still not here?” he asked, looking at me. I just turned my head to the side in disbelief. “Aight. Well, we got to go. Just keep your phones on while we’re on the bus in case he calls.”
A few of my teammates laughed at what Coach Lewis just said. Even though Coach Lewis says not to bring our phones, we would always keep our phones on anyway. We would just leave them on vibrate.
“What’s so funny?” asked Coach Lewis. “I want to laugh. Enlighten me,” he said with his hands on his chest. “I don’t see anything funny considering we’re about to leave for a big game against a team that beat us last year and one of our players is missing. I’m struggling to find the joke here,” said Coach Lewis.
Coach stared at us all for a long while with a crazy look on his face.
“Get on the bus,” he finally said.
We all grabbed our gym bags and stepped out to the bus. I cut some music on, but even with ABM cranking through my headphones, I couldn’t stop wondering what happened to Black. Did he crash? Naw! Man, I don’t know. This shit got my head all twisted up. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I prayed again. Eventually, we pulled into Forestville High School’s parking lot.
“Let’s go, bay-bee!” Phil yelled as he popped up from his seat.
I tried to call Black’s phone one more time. Nothing. I threw my phone in my bag and walked off the bus. We made our entrance and sat in the stands to watch the first half of the JV game. Slowly but surely, I could see scouts pouring into the gym.
Phil nudged me, “Young, that’s a UConn scout right there! That look like Coach Calhoun,” he said.
Later, I noticed my cousin BJ walking up the bleachers toward me.
“What’s good, Hype?” BJ said, smiling and showing me love.
“What’s up, cuzzo,” I said as we showed each other love. “Ya ready to get ya ass bust in front of all these fans?” I said.
“We not going like that. This my house. I’m dropping 50,” he said.
“Damn, you feeling like that. What you think, you Kobe or somebody!” I said.
“Aye, we ballers,” he said before laughing.
“So if you Kobe, then who am I?” I said.
“Kendrick Lamar,” he said. I busted out laughing. I took a quick peep at the gym.
“I’ll see you at tip-off,” he said before we pounded fist and he trotted back down the bleachers.
I sat back down and watched the rest of the first half with my teammates. Once halftime came, we all got up and walked to the locker room. I sat down and pulled my phone out to check for any word on Black. I didn’t have any text messages, missed calls, or anything. I then felt something like a hole in my stomach.
I put my phone away, cut on my iPod, and sat back and closed my eyes. When Coach Lewis walked into the locker room, I could see the fire in his eyes. I started tying up my LeBrons after he said a prayer. Then he started his speech. Normally, he would just give us the game plan and a few words for motivation, but this game was different. I felt my heart thumping like crazy!
“When a family gets together, there’s no stopping us! We family!”
While leaving the locker room, I could feel Black’s absence. Instantly, I felt that empty feeling in my stomach again.
Get your mind right, cuz, my conscience told me, which is what Black would say to keep me focused. I took a long deep breath.
Inhale…
Let’s go…
Then I ran out to the court into a heat raised packed gym. With all the hype between BJ and me, I guess everyone wanted to see this rematch. I dropped 27 on them last year. He only had 19, but they won 68–64.
Guess Imma a have to drop 32 this time, I thought to myself.
Phil, Pete, and Tonio walked up to me during shoot a round.
“Look at this fucking crowd!” said Tonio.
“This shit live in here, ain’t it,” I said.
“Hell yeah,” said Phil.
“Keep ya minds right, man. Let the crowd do them. Our game’s right here on this court!” I said.
“Uh-huh!” the three of them said as we pounded fists. Coach Lewis called us over to the sidelines before tip-off. After coach finished talking, I called the break.
“We balling for Black! Put it all on the line right here for him! He wouldn’t want nothing else! We family! Heart on three, fellas! One, two, three, HEART!”
The announcer called out the starters. When they called Tonio as the starting point guard instead of Black, I felt that cold feeling again, but I had too much adrenaline flowing to spiral backwards.
“LET’S GO!” Pete yelled out, breaking me from my zone. We stepped out onto the court. I nodded my head at BJ from the other side of the circle. The ref blew his whistle and tossed the ball in the air.
“Showtime!”
We got the ball first. I came down the court and kicked the ball down low to Pete. He drop stepped and laid it in for our first bucket.
“Good shit,” I said, pounding fist with him going back down the court.
“2–0!”
They came back down the court and worked the ball around until BJ finally got the ball and knocked down a three from the wing. He backpedaled back down the court, clapping his hands in front of me.
Tonio brought the ball up the court and kicked it out to me on the wing. I called for an iso once BJ came over to check me. I dribbled left and then crossed back over and drove past him. Then when their big man stepped up to stop me, I passed the ball behind my back to Pete again, who caught the ball and banged it on one of them. I thought the refs would’ve called a foul, but fuck it. The score was now 4–3. We up. I hit BJ with the same clap he gave me as I went back down the court.
Our teams went at it, back and forth, back and forth. Halfway through the second quarter, I saw my mom and Camille walk in together. Seeing them gave me a nice little energy boost which was much needed in this game. With three seconds left in the second quarter, we inbounded the ball, and I hit a three to take us into halftime, down 44–40. Tonio and I jumped up and chest bumped as we headed to the locker room.
“Ya some shit,” one of the Forestville players said, running past us.
“Imma dog you,” Phil said.
Coach Lewis grabbed Phil. “Come on ya. No time for that. In the locker room!” said Coach Lewis.
We separated and headed back to our locker room. Coach was giving us heads-ups and more motivation in the locker room. I looked around the room, and I could tell that the whole team was in one accord with each other. Every single one of us had that anxious look of desire on our faces. I couldn’t help but feel like
