Defensive Balls

After beating the Sharks team and trying to leave the gym, the Sharks team coach approached me. "Hey kid, you played awesome out there." He said to me. "Thanks," I responded amiably. I didn't have much interest in talking to another coach, but I wanted to be polite. He then asked me if I wanted to join his team and offered multiple benefits, which I thought were childish. As he continued explaining the benefits, I stopped him and told him in a curt fashion, "Hey, you can talk to the principal. Maybe you can arrange benefits that involve money." He looked at me like I'm a monster, but I ignored him and said, "call me when you are ready to win." The Sharks' coach watched me as I left to join my team.

I left with my team, and Coach K took us to McDonald's to celebrate our victory. While we were eating, the guys on the team kept asking how I made that shot. "Eazy," one kid said to me, "Your shots are awesome! What's your secret?" all of them leaned forward around the table, eagerly waiting for an answer. There's no way I was going to tell them that I had special powers, so I told them, "Oh you know, just pure luck."Their voices responded with awe and wonder. They believed me. But Coach K didn't. I noticed he was eyeing me with skepticism as my teammates asked me questions. 

After the celebration, we were getting ready to leave McDonalds to go home, Coach K pulled me aside from the rest of the team and then he asked me what the other team's coach came to me for. I told him the whole deal. Coach K then said, "Wow, Eazy. I'm surprised you handled it that well." I shrugged and said, "well I only turned him down 'cause of the benefits he was offering." Coach K crossed his arms. "Were they not good enough?" He asked. "Nah, they were all childish. I want money." Coach K frowned. He knew someone would take me away if his school didn't also offer a contract with me. I could see the contemplation in his eyes "Eazy, you know we'd love to have you on this team. You should stay," he reassured. I wasn't convinced. "Just talk to the principal before my prices go even higher." I said to Coach K, and he immediately asked for my rates. "Twelve-thousand a year." I said rather confidently. Coach K didn't even try to hide the shock on his face. He couldn't believe that a little kid like me would have such a big appetite.

"So, about this twelve-thousand a year…" Coach K began, but I already knew what he was going to ask so I replied, "that's just for the first year next year. I want to raise it by another twelve-thousand." Coach K was silent, but he nodded. The rest of the team were in shock when they heard our conversations; some even started to get jealous, especially Darrel. Both the Coach and I could hear their uproar from behind us. They were supposed to be waiting at the bus, not in the bushes near where we were standing. Those damned eavesdroppers. Darrel never liked me since the first day of training. He watched me like a hawk. The Coach talked their ears off about their eavesdropping as we walked to the bus. I wasn't paying attention, because Darrel was bothering me. "Eazy," he said, "you really think you're some hotshot, huh?" I ignored him as he continued in his attempts to rile me up.  After we got on the bus, we were taken to our homes. It was pretty late when I got back, so I quickly showered, did my homework and went to sleep. 

The next day I told my mom about the game, and all she said was, "good job keep it up." I just nodded at her and went to school. The school bus was crowded today on the way to school, and I saw why after a few minutes. Two kids got into a fight on the bus, and we were all sent back to our bus stops for our parents to take us to school. 

When I got home, my mom passed out, so I just called my big brother Rasta to come to pick me up. "Hey Rasta, can you pick me up?" I asked. "No, I got work today, Eazy." He told me. "You don't gotta worry about that-- call off bro-- we can make triple what you make today!" I could hear him hum, as if he was debating something. In a moment he replied, "Yeah, I can pick you up." He came to get me, and we headed down to some parks to make bets on games. We drove around and until we found some vets playing ball at a park. We approached them and asked them if anyone wants to play for money, and they looked at me and immediately smirked and thought they were going to earn some easy money. I then pulled out $600, and they got excited and agreed.

We set the rules to play to 15 points per game two vs. two and that they could add more people, but it would be $100 per person, but they had too much pride to add more people. Rasta was a little nervous about the thought of playing with so much money. I quickly had a meeting with him. I told Rasta, "Rasta, it's gonna be alright. Let me handle the points, and you just gotta focus on defense. Just pass me the ball." Rasta nodded in agreement, and we started the game. The game started and one of the guys said, "You two can start with the ball first, since there's no way you could win." His friends laughed, but I didn't mind. We weren't going to be easy money like they thought we would be. As soon as Rasta passed me the ball I took the shot and made it. 

One of the veterans looked shocked, and said to his teammates reassuringly, "He just got lucky, that's all." I couldn't help but give off a cocky grin and I responded, "So, keep giving me the shot then." They laughed it off and another guy said, "Money is on the line." Rasta was setting me up by setting picks for me, and after a while, they started to double team me, and I just passed to Rasta, who was under the basket for the easy points. When the game was over, they begrudgingly forked over the money. We asked who wanted to play next, and they all bailed out. They were convinced that we were cheaters, so we moved on to the next court since we won $200, and no one was willing to lose that much money. After winning $200, we made our way to another park where we won $400 from a group of drug dealers and moved on to some Jamaicans winning another $400 because of their pride they wanted to earn their money back.

Now that we had $1k, we went to the mall to do some shopping. We purchased some Jordans and a Nintendo 64. We then bought some clothes and headed to lunch at an all you can eat buffet. We had all kinds of foods and ate until we were full. I was so full that I ran to the restroom and threw up a lot of the food I just ate, which pissed me off. Rasta was excited he was able to have so much fun today, and make a lot of money.  He was also ecstatic to do some shopping and got matching Jordans. I had gotten a pair for Opal too. Hopefully, she likes it. When my brother left, I set up the Nintendo 64 and played until my sister Opal came home from school, and I gave her the shoes.

She thanked me and slammed the door in my face. I shook my head and suddenly remembered that I still have basketball practice, but it's a little too late. I decided to skip it since I know I don't even need to practice. The next day at school, Coach K tells us we have our first game coming up in two weeks and that we should get prepared. I tell the coach, "I'm already ready. I won't be showing up to practice anymore because there's no point. No one can beat me." Coach K looked amazed. He was about to say something. He knew that if he did, he would risk losing me. He didn't want me to get mad and quit the team. He was visibly perturbed, but he was quiet. I walked off saying, "let me know when we are ready to play a real game!" The weekend was approaching, and I was prepared to relax.

I headed over to John's house after school because it's a Friday, and I could do my homework any time during the weekend. I spot Akua and ask her, "Hey Akua, you wanna come see me play in my first game?" She quickly tells me, "I'm not interested in watching little boys run around with their balls in their hands." I laughed and asked Akua if she was interested in seeing my balls in her hands, and she ran off blushing. When I reached John's house, he was getting ready to head to the court, so I joined him, and we went to play some one-on-one. I needed to work on my defense since my third ability hasn't activated yet. Unless I get the ball first, I will be screwed if the other team started and never missed the point. I let John get the ball first since he was taller than me.

He tried to use his body to push me in the post and lay it up, but I quickly went around him and stole the ball. He was mad. I took the shot, but by the time he reached me, the ball had already left my hand as a rainbow. That way, he had no chance to block it, and I made the bucket. We continued to play until John was tired and ready to go home. I had learned a lot about defense in this game, so I was feeling very hopeful that I could hold my own against anyone. I practiced every day until the day of the first game came up.

My mom, Rasta, Flo, Opal, John, and his family, Shawn and even Akua had shown up, which surprised me. In the changing room, everyone was looking at me strangely, so I asked Momba, "what happened?" and he told me, "You won't be starting since you didn't come to practice, Eazy. Someone else took your spot." I didn't even get mad because I didn't feel like playing the whole game. So I went to Coach K and asked him, "Can someone else have more playing time?" He replied, "You're going to be used as a secret weapon. You're gonna come in at the end of the games to close the upcoming season's games."

I thanked him and left to go put on my uniform. I don't usually see my body, but when I finally do, I notice I'm built like a horse: a full six-pack and some muscle gains. I quickly shake the thought of having such a fine toned body and run out to sit on the bench and watch the game until it's my turn to shine. My family and friends get mad and think I'm not going to play because I've been sitting on the bench for a while. I quickly calm them down and tell them I'm only playing the last four minutes. Tom, the small forward and Hack, the power forward were scoring most of the points while Darrel was setting them up.

My replacement Eric couldn't score a single point due to his nerves of being in front of a crowd of people. Momba, the center, had already grabbed 13 rebounds and made 11 points. They were playing great, but the team they were facing weren't pushovers either. They were winning by 3 points because their star player Yoshi was scoring like a madman. He already had 34 points and didn't seem to be slowing down. With 4 minutes left on the clock Coach, K finally put me in the game, and we were down by 6 points. My family and friends immediately got energized and cheered me on when they saw me warming up. Darrel sneered, and I glared at him as a warning to pass me the ball.

I finally sub in, and Eric sighed in relief because he was tired. Darrel quickly passed the ball to me, and Yoshi, even though he's tired, comes to cover me. I smirked and took the shot so fast he didn't have time to react. I turned away to play defense the whole gym was quiet and was wondering why I walked away when the ball was still in the air. In the next moment, all everyone heard was the sound of the net, and the whole place erupted with cheers. I quickly make work of the team by catching up and passing them in scores. Yoshi is pissed at this point and couldn't believe they were hiding such a player until the last minute. The rest of the game was uneventful, so we went on to win by 9 points, and my family friends came down to congratulate me on my first game.

After the game, John's father said he would like to see me play against Micheal Jordan one day, and I laughed it off. Akua came up to me and said, "good game, Eazy. I didn't know you could ball and were the star player of the team." I respond by saying, "there's a lot of things you don't know about me. How about we talk moreover a nice dinner say tomorrow night at 8?" She smirked and said, "sorry honey, but you are a hundred years too early to ask me out on a date. And do you think my family would let a ten-year-old take me out on a date? At least wait 'till we get to high school,'' with that she winked at me and walked away. I forgot I'm a ten-year-old boy now and I need to slow down on girls. I can't wait to have sex again because, well, I still have urges as a 50-year-old mind. My mother takes us to Burger King to celebrate our victory.