I’m Vivienne Blaine, but everyone calls me Vee, or at least they used to. Seven months ago I was point guard for Mount Venerable basketball team. I thought of myself as well-liked, so I was surprised by the messages getting posted to my Facebook page after the school put up a little story about the team, which included publicity pictures of all the players.

The first few messages were typical, stuff like “U the Girl V!”

But then came, “How cum your shirt don’t have a number?”

I probably shouldn’t have replied, but I did. “It was just a practice jersey. I’m number six.”

Then the guy, I assume it was a guy, wrote back, “Shouldn’t it be 69? Isn’t that what you jock girls do?”

This was followed by, “69 don’t explain why your pregnant.”

A minute later someone else posted, “Its come not cum and its you’re pregnant, a-hole,” to which almost immediately someone else wrote, “Ha ha it’s it’s.”

Suddenly there were a dozen messages, two dozen. The one, “I’d love to give you a nice fat basketball baby belly,” made me cry.

After reading, “Does V stand for vagina? I bet yours is super sweet. Wood U like to DUNK me?” I deleted my Facebook account. I dreaded going to classes the next day.

At practice the next afternoon I was so trembly I could barely lace my shoes. I told Coach I wasn’t feeling well and she told me to take off. “You going to be okay for the game tomorrow, cuz we really need you if we’re going to go all the way,” she said.

“Yeah, no problem,” I told her, but my voice was faint.

At the game against Sisters of the Cross, I missed my first shot, not even close. Then something happened, I don’t know what. I couldn’t miss. I hit twenty-six in a row, and we won by more than fifty points.

“You showed those Facebook jerks,” my teammate Cindy told me in the locker room after the game.

I smiled. A meek smile. “Yeah, but they were right about one thing.”

Baby’s due in three weeks. I’m so fat, but I feel okay most of the time. Mom and Dad say they’ll be happy to take care of the kid if I want to go back to school. I haven’t decided yet. I’m looking forward to being a mom. Already I love Baby more than I ever loved basketball, more than I ever loved anything or anyone. Earlier this afternoon I went down to the playroom and looked at my MVP trophy. It all just seems so trivial.