Under the Radar // Devin Booker

Chapter 2

Devin

5:00 a.m.
I woke up to my annoying alarm clock blaring in my ear. Quickly shutting it off, I laid on my back taking a few seconds to stare at the ceiling and think.

What is the absolute worst that could happen if I just didn't go?

Before I could think of the possibilities, Tyler was banging on my door yelling for me to get up.

"I'm up!" I yelled through the closed door.

I slowly lifted myself out of the bed and made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. As soon as I was done I got dressed and headed out the door grabbing a bottled water, a banana and a granola bar to eat on the way.

Tyler wasn't far behind as he was having trouble getting his left shoe on his foot.

"Slow down grandaddy long legs."

I stopped, giving him time to catch up before continuing our hike to the gym. It was still dark out but I could faintly hear the chirps of birds somewhere in the near distance.

As soon as we walked through the big glass doors of Rupp Arena we were welcomed by the cool air that blew into our faces.

Maneuvering our way through the tunnels, we made it to the locker room where we dropped our bags off and headed in the direction of the weight room. The entire arena was silent and dark with the exception of the weight room.

Next Episode by Dr. Dre could be heard from all the way down the hall. The trainers were up and ready for us to get to work. Now that I think about it, I don't think the trainers ever slept. They're here before we get here and they're still here when the last team leaves later in the night.

A few of the other Kentucky players came running around the corner so as to not be late. Yesterday, Coach told us that we have to run a mile for every minute we're late for anything team related. I looked at a near by clock on the wall and saw we had exactly 1 minute to get into the weight room. Not trying to chance it I took off running making it inside just as our weight trainer, Coach Miller, blew his whistle for us to warm up.

A gruesome 90 minutes later we were allowed to leave. It was only supposed to last and hour, but Coach Miller wanted to see how we would perform in what he referred to as 'overtime'.

I wanted so badly to just crawl out of the gym and to my room. Thankfully, Willie offered us a ride back to our dorm since he "felt sorry for us freshys".

He dropped a few of us off in front of our dorm and sped off to what I'm guessing was class. I didn't have class until 10 so I had a little time to kill.

I made my way up to my room, took a shower, and got right back into bed.

. . .

Nimali

8:01 a.m.
My alarm was going off on my phone, but I couldn't find it anywhere. After about 3 solid minutes of searching, I found it behind my bed and cut the annoying ringing off.

I stretched a bit and picked out my outfit for the day which consisted of light washed ripped jeans, a white crop top, and a green flannel, paired with my all white vans. Once I was sure the outfit was acceptable I made my way to the bathroom to get ready.

Not wanting to take forever, I made sure to be quick and thorough in my routine. Since I now had a roommate, I wanted to make sure she had enough time to get ready.

My hair was a wild mess, so I brushed it up into a huge, semi-neat, curly bun on top of my head. It wasn't the most flattering style I had in my bag of tricks, but would have to do for now.