Hustle Vs Muscle

Chapter 7: Defeated Champions

Chase inbounds the ball to me. I dribble up the court and throw a head fake to the right and I spin away to the left, throwing Ryan, their point guard off, only to find myself being double teamed by D'amato and Aiden. I pivot and pass to Jason Jameson. He shoots. The ball bounces on the rim. As it falls, I grab the ball outside the key. D'amato is right there, so I pivot, dribble and go for a layup, which goes in. The score is two to two. Nobody is winning. But as the game goes on, we overtake them by scoring two quick baskets. I can tell D'amato is frustrated. I smile, satisfied at his anger. We could win the scrimmage now. But D'amato's team starts to overtake us. D'amato starts hitting three point shots. Soon the score is fourteen to eighteen. I play harder now, going up for the rebounds and shots. But when the buzzer sounds, the final score is sixteen to eighteen. We lost by only a basket. D'amato looks at me like I'm something he scraped off the bottom of his expensive size thirteen Nikeys. We sit on the bench and watch while Gutierrez's team plays against Warrick's team.
"The undefeated champions, lost to us." says Aiden, the guy on D'amato's team. Aiden Wachowski was one of the "hottest" guys in the tenth grade. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and a tall rangy build that would cause most girls to freeze up. But I am not like most girls. "Yep." I say, casually. I expect to be teased, but to my surprise, he says "You played good, though. Without you, it would have been slaughter." The scrimmage is over and Warrick's team emerges victorious. I am surprised to receive a compliment, because I've been getting the impression that D'amato and his friends thought that a girl didn't belong on the court with them. The bell that signals the beginning of first period rings. "Same time tomorrow!" says Coach Anthony.

"I'm not going to make the cut." I groan that night at the dinner table. "Chris, literally the whole school is talking about you. Some of the tenth grade boys came up to me in the hallway and told me how good you are." says Luke. "How'd it go?" says Mom. "Well, I actually was doing good for the first few scrimmages . Our team was undefeated. But we lost that last game with D'amato by two points. It was so close!" "Chris, they don't care about winning. They care more about individual skills. That's why you're going to make the team." replies Luke, chewing on a piece of meatloaf. "Dad would've been proud."

Dad died two years ago in a car wreck. But when he lived, he was a sports fanatic. He would always tell us about how he played basketball, football, soccer, tennis, track and cross country for his school. He was right. Dad would've been proud. I keep eating. "Hurry up." says Mom. "You need a good night's sleep." "Yeah." I agree. "The first cut is tomorrow." I brush my teeth and change into my pajamas. If I want to play hard tomorrow, I'm going to need eight hours of shuteye.