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Zuko walked over to the basketball court and shouted, “Ay Suks, can we have the court?”
Suki tossed the ball up and it hit the backboard, where the net should have been.
She turned to glare at Zuko standing in his self pretentiousness. Her face scrunched up and she jogged to catch up with the other girls down court, her worn down adidas crunching the gravel underneath her. She called over her shoulder, “Why aren’t you guys playing on your fancy indoor court?”
She stayed focused playing defense as Zuko responded, “They’re waxing the floors.”
The girls team was forced to practice on a city owned public court that hadn’t been repaved in her lifetime, while the boys team got to have practice everyday in the newly refurbished indoor court.
Suki let the rest of the girls continue playing as she walked over to Zuko. He was half a foot taller than her, but she glared up at him, “This is our court. Go find somewhere else to play.”
“Come on now, girls,” an old condescending voice cut in, “Let the boys have the court. They actually need it.”
Before Suki could chew out Vice Principal Pakku, Zuko’s voice called out, “We're talkin' it out, sir! Have a good night!”
Suki crossed her arms and glared daggers as the older man got into his beat up blue Cadillac with obnoxious rims, that was probably as old as he was.
Sokka, ever the compromiser, tried to negotiate, “Suki can we just have one half of the court and you guys can take the other half?”
She rolled her eyes, “Why should we have to give up anything? You guys finished your official practice. Go home.”
“You should just play for it,” Jet challenged.
Without giving it too much thought, Suki agreed, “Fine!” She held her arm out and Ty Lee passed her the ball.
Zuko tipped his head to the side in thought. A few baby hairs plastered to his forehead from sweating earlier, “Sure you wanna do this Suks?”
She nodded curtly, “Best to 20?”
“Fifteen.” Jet negotiated, “I don’t wanna be here all night.”
Zuko’s skin was almost glowing. The setting sun illuminated the whole neighborhood in reds and golds, but it seemed to give him an ethereal effect. His lips curled in half a smirk, “Your ball Suk.”
She took to the sideline, passing out to him and he passed it back, officially starting the game. The girls had cleared the court and were sitting on the pavement, there were no bleachers for these courts. The city didn’t want kids congregating. The boys had dropped down too, sitting in a pile of Nike duffle bags next to the girls.
Suki took off down court with Zuko on her tail, but she easily scored off the three point line. She put her arms on her hips as Aang went after the ball and tossed it to Zuko. As they checked the ball in, Suki pushed into his space playing defense. She commented, “You could at least try.”
His better eyebrow arched as he moved his elbow, creating some space between them. He switched from dribbling from his left to his right, moving around Suki and tossing the ball up to hit where the net should have been.
Sokka tossed her the ball and they checked it again. Suki was now satisfied with Zuko’s level of playing. She would probably lose. She would never admit it, but Zuko was the best player she had ever seen in person. He was great at defense, excelled in driving the ball to the net. He could get his free throw percentage up, but overall he was fantastic to watch. But Suki would never admit any of that.
She would never admit that she went to the games every Friday just to watch him play and be envious of how easy he made it look. His fatal flaw as a player was his temper. He could easily be baited into a fight or get fouled out of a game pretty quickly, but even that had mellowed since freshman year.
Going into their junior year, he exuded an easy confidence that frequently came off as cockiness. Like right now, his top knot was mostly in place, baby hairs came out here and there. His black muscle tank was clinging to him drenched in sweat. His red basketball shorts hid powerful legs that pushed him up and down the court. His black and gold Nike’s were a little too clean though. He had gotten too used to playing inside his pretty court instead of on the street. Suki faked him out and scored a three pointer to prove it to him without saying anything.
Sokka cheered, announcing the score, “Woooo! Suki- 6. Zuko-1.”
“Fuck off Sokka.” Zuko growled. He checked the ball to her and it was like a switch had been turned on in him. Gone was the easy confidence. It had been replaced by a competitor. His gold eyes were intently on her as he started dribbling up court.
Sokka answered back, “I’m not playing favorites or anything!”
Jet got up brushing himself off, “Imma go to Aunt Wu’s. Anyone want anything? I don’t need to witness this shit.”
Ty Lee sprung up too, “Jealous Jetty?”
He rolled his eyes, and accepted any cash that was offered to him. He and Ty Lee started walking towards Aunt Wu’s small grocery store.
Zuko was thinking a little bit harder as Suki waited for him to make a move. She thought about the day so far. It was one of those good summer nights. No one had started shit on the courts that day until Zuko had walked up. The cops had minded their own fucking business and the girls had spent the whole day playing ball.
The sun was still on that horizon line, painting the neighborhood in red and gold light. Suki could feel the thump of lowriders passing by with music blaring from their speakers.
Zuko’s eyes had studied her and studied the net. His large body was graceful as he evenly dribbled around her and scored.
They played two different types of basketball. Suki could shoot threes all day long. While Zuko took advantage of his larger size to drive to the net.
They checked the ball again. All Suki had to do was keep shooting 3’s and she would win in no time.
Or so she thought. This time as she started dribbling up the court, Zuko gave her no room to breathe. She turned away from him trying to keep the ball safe, but he reached his larger arms around her and swatted it away.
“Ohhhh!” Aang called from the sidelines, “Get it Hotman!”
Zuko bodied Suki and recovered the ball, slinging it up and scoring.
“Zuko! That’s a foul!” Katara called from the sidelines.
His muscled arms pushed the ball to Suki. The sweat was visibly dripping off of him. He raised his eyebrow, “Am I being too rough on you, Suks?”
Suki rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated breath. “Fuck off.” She called out as she rushed to the half court line and shot from there. Her aim was dead on. The ball bounced off the backboard.
The girls let out hoots and hollers, stomping their sneakers on the cracked pavement.
Suki started jogging backwards as Zuko dribbled down court. She smirked and asked, “What’s the score, Sokka?”
“9-2.”
"Fuck off Sokka," Zuko snarled as his gold eyes studied Suki.
Jet and Ty Lee returned. The Duke ran up immediately snagging a box of pocky sticks. Ty Lee sat next to Aang to share seaweed ramen bites. Toph reached into the plastic bag and grabbed a green tea kitkat and she tossed Mai a bag of hot chips. Jet handed Katara a pork bun and sat next to Sokka to share barbecue kabobs and chicharrones.
As they continued playing, the game remained scoreless as their friends talked and ate their snacks. The two basketball players were starting to figure each other out, to zone in on each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They were running down the court, but neither of them were scoring. They had both improved their defensive skills and were pushing each other’s boundaries.
Their friends soon got tired of the serious competition and took more easily to joking with each other as the warm evening began to descend closer to darkness. Most of the girls packed up first, not wanting to walk home in the dark.
The boys hung around a bit longer, but soon enough even they left too.
It was a clear, but humid night. The sweat stuck to Suki as Zuko easily swatted away one of her three point shots. He half assedly jogged after the ball. His top knot had fallen and was now a loose low bun.
Suki finally took in the world around her and realized that the sun had long ago set and that everyone else was gone.
Zuko walked back to the court, lazily passing the ball between his hands.
She looked up at him, “Should we call it a night?”
Zuko grinned brightly as if Suki hadn’t been busting his ass for the last two hours and spun the ball on the tip of his finger, “Thought we were playing to best of 15?”
Suki rolled her eyes and blew a stray bang out of her face.
A police siren broke the brief silence between them.
Officer Piandao called over the loud speaker, “Go home!”
They both called out, “We’re going!”
Suki walked over to the sideline and grabbed her plain backpack. Zuko shoved his pretty shoes into his Nike duffel bag and kicked on his Nike slides.
She looked up at him and sniffed, “Looks like all those fancy college scouts are trying to bribe you.”
Zuko looked down at his apparel that cost more than anything Suki had owned in her life and just shrugged.
They started walking but she couldn't help but burst, “You don’t even realize how good you have it, just cause you’re a guy! I bust my ass harder than you ever have and I don’t get anything for it- no fancy gym, no fancy swag, no college scholarship- nothing!”
They had stopped walking and Zuko shifted his bag on his shoulder. He offered, “I can ask one of the college scouts to go to one of your games..”
Suki felt like ripping her hair out. She huffed, “I don’t need your charity Zuko.”
His eyebrow arched again, “What do you need then Suki?”
She kicked her hand me down shoe into the sidewalk, “It would just mean a lot, if you could show up to one of our games. Everyone in the community respects you so much and it’s not just for me, it’s for the other girls too. They work so fucking hard and they don’t get shit for it.”
Suki swallowed. It had been hard enough to get the words out of her mouth, to actually ask him for something.
“'Course, Suki.”
She looked up surprised at how easily he agreed. How he didn’t make excuses or jokes.
He looked up at the bright moon in the clouds, “I just figured you know, you didn’t want me hanging around.”
She bumped her shoulder into his elbow as they started walking again, “You’re not that bad.”
He gave a throaty laugh and then his gold eyes were on hers, “Wanna play again tomorrow?”
Suki felt happy and hopeful as she agreed, “You’re on.”