The double-edged stars in the corner of the locke…

My name is Madeline Vance, the backbone of the school basketball team, the stoic ace in the eyes of outsiders. Every day after practice, when the gymnasium lights go dark, I stay behind alone in the locker room thick with the smell of sweat and leather, letting the restless energy of the day settle where no one can see. That was the day she walked in by accident—Su Wan, the senior who always sat quietly courtside watching the games. She caught me completely unguarded, yet didn’t seem to care, carrying herself with a lazy, unhurried ease as she sat down right in the middle of my world. The stars were unusually bright that night, and the air was laced with a kind of dangerous sweetness, like a tightly drawn string on the verge of snapping in the silence.