Viper

Child's Play

The game became a back and forth event. Bringing the attention of everyone in the yard. Cheers erupted as Cheeto and his squad stole passes and made baskets. Cheeto was on a shooting match against the best shooter of the opposite team. A talented 12 years old who had dreams of dribbling and shooting 3 pointers all the way to the pros. Allen was full of energy and bravado that feed of the following he had established through the neighborhood and surrounding areas. Of course his talent was being honed and perfected at the expense of his education. But that was alright. Because as he figured he could go pro straight out of high school like some of his heroes or just hustle in the ball courts like others had done before.

As the shot by shot contest between Allen and Cheeto heated up, another member of Cheetos's team was beginning to show his stuff. Sammy was a quiet 13 year old boy, a little tall for his age, but clumsy and un-focused which made others think he was slow. His clothes were too small for him and his pants and shirts were always dirty. His constant smelled of adolescence lead other kids and even some of the adults to pick on him and call him names. Claudia hated this but talking to the kids didn't seem to help and sometimes only made things worse. So she was happy to see Sammy rise to the occasion. She was also surprised as were many of the kids watching because Sammy was so reclusive.

The game was heating up and there were around thirty kids and some of the parents watching with enthusiasm. The game was first to twelve best of three. The first set went to the jocks and the second game went to Cheetos's loners with his teammates coming in to assist late in the set. The third game was a shooting match between Allen and Cheeto. One of the jocks assisted Allen to pull ahead when Sammy begun to come into the game. The score was eight for the jocks and four for the loners.

Sammy begun with a steal from a pass by one of the jocks to Allen. He passed the ball back to Cheeto who would take it for a score of two. This brought the score to eight to six. Quickly, Allen and the jocks charged up the court rounding around Cheeto for a break away where Allen went for a 3 pointer but was blocked by Sammy who was naturally taller. Cheeto took it for a quick two to even the score. The audience was electric. Cheering for the loners since Allen and the jocks always beat everyone by wide margins and were not very good winners. Allen, upset at the rejection by Sammy charged up the court with the jocks on tow. Faking a hand over to one of his guys being covered by Sammy, Allen used him as a shield to loose Cheetos cover, ran past Sammy where he attempted to hook it to the basket but was again denied.

Visibly frustrated Allen shouted foul and pushed Sammy, eliciting boos and jeers from the spectators. "No foul!" was the response by Cheeto.

"He hit my hand! The little bitch!" shrieked back Allan almost to the point of tearing up. "No! Keep playing" echoed through the audience acting as referees, prompting a reluctant Allen to rejoin the game. This time the ball was in his hands since Sammy threw it out of bounds. Allan checked it, faked out Cheeto and sunk it in. "Three points!" shouted Allan to which Cheeto replied, "No dude you was stepping on the line. That's two."

"NO WAY! THAT WAS 3!" shouted Allan again putting three fingers up toward Cheetos face.

"That was two dude." Replied Cheeto almost mockingly.

"Was it two or three?" asked Cheeto towards the crowd which responded by majority to two. Even though most didn't know for sure or even see if it really was. At this point most were just happy to see the jocks in disarray.

"Ah man you all suck! This isn't fair," shouted Allan again as his jocks walked him reassuringly.

"It's ok man we still winning," said one of his boys.