Beating the Buzzer | Book 1 in USC series

thirty-four

"Well grandma avó," I sigh into the speaker as the phone lays between my head and balances on my shoulder. "Thank you so much for the help. Hopefully it's all cooked so she doesn't end up with food poisoning before the game."

-grandma

Today was a big day for me and the guys. Scouts were coming from different teams to check us out. And not only that, but we played Stanford today as well, one of the teams that was doing just as good as we were this year.

In the crowd would be a scout from the Warriors coming to check us out today and I needed to perform my best in order to get on their radar if I wasn't already.

" Boa sorte no jogo, Carson. Estaremos torcendo por você daqui." My grandma wishes me luck as I turn the stove off." Nós te amamos."

-Good luck at the game, Carson. We'll be cheering you on over here. We love you."

" Eu também amo vocês." I blew a kiss towards the screen as she waved goodbye. I tapped the end call option on the screen before turning to the breakfast I had cooked for her.

-I love you guys too.

I made her cheesy eggs and Pao de Queijo.

Cheese puffs were my favorite part of waking up on Sundays when I visited New York for the summers. My grandmother made them for me every Sunday when I visited after basketball camp.

Hopefully I didn't fuck it up, lord knows I needed my lucky charm cheering me on today more than ever.

If I choked at this game, that would be it for me. Everything that I worked hard and dreamed for would be over.

I needed to give more than 100% this game.

The soft patter of her feet alerted me that she was awake. I turned around with the pan of eggs and spatula as she took a seat at the bar.

" You cooked?" She asked as she hesitantly grabbed a cheese puff. I feigned offense as she bit into the warm bread, waiting for her reaction.

Her eyes widened as she chewed," This is actually really good," she compliments as she picks the bread apart and pops another piece into her mouth.

This is a good sign— She isn't running to the bathroom with her hand over her mouth so maybe I did something correct.

And made the right decision to call my grandmother and not my mother.

" I know that it's not much," I say as I place half of the eggs onto her plate. " I don't know how to cook at all. Kyler and Haze usually do the cooking, I do the eggs."

I only knew how to make eggs but they were some good ass eggs if I do say so myself.

" It's delicious," she shoves another forkful of eggs into her mouth before raising her eyes to me. " What did you put in them?"