Heart of a Dragon (A Hiccup x Astrid HTTYD AU Fanfic)

Chapter 34: Pressure is On

The meeting adjourned, I was folding my jerseys when I heard someone called my name, "Hey Hiccup!" I saw Dominic, John and the others on the court, "Wanna play a quick game?" Dominic suggested, "Sure." I put my jerseys in my bag and ran to the court.

Narration:

The game was far from serious, it was like they just wanted to deepen their chemistry as team before the start of the qualifiers.

Everyone was showing bright and happy exteriors but deep inside all of them in the team can feel the pressure of carrying the school's name especially in a nationally recognized basketball tournament. 

Nobody expected nothing from them but everyone wanted to change how they were viewed. 

They only got a week's time of training to get used to each other and function as a team which doesn't help relieve the burden they were carrying.

The pressure differs for each players since most of them are from different grade levels; the freshmen feel pressure since they lack experience, the sophomores feel pressure since they all need to step up for the team, the juniors feels pressure since they are the next in line of command, and lastly, the senior feels pressure since it will be his last chance to win the National Championship before graduating.

All they can do is do their absolute best.

Hiccup's POV

We were just essentially having fun and no one was even tallying the scores. My team has the possession and I was dribbling outside the three point line, finding an open man to pass to when Cedrick announced, "Hey Hiccup, next point wins.", "Got it." I replied then I saw Greg who was coming off a screen so I passed him the ball but the defense was immediately on him.

I was thinking of what to do and I saw an opening on the side so I went around the side, "Should I settle for a jumper or go hard?" I thought, "Let's go hard to the rack." I continued running to the baseline and I signaled for an alley-oop, he saw me and gave a quick nod before throwing a near perfect pass.

The ball was cruising through the air, "I got this." I told myself before using all the jumping power I trained for and the opposite team were caught by surprise and no one was able to react fast enough to catch up to me, I caught the ball but I have my back on the hoop so I just dunk in backwards without even seeing the rim and thankfully the hoop was right behind me.

I hung on the rim and everyone was looking at me, "I guess we win." I said, my teammates started high fiving each other.

"That was a nice play." Cedrick put his hand over my shoulder, "I just jumped, Greg made it happen with the nice pass." I fist bump Greg, "I just saw you signaling for an alley-oop so I just threw it up." he replied, "That's the second time, I lost to you with a dunk." Dominic went over to me, I just laughed at what he said.

Third Person's POV

Cedrick was staring at everyone in the court right at that exact moment, he already accepted that this will be his last chance to ever competing for a National Championship but seeing how everyone played since the try-outs and their training sessions, he felt that this team was different.

Cedrick tried calling their attentions, "Everyone... Before we all go home, can I say something?" everyone turned around and quietly agreed, "I was never been good in making speeches but I just want to tell you all as your captain, nobody is expecting us to be good, nobody is thinking that we could even win a  single game but I believe that with this team, these members, we can really go the distance. This year will be our year. This year will be the rebirth of the Dragons. Let's do our best and have fun." he declared and it hyped everybody up, "Hands in the middle." he followed and all of them put their hands in the center once again, "BURN THEM UPON THREE! ONE! TWO! THREE!, "BURN THEM UP!" the whole team shouted the chant once again.