Bait d.v.

Chapter 3

When we pulled up the eight people were already placing furniture in the living room and my bedroom. My mom and I were cooking dinner. She's also making a batch for the workers to eat.

"Do you guys have an estimated time of when you'll be done?" My mom asks.

"Five, five thirty, maybe six." One of the guys say. My mom nods then continues stirring.

"OK now I think I officially won." My mom whispers and we laugh. I wonder what we'll do with all my old stuff when it makes it here. "I just remembered, weren't you gonna play basketball with some friends?"

"Oh yea, I was. I'm gonna go see if they're still there. Call me if you need anything." I guess I get to play basketball after all. When I get to the court D and Tati are sitting on the bench on their phones and those guys from earlier are playing basketball.

"Cassie, you came!" Dinah almost trips on my basketball trying to get to me. Tatiana follows closely behind.

"You don't even know how bored we were, we tried to shoot some hoops but it's a lot harder than it looks. So we just sat and waited to see if you'd ever come. And now you're here!" They hug me. These girls are pretty friendly.

"Now we can actually play some basketball now, right?" They both pout and look back at the hoop.

"Basketball takes a lot of work and is not easy, but there's cute guys. Dilemma. I don't know what to choose. No basketball or cute guys, I'm weighing my options." Dinah places her hands out like a balance and moves them.

"Wait, if you have a basketball, then you would know how to play. How about you teach us?" Tatiana suggests.

"Fine with me." We walk over to the court and I shoot but it rolls off the rim.

"Pretty good for a girl." The light skin kid says and starts walking over.

"Being a girl has nothing to do with this. I'm just a little rusty." I brush off his comment. Daniel and his other friend walk over, too.

"Bet you five bucks you can't make your next shot." He passes me my ball.

"Gotchu." I place my legs, bend my knees a little, then shoot. It was a clean shot.

"Oooohhhh!" Daniel and the other guy yell.

"My five bucks please." I stick my hand out.

"I'll pay you later, promise." He looks me up and down then passes me my ball back.

"We should play a game." The brown skin says.

"True, you guys wanna play?" Daniel asks D and Tati. They shake their head no with smiles on their faces. "It's me and Cass, and you and Devin." He walks over to me. I roll my ball to Tati and she stops it with her foot then sits on the bench.

"Aye can you ladies time two minutes?" Devin asks them. Tatiana gets extra happy that he talked to her and quickly starts a timer on her phone.

"Ready, set, go!"

• • • • • 10 minutes later

The ending score was eleven to thirteen, Daniel and I lost. We could of had fourteen but my three-pointer didn't count because I didn't shoot before the buzzer. Daniel walks over and slips an arm around my waist.

"It's all good, we would of won but Kev just didn't want to count your three-pointer cause he a sore loser." Then he slides his hand off my waist when Devin and Kevin start to walk over.

"Yo I am so tired, bruh." Devin drinks some of his Gatorade.

"Yea, you tired me out, too. You pretty good, lil mama." Kevin drinks some of his. I sit next to Dinah while they talk on the blacktop.

"Did you see Daniel staring at you the whole time? Well you probably didn't cause you was playing real hard but he was jaw-like staring." Tatiana leans over Dinah's lap to talk to me.

"And every time you walked away from the hoop he was staring at that Cass of yours." They laugh and I do a little bit.

"How could he be " jaw-like" staring while he was playing?" I put quotation marks with my hands.

"OK maybe he wasn't staring, but he glanced about a hunnid times." Tati says and Dinah nods. I shake my head at them smiling. I check the time on my phone and it's about three thirty.

"He's looking over again, look." Right when I look over he smiles and looks away. "He is really feeling you." Tatiana turns so her head is laying in Dinah's lap and puts her feet up on the bench then goes on her phone.

Devin, Kevin, and Daniel start walking over to us. Tati and D both start smiling but try not to making it more obvious. Tati sits up and they try to look casual.

"So you guys are gonna be at the dinner, too, right?" Devin looks especially at Tatiana and I swear she melts. We all nod. "Great. Just wanted to know." Devin sits on his basketball in front of Tati and starts checking her out.

"So what are we eating for dinner?" Kevin asks me but glances at D up and down.

"My mom's special Chicken Alfredo. It's really good."

"Mhmm." Dev and Kev say and rub their stomach. Everyone laughs.

"So you just moved here? Today?" Daniel runs his hand through his hair. I nod. "Why'd you move?"

"I actually don't know, it was kinda abrupt and my mom said it was mandatory. Personal, I guess." They seem intrigued by my answer.

"All I know is you're gonna love it here, with us." He smiles.

"Daniel, let's head back to your house and chill, I'm tired." Devin stands up and bounces the basketball.

"Bet. You guys wanna come, too?" Daniel looks at us. Tati and D look at each other.

"Yea, let's go." Dinah stands up and we walk back to Daniel's house. And my day gets even more interesting.