#hopkins

[snowdrop-milk]

after playing a game of hide-n-seek on a rainy day .⋆｡⋆ ☂

[squidlydoodles]

Rainy Day ☔️

[unteriors]

Old Bluff Road, Hopkins, South Carolina.

[pazziwbb535]

oh okay sobbing

[procrastwriterr]

𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 — paige bueckers x oc!sister

ꨄ — summary: paige brings her team home for christmas and reunites with her sister after 2 years but people change and her sister certainly has.

ꨄ — word count: 4.3k

ꨄ — warnings: idkkk paige being sad, poor writing, drew being the best, penelope (my oc) being oblivious, idk anyways

ꨄ — authors note: (this was my very first attempt at a tumblr post but i didn’t finish it as fast as the kk one so this was put on the back burner)

penelope is my oc (face claim is freya skye), i just find it easier to write oc stories rather than reader stories so for any future posts that i do about paige having a sister i will call her penelope, sorry if that’s weird, it’s just how i prefer writing, but anyways i hope you enjoy reading.

Paige was in a good mood, a great mood even, everyone could tell. It was Christmas in a few weeks, and Paige had managed to convince the team—well, some of the girls—to go back to Minnesota with her. The girls were only gonna stay for a week before they had to head home for Christmas as well.

She wanted one last holiday with the girls before they were swarmed with the madness of March, winning the natty, the draft and then, of course, training camp for her first pro season in the WNBA.

Azzi was, of course, already going, and once Paige played the ¨last holiday before I leave" card, all the girls agreed, and Paige called her dad to let him know.

But that wasn’t what had her in a good mood; it was something else.

It was her sister, Penelope. She was finally going to be home for Christmas.

Paige and Penelope once had a great relationship. Growing up, people used to refer to the sisters as twins despite Paige being five years older.

When Bob and Amy first started having problems in their marriage, they figured maybe a baby would fix it and from that came Penelope. She was born five days after Paige’s birthday, which only brought the sisters closer as they grew up. When having a baby didn’t work, Bob and Amy split, and Penelope, who was two at the time, chose to stay in Minnesota with her father and sister. Paige absolutely adored Penelope, and vice versa; the two girls did everything together, from eating to sleeping to playing basketball and everything in between.

Their bond only grew stronger as the years went by, and then all of a sudden they had two step-parents and three siblings, but the Bueckers girls are nothing if not loving and kind, so they welcomed this change with open arms full of love.

And when Paige started to take basketball seriously, Penelope was right there supporting her along the way. Every game and every win, Penelope was there cheering from the sidelines. Every loss and injury, Penelope was there comforting and supporting her. She became close with everyone Paige met through basketball, including everyone on the U17 Team USA group, specifically Azzi and Caitlin.

Then Paige left for college.

Penelope was twelve when her sister left and on the cusp of puberty, and although she was close with Mo, the only person she really wanted to talk to about that stuff was Paige.

For the first two years, everything was normal, as normal as they can get when every conversation you have with your sister is over the phone. Penelope met the team, and they all grew fond of the smaller Bueckers girl, and Penelope became especially close with Nika and Aubrey.

The Bueckers girls still stayed close in Paige’s junior year, but with Paige’s ACL injury and her deciding to stay in Connecticut to heal, contact was limited, especially when Penelope started taking cheer seriously. She started going to a cheer camp at the end of every year in her freshman year, and she fell in love. Basketball may have been her sister's thing, but cheer was hers.

Then Paige’s senior year and Penelope’s sophomore year started, and the sisters threw themselves into their passions. Paige wanted to prove that her injury hadn’t changed who she was as a player, and Penelope had thrown herself into practices and branching out.

Then the sisters only saw each other briefly on Paige’s senior night where Paige announced that she was staying for another year, and that was where Nika and Aubrey were reunited with the smaller Bueckers girl, along with Azzi and her family who came over to say hi and she was introduced to the other girls on the team, who also quickly became fond of Penelope.

Growing up, Penelope only ever really hung out with Paige, so when she became a cheerleader, she suddenly had girls and guys who played sports reaching out to be friends and to talk about when the cheer team could go cheer them on. It was overwhelming at first, but then Penelope started getting used to it, and she learned quickly that it’s better to have a smaller circle of friends.

Then, after the loss in March, Paige had pushed herself into training and more practice, she wasn’t leaving UConn without a national championship.

Penelope, on the other hand, continued to flourish. She started going out more, making friends, and continued with cheer.

So, aside from a comment or like on Instagram, the sisters hadn’t talked to each other in a year or two, and when Paige came back for breaks, Penelope was never home, either at cheer camp or with her friends on break in another country.

Which meant, Paige was basically bouncing off the walls in excitement at the thought of seeing her sister, and she had been talking everyone’s ears off because of it, and right now her victim was KK but only because Azzi had kicked her out of the room after she kept whispering about Penelope under her breath while Azzi was checking their luggage one last time before they left.

“P boogers, i’mma need you to shush,” KK exclaimed, “I know you’re excited to see Penny again, but you have got to shut up, you have been non-stop yapping about it, and we are sick of it. Why do you think Azzi kicked you out?”

“KK, cmon, I’m just excited–”

“Girl, we know you’re excited, why do you think we keep letting you go on like this? But look, we’re leaving now, so if you could shut up about it for the entirety of the trip, that would be great.”

Paige mumbled something incoherent under her breath and then quickly started helping pack up the cars.

She couldn’t wait to see Penelope again.

Penelope was panicking. She couldn’t find her cheer shoes, and she was supposed to leave 10 minutes ago, but her father was preparing the guest rooms for something and had asked her to help before she left for practice, so now she was scrambling to look for her shoes.

The cheer team only had a couple of practices left before they stopped and went on break. Usually, the team would go to a cheer camp, but it had been cancelled that year for whatever reason, Penelope wasn’t really listening when the coaches announced it. So, that left the coaches to schedule extra practices to make sure the girls were in shape and ready for when the break was over.

After sprinting around the house, she finally found her shoes under the couch on the deck. She threw them in her bag and then started running through the house to get her cheer bag in the lounge.

Just as she reached the front door, her father called out, “Don’t forget to pick up Drew from his friend's house, Penny! Oh, and Paige will be back tomorrow with Azzi and her friends, so I want you home, no going over to Avery’s house, ´kay sweetheart.”

Oh shit. Paige.

It had completely slipped Penelope’s mind that Paige was coming home. Now Penelope didn’t mean to stop talking to Paige, she was constantly busy with cheer, school, her job, her friends, and she somehow became student body president so her life became all sorts of hectic and besides a phone works both ways and Penelope knew Paige was also preoccupied with basketball and school so it never bothered her that she didn’t really talk to Paige anymore.

Fumbling with her keys, she shouted an okay back at her father and left.

She could think about Paige later; she had cheer practice to get to.

It was the next day, and Paige was supposed to show up with everyone around lunch. After practice yesterday Penelope picked up Drew from his sleepover and went to get them ice cream, the siblings sat in a empty car park and talked about their days and when the topic of Paige came up Drew went on a long rant about how excited he was to see her again, seeing him so excited made Penelope happy but she had been so busy she hadn’t really given herself time to process it.

Once she got home, she showered, curled into her bed and started thinking about Paige again.

She barely thought about Paige now, which is crazy because when she was younger, all she could think about was Paige, but people change and grow, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The sisters would just have to learn to love the new changes in each other, just like they did when they were younger.

And again, just like yesterday, Penelope was rushing. She had woken up late and found out the coaches had scheduled an afternoon practice, so now she was sprinting around her room to get dressed and do her hair properly.

She was so focused on getting dressed and grabbing her bag, she didn’t hear her father yell that Paige and the team had shown up. When she was finally dressed, she grabbed her bag that she had, thankfully, packed the night before and raced downstairs, barrelling past the tall basketball players standing by the front door, who stared at her waiting to be acknowledged.

She would have gotten in her car and driven off, having not noticed the team until her father called her back, “Penelope! Come say hi to your sister.”

Oh shit. Paige. She forgot again.

But being in a rush, Penelope threw her bag in the passenger seat and rushed back to the house. When she got inside, she quickly found Paige and gave her a quick, rushed hug, mumbling Hi, I missed you, bye, and then she rushed back out the door, into her car and drove off.

Leaving a slightly disappointed Paige, who thought she’d get a little more than a rushed hug and greeting from her sister, but she brushed it off when Drew came running over.

Paige and the team had settled in, putting their bags in their respective rooms and were now chilling in the lounge. Dinner was almost ready, and Paige was fidgeting, waiting for Penelope to come home.

After her abrupt exit earlier Paige asked where Penelope was going and from there Drew went on a long rant about Penelope being very busy now and how he only ever saw her when she had to pick him up and drop him off, Paige could tell just by listening to Drew that he missed Penelope, he also added that sometimes he doesn’t see her for days and the next time he does it’s brief, or sometimes she’ll bring him ice cream and they’ll sit and catch up which are moments Drew appreciates the most.

Her father, Bob, also chimed in at some point to say because most of the stuff Penelope does involves her friend Avery, she often spends days, if not weeks, with her.

Paige was sad, and everyone could tell. She was excited to see her sister again, but now it seems that Penelope might be too busy for her.

She was then shaken out of her thoughts by the door opening, and her head perked up at the sound. She waited for it to close, and when it revealed Penelope, a huge grin spread across her face, but it quickly fell when she realised Penelope was in a rush again.

Bob also noticed and quickly yelled out to Penelope, who was making her way up the stairs, “Hey Penny! Where are you going? Dinners almost ready.” Penelope stopped mid-step and turned around, saying, “Sorry, Dad, I have this presentation to finish with Avery. I just came to pick some stuff up.”

“C’mon, Penny, your sister's home, she brought her friends, can’t you take a break for a couple of hours and catch up with us?” Bob pleaded, “I wish, but this presentation is for our meeting tomorrow. I have to finish it tonight.” Penelope stared at her father and hoped he would just allow her to go, she didn’t have time to stand around and go back and forth with her father

“What about Paige? or Azzi? They’ve missed you. Don’t you want to stay and chat? I’m sure Avery can finish the project without you. I know you’ve spent this past week working on it.”

By that point, everyone in the lounge was watching the back and forth between the father and daughter, and Paige was only feeling more terrible as the seconds passed. She couldn’t believe Penelope was going to ditch dinner to work on a presentation. Azzi, sensing Paige was feeling bad, reached out to grab her hand and started tracing circles with her thumb on the back of her hand.

When Paige relaxed, Azzi spoke up, “It’s okay, Bob, Penelope can go finish her presentation, and we can all catch up tomorrow.”

Penelope threw a thankful smile in Azzi’s direction before facing her father again, waiting to hear what his final decision was. “Fine, you can go, but I want you home tomor–” Bob was cut off by Penelope racing upstairs. He just sighed and sat down on the dining table, motioning for everyone to join him.

When Penelope came back down, everyone was seated and making their plates. She ran up to the table and kissed her father and step-mother on the cheek, ruffled Drew’s hair and then yelled her goodbyes as she raced out the door.

And again, Paige was left feeling sad and disappointed. She didn't get a warm welcome, or a goodbye or a hug; she was barely acknowledged. She just wanted her sister, but on the bright side, she would get to see her tomorrow, right?

Wrong. Paige hadn’t seen Penelope in days.

After dinner, the night Penelope left, Paige spent the night ranting to the team about her sister, which ended with Azzi and KK assuring her that she would get to see Penelope the next day and everything would be fine.

Well it wasn’t. Penelope didn’t come home the next day, and Paige had spent half the morning waiting for her until Bob had told her to just go with her friends and that Penelope would likely be back later that night.

Well, while Paige was out Penelope messaged their father to let him know she would probably be staying with Avery for a couple days because she had last minute school stuff to finish, which led to Bob calling her and the two got into an argument because Bob had already told Penelope she couldn’t stay with Avery and she had to come home and see Paige.

Eventually Bob conceded after Penelope promised to be home in a couple of days. When she hung up Bob didn’t want to be the one to break the news to Paige, who was still hoping Penelope would show up.

Well, a couple of days had passed, the team had gone out and explored Minnesota, and Paige had taken them to all her old spots. Usually, she would have taken them to the Minnesota State Fair, but that was her and Penelope's thing, so she was gonna wait. Despite the smile that was on her face, Paige was sad; she was missing Penelope.

The next day, everyone was having breakfast a little later since they all went to sleep late the night before, and Paige was fidgeting. She heard Penelope come home last night, and she was waiting for her to come down so she could ask if she wanted to spend the day with her and the team.

Once everyone had made their plates, footsteps were heard coming down the stairs and Penelope appears wearing a denim skirt with a white flowy top, her white converses and her jewellery, “Morning everyone” she exclaimed walking towards the table, everyone quickly said morning back and the team noted that, that was the first thing Penelope had said to them since they arrived.

Bob, who couldn’t help but notice that Penelope was in a good mood, said, “Morning, sweetheart, what’s got you in a good mood?”

“Well, I finally finished that last presentation for school with Avery and presented it, so no more school stuff. My last cheer practice was yesterday, and my last shift at work was last night, so I am officially in holiday mode.”

Perfect timing, now Paige could finally hang out with Penelope.

“My friends are coming over, and then we’re going to the state fair, so don’t wait up, okay, Dad?”

Well, there goes that plan. The state fair was Paige and Penelope’s thing, and now she was going with someone else.

And just like the days before, Paige is left hurt, sad and disappointed because Penelope didn’t want to hang out with her and didn’t even consider that maybe Paige wanted to hang out with her.

This holiday was starting to suck.

All of Penelope’s friends had come over, and they were all in the backyard chilling by the pool. Some of the girls were practising their cheer stunts, and others were sitting on the deck talking.

Paige had watched the girls file into the house, passing her and saying Hi to her family. She recognised Avery from when Penelope was in middle school, and when Avery noticed her, she waved to Paige and the team.

Penelope was sitting with Avery on the deck stairs, watching the other girls do flips, and sitting in the window behind her was Paige. She watched wistfully as Penelope laughed and chatted with her friends, feeling a sense of nostalgia as she remembered the days she and Penelope used to hang out like that.

Memories resurfaced of Paige and Penelope playing chicken in the pool, or sitting on the deck talking about college, or launching Paige’s basketball’s so far up in the sky just to see if they could get it to land in the pool (it wasn’t their smartest idea), the girls spent so much time hanging out, doing anything and everything together, that Paige could go anywhere in her house, at the shop, down the street, to her old school’s and she would be able to recall a memory with Penny.

Avery, out of the corner of her eye, spotted Paige in the window, zoning out, staring straight at Penelope. She narrowed her eyes, looking between the two sisters, Penelope hadn’t mentioned Paige was coming back; in fact, Penelope hadn’t talked about her at all. Which was weird, because if Avery knew Penelope, and she did, she knew that Penelope basically worshipped the ground Paige walked on. When Avery and Penelope met in first grade, the first thing Penelope said besides her name was, “I have a cool older sister Paige, she’s gonna be a pro basketballer, I want to be just like her”

So, for Penelope not to mention anything about Paige coming back at all was a red flag in Avery’s eyes.

Bringing her attention back to Penelope, she asked, “So, how is it having Paige back?”

Penelope paused. She wasn’t expecting that, “Um, it’s been good, I haven’t really had the chance to hang out with her yet, y’know, school stuff.” She tried to brush it off but Avery wasn’t letting up.

“Y’know…I think Paige might be missing you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Avery smiled knowingly, tilting her head towards Paige. She watched Penelope turn her head, and Paige’s eyes widened, realizing she had been caught staring, quickly turning her head away. Penelope giggled, huffing slightly before turning back to Avery, who was now smiling at Penelope.

“Maybe, it wouldn’t be so bad to hang out with your sister after not seeing her for a very long time.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

Penelope didn’t think about how Paige would feel, but that was only because she didn’t think about her at all. She had been so focused on school, work, cheer, and her future that she hadn’t given herself time to just stop and be present. She missed milestones with her siblings, locked herself in her room to focus on a project, maybe it was time she paused, and let herself exist in the present.

And also maybe it was time she had some good old sibling bonding.

It was nearing midnight, and everyone in the house was asleep apart from Paige and Drew, who were up playing Fortnite. Just a little bonding time for the siblings, while playing, they talked about lots of things, including Penelope, and they both shared that they missed her. They both had hoped that because Penelope wasn’t leaving for camp this year that the siblings would spend more time together, but obviously not.

After a while of playing, they heard the front door open and stopped to listen, then came the sound of steps coming up the stairs. Paige put the controller down and turned to Drew, who had wrapped himself up in the blanket on his bed. The steps stopped just outside his door, and a knock was heard.

The door was pushed open to reveal Penelope.

She had changed out of her outfit from that morning and was now wearing her high school cheer sweat set, and she looked exhausted.

Penelope remembered on the way to the fair that it was her and Paige’s thing, so she pivoted. Avery helped her convince the girls to go to the mall, and they spent all day there until heading back to Avery’s house, where half the girls crashed and the other half stayed up gossiping. Penelope stayed awake a little longer before deciding to head home.

Penelope smiled timidly in Paige's direction before turning to Drew. He peeked his head out from the blanket, and Penelope brought her hand up to reveal an ice cream cup. “I brought ice cream, but it melted on the way over.” Her voice was soft, like she didn’t want to ruin the quiet in the room.

“Wanna go for a drive?” Penelope glanced over Paige, the invitation a silent question hanging in the air between them. Drew quickly nodded his head and jumped out of bed, putting on his slippers and racing over to Penelope by the door. He gave her a big hug, and both of them stood looking at Paige.

Jumping at the chance to finally hang out with Penelope, Paige followed suit and put on her slippers and the siblings quickly and quietly—well as quiet as things can get with Drew giggling behind the girls—made their way downstairs and out the door.

Once the siblings made it to Penelope’s car, they hopped in and Penelope quickly drove off. While Penelope was driving, Drew was in the back thinking out loud about what flavour of ice cream he was gonna get, and Paige was silent.

She kept taking glances over at Penelope; her brain couldn’t comprehend that just 6 years ago, she was driving Penelope around, and now it was the other way around. It was like watching her child grow up and move on without her.

There was no one inside when they made it to the ice cream parlour, and so they quickly made their way in, ordered, got their ice cream and made their way back to Penelope’s car. Paige held Penelope’s ice cream while she drove to a quiet spot where they could eat.

After driving for a bit, the siblings found themselves sitting in the empty car park of a basketball court, more specifically, the basketball court that Penelope and Paige used to spend hours at. It was where Paige practiced and tried to teach Penelope how to dribble. It was where Penelope scraped her knee, and Paige bought her ice cream to feel better. It was where Paige told Penelope she was going to UConn. And it was the last place the two sisters visited before driving to the airport to drop Paige off.

That basketball court had seen so many versions of the Bueckers sisters, collected so many memories, and now it was where they reconnected.

Penelope grabbed her ice cream from Paige, and for a while, it was silent between the siblings.

Eventually, Drew started talking about his day and how much fun he had hanging out with Paige and the girls, with Drew still talking in the background, Penelope turned him out and slowly turned to face Paige.

Quietly, she said, “I’m sorry I haven’t been home. I didn’t want to not see you, I've just been so busy and I had stuff to finish before break, so I’m sorry.”

Paige sat silently listening to Penelope talk, “I’m really happy you're home, and it’s good to see you.”

Finally speaking up, Paige said, “I’m sorry too. I should’ve called more or—”

“No, it wasn’t your fault—”

“Yes, it was,” Paige said, “It shouldn’t be your responsibility to reach out. I’m the older sister, it’s my job.”

“Yeah, but I’m older now, too. I could’ve reached out and I didn’t…I guess I just got used to the silence. The…not talking. I had busied myself so much to the point that I didn’t even notice if it had been days or weeks since I last spoke to you…and I guess I just hadn’t let myself settle long enough to notice”

“Still, with everything going on, I should’ve called you. I didn’t realise how much I missed you until you didn’t have time for me anymore.”

Penelope sighed, looking at Paige, talking with her again, and having this moment of peace brought comfort to Penelope. She missed her sister.

Noticing the quiet in the car, Penelope turned around to find Drew fast asleep in the back with his ice cream tipped over, about to spill out of the cup.

She smiled at the sight, reaching over to grab his rubbish and put it in the front next to hers, “Let’s get him home.”

As Penelope reversed the car and started driving out, Paige spoke up, “I know the girls missed you so…how do you feel about going to the fair tomorrow?”

“Good idea, Paigey”

“Seriously?!” Paige groaned, sinking into the passenger’s seat

Penelope’s laughter was heard all the way back home. Yeah, she definitely missed her sister.

[raystarkitty]

Animal-Crossed Lovers 🎁🍃

[amalgamcorps]

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