The New Experience

Chapter 18

After that day Jessica did nearly exactly what I thought she was going to do. She completely stopped talking to me. No, she completely ignored me. No. She completely shunned my existence.

I barely saw her in my own house and we lived together. I walk out my door and she goes back to her room. I see her in the kitchen, or any room, she just left. The only time I looked at her in her face or heard her talk was the thirty minutes at dinner. That was just because she had to. And she did not talk to me, but just my parents.

In school...well that's self explanatory.

The walk to school even stopped. For a week after that day she walked with Dashaun and I. Soon she began to walk earlier to school. Usually while I was in the shower. Dashaun wondered where she was. I just told him she joined a club that met before school, He believed me for a while. Suddenly, Dashaun stopped walking with me too. He said his mother began to take him. I found that odd. This continued for all of January and past February.

My best friend seemed to not have the time to hangout. All we did was play Xbox occasionally on the weekends Also in school we joked around. Other than that we did not see each other outside of school or practice. He just seemed distant for some reason. Like he was hiding something. Basketball was my safe haven. The team was good. We went undefeated for the season. Alvin lost in the playoffs first round. That was a shock. We did not have to play them. In the playoffs we won our three games and were in the sectional finals.

I soon discovered why my best friend had been avoiding me for basically a month. The day of the Sectional finals.

"Smith takes their last time out. Twenty seconds left in the game."

Here we were. In the section Finals in Rutgers New Brunswick, New Jersey. I've never been here before because of our loss to Alvin last year. This time it was our turn.

It was not looking good. We were down by 2 in the fourth. Twenty seconds left. Smith 75. Norwick 77.

It has been a struggle all game with them. They were really good. We pulled away in the second, but in the third they caught up. They then took the lead late in the third. They've led ever since. Our whole team was exhausted. Norwick were runners. They loved to run. We were struggling with the speed all game. We were fast too, but it felt like we were a step behind in the second half. We stayed in the game though. And here we were. A now or never situation.

"Alright boys. This is what we want." started Coach Jackson. "Big stage, back against the wall. These are the times that show us what we are made of. I got one question. Who are we?"

"BLACK DRAGONS!" the team responded.

"What we do?!"

"BURN BURN BURN! FIRE FIRE FIRE! WIN WIN WIN!"

"THEN GO DO IT!"

Dashaun inbounded me the ball. Those were just words. We had to execute this play.

"Revo! Revo!" I called.

This play was to get Adam the open shot. Personally, I think Dashaun is the better three point shooter, but Adam was going off this game with 38. Dashaun also was struggling a little form three and was 4-9 from three tonight. I was doing decent with 25 and 9 assists. I was not a three point shooter though. It was also Adam's last season. He wants to go out on his own terms.

The play started. Adam set a pick to the left on my guy. I went that way. Dashaun ran across to the left corner. I passed him the ball. 12 seconds.

He passed it into the paint to Dameek. Ricardo set a pick on my guy. 8 seconds.

I ran free and set a pick on the guy guarding Adam. He fought under which was what he wanted. Dameek threw the ball to Adam as he rolled past his defender. He was opened in the right corner. 4 seconds.