The New Student

Basketball (3)

I walked back to my seat to find that Mark had left. People were starting to crowd into the stadium and I hurried to my seat. I checked to make sure that everything was still in my bag. Everything was there...except my phone? Checking everywhere, I looked around, desperately trying to find my phone. Oh no, where could I have misplaced it?! Then I saw Susana.

"SUSANA!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, running to my old best friend.

"MARI!" She ran to me and we reunited. "Mari, it's been so long!"

"I know! Susana come sit with me." We sat together in the front seat. We were an odd pair of friends, both of us wearing our school shirts. "Hey can I borrow your phone?"

"Yeah sure, why?"

"It's gone missing."

"Really? Just now?"

"Yeah, before you just arrived."

"Okay." She handed me her phone and I dialed my number.

Mark. The idiot had taken my phone! He held it up and waved at me but then faltered when he saw Susana sitting next to me.

"Look, that's my boyfriend!" She squealed happily, thinking that he was waving at her.

Her boyfriend?! "He is?" I looked at her incredulously, hoping that she was joking.

"Yes! You know Mark?"

"A little bit. I talked to him a bit during their warm up."

"Oh, he's a great person! I'm so glad you met him! Isn't he sweet? What'd you think about him?"

He was a cheating jerk. How dare he cheat on Susana? He didn't even deserve her. "I don't know yet," I lied. I changed the topic of conversation, forgetting about my phone, when the teams suddenly ran onto the court.

OM High came out first and I loudly cheered for Hansol, Yuta, Ten, and Taeyong. Then Darmount ran out and Susana screamed for Mark. She sat back down, grinning. "Mark is a great basketball player." I silently agreed, but he was only a great player, not a great person.

I watched two tall players from each team walk up into the center of the court. The referee threw the ball into the air and the player from OM hit it to his team member, Yuta! I cheered; being on the offense was more preferable than being on defense. I watched Yuta furiously dribble down the court and the other members run near Darmount's hoop. Recalling on what Hansol had told me in the car, I recognized Yuta as a guard, a person who dribbles down the court and passes it to other people. I saw Hansol running around, trying to evade a player from Darmount, in order to be open for Yuta to pass him the ball. Taeyong was also running around, and I assumed he was a forward like Hansol. Ten was a center, trying to block anyone who was defending his teammates using his height. Yuta barely avoided a Darmount player who grabbed for the ball. He quickly tossed it to Taeyong, who caught it. Taeyong was immediately surrounded by defending players and desperately tossed it to Hansol, who caught it and threw the ball. There was a sudden hush in the gym, the people in the crowd anxiously watching with apprehension. The ball bounced off the rim of the hoop only to be caught again by Ten, who made the shot. The OM High supporters cheered as the score board read

OM: 2    Darmount: 0

Eventually the game continued and when it was half-time, OM was still in the lead.

OM: 36 Darmount: 32

The players gathered around their coaches and huddled. I turned around to look at Susana, who was looking quite grim. "You know," she said. "Darmount is undefeated so far this season."