felt like she was looking at her, and then gulps when she sees Toni take one step closer towards her, now clearly focusing on her sign. She sees her read it, and then sees a smirk forming on Toni’s face, her dark brown eyes now looking at her.
Shelby gulps, and feels her face aflame once again. Toni throws a wink at her, and she very nearly feels like falling out of her seat. She can’t bring herself to care about anything else, her eyes glued on what is now a soft smile that Toni is showing just for her, when a loud whistle is heard and she feels a shudder go through her at it.
She sees a similar motion go through Toni as well, she moves her body like physically shaking herself out of that moment, and throws herself in the game, running rapidly in her position.
Shelby keeps looking at her all through the game, now thinking about Toni’s reaction to her sign.
Toni’s head is in the game quickly, she can’t allow herself to get distracted by what just happened, so she tries her hardest to get back at it, and uses the now known fact that Shelby was there for her as a reason to play better, to show off. Toni has her best match of the season, chasing balls, collecting them, passing them to her teammates in the best position and allowing them to sink the ball easily, and when she has the option she always goes for the basket herself, sinking shot after shot.
And they win because of it.
When the match is done, the fans and the team were all cheering for Toni and congratulating her for her best game so far, and when the view is free enough she casts a glance a Shelby, just to make sure she didn’t hallucinate her presence or something, and spots her looking right back at her.
She smiles at her, too far to talk with her and also to mouth something (and even if she could everyone was looking at her so it wouldn’t have been the best idea anyway) and nods at her, hoping she will understand she means to say something to her. Shelby nods back, and something inside Toni’s chest feel warm.
After that the whole team goes pretty rapidly to the locker room, some of them teasing about wanting to know what got Toni to play so well out of a sudden, but she doesn’t really answer and tries to shower and change faster than usual, but without trying to make it too obvious (Even if Shelby herself made it obvious basically in front of everyone anyway).
Once she is back in regular clothes, her heart beats harder, probably more than she did all game because holy fuck what was about to happen, and exits the arena, hoping to find Shelby there. Otherwise, she would have to wait the day after to spot her in their shared class.
But once she is out, she sees her, looking beautiful in a pair of thigh blue jeans and a yellow shirt with a black jacket on and sunglasses on her head, presumably waiting for her.
Shelby straightens her position when she sees her, obviously trying to play it cool, and Toni smirks a little about that, even if internally she was freaking out too.
“Hey, you had a brilliant game.” Shelby starts with, and Toni would love talking with her about everything, but her mind just wants to know if what she read is real.
“I will pay you.” She says, and it’s kinda dumb, because even if it’s related to Shelby’s sign it doesn’t really convey what she means.
Shelby looks at her curiously, but before she can answer, Toni adds,
“Not for the rent, obviously, I mean a date. I will pay for a date.” Shelby looks too stunned, and even if she knows it was an idea Shelby had and she is pretty sure she agrees with it, she says “If you want to, that’s it.” Blushing through this last part.
“Yes! Yes, sure, I would want to.” Shelby says, sounding enthusiastic at the start, and then trying to cool it down. But Toni sees right through it, and she knows the feeling, since she is feeling the exact same fucking thing.
“Perfect. See you there then, yeah?” Toni asks, not realizing they haven't decided literally anything. Shelby laughs at that, getting closer to her, and says “We haven’t decided anything yet, cap. But I will meet you anywhere you want.” And fuck, Shelby just got confident in one second and it was such a good look on her.
“Care to give me your number then? Unless you wrote it on your sign, but I am pretty sure I remember all of it.” She says, finally being able to flirt a bit as well.
“Didn’t write it. Wanted to give it to your personally, make sure you would call.” Shelby teases, and takes the phone Toni was handing her after having unlocked it.
While Shelby adds her number, Toni says,
“I will, don’t worry.” At which Shelby blushes again a little and it’s so endearing Toni wants to see it happening again and again.
Shelby handles her phone back, and smiles at her.
“Here you go.” Shelby feels like another 10 thousand words are about to leave her mouth, like ‘please call me. Do it now. I can’t wait. I am free right now.” She bites her lip in order not to throw them out at Toni now, as Becca predicted.
Toni watches with attention the action, and then meets Shelby’s green eyes, and they both stop talking, neither of them wanting to be the first to break the gaze.
Toni is the first to do so, and Shelby sees her gulping, and she can only think about how good it would be to cover her neck in kisses, so she takes a step back and tries to snap out of it.
“I will text you soon, then.” Toni says, not wanting the moment to end, but not knowing what to add as well.
“Sure. Soon.” Shelby says and smiles at her, remarking her words.
“Soon.” Toni reassures, and then nods at the direction of her dorm room, which she figures is in a different street compared to Shelby, since she hasn’t seen her around.
“Bye, Toni.” Shelby says, and flashes one last smile at her, and then waves.
Toni nods at the action and starts retracting, while waving at her, a soft smile on both of their faces that will not stop being there until they go to sleep.
They have no idea that the poster board will be the first piece of furniture they hang at their apartment a few years from that moment.