I screwed up. Like, ROYALLY screwed up. And the worst part is, I didn't even mean to. Kinda. Ugh. Okay so you know that feeling when everyone's looking at you? Like not in a good way, but like they're EXPECTING something? That's our town right now. Everything's dead. Like, Main Street's got more boarded-up stores than open ones, and my mom just got another letter from the electric company – again. The only thing anyone cares about is the basketball team. We're actually GOOD this year. For once. And me? I'm the star player. Ha. Big joke, right? I mean, I *am* good, I work my butt off, I do my side hustles – dog walking, cleaning garages, whatever – to help out, so I get why everyone puts their hopes on me. It’s a lot, but I deal. Or I thought I did. Anyway, there’s this rule. We gotta be in by midnight on game nights. No exceptions. Coach drilled it into us: "One screw-up, you're benched. No matter who you are." He always says that. But Friday... Friday I was just so beat after practice and then a job where I swear the lady had a hundred cats. My phone died, charger broke, whatever, I just crashed at my friend's place. Woke up at 1 AM. My heart jumped straight into my throat. ONE AM. An hour late. My stomach just dropped. I’m thinking, "Oh god, this is it. The championship. The town. My mom's face if we lose because of me." I sprinted home, just praying no one noticed. But Coach... he has eyes everywhere. The next morning, before the game, he called me into his office. I’m standing there, feeling like a little kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. He just looks at me, all serious. "Heard you had a late night, kid." My blood ran cold. I couldn't even lie. Just mumbled something about my phone. He just nodded slowly. And then he says, "Look. This game means a lot. To everyone." He gestures vaguely out the window, like he's pointing to the whole struggling town. "We can't lose. Not now. We just can't." And then he just... let it go. Said, "Don't let it happen again." That was it. No benching. No punishment. Just... ignored. Because I'm the star. Because we NEED to win. We won. Of course we won. I played my best, scored like crazy. Everyone was cheering, high-fiving me. "Great game!" "MVP!" Even my mom was smiling, really smiling for the first time in ages. But all I could feel was this sick pit in my stomach. Like I cheated. Like I got away with something I shouldn't have. Every time Coach looked at me, I felt this hot flush. And the other players? Some of them looked at me funny, like they knew, or suspected. I kept thinking about that rule, the "no exceptions" part. Coach broke his own rule for me. Because of me. It's messed up. It's really messed up. I'm glad we won, I really am, but man... it just feels gross. Like, what kind of example is that? Laughing, cause I don't know what else to do. This whole thing is just... yeah. Screwed up.