Bounce Back

Chapter 6

Ryan's POV

I waved Tyler over after school. We didn't have tutoring and I knew that they didn't have training so I was hopeful that he would join us. Jordan jabbed me in the ribs and I scowled at him before he sat down.

"Are you sure that I'm welcome to be here?" he asked softly.

"Of course, it's Tyler right?" Drew smiled.

I was so pleased that my friends were so welcoming of Tyler joining us. I could see a slight smile on Tyler's face as he took a seat beside me.

"Do you have any maths work?" I asked him.

He nodded and I offered to help him with it. It was very similar to one of the other ones that we had done together and he seemed to remember what he was doing. A couple of times one of my friends asked me a question but we were mostly uninterrupted.

Once we were finished I started working on my own thing.

"I never asked how did your art project go that we helped you with go?" Jordan asked.

"My art teacher said that you guys are terrible artists but that didn't matter," he teased.

"Morgan, how can you say that?" Drew pouted.

Morgan hit him up the back of the head and they stopped talking about it. I returned to writing the report that I was working on instead. We lapsed into silenced as worked on our own work. I was pretty much finished when Tyler nudged me.

"Can you help me with this?" he asked.

I nodded and we started to talk through his work. It wasn't particularly hard for me but Tyler seemed to be a bit confused but we managed to worth through it. Most of us were done out work when Tyler stood up.

"I've got to go but I'll see you later," he said.

We all nodded and he headed out of the library. I was about to return my attention to what I was doing but I noticed all my friends were looking at me.

"What?" I asked.

"It's really obvious," Morgan smiled.

I tried to protest but all three of them had grouped together and there was no point anymore. I just rested by head on the table.

"I like Tyler though," Drew added.

"Yeah, he seems like a good guy," Jordan continued.

I didn't hang around for much longer because I wanted to talk to the basketball Coach. I had emailed him and he told me that he was going to be around quite late so I headed towards his office. I knocked on the door and he let me in.

"Ryan, what did you want to talk about?" he asked.

"I was just going through my stats and I came up with a couple of comments about the games if you want them," I offered.

"So, do you think that you are a better Coach than me?" he asked.

"Of course not, I just thought that you might want a different perspective," I said again.

"Ryan Moore, you are not a basketball Coach and you don't have any experience playing so please leave me to do my work," he said blandly.

I stood there in shock for a minute before walking out of his office. I didn't bother heading back into the library because my friends were probably going to be gone so I just headed home.

I was a bit earlier than usual so neither of my parents were home yet so I dumped my bag and headed out the back. I have three older brothers who all played basketball and I got into it because they wanted to play two on two so they needed a fourth player.

That's why I do basketball stats and not some other sport. I know a lot about basketball and how to play it. We still had an old hoop in the backyard so I grabbed a ball and started to shoot. I was a pretty good player but not as good as my brothers who all got scholarships for college.

I didn't have anyone to play with so I was just shooting hoops for a few minutes. I hadn't played for a while but it was calming because it was so repetitive. I don't know exactly how long I was out there but it couldn't be more than twenty minutes.

I found that my parents weren't home yet but I found instructions dinner instead. It wasn't particularly difficult which was good because I'm not the most amazing cook but I'm not a threat in the kitchen.

My phone was sitting on the bench and I noticed Tyler's ID flashing across the screen.

"Hey," I said.

"This is like totally random but can you talk to my sister for like ten minutes?" he asked.

I flicked my phone onto speaker phone and told him to pass me over after learning that his sister is eight.

"Hey Lisa, I'm Ryan," I said.

"Are you Tyler's friend?" she asked.

"Yeah, how was your day?" I asked as I continued to cook.

I listened to her talk about her school and one of her friends. I didn't really have to contribute to the conversation and it was really easy. I wasn't timing how long the conversation was but probably fifteen minutes later I was talking to Tyler again.

"Your sister is really nice," I said.

"Thanks for doing that," he said.

"How come you called me?" I asked.

"I'm not sure how well my teammates would be able to censor themselves to talk to her."

"How come you needed your sister to talk to me?" I asked.

"It's a bit of a long story but my Mom is a single Mom but she has this ex-boyfriend that still thinks that he can come around and ask for money. Mom isn't home and that isn't a conversation that I want to have."

"Then you can call me whenever you want. We are friends, right?" I asked.

"I guess we are," he smiled.

I heard the door open and I knew that it was going to be my parents.

"I've got to go but remember than you can call me when I want," I repeated.

He nodded and I hung up just as my parents walked in. I had also just finished dinner so the timing was good.

"Who were you talking to?" Dad asked.

"Just one of my friends," I said simply.

They didn't ask any more questions and I was pleased. I was also glad that Tyler thinks that we are friends because I'm beginning to like him.

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The Wise One