5 Hit or Miss Part 1

"Ahh fuck. How the hell did that ball hit me," Nate says as he holds his nose thinking that it might start bleeding soon.

"Oh, my bad, I'm so sorry," the stranger says with a smile.

Nate touches his nose, then cringes at the pain. "Are you good Nate," Jon asks while walking up to him and inspecting his face. "Yeah, Jon. I'm fine," Nate replies picking up the basketball and dribbling it hard. He then looks at the stranger irritated, "You gotta get better. Your shot wack as hell."

"Wack? Pass the ball. We can have a quick 1-on-1," insisted the stranger.

Nate passes the ball to the stranger, "Check up," he says with anger visible in his face. "Game goes up to 5," he points to a line that separated the slabs of his driveway, it was about 14 feet away (4.26 meters) from the basketball hoop. "Any shot behind that is 2 points, anything from in front of it is 1 point."

The stranger walks behind the 2 point line and faces the hoop, Nate facing him, was in front of the 2 point line. The stranger passes the ball to Nate, who passes it back quickly with a bit of force. The stranger begins dribbling, as Nate puts up a defensive form. Focus in his eyes, waiting for the perfect time to steal the ball. Jon takes a step back to watch from a safe distance.

I wonder how he got the ball to curve like that, I've never seen anything like it.

The stranger stops dribbling, picking up the ball. "You said that behind this line was the 2 point line right," the stranger asks looking at the line. "It is," Nate replies.

"Perfect," the stranger says getting into his horrid shooting form. "Hit or miss," he asks Nate.

"It doesn't matter, I'm going to block it anyway," Nate said getting ready for a shot.

Then as the stranger begins shooting, for a split second, Jon could see the man glow with a strange orange aura. The stranger shoots, Nate jumps for the block. From all three watching the ball, Nate clearly was going to block the ball. However, just as Nate was about to hit the ball, it curves around his hand, flying straight into the hoop.

Jon is shocked and confused. He did it again, Jon thinks, he made the ball curve. Now I know, that is definitely not normal.

"How the hell did it," Nate says even angrier than before.

"That's 2-0, check up," the stranger says.

Nate calms himself down, picks up the ball, and passes it to the stranger who stood behind the two point line. The stranger begins dribbling, Nate quickly rushes up to him, playing hard defense. His body practically on top of the stranger.

As soon as I see an opportunity, I'm going to steal the ball, Nate proclaims in his head.

The stranger dribbles, as the ball comes down from his hand, Nate reaches for it. He is close to getting the ball when he hears the stranger whisper something, "Hit or miss." Once again Jon catches the man glow a stranger orange aura. Once again, the ball curves around Nate's hand, the ball hits the ground, then the stranger catches it when it bounces off of it. He picks up the ball, and gets in his horrid shooting form and shoots, "Hit or miss," he says again. Despite having Nate literally in front of his face, the stranger still makes it into the hoop.

"4-0, game point. I'm so lucky today. I haven't missed yet," the stranger says smiling. Nate runs to the ball and picks it up, smacking it. "You're cheating," he says. He gives the stranger a death stare, "I hate cheaters."

"I hate losers," the stranger retorts. "I'm just lucky, that's all. Let's just finish up this game, I want to play that other boy over there. What you say your name was? Jon? I have a few questions to ask you."

Jon points to himself, "Questions to ask me?"

"Yeah, you guys were having an interesting conversation earlier. About that gang member you met last night. Did you know that he got arrested? Did you know which gang he was apart of?"

The stranger forms a 'G' with his right hand.

"Shit, that's a gang sign," Jon says.

"What the fuck is a gang member doing here," Nate asks, "A Golden Star gang member in fact."

Golden Star Gang! One of the two gangs left in the area. Their territory is half of the area, the other half is claimed by their rival gang. For years the Golden Star gang was said to be terrorizing the street with drive-by shootings left and right. Until recently in the past few years, peace has reigned in the streets. It wasn't until about a few months ago, they started drive by shooting again. The name rang through Jon, his fear and determination sprung up again.

Thoughts of his brother came back, the day of his death. Jon and Robert had just returned home from getting ice cream. They sat on their front lawn, Robert was finally home after working for weeks straight. He still hadn't told his mother or his brother what exactly he was working as, but the money was coming in.

"Yo, Robert," Jon says licking his ice cream, "What exactly do you do?"

Robert stayed silent for a moment and finally replied, "I help the community in a way, I guess. By using my stand, I keep the peace in this neighborhood."

Jon smiled, the respect for his brother, outweighed all other respects he had for even his mother. "Once I graduate from high school. I'm gonna come and help you out."

Robert laughed, "Sure, with your stand ability, I know you can do great things."

As they continued talking about random topics, memes, girls, comics, cartoons. A car slowly drove on the street across from their house. Jon was watching it, Robert keeping an eye on it as well. The window rolled down, and Jon could see a glow of a strange aura. He couldn't make out the color of it, due to the swift color of red splashing in front of him.

That day, his brother died without saying any final words, he was unresponsive on the spot. His dead body laid on Jon, as the car drove off as fast as it could. Tears flowed down Jon's face, as he constantly called out to his mother. His mother, after coming out due to the sound of gunshots, was in despair and fear.

Robert Jones, died on April 26, 2019.