Keeper of the Lost Cities: React

Chapter 6: React to Basketball

"I lost again?" Keefe whined as Sophie tagged him out in base quest, winning the game.

"What can I say, except that Team Cognates is way better than team Foster-Keefe," Fitz bragged, giving Sophie a high five.

"Can't we play a different game?" Keefe protested, then lit up. "Oh, Foster! What about a human game?"

"Um... I wasn't really into sports."

"You have to know how to play at least one," Keefe whined.

Sophie's mind flashed through a few sports she knew. She didn't want to do soccer since she would definitely get hurt, and baseball seemed too hard to set up, as well as several others. Almost all the sports she could think of involved equipment. 

"Well, there's this one that's pretty simple. It's called basketball, all you have to do is get the ball in the hoop." Keefe, Biana, and Fitz all looked at her, confused. 

Sophie explained the rules to them, and they all caught on pretty quickly. Fitz and Keefe set about making hoops by tying trash bins up high. They would have to use telekinesis to take the ball out. 

Meanwhile Sophie and Biana began to clear furniture out of a large room using telekinesis. They also brought thread from Della's room to make the lines on the "court". 

"Well that was a lot of work," Fitz said, wiping invisible sweat from his brow. 

"You guys had it easy!" said Biana. "All you had to do was make the hoops, while we had to clear the furniture out and put the lines on the court!"

"Do you know how hard it is to get a trash can raised 10 feet in the air?" Fitz complained.

"Very hard," Keefe said. "But that doesn't matter. Let's start playing! And this time, I get Foster, and Team Foster-Keefe will prevail!"

Fitz grabbed a type of bouncy ball, threw it in the air for the jump off, and the game started. Biana had jumped against Sophie, and was able to easily get the ball by levitating.

"You never said no abilities!" BIana said as she dunked the ball. 

Keefe took the ball back out of the hoop and then passed it in to straight to Sophie. Sophie tried to catch it, but it fell out of her hands and Fitz picked it up and took a shot behind the three point line, which went straight in. 

Sophie should have figured the elves would be just as good as NBA players the first time they played. 

The game continued this way, Keefe continued to pass to Sophie despite the fact that she could never keep the ball. She could tell Fitz and Biana were trying to go easier on her; once they let her go up to the hoop and shoot unguarded, but she missed completely. 

Once the score reached 51-0, Sophie complained, "Can't we play base quest again? This seems a little unfair."

"Team Foster-Keefe isn't looking so great now, is it?" Fitz teased, nudging Keefe.

"It's just that this game is rigged. There's no way to cheat without everyone knowing!" Keefe complained.

"You're just a sore loser," Fitz said. 

"There's another game you could play using basketball that might be better, because it's individuals," said Sophie, also wanting to switch the game because she felt bad for Keefe. "It's called horse."

Sophie explained the rules, and they all agreed to try it. Sophie called Dex on her imparter, hoping he might be worse than Sophie. Dex had immediately said yes and light leaped over, and once he came, they all let Sophie go first, she went right in front of the basket, but she missed. 

"Yay, my turn!" Keefe said. He went to the opposite side of the room, then tried to throw the ball for a full court shot. Fortunately for Sophie, he missed, and it was Biana's turn. Unfortunately for Sophie, Biana took the same approach and made it. 

Dex and Fitz both easily made the same shot. So much for Dex being worse than her.