THIS IS YOUR GAME
Name: Noah Nakamura Age: Eighteen Class Year: Freshman Position: Vixen Hometown: Vancouver, Washington
THIS IS YOUR MOMENT
TW: car crash
Being the youngest of five siblings is no easy feat—especially when they’re all sisters. Growing up, Noah was just as likely to be spoiled as he was to be overlooked, always the odd boy out, an easy target for his sisters’ good-natured teasing. Two parents to five children was sometimes an unforgiving ratio, making things like after-school pickups just that much more difficult to navigate. And that was why, originally, Noah got into gymnastics: his older sisters were already going to the gym after school, so it was easier to just sign him up, too.
And so he lived his life in his sisters’ footsteps, following behind them just as reliably as a shadow. But when their shared gymnastics coach looked around his sisters to see him, it became apparent that he had something special—and then he wasn’t doing gymnastics simply because his sisters were, he was doing it because it was something he had claimed for himself, and his coaches promised his parents that if he stayed focused and trained hard, he could one day be among the best.
But things can change in the blink of an eye—and for Noah, they did in a way that was almost too literal. His parents did their best to support him, even when it was hard. The demanding schedules of practices and meets meant that his parents couldn’t always keep up, and his coach picked up the slack, becoming like a second father to him. The accident happened when it was just the two of them making an hours-long drive back from a gymnastics meet in another state—his coach fell asleep at the wheel and ran them off the road. They lived, both of them, but it was a narrow thing—especially for Noah. With their son laying in a medically induced coma due to swelling in his brain, his parents were beside themselves, full of blame for all the things they could have done differently: if they’d taken off work, if they’d been there, if they’d been the ones driving, this wouldn’t have happened—but later they grew to blame Noah’s coach who, when recovered, quietly disappeared from Noah’s life and from town without even a goodbye.
He didn’t go back to gymnastics after—there didn’t seem to be a point. With physical therapy and hard work, his doctors said, he’d be able to get back some of what he lost in the crash and the long, long months of recovery afterward, but it didn’t seem like enough. It seemed to pale in comparison to what he’d been promised before, when once they’d been talking about moving to a city with a better gym for him, making a run for the junior national team and then, after that, who knew? Once, the possibilities had seemed endless, a dream without a ceiling. He hadn’t known that he’d peak at fourteen years old, but once those dreams had been dashed, clinging to them seemed foolish.
His parents, not-so-secretly, were relieved. They did everything but swaddle him in bubblewrap, always looking over his shoulder and delicately asking how he was feeling, hardly ever letting him out of their sight—and, even then, only when one of his sisters were there to watch him. While some of his sisters had moved on from their childhoods spent at the gym, his sister Kelly had risen right up alongside him, and continued to compete even after Noah stopped, and every mention of gymnastics at the dinner table made conversation freeze as seven pairs of eyes swung guiltily his way. They tried to make him stay home when Kelly had a meet, but found him insistent every time, cheering in the stands for her and pretending that he didn’t feel jealous—maintaining it for so long and with such determination that it eventually became true.
He tried to find something else to fill up his life, but nothing ever quite stuck, leaving him in possession of an eclectic set of skills and knowledge, the result of near-manic bursts of creativity and interest that always, inevitably, burnt out. But, eventually, his restlessness and rapidly-shifting interests taught him something that he’d never learned when he was younger: that he didn’t have to be the best at something, as long as he enjoyed it.
SEIZE IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT
College was supposed to be an adventure, and while Noah couldn’t begrudge his family their concern, he couldn’t deny that he felt ready to spread his wings, ready to prove to them that they didn’t need to be so worried about him—and he couldn’t do it if he stayed close to home or, as his parents tentatively suggested, considered following one of his sisters to their school. He wanted to make his own path, and so they found a compromise in Palmetto State: with an aunt and uncle living only half an hour away, he could get the independence and distance he craved, but have family nearby by just in case.
An interest in the Vixens came to him, as so many things did, as a whim. But, unlike so many of his fleeting interests, it felt right. Part of him wondered why he hadn’t thought of it sooner: it was enough like gymnastics to be satisfying, but different enough that it wouldn’t feel like trying to hold onto something that had long since passed. It would be a new interest, and a new adventure. So long out of practice, he was worried that he’d be laughed off the court when he tried out, and so he worked diligently for months beforehand practicing. And, when tryouts rolled around, his dedication paid off, earning him a place with the Vixens and the chance to do something he used to love in a much lower-stakes environment—this time for fun instead of for glory.
NOAH NAKAMURA is portrayed by RYAN POTTER and is TAKEN

















