Survival Of The Fittest

January 6, 2020.

"That's crazy!" Austin exclaimed. "He has to understand that you're not trying to hurt him!"

"I know, I know," I agreed, trying to get Austin to calm down since I was sure Ms. Davis can hear us. We were sitting in math class, and I was filling him in on yesterday's events.

"Well the last thing you need weighing you down in someone's jealously. They say that's what happens when you hit the top. The people that you thought were your friends weren't really great friends at all."

"Even you?" I asked, smiling.

"Nope, not including me," Austin said with confidence. "I'm here ride or die."

"Yeah," I muttered, still smiling. "I know you are."

Math class flew by and it was biology time before I knew it.

"Good luck," Austin told me as we parted ways, and I needed it. I had been dreading biology because I knew I'd run into Cam in that class. We usually sat together, and that was bound to be awkward considering yesterday's falling out. I wasn't sure if Cam shared Nathan's thoughts toward me, but he hadn't done anything to stand with me yesterday, so I figured that it was safe to assume he did.

When I entered biology, Cam was already sitting in our normal spot. Just my luck. I started towards him, but hesitated before deciding against it. Instead, I hovered in the doorway and looked for other free seats. I didn't see any, and had rejected myself to sitting beside Cam anyway when I noticed Harper from the corner of my eye. She raised her eyebrows at me, wondering why I was just standing around, and I shrugged in response and looked over at the back of Cam's head. Harper seemed to understand and she pointed to an empty seat beside her. I looked back at Cam and made my decision, walking to sit beside her.

"Boy problems?" Harper asked immediately once I had sat down.

"What?" I shook my head. "Oh no, no problems."

She looked over at Cam and back to me, but didn't seem to buy it. "Okay drama queen," she said, going back to her work.

It was then that I noticed that there was an assignment on the board for us to be doing. I pulled out a piece of paper, realized I didn't understand what we were supposed to be doing, and focused on a particularly interesting spot on the wall.

Harper happened to notice this. She groaned and pulled my paper toward her. "Okay, I'm going to explain this once so listen up."

I learned that Harper was actually a really great teacher. She explained the biology material, but I actually sort of understood it. Maybe she had an inept talent, or maybe I might have been paying a little bit more attention than I would have the teacher.

We finished the warm-up and listened to the teacher's 30 minute long lecture. When she was done talking, she handed out a worksheet to keep us busy and then retreated to her desk. For the first time in that class, I felt like I understood the work, so I started on it and actually felt good about it. I was breezing through it when Harper spoke up.

"So," she said, starting up the conversation. "What's going on with you and the boy over there?" She pointed at Cam.

"You're not going to leave me be about that are you?"

"Not until you tell me what's up," Harper replied stubbornly.

"Well that's Cam over there," I started. "He's been one of my best friends since middle school. We're on the basketball team together. Anyways, I was hanging with him and some of our friends yesterday and they let me know that they thought I was working a little too hard to outplay them in basketball. It sounds sort of stupid when I say it out loud, but one thing led to another and now we're in an awkward situation."

"Hmm," Harper muttered. "Sounds like he and your friends are jealous."

I nodded, absently doodling on my paper. "Yeah, that's what Austin said too."

"Who's Austin?"

"Another friend."

"Oh, well maybe you should just go talk to Cam and the others. Talking it out is the only way to avoid dramatic situations."

"Yeah, maybe," I replied. "But I don't think they want to talk to me right now anyway."

"Well you won't know until you go up and try to talk to them," she insisted.

I nodded. "Maybe you're right. But I think I'll give them some time to cool off."

"Fair enough. So, you going to explain the biology to me or not?"

I laughed and starting teaching to her the same material she had just explained to me. That class and the rest of the day passed by pretty quickly after that, and soon it was time for practice. I was super excited about the practice that day, because it was finally the time for me to show the coach how I had improved over the break. The rest of my day had been pretty lame, so I figured that it was time for me to catch some good luck. I'd avoided Cam, Nathan, and Max throughout all the rest of my classes—including lunch—and so I continued to avoid them at the start of practice.

There was about 15 minutes before practice officially started, so I began warming up with Wesley and Finn. I usually did all the regular warm up drills with Cam, Nathan, and Max, but that obviously wasn't happening today. I saw them out of the corner of my eye practicing on one of the other baskets, but I didn't pay them too much attention.

Practice started with suicides as usual and then we began running through all our plays to re-familiarize ourselves with them, as it had been a little while since the last practice. I ran all the plays with ease, since I had been practicing them as much as possible over the break. Cam, Nathan, and Max performed just as well, since they'd been helping me over the break and had received just as much practice with the plays as I had.

We then had a 30-minute workout session, which went pretty well. I knew how far I could push myself when it came to workouts and I usually exceeded expectations, but I knew I'd be a little sore the next day which was normal since I'd hadn't worked out in a week or so.

After the workouts, we did a run through of several drills which covered a wide variety of focuses, like shooting, ball-handling, and defense. Then we did a fast-break drill and then it was time for scrimmages.

I had performed well so far, but the scrimmage was the time for me to really prove my newfound usefulness in a game. We broke up the JV team into two separate teams, each with a couple extra players to sub in. On one team, there was Jackson, Chance, Wesley, Xavier, and Max starting with Levi and Colton subbing . On the other team—my team—it was Nathan, Finn, Cam, Diego, and Zane with me, Amir, and Tucker subbing.

The game started, and after the first two minutes had passed I subbed in for Finn while Levi subbed for Wesley on the other team. The game went pretty well. I scored a few times and I also got some good defensive plays in. I almost got an assist, but Cam hadn't been looking when I threw the ball to him. Nathan and I also had a couple run-ins where we just weren't on the same page, and it cost us some possessions. Jackson's team ended up winning, but it was pretty close and I actually felt like I had contributed my fair share. After the scrimmage ended, we brought it in as a team—with the varsity team joining us—and Gavin ended practice by leading our team cheer.

"Good job today," Maia told me as the team separated. "You're improving, and I think Hendrix sees it too. You'll be the top scorer on the team in no time."

"Thanks," I replied with a smile.

Maia returned the smile and went to go talk with Nathan about something.

"She's right," Wesley said, thumping me on the back. "The time you're putting it is paying off."

"I appreciate it, Wes," I told him, grabbing a ball and walking over to a basket to start my post-practice training.

"Blake!" someone called from behind me.

I turned to see Coach Myers.

"What's up, Coach?" I asked.

"Coach Hendrix wants to see you in his office," Myers said.

"About what?" I asked.

"He didn't tell me," Myers replied. "But I think you'd better go and figure it out. Coach Hendrix won't like to be kept waiting."

"Yes, sir," I said, setting my ball down and walking to the coach's office. I wondered what he wanted to see me for—Coach Hendrix usually left right away to take Jackson home.

When I entered the coach's office, though, I knew what he wanted to see me for immediately. Coach Hendrix was sitting at his desk, surrounded by papers, and Nathan was sitting in one of the two chairs facing the desk.

"Sit down," Hendrix said, motioning to the chair beside Nathan.

I took a seat, trying my best not to look Nathan in the eye, which was harder than you'd think.

"Alright," Coach Hendrix took a deep breath, looking like he was thinking hard about what he wanted to say. "So, I noticed today in practice that the usually stellar chemistry between the two of you seems to have faltered a little."

Not looking at Nathan became about ten times harder.

"So, I guess what I'm wondering," continued the head coach, "is whether it's all in my imagination, or if you two have something going on between you."

I didn't reply, and neither did Nathan. We both just sat there. I switched my gaze from between the coach and the floor, my neck seeming stiffer than it had moments previously.

"Okay," said Hendrix after a little while. "I get it. Something went down and now tensions are high. It happens. It's not my job to get up in y'all's business, but it is my job to win games. So what I'm wondering is whether or not whatever's going on between you two is going to affect the game tomorrow. Because if it is, I can plan accordingly. But if you can put it behind you for the duration of the game, that's even better."

"We're good," I said, and my voice came out as a little scratchy.

The coach nodded and looked over at Nathan.

"Yeah," Nathan said dryly, and it sounded almost reluctant. "We're good."

"Good," said Coach Hendrix, clapping his hands together. "In that case, you two are dismissed."

Nathan and I got up to leave, but the coach raised a hand up. "Come to think of it," he said. "Stay for a moment longer, Blake, if you will."

I hung back and sat back down in my seat as Nathan walked out of the office.

"Blake, Blake, Blake," said the coach, staring at something on one of the papers on his desk, then switching his gaze to the computer for a moment before looking back at me. "Did you have a fun break."

"Yes sir," I replied.

"It was a good time away from basketball, wasn't it?"

"Oh well I actually didn't take much of a break from basketball," I admitted.

"No? Well, I deduced as much," said the coach. "But I'm curious, why is that? You see, Jackson told me that you declined an invitation to one of those parties and he said that Max told him that you were practicing during that time. Why spend a lot of your time off practicing basketball?"

"Well, it's like you said, sir," I replied. "Everyone else was partying. I figured that I could either go and party goof off, or I could take that time to pull ahead."

"And what do you mean by 'pull ahead'?"

"Well some of the players on the team here probably went the whole break without picking up a basketball, and that's fine because they still might have a starting position. But if I practiced every day during that same break, I could come back three times better than I was. And then suddenly, I'm not the worst player on the team any more."

The coach smiled and nodded, like he completely understood. "You certainly did come back better. I could see that very clearly today in practice. I'm going to put you in as the shooting guard on the back-up team for next game, which is a promotion from being an extra on the team. Prove to me that you can consistently outplay your teammates that have better positions than you, and you'll be on your way to playing point for the back-up team or even that spot on the starting team that you've obviously had your eyes fixed on."

"Yes sir," I replied. "But, coach?"

Coach Hendrix raised his eyebrows.

"I don't want to replace anyone on the team," I said, because the thought had been nagging at me.

The coach nodded absently, and I think he might have connected it to the thing with Nathan. "I give everyone on this team an equal chance to be great. You've obviously taken that chance, and now you're trying to go somewhere with it. If it takes you somewhere, then it just does, and maybe you'll bump someone out of their spot. But just remember that they've had the same chances as you have, and they can take them too. Say you replace someone as starter. If they choose to, they can take the time that you have after practice and during breaks to work nonstop at getting their spot back. And if they don't choose to, then you deserve that spot, because you went somewhere that they didn't."

It was hard to wrap my head around what Hendrix had said, but I think I understood. It was the survival of the fittest. And I was going to be the fittest.