Basketball
by
Brilyn Brecka
“Come on Alex, focus!”
“I’m trying, dude! Just gimmie time.”
“We don’t have time! Look at the clock!”
One minute.
“Okay, okay. I’ve got it!”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
“Uggggghh,” sighed Alex, awaking sleepily.
It’s morning in Bakersfield, California, at the Craig house.
“Alex, time for school. You don’t want to be late,” yelled Mrs.
Craig from the kitchen, “You’ve got a big game tonight.”
“Okay Mom. Coming!” Alex said excitedly. He was ready to get
over with school so he could go to his basketball game tonight
against the Blackwell Pirates. Alex is the team captain for the St. Roy
Bulls. The two teams have had a feud for years. Alex was ready to
finally defeat them.
Dad’s Home
Breakfast is the one meal of the day when his whole family is
together to eat. His dad works afternoon and night shifts at the police
station. Alex’s mom works from home but always has to do
paperwork, and they sometimes eat left-overs from the night before.
“Hey, twerp,” Alex says cheerfully to Emma.
“Shut up Alex!” Emma yells.
“Hey, hey, hey! Both of you stop! Your father is staying home
today because he’s sick. Now, quiet. He is still sleeping.” Alex’s
mother states sharply.
“Cool! So he’ll be at dinner tonight, right?” Alex asks.
“Yes, sweetie. He will,” his mom assured sweetly.
“Yesss!” Alex and Emma exclaimed quietly in unison.
School Disappointment
At school, Alex went to his locker to grab his stuff, when he
sees his buds, Josh and Greg.
“Hey, dude!” said Josh.
“Hey you ready to trample the Pirates tonight?” asked Greg.
“Yeah! How ‘bout you guys?” answered Alex.
“Totally!” exclaimed the boys.
“Alright now see you in class,” said Alex.
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
As soon as Alex got to science class, Mr. Grassy called him to
the front of the room.
“Oh no,” thought Alex. “Not good.”
“Alex, I’m disappointed with you,” Mr. Grassy said mournfully as
he handed Alex a piece of paper.
Alex sighed as he flipped the paper over, seeing the red splotch
of ink marked on his paper. Disappointment came through Alex’s
face.
“Sorry?” Alex asked, hoping his answer would change Mr.
Grassy’s mind.
It didn’t.
“Alex, you can’t keep up this perfect D-. You’ve got to try
harder. We all think more of you,” explained Mr. Grassy.
“Who’s ‘we’?” questioned Alex.
“All of the teachers here at St. Roy High School,” replied Mr.
Grassy.
“Okay, I guess I’ll try.”
“No- you will try.”
Lunch Crunch
In Alex’s mind, ‘Mystery Meat with Turnip Soup,’ read ‘Chopped
Liver with Eyeball Stew.’
“This is disgusting!” exclaimed Abby, the cutest girl EVER!
She is now dating Jordan, the quarterback for the football team.
Even though Alex is the captain for basketball, she never talks to him.
Alex and his buds agree with her, this stuff is disgusting.
Alex even heard that a kid had to go home last year, because
he was new, and he didn’t know it was pretty much poison.
“Is this stuff supposed to be crunchy?” asked Ed, the newest
student at St. Roy.
“Umm… no,” replied Alex and Josh.
“Ohh,” Ed says looking down at his tray disgusted.
“How do the cooks get away with giving us this stuff?” thought
Alex. “Blech. Why did I just put that in my mouth?”
Study Buddy
“I have so much homework,” Alex complained to Josh.
“Me, too. But we’re lucky to have a study hall today because we
have the game tonight,” assured Josh.
“Right,” realized Alex, “Want to be study buddies?”
“No. Can’t. Remember? Last time we were, we played paper
football, and the touchdown went all the way to the front of the room,
and hit Ms. Lace in the eye,” replied Josh, “So she banned us from
being study buddies for a month.”
“Right,” Alex said sadly.
Abby is also in Alex’s study hall, so he thought he might ask
her.
“H-hi Abby,” Alex mumbled shyly. “Wanna be partners?”
But, right as he finished his sentence, Jordan walked in and
headed right for Abby’s desk.
“Hey babe.”
“Hi J.”
They started talking, and Alex felt like a fly on the wall for
standing there, so he walked away and tried to do the rest of his
homework.
Alone at Home
Alex gets home and sees a note on the counter that says:
Alex, I felt a little better so I decided to go to the office and get
some work done. There are snacks in the fridge. Your mother had to
go shopping because we had mold growing on some food, so she’ll
be gone for a while after you get home. Emma also will not be home
because she is at soccer practice.
From,
Dad
Alex got some sausage and peanut butter from the fridge.
Mmmmmmm… Alex thought. Oh yeah. This is the life…
Nobody to bother me… Just my peanut butter sausage and me.
BANG!
Through the door, ran Emma and soon after that, Mom.
“I’m so mad at you!” yelled Emma. “And worse… right in front of
Brian!”
“I’m sorry Emma,” called Mom, “I didn’t realize he was there.”
Mom sighed.
“What happened?” questioned Alex.
“Oh I just said, ‘Emma, Grandma called and told me, you forgot
Teddy-boo at her house three months ago when went for summer’ in
front of her friends and I didn’t see Brian,” clarified Mom.
Emma has had a crush on Brian Civol since the first year he
moved to St. Roy.
“Oh, wow, Mom… nice move”
Dinner for the Possible Winner
“Watchya’ making for supper tonight, Mom?” questioned Alex at
about 6:00.
“Um… chilli, coke roast with mashed potatoes, and garlic green
beans.” Mom answered
“Mmmmmm… sounds good!” Alex exclaimed.
This was certainly a surprise. Yesterday’s supper was take-out
pizza. What could be more surprising?
“Oh- and Alex?”
“Yeah Mom?”
“I’ve got another surprise, too.”
Ding. Dong
.“Grandma! Grandpa! Coco!” yelled Emma, running down the
stairs.
This was diffidently a surprise. Grandma and Grandpa Lender
are from Texas.
“Why, hello Miss Emma,” Grandma said welcoming Emma in a
cracky voice.
“Hi Grandma,” said Emma
“Did you bring it?” Emma said in a hushed voice.
“Yes darling. I did,” Grandma said giving Emma a small box.
Emma opened the box pulling out a lifeless ball of fur. Oh yes,
this was Teddy-boo, Emma’s most prized possession. She’s had it
since she was two when she “accidentally” knocked it into the
shopping cart.
“Hello, Mom,” greeted Alex’s Mom
“Well, let’s eat!” yelled Emma excitedly.
Coco, Grandma’s little terrier, barked at the sound of food.
The night seemed to be going all right, and Alex was ready for
the game. What could go wrong?
Game Flame
Alex’s team huddled after they got into their jerseys and clean,
new basketball shoes on.
“Alright, you’ve got to put everything into it!” yelled Coach
Hartford. “Alex, take over.”
“Okay Coach,” Alex said nervously. “Josh and Greg, you guys
do the pass and screen play, on one and three. Brody and the rest of
you guys, work together on the kick and pass play.”
“Three, two, one, TEAM!” the whole team yelled in unison.
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.
The players hit the floor.
Dribble. Dribble. Dribble.
Shoot.
Swoosh.
Score!
The Bull fans cheer loudly.
2-0
This goes on for the rest of the first quarter.
Squeak. Dribble. Shoot. Swoosh. Score.
24-0
“LET’S GO PIRATES!” screeched Amy, the Bull’s cheerleader.
“Amy, we’re on the Bull’s side,” exclaimed Coach Dwell, the
cheerleader coach.
Amy isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, and some people
believe that she fell out of the stupid tree and hit all the stupid
branches on the stupid way down.
“LET’S GO BULLS!” screeched Amy, yet again.
While Amy was screaming her head off, the Bulls let the Pirates
score eight points in the second quarter.
24-8
During halftime, the sweaty boys talked on the side line,
drinking what it seemed like gallons of water.
“Ok, we’ve got a good lead. Keep it up!” yelled Coach Hartford.
The boys put their hands in together and yelled, “Three, two,
one, TEAM!”
The boys head out onto the court to find that the Pirates
changed point guards.
As soon as Alex saw Williams on the court, he could feel the
sweat run down his back. If one looked at Alex’s eyes, one would see
panic, panic, and more panic.
Chad Williams was a tall boy with long legs, and long arms. He
had short brown hair with a big nose. Despite his nasal features, he
was a great point guard.
Breathing heavily, Alex was going to throw the ball in to start
the second half. Chad was guarding him.
“Hey short stuff,” Chad said to Alex. He said it just like Alex had
said to Emma, earlier that morning.
Alex was too busy thinking to notice the time.
The piercing sound of the referee’s whistle startled Alex
Then the ref yelled, “Five seconds. Pirate’s ball,” in a serious
voice.
“Alex, why didn’t you throw it to me?” questioned Brody.
“I-I don’t know,” answered Alex.
After that, Alex just lost it. He let the Pirates score 14 more
points.
24-24
Alex held them back until there were three minutes left.
Williams shot a three pointer, but on a foul, Alex got one of his two
freethrows.
25-27
Coach Hartford called timeout with one minute left. Josh pulled
Alex from the side line for a “pep” talk.
“Come’ on Alex, focus!”
“I’m trying, dude! Just gimmie time.”
“We don’t have time! Look at the clock!”
One minute.
“Okay, okay. I’ve got it!”
Alex told everyone to give the ball to him when they had 20 seconds
left.
20 seconds
Brody gave the ball to Alex. He took a glance at the audience
and saw his dad. He couldn’t believe it. His dad!
8 seconds
Alex lined his feet up with the three point line.
5 seconds
He looked at the basket and heaved the ball toward the basket.
The ball was out of his hands.
BUZZZZZ!
The ball hit the rim and spun around one, two, three times.
It felt like time slowed down. You could almost hear everyone
hold their breath as the ball kept spinning.
Would it ever stop?
Love on the Court
The ball slowly rolled in to the basketball hoop.
Everyone started cheering.
Alex was frozen though. He couldn’t talk. It’s almost like he
didn’t believe it.
It took him awhile to realize he had actually won!
His dad was walking over to hug him, but Alex was already
running toward him.
“I knew you could do it,” Alex’s dad said almost crying.
“I knew you would come,” Alex said into his dad’s shoulder.