3 Shawn The Hustler

After the game, Shawn approached me asking if I wanted to make some money. I told him, "It depends. I'm not going into some hood where people can't take a loss and will fight you because they're sore losers." He replied, "don't worry, I'll let you know when I'm ready."

It's evening now, and I'm hungry, so I head home to eat. When I got back home, I quickly made some bread and butter with some orange soda on the side. While I was eating, Opal came up to me and asked, "Hey, Eazy! If you get into the NBA, can I be your manager?" I thought about it for a moment. I was incredulous. "Opal, do you really believe in me?" I inquired, and she quickly told me, "no, not really, but hell, I have nothing else to laugh at right now, so I'll do this for now." Opal couldn't help but stifle her small giggles. I got annoyed and stormed off. 

That night I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up thinking about a lot of things. The things that I remembered from my past life...  like my beautiful wife and two kids I left behind to change my future. I idly contemplated my life choices now that I had much more foresight into my future. Should I marry the same lady or have a few more wives just to test the waters? If I have the money to have multiple wives in the future, I'll go for it, but for now, I want to focus on getting my game on point. 

Suddenly, I hear my mom getting ready for work, so I get out of bed and ask her if she needs help with anything. "Eazy, can you start the car for me?" She requests. "Yeah, sure, Mom." I reply. I do what I was asked, and in a few moments, I watch my mom drive away. Once I'm certain she's gone, I'm finally able to fall asleep. I dream about the NBA.

The next morning, which was a Sunday, we got ready for church because we had a convention where people from all over the church's region joined us for a service. I went to Sunday School and took a seat with all the other kids. A girl walks up to me and tells me, "Hey! That's my seat." I eyed her with an air of aversion and replied, "I was here first. Go. Away." The girl  gasped and tensed with anger, and she quickly reached for my collar and clutched it tightly. The sudden force caused me to gag, and I panicked. I quickly tried to slap her hands away, but I accidentally slapped her face, and she started crying. 

She let go of my collar and ran off. She angrily rambled about how she's going to get her older brother or something like that. I'm too busy being lost in thought to listen to what she's saying. If this brother of hers touches me, then my brother might just kill this guy. 

Then it happens. Here comes the guy storming over towards me. He's causing a scene, staring daggers at me with his face contorted in anger. He's 5 '8, way taller than me, and in high school trying to fight me, thankfully, a lot of people held him back. I told him if he can beat me in a game of basketball to 11 points, I'll let his sister slap me back, and I'll apologize.He gets excited about that, but I quickly turn his excitement into anger once I tell him that if he loses, he will have to kiss my ass, and everyone laughed. He still agreed to the bet. I suppose he was too proud to refuse my offer. I try not to show off a smug smile. I can't wait to embarrass him in front of everybody. I told him since I was younger, I get the ball. 

The game ended pretty quickly with him not being able to score a single point and he ended up kissing my ass. Too bad we had no cameras during that time, or he would be going viral on social media for losing to someone so young, and kissing his ass too. After church, we headed home, and I asked my mom if we could get some Chinese food to eat, and she automatically turned me down saying she doesn't have money. 

I told her, "no problem" and I fished out the $20 dollars from my pocket. I won it from Rasta. "See Mom? I'm already taking care of you." She giggled at that, and we headed out to get the food. Opal tried to sneak in an order with my money, but I shot her down real quick. When we got home, we ate, and I then headed out to John's place to join them for the Wizards game tonight.

We get to DC, and it's packed with a lot of traffic. We finally made it in and found our seats. I quickly noticed who they were playing when I saw Micheal Jordan. I was so excited because I never got to see him play in my previous life. The Wizards at the time were not that good, so I didn't even look at anyone on their team and focused on the bulls, who were winning by 18 points. At half time they were looking for people to come and try the half-court shot for $1k. 

When I saw the game, I ran up to try it. I was brimming with excitement. The security blocked me and told me, "Hey kid, you gotta wait for your turn." I looked at the security and sighed. It wouldn't hurt to be patient for now. I got fortunate because I was the last one on the line of 4 people. As I waited, I spectated the others as they were on the court. The three in front of me tried the shot and missed. When it was my turn, I went up, took the shot, and made it, of course. I smiled triumphantly. Everyone cheered, and they brought me a big check. 

Even Michael was surprised I made that shot and came to talk to me. "Hey, kid, what's your name?" He asked. He was intrigued with my awesome skill. I was excited to see Michael. I couldn't believe he was right in front of me! I told him, "I'm Eazy." Michael smiled and replied, "NIce to meet you, Eazy." We shook hands, and I asked him, "Do you wanna play against me for a quick five points?" Michael's eyes softened and he had politely declined my offer. "No thanks, I gotta game to play, Eazy." He looked thoughtful for a moment and reassured me kindly, "Maybe next time." I felt a little down after hearing that, but I nodded in understanding. 

After that, I got back to my seat, and John and his family looked at me like I'm some sort of monster. They were bewildered. "That was incredible, Eazy!" John said to me. "My family couldn't believe their eyes when they saw you made that shot." I laughed at John and told him, "I'm a natural." John rolled his eyes playfully, "More like superhuman." I grinned. I couldn't tell John that I had awesome powers now, but it felt great to be praised. John and I continued to talk until half-time was over.

The game goes on, and the Bulls win. No surprise there.We left the center and headed home, when I got home I passed out. When I woke up the next morning, I gave my mom half of what I made last night, $500. She was so happy. She thought I stole it at first, but then I recounted the events at the basketball game last night and she hugged me. Being back in middle school felt weird; all the work was easy, so I just slept throughout the day. Whenever my teachers questioned me, I answered with the correct answers, so after a while, they stopped bugging me. 

I got through the week practicing my handles and building my strength, mostly to prepare for the upcoming season. On Wednesday, Shawn and I went to a different neighborhood to play for money, and we won $200 by the time we came home. One guy was pissed and said we cheated and tried to fight us, but we made another bet saying if I miss one shot out of five I'll give the money back and he agreed, and well I didn't miss a single shot, so he had to suck it up and head home a loser.