Chapter Text
In a tank top and shorts, there wasn’t a way to make the costume less hot. The fur stuck to my skin even when I wasn’t moving around. Only two more minutes Y/N. I looked up to the scoreboard and watched as the time slowly counted down to the final minutes of the game. Daegu High School sat on top, winning 87 to 84. I could tell that the players from Yeong-Nam High School were starting to lack energy as the captain of Daegu ran right past them with the ball. He ran towards the basket, doing a layup to get another two points for his team. 89 to 84. Yeong-Nam’s coach called a timeout as they were about to pass the ball. Both teams ran over to their respective benches and listened to each coach for their next plan.
“NOW! GIVE IT UP! FOR YOUR MASCOT! STALKER THE BADGER!” the announcer stated. I stood up and ran towards the middle of the gym floor with my small drum and mallet. I looked around at all of the students. Lifting the drum over my head, I slammed the mallet into its bouncy material, making a loud bang sound. And then I did it again. Each bang became louder as the students joined, clapping to the same rhythm I made. I picked the pace before we were all clapping and cheering. The time out had ended and I ran back to the sidelines where I stood, watching the rest of the game.
The buzzer sounded as the game came to an end. The crowd erupted with cheer while Daegu players ran towards each other as they celebrated with each other. Once again, I ran out onto the floor and banged my drum to keep the excitement up in the air as the losing team sulked towards the side and packed up their bags to leave. Students began to leave out the gym doors, congratulating the players and coming up to take pictures with me. I compiled through gestures, posing for all of the pictures. Once all the students left, I sighed and started to head to the equipment room.
“Finally! I can take this off!” I muttered under my breath as I brushed past the team.
I regretted agreeing to be the school mascot back in sophomore year. It was stinky and no one had told me how hot it would get in that suit. I knew I could've found another way to get credits towards university, but I thought it would be easy. ‘All you have to do is one year of acting as the school mascot for your credits’ is what the principal said, and then one year turned into the rest of my high school life as being the mascot. I couldn’t go to any games with my friends because I had to act as the mascot. I had to make up a bunch of excuses like I needed to study all the time to keep my straight ‘A’ status in the school; everyone believes me and never bothers me while I’m secretly there, just in a disguise.
As I reached the equipment room, I walked straight to the back into a little change room area for me. No one knew about it besides the school staff and me. The room was small but perfect for one person in a big costume. A fan sat in the corner of the room so that I could cool down once my act for the day was over. I pushed the door behind me, hoping it would’ve closed, but it didn’t. No one was usually in the equipment room anyway; the gym classes always used them during the first block the next day.
I took off the heavy mascot head off as I sat down in front of the fan to cool me down. The mirror to the side of me showed the sweat dripping down on my forehead, neck, arms, everywhere! I should try and convince the school for a better cooling system in these suits. I picked up a bottle of water beside me and took the biggest swig I had ever taken in my life. I almost wanted to dump the whole bottle on top of me, but I kept myself back from doing it. Undoing the back of the costume was tricky, but game after game, I got the hang of it. I slipped out the rest of the costume, mostly pulling it off of my sticky skin.
“One more day done until I don’t have to do this anymore!” I said to myself outloud, sighing as I started to pack it up.
THUD!
I stopped what I was doing when I heard a sound form behind me. I slowly turned to see that the door was wide open. Standing close to the doorway with a bunch of basketballs in a bag stood one of the players from my school. Number 3.
‘SHIT! THE CAPTAIN! NO NO NO!’ I said to myself.
“I didn’t realize you were a girl,” he said. He tried to wipe a smirk off of his face, but I was able to catch a glimpse of it.
I paused for a second as we both stared at each other. I felt frozen as I tried to think of what to do in this situation.
“Or pretty,”