8 Basketball - No Fun

Aditya smiled at Jatin as he caught the ball and shook his head while he dribbled the ball slowly as he said, "Jatin, you should check the size of the ball before you get them from the sports room."

Jatin was confused when he heard Aditya's words and when he turned to ask Bhadra about it, he saw him trying hard to keep a straight face. He had long seen that the ball brought by Jatin was the one used by kids in Middle Years Program (MYP), the size of the ball was size 6 whereas when they played they used the ball of size 7.

Now Jatin knew why Bhadra looked at him weirdly when he brought the ball. How could he know that there were balls of different sizes when he had not played basketball before. Just as he was about to explain he heard taunting laughter from the side. When he turned he saw the junior whom he had hit by mistake laughing at him while pointing his finger towards him. As if it was not enough he even called his other friends and whispered something in their ears as the friends also laughed at Jatin.

The smiling face on Bhadra and Aditya faded when they saw the junior laughing excessively. The right to mock and make fun of their friends was the only privy to them but it was not their place for junior to laugh at Jatin. When the juniors were still laughing, they did not notice that two big shadows loomed over them. When they raised their heads and saw Bhadra and Aditya looking down at them with no smile on their faces, the juniors stopped laughing and started sweating in their backs. Aditya looked at the kid who started this and asked, "What's your name kid?"

Everyone had stopped laughing by then, the kid gulped as he looked at both Bhadra and Aditya to and fro before he replied, "senior, Varun."

"Good, now go get the right size ball Varun and you play with this ball," Aditya said as he pushed the ball a little forcefully into Varun's hands causing him to take two steps back.

Varun nodded shakily as he went towards the sports pavilion. When he thought he was out of trouble, he heard Aditya's voice from behind, "Aren't you going to thank your senior for taking great pains in bringing the right ball for you."

Varun stopped as he turned to face Jatin while trying hard to maintain a smiling face but the expression was somewhere between crying and laughing as he said, "Senior, thanks for bringing this ball for us to play, junior will certainly thank you for your efforts, how about I treat you seniors for dinner."

Jatin who had watched everything showed a satisfied expression to Aditya and Bhadra while he walked towards Varun as he patted the junior's shoulders while maintaining an expression of righteousness and spirituality on his face as he said, "Varun junior, there is no need for you to thank, looking after juniors is what we seniors are supposed to do, what more happiness can there be for me than seeing my juniors progressing day by day under our guidance. So do not thank us for these small things, but if you cannot sleep at night because we have not accepted your appreciation, why don't you treat us at the 'Immortal's Den'."

Varun had a bitter smile on his face when he heard the name 'Immortal's Den' as he nodded and said, "it will be my pleasure to treat seniors for their guidance, now why don't I go get the right ball for seniors so that no more time is wasted."

Varun ran like the wind when he saw Jatin nod while the other juniors also thought that they had played enough basketball for the day and ran to take their kits and went towards other activity areas. There was a strange phenomenon which occurred in this school which Aditya had observed. No student in this school could be perfectly controlled by the management staff, but juniors and seniors segregation was strictly followed. He attributed this phenomenon to the reason that no student who came to this school was a commoner, all of them had good backings so the school usually did not mind looking the way when these students crossed the line.

But the other way round, seniors could perfectly control juniors as neither were common, so the seniority principle was respected and adhered to. Sometimes the teachers or the management would also seek the help of the senior students to manage the juniors. Well of course when sometimes juniors like Varun who tried to step out of the line would be immediately struck back and put in place.

"Looks like you have earned our supper today." Bhadra teased as looked at Jatin. Aditya was calmly standing as he looked at the students at a distance played cricket.

Jatin shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "I just thought since Aditya had got the 'sleeping' problem we didn't visit that place, so I just used this as a pretext."

"I can't accompany you, you do know that its two hours from now before I sleep, right?" Aditya said as he turned his attention back to his friends.

Jatin looked at his mobile and saw it was just 4:00 pm now and nodded in understanding. He had been used to seeing Aditya sleeping at 6:00 pm to 8:00 am every day for the past two weeks.

" Senior, here's the ball." Varun came back running as he handed the ball to Aditya. He was panting heavily which showed why this junior brought the ball so quickly.

"Thanks, now let's play," Aditya thought it would be too boring for just the three of them. The other usual teammates of their gang had still not come from their Diwali vacation. So he told Varun to accompany as it would make things a little more interesting. It's not like they were playing a serious game now.

Varun could only agree while worrying in his heart. Today was really an unfortunate day for him. First, he was hit by a senior who looks like he has not come out into the sun since he was born, then he had just laughed a little and then he had to get the ball for these seniors. It had to be known that there are even maidservants in Varun's home to get his underwear. He gritted his teeth as he steeled his heart.

Aditya looked on in amusement as he saw all the changes in the facial expression of Varun before turning back to Jatin as he said, "Let's get this done." He knew what Jatin was expecting from him, he also knew he could easily do it, in fact, he had already tried this but yet not shared with his friends. He also knew that from now onward he should not play this game in competitions anymore if he chooses to be ethical.

He looked at the hoop at some 20 ft away from him as he was standing on the three-point line as he shot for the goal with a set shot with both of his feet firmly on the ground.

All the other three looked on at the ball as it curved and went smoothly through the hoop.

"Nice shot senior." Varun praised as he looked at Aditya with awe. There was not much change in the expressions of Bhadra and Jatin. Bhadra knew that Aditya played basketball pretty well and so didn't think much of the three-pointer while Jatin also didn't find this impressive enough when compared to his expectations.

"Not from this close you, Idiot, "Jatin spoke as he ran and threw the ball back to Aditya, but the ball had already reached Varun. Varun had a scare when he saw the ball coming towards him again, but as he was looking at the ball this time, he caught the ball and passed it to Aditya. He was thinking if Jatin did this intentionally or accidentally.

Bhadra looked at Varun confused reaction and told him, "rest assured, he does not have the required talent to target you and hit you."

Jatin coughed when he heard these words as he said, "Aditya go towards the other half, I want at least 50 ft distance from the hoop…. Right, now take a shot."

Aditya did as he was told as he knew there was no way, he could escape from his friends. He only kept in mind that he would not tell these idiots at any cost of his memory skills. If Jatin got to know about this, he could imagine himself being locked in the school library being told to memorize every book before thrown into the city central library. So he had to keep his mouth shut about this.

The ball passed through the hoop again, by this time Varun had stars in his eyes as he saw Aditya. He ran excitedly towards Aditya as he asked, "Senior, what's your name?" he had never seen this long shot in real life and that this senior looked completely at ease. He did not spend a long time to concentrate or to prepare himself but rather he did it ease and comfort as if it was not a big deal for him.

Aditya smiled at Varun as he told him his name. It was this time Bhadra had finally changed his expression. When he connected the dots of what happened in Kapil sir's class and what had happened in the cafeteria, he figured it out and nodded in understanding.

Now Bhadra also joined in the game and said, " go further to the end of the court and try." Aditya knew that the court was 94ft long, so he stood on the outer edge as he put much force behind the ball as he took a different long shot which could generate greater force than a jump shot." it was not like some special feeling where felt that time slowed down or his blood flow changed or his muscle contracted or that the hoop started becoming more and more clear in his vision or any sort of that Hollywood superhero type feeling. It was a very normal feeling, he felt like he was born this way, or it was not a big deal to him.

Like for example if someone bought a heavy folding ladder and placed in front of the basketball hoop and asked a person to climb and sit in front of the hoop. Then you ask the person to throw a basketball through the hoop. Would the person feel special or proud about it when he throws the ball into the hoop? No, he wouldn't because satisfaction is a feeling which is experienced when a person has overcome challenges, where there is a great possibility of failure and yet you win, that is when you will satisfaction and pride. As of now, Aditya could not enjoy this game anymore which kind of left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Aditya did not listen to Jatin when he asked him to break the world record by throwing a shot from more than113 ft distance away from the hoop because as he felt that it was not ethical or morally correct to do such as he did not want to undermine the 'genuine' achievement.

So Jatin got him to throw the ball from all kind of angles in the court and Aditya complied, when he noticed that some students were being attracted here, Aditya started deliberately miss firing so that the kids would not find anything special.

But Varun was hooked onto Aditya as he said, "Big Brother Aditya, make me your disciple, I will do whatever you ask me to, can I get your autograph?"

Aditya shook his head as he laughed it off as just some luck. Jatin and Bhadra rolled their eyes at him when they heard this. isn't this guy trying to show off by getting a junior to stay and watch his 'skill' display and then pretend as if it was just pot luck?

"Don't you think this idiot can rival those low-level Bollywood actresses who wear sexy dresses and posture themselves to expose their cleavage to tempt but pretend everything is unintentional," Jatin spoke with envy to Bhadra looking at Varun chasing around Aditya.

Bhadra almost agreed by nodding his head but stopped and said, "can't you give a better analogy, why do I feel it is gross?"

Jatin shrugged and as he was about to make further jokes, a management staff member came and called Aditya and said, "Mr Aditya there is a police officer waiting in the visitor's lobby for you."

Aditya's face became solemn when he heard this, he passed the ball to Bhadra and ran as fast as he could towards the visitor's lobby, news about his parents at last.

Jatin and Bhadra looked at each other and followed Aditya.