Bounce Back

Chapter 9

Ryan's POV

I went to roll out of bed the next morning and found that my previously slightly sore back is now extremely sore and I wasn't going to be able to get up. Mom came in a couple of minutes later and realised that I hadn't got up.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"No, my back is so sore. I can't move," I complained.

"Oh honey, I'll bring you some food and a heat pack," she said.

I nodded and continued to lie there as I waited for her to come back. She handed me plate of toast and placed a heat pack on my back.

"Dad and I both have things to do. We can cancel if you want?" she suggested.

"No, it's fine. I'll just lay here today so there is no point you being here," I said.

She nodded and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

"Just call if you need anything," she said.

I nodded and grabbed my phone off the bedside table and started to text my friends. Five minutes later I realised that I should text Tyler as well.

Tyler, I'm not going to be at school today so are you fine with no tutoring today?

I didn't think about it anymore because I dumped my phone beside me and drifted off to sleep. I woke sometime later with a now cold heat pack on my bag and a couple of texts. I reached over and started to flick through them.

Most of them were from my four friends but I had one from Tyler.

I have a maths test tomorrow and really want to do some study together

I paused because I had forgotten that he had said something about that. In the end I sent him my address and told him to come around after school.

I spent the rest of the day drifting. Most of the time I was sleeping but I managed to slowly make it downstairs for lunch and spent the rest of the day on the couch of the lounge. I was slightly surprised when I heard the door open before remembering that it was Tyler.

He joined me in the lounge and saw me stretched out on the couch.

"What happened to you?" he asked as he sat down on the floor.

"My back is really sore and I can't really move much," I said.

He nodded and we didn't talk about it anymore and started studying. Tyler had given me a list of things that their teacher had told them was likely to be in the test.

I couldn't sit up without hurting my back so Tyler had to sit on the floor and write on the coffee table and I could tell him what to do. We worked for a while until I felt that he was ready.

"You pretty much know all of this," I told him.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, you clearly know all of this," I assured him.

"I'm just nervous. This is going to affect our grade so I need to do well."

"You are going to do well so how about we get your mind of this and look at some basketball stats?" he suggested.

He nodded and then I realised that my laptop was still sitting on my desk upstairs.

"Can you grab my laptop from my room?" I asked.

He nodded again and I directed him to my room. He disappeared for a minute and came back with it. I opened my stats stuff and pulled up stuff up for the next team that he was going to be playing. It was one of the teams that I knew better.

I could see that Tyler was absorbing what I was telling him.

"Do you think that I can use all of this in the game?" he asked.

"Not right now because it is your first time seeing this but as you look at it more you will remember it more and use it more," I said.

"Oh, that makes sense," he said.

"Yeah, even if you use one of the things that we talk about there in the game then it is a success."

He nodded and we returned to talking about the numbers. I didn't realise that we had been talking for that long until I heard the door open and Mom and Dad walked in.

"Ryan, who is this?" Mom asked.

"This is Tyler. He is the one that I'm tutoring in maths," I explained.

"Yeah, Tyler do you want to stay for dinner?"

"If you don't mind Mrs Moore," he said politely.

"Of course not. How are you feeling Ryan?" Mom asked.

"Better, I guess. I still can't move much though."

She nodded and both my parents disappeared into kitchen leaving me alone with Tyler again. I knew that we wouldn't have a huge amount of time but we continued to talk about the stats. In the end dinner came to us and we had in it in the lounge.

I found it extremely difficult to eat lying down so Tyler spent a while laughing at me because of it. He hung around after we finished eating. We decided to leave the lounge for my parents and headed up to my room. Tyler had to help me up the stairs but we made it work.

I settled back on the bed and he sat down on one of my desk chairs.

'"Are you ready for your next game now?" I asked.

"Yeah, who got you into the stats?" he asked.

"My brothers all played and since they were older I had to find a way to beat them. I quickly realised that I could learn what they did and because I liked numbers I got into the stats stuff," I explained.

He nodded and we talk for a bit longer before I felt myself drifting off to sleep and Tyler must have noticed.

"I should probably go home," he said quietly.

"I would walk you out but you know," I trailed off.

He nodded and grabbed his bag from the floor.

"Hopefully I'll see at school tomorrow," he said.

"Yeah," I said softly.

He headed out and I didn't manage to get up and change before I fell asleep.

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The Wise One