Sink in Deep

Chapter 1

Sam wipes the bead of sweat of his forehead. The crowd roars with motivation, trying to cheer Sam and his team on. He looks at the point system and his team is in the lead by just a few points. If he didn't make the throw, they wouldn't have gotten he ball into the basket.

"Sam, we just need to hold out long enough and we will win the game." Richard says as he tries to catch his breath.

Sam nods his head in acknowledgement, he's too exhausted to speak a couple of replies. The last score took quite a toll on his stamina. He just has to make it through this and they'll win the game between the interschool competitions.

The team split into their positions and Sam runs towards the offending side. He watches his team mates compete until his turn was ready. The ball was bouncing around and his eyes are locked onto it, along with the person in front of him who is trying to block him from getting it.

He glances at the clock and it is less than a minute that they have to hold out for until they won the game. The thoughts got shut out of his head as he hears his friend call out his name. He sees the ball flying towards him and makes quick steps, positioning himself in front of the guy in front of him.

He grabs the ball and twists his body and throws into the hoop. Everyone, including the players stands there as they watch the ball fly towards the basket. The bell rings loudly but the ball has yet to go into the hoop.

Sam let out a sigh of relief, they have won the game. The ball that he just threw didn't even make it into the hoop. The crowd cheers as the ball drops to the floor. Sam's team starts to crowd the middle of the court and jump for joy for their victory.

Sam slides out of the embrace and sits on the bench on the side. He grabs for his water and opens the cap but a girl comes over to him, handing over a bottled water. "Here, I got you a drink." She offers.

Sam smiles at her, gratefully taking the bottle from her but drinking the bottle that he opened up earlier. He puts her bottle beside him and nods. "Thank you."

The girl smiled and walks away, feeling accomplished. Sam looks at her as she walks away, shaking his head. "Did you reject your fan?" Richard comes over, taking a seat beside Sam.

Sam takes the bottle that the girl offers him and passes it over to Richard. "I didn't. It was for you." He lies.

Richard takes the drink and chugs it down. "Even I could tell that that was a lie." Richard comments. "But water is still water."

"Let's not talk about it, at least we won the game and that's all that matter." Sam smiles widely.

"It was all thanks to you. If you didn't make the last score, we would've lost. Even I could tell that your last throw was kind of weak." Richard admits.

"It was a team effort. What do you mean? Without you guys, I definitely couldn't have score that on my own." Sam replies, humbly.

Richard smirks and puts his arms around Sam's shoulder. "Stop being so humble about it and just accept it. You were the star at the end of the match. Anyway there's going to be dinner with the team later, the coach is treating. You better come."

Sam laughs. "Yeah, yeah. I'll try to make it. I'm just a little tired after that match."

"You have the rest of the week to be tired. For now, you just have to wash up and meet us at the barbeque place once you're done resting or you could wait for all of us then we'll head there together." Richard suggests.

"I'll text you about it." Sam got up from the chair. "For now, I'll take your suggestion and take a shower. If anyone asks, say I'm with the crowd, I don't want anyone to disturb me." Richard nods as he watches Sam walk away.

Sam let out a sigh as he feels the water wash over his body. He knew that this would be a good time to wash up especially with everyone out in the court, taking pictures and busy socializing. It was nice for him to feel alone.

Sam gathers his stuff and heads out of the court, heading towards his class. He nearly forgot about the project he has that is due by the following week. He left most of his stuff in his personal locker and he dreads walking up the long flight of stairs.

He got to his locker and grabs his stuff. He closes his locker and turns around but unknowingly hits onto another person, watching papers and books fall off both their hands. "Sorry." Sam apologizes as he got to the floor, picking up the items.

The other boy did the same, taking things at random. When the both of them collected their stuff, they look up at each other. Sam has never seen someone with big eyes before. "It's okay." The boy said, before leaving.

Sam looks at the slender boy brisk walking away, with the way his black long jacket sways against the wind, and disappear into the corner. Sam gather his thoughts and starts walking towards a secluded part of the school where he can continue his project. Just as he sits down and ready to go through his papers, he realizes that it wasn't his papers that he picked up.

"Shit." Sam curses. He reaches for his phone, trying to find any document he could use for the project but there was none. He curses himself for not having a copy or a back up on his phone.

Sam looks through the papers he picked up, trying to find anything that would help him find the guy that he knocked into. "Yu..." Sam trails off as he sees the name on the piece of paper.

It was easy to see that the boy was in the same faculty as him but he has never seen him before. He scans through the papers, reading it one by one. Sam's eyes widens as he sees the reports that was written, it was nearly perfect he could've easily gotten full marks if this paper was his.

He grabs the pile of items on the table and runs back towards his locker. As he climbs the long flight of stairs, he could see the sun setting. He's going to be late meeting his basketball mates. He curses and shove that thought to the back of his mind, his grades has to come first.

Sam pants out as he arrives at his locker, hoping to bump into the same guy again. He looks around but there was no one there. He figured he could spare a couple of minutes waiting, he's definitely asking him to tutor Sam after looking through his reports.

A dark shadow appears at the corner of Sam's eyes. He turns to it and a wide smile grows into his face. It was the same guy with the black long jacket walking towards him. "Hey!" Sam calls out, waving his hand high up in the air.

The guy shakes his head as he increases his speed slightly towards Sam. Sam couldn't wait anymore and walks towards him as well. He hold out the reports and notes towards the guy. "You're Yu?" Sam asks.

"Yeah." Yu answers. Yu grabs Sam's items and passes it over to him. "I must've have taken the wrong things just now."

They exchange their items and stand there awkwardly as Yu looks through his items, making sure everything is there. "Alright, I think I got everything. Sorry for the trouble." Yu apologizes and walks away.

"Wait!" Sam yells out as Yu turns around. "I read through your report. Do you think you can help me with mine?"