Airball

I nodded at him. ”You too. ”

”So, I guess well get ball first, then, ” Jackson said, more of a statement than a question.

”Not so fast, ” I replied. ”Shoot for it. ”

”If you say so. ”

Jackson stepped up to the three point line and easily swished the ball in.

”You
e pretty good, ” I told him.

”Think you can do better? ” he smiled.

I was about to tell him that I knew that I could do better, before I realized that I couldn do better. So instead, I accept the ball from him and shoot my shot. It bounces off the rim A bad shot, but closer than most of the ones I had taken so far.

”Gonna need to work on that, ” Jackson said.

I smiled his easy-going smile back at him, showing him that he wasn the only one who could pull it off. ”You just wait, ” I said.

Jackson pointed at me. ”I like you, ” he said. ”Alright, everyone, lets get this game going. ”

Bad news: I did even worse in this one.

You would think that it a game playing with people on my level, with an equal level of chemistry with everyone, I would be able to do a little better. Right?

Wrong.

Within the first seconds of the game, I ran down for a layup and got tripped. Tripped. I rolled over and saw some blond-haired dude standing above me, grinning. I reached out my hand to him, but he didn pull me back up. He sneered. Sneered. So I picked myself back up and continued on with the game. I proceeded to miss shot after shot, with Coach Hendrix watching the whole thing. Every time I would go in for a layup or jump-shot, I would get blocked by the same blond-haired kid. And when he couldn block me, he would give me a push. Not hard enough to draw attention, just hard enough to throw me off balance a little.

The one thing I did good was work with my team. I rotated people in and out from the bench, but I tried to keep at least two of my friends in at all times. And I threw and made plays to them. That was the only thing that kept my team in the game. I would initiate some of our old plays and we would run them, getting some easy points. But it didn compare to the other team. Jason and the blond-haired jerk and another kid had chemistry that was a match even for Cam, Nathan, Maxs, and mine.

In the end, Jacksons team won. 14-22. It wasn an absolute blow-out, but it wasn good either. Especially since the head coach had seen me mess up over and over and over. I started to wish I hadn come.

Maybe it would have been easier not knowing if I was good enough to play basketball again. At least now I knew: I was not good at basketball anymore. I should just drop it, I thought.

Both games were over, and the coach blew his whistle and motioned for everyone to huddle around him. As I was walking to join the huddle, the blond-haired kid stuck out his foot in an attempt to trip me again. But that time, Id seen it coming. I swept my own foot swiftly against the kids other leg, and he started to topple. Before he could hit the ground, I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back up. When I looked closely at him, I noticed he looked a lot like me. He had the same blond hair I had, only he used a hint of gel to get his to stick up. He had the same mischievous eyes that always seemed to get me into trouble, only his were brown, not blue. He was a couple inches taller than me, but looked to be the same age. A freshman. He glared at me.

”Whats your problem with me, man? ” I asked him. ”I don have beef with you. ”

The kid didn respond. He just shook me off him and joined the huddle. I followed, shaking my head. Some people were just thick. A gym full of several dozen players made quite the huddle indeed.

”I can promise any of you a spot on the team, ” the coach said. ”In fact, I guarantee that not all of you will make it. There are around 40 to 50 players here, and I can only have a maximum of 15 players per team. Thats a maximum of 30 players that I can accept. ”

I shuffled uncomfortably. There were definitely more than 30 kids in the gym, and I doubted that I did better than twenty or even ten of them.

”Now, I know that each of you probably have your own talents and would bring something unique to the team. If I chose all of you though, I wouldn be able to give enough playing time to the players that deserve it. I want to thank all of you for coming out, and have a good rest of your evening. Call it, Gavin. ”

Gavin, the senior point-guard, stepped into the middle of the huddle and kneeled down. Everyone that was close enough put a hand on his head, and those who weren stuck a hand forward anyway.

”Cobras on three! ” he shouted.

”One, two, three, Cobras! ” the rest of the group, other than some of the freshman, shouted back.

And that was it. Tryouts were over. If I was being honest with myself, I thought I did pretty terrible. There was about a one percent chance that I would make the team. But I was surprisingly happy. It was over. Everything else was out of my hands, which felt amazing.

I caught up with Cam, Nathan, and Max, who were all talking about how they thought they did.

”Shake Shack? ” I suggested to them.

Their faces all lit up at once. ”You
e on! ” Cam said.

Shake Shack was a casual burger joint that my friends and I would go to with our middle school coach after a win or just to chill out and eat food. One walk later, the four of us were sitting in tall, bar chairs and eating burgers and slurping chocolate shakes.

”Just like old times, ” Max said.

”Yeah, ” Nathan agreed.

”So, howd you think it went, ” asked Cam through bites of his ShackBurger.

”Honestly? ” I said, setting down my SmokeShack burger. ”I don think I made the team. ”

”What? Cmon. ”

”Im serious. You saw me, I didn make one shot the whole time. ”

”You did during the drills, ” Max pointed out.

”Yeah, but those were just drills, ” I said. ”During the scrims I was useless. ”

”Eh, you made some good passes to us, ” said Nathan. ”We used some of our old plays pretty well. ”

”Yeah, and you wouldve made a shot or two if it wasn for Jock Face, ” Cam said.

I slurped my shake. ”The blonde-haired jerk? Whats his name, anyway? ”

”Chance, ” said Nathan. ”Hes in our English class. Mainly hangs out with Jackson. ”

”The coachs son? ”

Nathan nodded.

”Do you know what position he plays? ” I asked.

Nathan shook his head.

”You better hope he doesn play guard, ” Cam said, shoveling fries into his mouth.

”Why? ”

”You saw him play, ” Cam said through mouthfuls. ”That kid doesn mess around. I mean, I don like him no more than you do, but hed give you a run for your money, Blake. ”

I chuckled. ”Yeah, maybe not so much anymore. He way out-played me today. ”

Cam punched my arm. ”Well its tomorrow hes gotta be worried about. ”

I nodded. I understood what he was saying, I just didn know if it was possible for me to regain what I had before. I had a strange feeling that I was going to find out fairly soon, though.

My friends and I slapped a several dollars on the table and I requested a grilled cheese to take home for Liv to eat. Then I grabbed my takeout and we exited the restaurant.

”What now? ” Max asked as the cool, outside air hit us.

I held up the takeout bag. ”I gotta take this home to Liv before it gets too cold. ”

”Won your dad fix her something? ” Cam asked.

”Yeah, he will eventually, but itll be late before he gets around to it and his cooking is horrid. ”

”Im heading home, too, ” Max said.

”The Flash coming on? ” Cam asked him.

”Nah, thats tomorrow, ” he said.

”Im going on, too, ” Nathan said. ”See yall tomorrow. ”

”Dang, wheres your sense of adventure gotten to, yall? ” Cam said. ”Tomorrow it is. ”

”Tomorrow, ” I agreed, and we all set off in different directions, heading back home.

I got back home fairly quickly. I slid my key into the lock and turned it, opening the door and slipping inside. Per usual, no one was anywhere to be found. I figured that my dad was upstairs sleeping, and Marina was still at work. Liv was probably upstairs in her room, doing homework or whatever else nine and ten-year old girls usually did. I didn poke into her business much, and she didn poke into mine. We got along well that way. I heard footsteps quickly descending, and Liv appeared a moment later, swinging around the railing.

”Food? ” Liv immediately asked, running toward me. ”I smell food! ”

She lunged for my takeout bag, and I playfully kept it well above my head out of her reach. After she wore herself out from jumping, I handed her the bag and she ran to the table, ripping open the bag and biting hungrily into the grilled cheese. She glanced at me happily and said something indecipherable, her mouth completely full of food. I assumed it was a ”thank you ” and went upstairs into my room, closing the door behind me.

I collapsed on my bed in corner, laying atop the yellow and purple Lakers comforter. I didn much watch Lakers games anymore, what with Kobe retired, Lonzo traded, and LeBron James joining the team. The NBA was a mess. But that was to be expected. It was basketball, and if there was one thing Id learned, it was that basketball was one big mess.

I was tempted to pull out the old tapes from my middle school games again, but I was tired and I didn much feel like reliving that. Besides, I had homework to do and I didn even know if I would be able to get to that. Maybe I would just fall asleep and make up an excuse tomorrow. I always had been a quick thinker, I could come up with something.

But I started on the homework anyway. I didn mind it too much. It was a good distraction, kept be from thinking about the tryouts, and moves I should have made and shots I should have took. That was the last thing I needed. So I filled my brain with information on mitochondria and chromosomes and boring, useless things like that.

However, even through the muck of biology notes, my thoughts about basketball still broke through. I couldn help thinking about how terrible I had performed, and how bad at basketball I really was. But at least it was out of my hands. The decisions I had to make were over, at least for a little while. It was up to the coach to pick me or to not pick me. And I was fine with that. It finally seemed like someone else had the tough choice to make, instead of it always being me. Between being the shot-caller on the court and everything that had gone on during this one week alone, I was sick on making decisions. They were stressful, and scary. Each one I made not only would affect me, but loads of other people as well. That was not fun.

So I was glad that I didn have a say anymore. One less thing to worry about. My basketball career was currently in the hands of someone else, and I was completely find with it. Happy, even. I would gladly let someone else decide something for me for once. I just hope the coach would choose right. My entire future depended on it.