Twenty-four years earlier
 

Yuri dribbled the basketball blindly, her eyes  never leaving  the cheerleaders as they practiced on the other side of the gym.  She pretended to eye them all, but it was only Jessica  Jung  who held her interest.
 

“Yo, Yuri. You’re going to pass the ball or what?”
 

Embarrassed,  she  turned,  firing  a  one handed bullet at La Quita, nearly knocking her down from the force.

“I’m going to pass the ball, of course.”  She said as she jogged past her.

The whistle blew and she stopped dead in her tracks, waiting for Coach Beam to yell at her.
 

“Yuri! I don’t care if you are our top scorer. You sit your on the bench the rest of practice. I won’t have showboating.”
 

Yuri  sulked  as  she  walked  over  to  the  bench,  wishing  she  could  keep  her  mind  on basketball—her  one  love instead of Jessica Jung.  Even now she found her eyes straying across the gym, picking Jessica out of the group pf nearly identical looking skinny blond girls.

Having  gone  to  Catholic  school  through  the eighth grade,  she’d  never  laid eyes on the girl before.  Now that they were at the same high school, she found herself running into her constantly, each time more distressing to her.  Her hormones were alive and kicking but instead of directing her to boys, they led her directly to Jessica Jung.  She rolled her eyes.  A  cheerl