Settling in

Jason was thinking about how to maximize the reward from the mission but he suddenly remembered something. He pulled out his phone "Shit!"

He was about to run back to school when he remembered about Tyreek. He asked Tyreek "Hey Tyreek think you could add me to your friends list?"

Tyreek smiled as he pulled out his phone "Sure thing bro. What was your name again?" Jason introduced himself and Tyreek added him as a friend online as well as exchange numbers.

Jason waved to Tyreek "See you some other time Tyreek. I gotta go or I'll be late for my next class." Jason was making his way back to the school when he saw Trell walking alongside him "We're just headed the same way. This don't mean we cool"

This time around Jason ran instead of just walking so he was able to get back to the school in five minutes. 'Just enough time to get to class'

Jason ran past the doors just as the bell rang. Ms. Yuller rolled her eyes as the door slammed behind Jason "Nice to see that you decided to grace us with your presence Mr. Yang. Maybe next time you can try for a less dramatic entrance?"

Jason could feel his face and his ears heat up. He nodded as a blush began to spread on his face "Sorry Ms. Yuller. It won't happen again"

Jason scanned the classroom and saw that everyone sat in the same seats as yesterday. Which only meant one thing.

"Pst! Over here" There was a familiar face waving down Jason. Jason walked toward the empty seat. Samantha was patting the seat with a smile on her face "Good boy! Now sit"

This time it was Jason's turn to roll his eyes. He was glad that his face was already red so that it couldn't get any redder.

He put his bag down and pulled the chair out further so that he could sit down "Still on that dog thing huh?"

Samantha stifled her laugh with her hand "Hehe! I would give you a treat if I was carrying any around. Guess you'll have to settle for this" Samantha pulled out her phone and started playing a video.

Jason turned to make sure that Ms. Yuller wasn't paying attention to them. After he saw that she was busy writing something on the whiteboard he started to watch the video on Samantha's phone.

The video was kinda shaky but thanks to the quality of cameras on phones nowadays it was crystal clear. It was Jason and Trell playing ball after school.

Jason was surprised "What's this?" Samantha's voice was laced with sarcasm "You can't tell by watching? It's a video of you and Trell playing"

Jason fired back with his own sarcasm "Oh gee thanks Captain obvious. You know that's not what I meant. Did you record this? Why do you have this?"

Samantha put her phone away after she saw Ms. Yuller beginning to turn back around to the class. After a few minutes the teacher went back to writing on the whiteboard.

Samantha whispered to Jason "I didn't record this. It's on youtube. And you have-" She pulled out her cell phone and checked something really quick "about Ten thousand views already"

Jason was surprised. He couldn't think of anything to say for a few seconds "Wow! Ten thousand views!? But that was just yesterday!?"

Jason caught himself and kept his voice to a whisper. Samantha grinned in satisfaction after seeing Jason's reaction "I heard you missed your first class so maybe you don't know yet. But you're the talk of the town Mr. Superstar"

The class passed by quickly. Jason and Samantha made small talk through the whole class while making sure not to catch Ms. Yuller's attention.

The bell rang as everyone got packed and ready to head to their next class. Jason and Samantha said their goodbyes before leaving the classroom.

Jason waited by the door until he saw Kyle walk out. Kyle smiled after he saw Jason but then he looked nervous as he asked "I heard Trell called you out this morning and took you somewhere? Everything okay?"

Jason patted Kyle on the shoulder "It's all good man. I told you Trell wouldn't even dream of messing with me after the beating I gave him yesterday morning."

They started walking to their next class. They maneuvered their way through the crowded and bustling hallways. Just as they were about to walk through the door to their next class Jason turned to Kyle "Oh yeah. Let's head to the gym after school today. Ask your folks if that's cool with them"

The day passed by quickly. Jason and Kyle walked to the gym. Jason stopped by Coach Swendel's office. He knocked on the door and a few seconds later he heard Coach Swendel's voice "Come in "

Coach Swendel was sitting with his feet on his desk and his chair reclined all the way. He was chewing a mouthful of food and holding a half eaten sandwich as he watched a video on his cellphone. He was mumbling with food in his mouth "Damn! His basketball skills look even better on video"

After he saw Jason's face he almost fell out of his chair. He accidentally dropped his phone as he quickly tried to remove his feet from his desk. He started choking and coughing on the food in his mouth.

After a bit of coughing and chugging half the red sports drink out of the bottle Coach Swendel smiled at Jason "Hey Jason. I was just thinking about you"

Jason heard some screaming and cheering. He looked around and saw Coach Swendel's phone on the floor. It was still playing the video of him playing against Trell "I can see that"

Coach Swendel grabbed his phone and stopped the video before he put it away in his pocket. He smiled at Jason "So what can I do for you Jason?"

Jason didn't bother to take a seat "I just stopped by to ask if you could take some of the equipment out and If I could use the gym. As long as that's alright with you"

Coach Swendel jumped to his feet "Whatever you need Jason. I told you I would try my best to accommodate you"

Coach Swendel pulled all the equipment out of the storage closet and laid them all out in the gym. Jason grabbed a ball and started dribbling it. Kyle turned to Jason "So what are we doing here?"

Jason focused on his dribbling as he imagined a defender to practice against "We in the gym. We on the court. And we got all this equipment out here. What else could we possibly be doing Kyle?"

Jason stopped dribbling and he let the ball bounce away from him. He walked to Kyle and pulled him to the Basket.

Jason picked a ball up from the floor and tossed tossed it into the basket. The ball fell through the net but it bounced back out after hitting the device attached to the bottom of the rim.

Jason then tossed the ball to Kyle "That's a practice ring for practicing rebounds. It spits the ball back out after it falls through the net. I want you to practice rebounding" Jason had taken a look at Kyle's skills and their levels.

[Skills

Free throw: F-

Lay Up: F

Dunking: D-

Close Shot: F

Mid Range Shooting: F-

Three Point Shooting: F-

Dribbling: F-

Passing: F

Ball Handling: F-

Play Making: F-

Post Scoring: D-

Rebounding: D-

Post Control: D-

Perimeter Defense: F

Post Defense: D-

Steals: F

Blocks: D-

Athleticism: B+ ]

Jason was surprised. Kyle was a better athlete than he showed. If his athleticism was a B+ then that meant that it was only a few notches below Trell's.

Jason thought that the best way to utilize Kyle's height and athleticism in the shortest amount of time would be to make him a better rebounder and rim protector.

Right now all he wanted to do was to get Kyle used to using his quick twitch muscles in the context of jumping and grabbing rebounds.

Jason could always teach Kyle about boxing out and positioning some other time.

Kyle caught the ball. He moved it around in his hands for a few seconds 'You already came this far Kyle. Might as well just go with the flow. Who knows. You might even have fun'. He threw the ball into the basket and started practicing. After doing it a couple times he asked Jason "So how long do you want me to do this?"

Jason went back to practicing his dribbling against his imaginary defender. He was in the middle of connecting a hesitation to a spin move when he heard Kyle's question. He answered while he executed his moves "Until practice is done"

Jason's answer caught Kyle off guard. He lost focus for a second and got hit in the face with the ball as it fell from the basket "Ouch! You're kidding right Jason?"

Sweat dripped from Jason's nose as he kept his focus on his dribbling "Nope. Dead serious". A couple minutes passed by with Jason and Kyle working up a sweat in the gym before they heard a set of footsteps approaching.

Matt walked in through the halls. He saw Jason and Kyle practicing. Jason spoke to Matt as he dribbled "Sup man. Did you do the thing I asked?"

Matt set his backpack against the wall "Sorry I'm late. I did what you asked for. I talked to the other guys on the team. I asked them if they wanted to get some runs in but they said they wanted to enjoy the time off that Coach gave them until Friday."

Matt hesitated for a second "I don't get it. If you wanted them to show up you could have just told Coach to call them. If it's him then they would have to show up"

Jason kept his attention on the defender he created "I didn't want to force anyone Matt. You could have skipped out too. This is just for whoever wants it. I'm only giving out plates to whoever's hungry. So how about you?"

Matt thought back to the game yesterday. Just thinking about the season they were going to have ahead of them with Jason on the team made his blood boil "I'm starving man"

Jason took a break from his dribbling to take a quick look at Matt's skill levels.

[Skills

Free-throw: D+

Lay Up: D

Dunking: F

Close Shot: D

Mid Range Shooting: D-

Three Point Shooting: D

Dribbling: D

Passing: D

Ball Handling: D+

Play Making: D

Post Scoring: F

Rebounding: F+

Post Control: F

Perimeter Defense: D-

Post Defense: F+

Steals: D-

Blocks: F

Athleticism: C+ ]

It was just about what Jason expected 'His best skills are free-throws and threes. This is his second year on the team so I was expecting his defense to be a little better. But I guess I can't ask for too much from the worst team in the county'

Jason looked at Matt " Go to the other court and practice your threes with Coach". Matt nodded and looked at Kyle practicing his rebounding "Look's like you brought everyone huh?"

Jason shook his head "Nah. It's not everyone yet". Kyle and Matt looked questioningly at Jason. Everyone at this point knew Jason but Jason himself didn't know that many people at the school.

Matt thought to himself 'Did he invite Brandon? Or maybe someone else from our group? No that can't be it. He would have just told me to bring them with me if that was the case'

It was then that another set of footsteps could be heard walking through the corridor. Coach Swendel, Kyle, and Matt turned to the entrance. All of their jaws dropped to the floor after they realized who it was.

Trell stared at Jason with a displeased expression on his face "What'd you call me out for man?" Jason tossed a basketball to Trell "You said you were a man of your word right?"

Trell caught the ball with one hand "Yeah. And that's why I'm here and not beating your face in right now" Jason rolled his eyes "I'm not sure if that's the reason why but okay. Whatever you need to tell yourself."

Jason turned and looked at everybody in the gym "I hope we can all get along with each other. Because for the foreseeable future we're going to be meeting up everyday to drop some blood sweat and tears on this hardwood"