A Different Descendant: Freshman Year 1

Chapter 13

Chapter 13
    “Why speed first?” I asked.
    “Because Henry, from what I see here, you’re no-where near me in speed. In simpler terms, you’re slow.”
    “You think I’m slower than you old man?” I scoffed, raising my eyebrows.
    “We don’t have to argue. I’ll show you.”
He started to sound more serious. I knew I had to get serious. I had no intention of losing to him.
    “Go stand at the other side of the court. Right next to the hoop,” he instructed. I said nothing and followed his instruction. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what his intentions were.
    “What now?” I asked.
    “You will stop me from scoring. I will stand here at the center. Run from there and stop me. I will not go for a dunk or a three pointer, but a lay-up. Stop me if you can.”
    ‘Ohh? He seems confident,’ I said to myself.
    “On my mark, GO!”
Without hesitation, I dashed towards him at top speed. With my thoughts driven in the direction of proving my speed, I didn’t hold back one bit.
While in motion, I noticed he didn’t move for a while, like he waited for me on purpose. Just as I was about to reach the center, he headed for the hoop. I tried to pick up the pace, but I was at maximum speed. I couldn’t catch up. I practically chased after him and watched him make his lay-up.
    With my hands on my knees, my chest was restless. My heavy breathing was accompanied by a troubled mind.
    ‘He waited for me, and I still didn’t catch up,’ I said to myself.
    I had not tasted defeat in a very long time. I had totally forgotten what loss felt like. I was mad at myself, furious in fact. I was so weak.
    “Don’t beat yourself up. I know how you feel trust me. But thinking of how weak you think you are won’t help,” he said, handing me a bottle of water.
    I drank from the bottle slowly to keep myself at ease at least.
    “I’m actually impressed,” he said.
    ‘Impressed?’ I asked myself.
    “Anyone else of your skill level would have underestimated me. But you came at me full throttle. Don’t worry, I’ll train you. You’ll be a beast on the court. You’ll see.”
    *******************
    Ever since that day, dad and I would wake up super early for morning runs, training and work out. For the first few days, the new methods didn’t exactly agree with me as I would sometimes doze off a bit in class, especially Mr. Hickery’s class.
He was one hell of a boring teacher. I was no stranger to history taught in class as in Taioui classes, we were taught loads of history so it wasn’t much of a big deal.
    I told no one about my training with my dad. I’m the ‘let the results to do the talking’ kind of guy. Freya helped me smooth things over with her friends and we started interacting.
Just as I feared, Blake was still pea-brained. Clyde and I got along better than any of them. There was a calm aura that came with him that just made me feel somewhat connected to him.
That week, we all made up and I felt like I belonged. It was like I was meant to be friends with them. We bonded quite easily that week, and for the first time in forever, I had become acquainted with people that weren’t family.
**************
Dad’s training started to yield results. It was very obvious at practice and at games. He even took me to play with some inmates he was quite familiar with at a correction center to test my analytical skills.
He also taught me different playing tactics to add to the ones I already knew. It was to the point that coach started to entrust coming up with tactics for our games. I told myself it was only a matter of time before I became captain of the team, knowing fully well that it had been years since the school had a team captain in the freshman class.
   
******************
    I was always about five minutes late to the boy’s locker room on Wednesdays because my history teacher, Mr. Hickery would always ask me different questions on the history of Mystery Falls. He never really told me why he asked me those questions, and I didn’t bother asking.
    “Collins, you’re late!” coach yelled.
    “Coach, you know I’m always five minutes late on Wednesday because of Mr. Hickery,” I said casually. I had become his favorite player that on some occasions, I could tease him.
    “Right. Just get dressed for practice.”
    Sometimes I wonder to myself if he asks that question on purpose.
    As I got dressed, he gathered us together to talk to us.
    “Alright, we haven’t seen or heard from Jackson in a while now. So I did some digging and--”
    “You mean you asked the Principal,” said Daniel.
    Every time coach wanted to come off as cool, Daniel would do something just like this, which got on coach’s nerves but was a great deal of humor for everyone on the team.
    “Yes Daniel, I asked the principal,” he said, admitting defeat with a rather funny angry look on his face.
    “I asked the principal, and turns out he moved to Starling City. Family stuff so, not my problem. So after some thinking, I finally decided.”
    “Say no more coach. Yes I’ll gladly take on the role of Captain,” said Daniel, pushing his chest out like a super hero.
    “Stand down Tiger, you’re not captain,” coach said, making everyone burst into laughter. Daniel’s power smile turned upside down in that moment. Coach would be delighted that he finally got a come-back.
    “Collins!” coach yelled
    On hearing my name the boy’s locker room went wild with cheers and clapping.
     Once the cheers settled, Coach gave me some sort of pep talk on how I must not disappoint the team and of course, him.
    ************
    At lunch, I sat with Freya and the others. I listened to them and chipped in a few things in when I needed to. Clyde and I were usually quiet at the table.   
    “What’s up MFHS!!”
Daniel stood on one of the cafeteria tables, looking like he wanted to give an announcement. Everyone in MFHS liked Daniel. He was funny and according to Alexis, he always made the special gatherings like the school dance very memorable.
     “My fellow Mystery Fall-ians...."
     'Fall-ians?'
    "....earlier today, your honorable Hurricanes said goodbye to an old reign. Today, the team enters a new era and with a new era, comes a new captain.”
    “A new captain?” Elizabeth asked with a hint of happiness.
    “I wonder if he’s talking about himself,” said Daphne.
    “I doubt it,” Blake answered.
    “Presenting, the new pride of the basketball team, the best player on the team, responsible for all our straight wins. He is the one, the only, the greatest---”
    “It’s not Daniel, it’s--”
Before Elizabeth could say the words, Daniel did it for her.
    “HENRY COLLINS!!!”
     The cafeteria went wild with cheers and clapping with me as its center.
I stood up and walked in between people going wild with clapping and cheering towards Daniel who held my captain’s jacket.
    “You just had to make a big fuss out of it,” I said to Daniel.
“Talk about a corny way to be humble,” Daniel laughed.
    I collected the jacket and put it on which made them clap even louder.
    “Speech! Speech!.....”
Someone started the chant and before I knew it, everyone joined in.
    “Alright!” I shouted, causing them to finally settle down.
   “This is an honor. I am indeed grateful for this. And I promise you guys. This year is the year we earn the title back. The Hurricanes will return this season!”
    The cafeteria once again, went wild with cheer. Everything had changed. I had moved from the random freshman that challenged the basketball team’s captain, to MVP and now captain. Even though he was dead, I knew he would be very happy.