“And he drops another 3! Jeter is on fire!”
Dave was playing announcer for Derek, and vice versa, as they practiced their shooting on Dave’s spectacular court.
Behind them was the small golf hole his mom and dad had put in, so that whenever he wanted to, Dave could practice the game that was his life’s true passion.
Of course Derek’s sport was baseball, not basketball. But that didn’t mean he didn’t love basketball, too. “From now on I’m going to bring a ball with me wherever I go and dribble my way down the street,” he told Dave. “Got to make it second nature, you know?”
“I hear you,” Dave said. “Here, let me have that.”
Derek handed him the ball, and Dave started taking a few shots. Most of them caromed off the rim or the backboard, and a few just caught air. “You need more arc on your shot,” Derek told him.
“More arc?”
“Yeah, you know—think of a rainbow.”
“Like this?”
He took another shot, and this time, swished it.
“There you go,” said Derek, giving his friend a fist bump. “Here, give me that ball.”
They kept on taking turns—shooting from all distances and angles, taking free throws and layups, playing pick-and-roll with invisible opponents, and going one-on-one.
“Okay, break time,” Dave said breathlessly at last. It was a hot, sunny September day, and they’d been at it for over an hour. Both boys were pouring sweat and breathing hard. “Let’s get in the shade and have a cold drink.”
There was a covered bench at the side of the court, and Derek and Dave sat down and took water bottles out of a cooler.
“Aaahhh,” said Dave. “Wow. That was a workout!”
“Tell me about it!”
“We’ve got to do this every day between now and next Saturday.”
“I wish I could,” Derek said. “But I’ve got too much going on most of the time.”
“Hey, I’ve got schoolwork too, man. But if we want to make this team, we need to be at the top of our game!”
“It’s not just schoolwork—Vijay and I have to work up our thing for the talent show.”
“Derek—remember last summer when we talked about playing for Saint Augustine’s in seventh grade? Being part of that great basketball tradition—having our pictures up on that wall in the hallway, with all the trophies in the glass cases?”
“Yeah.”
“You know who coaches the under-twelve team?”
“No—who?”
“Mr. Nelson!”
Mr. Nelson, who was, of course, also the coach of the Saint Augustine basketball team. “If we make this team, we’re a cinch to play for the Irish next year!”
Derek sat silently, pondering how he could carve out some more time to come out here. Dave’s family lived way out on the outskirts of town.
“Of course, if the talent show’s that important to you… ”
“It’s not that.… ” Derek was going to explain how much Vijay was looking forward to doing the talent show with him. But he decided to keep that part to himself. He didn’t want to drag Vijay into it or set up conflict between his two best friends in the world.
“I just thought it would be fun to give it a shot, you know?” he said. “I just didn’t think it was going to get in the way of basketball tryouts.”
“You could back out of it,” Dave said. “It’s not too late.”
“No, I don’t think so. I’m going to have to find some way to make it all happen.”
“How?”
Derek sighed. “That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet.”
He finished his water, put down the bottle, and stood up. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get back to work. I’m going to drive on you, and you have to block my shot, or make me miss, and come down with the rebound.”
Dave was tall and thin and athletic. He had a good vertical leap and long arms—good for blocking shots and rebounding. But he wasn’t bulky enough to go toe-to-toe with other teams’ big men. Derek thought he would make a good small forward—but that meant improving his jump shot first.
Derek tried showing him, demonstrating proper form, but Dave didn’t seem to get it. And when he tried and failed, he was quick to go right back to the old, wrong way of doing it.
Derek could see that Dave needed more coaching than he could give him. And that gave him a great idea.…
“I’ve got it!” he suddenly shouted, leaving Dave unguarded in the middle of driving to the basket.
Dave buried the easy layup and said, “Hey! What happened?”
“I know how we can improve our game in a hurry.”
“Cool! How?”
“Are you busy tomorrow afternoon?”
“Um, I don’t think so… why?”
“I’m going for a picnic with my folks and Sharlee at the college where my dad works. They’ve got indoor and outdoor courts there, and we sometimes fool around on them if nobody else is playing.”
“I get it—if I’m there—”
“Right! You and I can get our practice in, and my dad will be right there to coach us! Except… you’re not invited—yet.”
“Oh man, I hope they say yes!”
“I’ll ask them as soon as I get home. Speaking of which, what time is it now?”
Dave checked his watch. “Ten to five.”
“Yikes! My dad’s picking me up in ten minutes.”
“Have we got enough time for more game? We can play to 11 instead of 21.”
Derek grinned. “Let’s go for it!”
“Dad? Mom? Could I ask you guys a huge, huge favor?”
That got his parents’ attention. They’d been sitting in the living room together after supper, with Derek’s dad going over his lesson plans, Mrs. Jeter playing checkers with Sharlee—and Derek trying to think of how to ask what he was about to ask.
“How huge is huge?” his mom quipped.
“Well, not that huge, really—but it is kind of last minute. I was hoping you guys would be okay if Dave joined us tomorrow afternoon?”
“I don’t understand, Derek,” his dad said. “Why is it so important?”
“Well, we need to keep on practicing hoops every day this week, because tryouts are next weekend… ”
“. . . and the college has the best courts around,” his dad finished for him.
“But that’s not all of it,” Derek went on. “Dave and I need you to coach us. You know, get us ready for next Saturday.”
“Hmmm,” said his dad. “Weren’t you also supposed to be doing something with Vijay?”
“He’s coming over after dinner tomorrow—we’ve got to go through our music for the talent show.”
“Music? There’s music in it?” Sharlee said, eyes wide. “Tell me! I can’t stand it anymore!”
“I told you, nosey, we haven’t even decided yet,” Derek said. “When we do, you’ll be the first one to know, okay?”
“Yay!” said Sharlee, satisfied for now.
“And you’ve got your big tests coming up too, right?” his mom asked.
“Yes, but I’ve already got study time blocked out,” Derek assured her.
Actually, he hadn’t exactly marked down times on a calendar or anything like that—but he was committed to putting in time studying for the tests—he hadn’t forgotten for a minute about Gary Parnell’s challenge.
“Besides,” he added, “if Dave and I can practice tomorrow, it’ll leave more time for studying later on!” He wasn’t sure how, or when—but there had to be an hour in there somewhere.
“Derek, if you’re going to spend time with Dave tomorrow, I don’t want it to be at the expense of our family time. I’m fine with him coming along—but anything we do tomorrow is going to include all of us.” Mrs. Jeter inclined her head in Sharlee’s direction.
“If Derek’s friend is coming, I want Ciara to come too!” Sharlee protested.
“It’s too late to arrange that, Sharlee,” Mrs. Jeter said. “But we can take Ciara along another time, okay?”
“Awww… ” Sharlee pouted and folded her arms across her chest.
“If I’m going to coach you and Dave,” said Derek’s dad, “then Sharlee’s going to be my assistant coach. Right, Sharlee?”
“Yay!” Sharlee said, suddenly forgetting to be sad. “I get to tell Derek what to do!”
They all laughed, and Derek said, “Thanks, you guys—that’s awesome! I’ve got to go call Dave and let him know!”
“Tell him to get here at eleven thirty,” his mom called after him. “We’re heading over to the college around noon.”
After lining everything up with Dave, Derek said good night to everyone and went upstairs to work on his essay before bedtime.
“ ‘My Animal Encounter’?” he said to himself as he stared at the empty page in front of him. “I’ve never had any pets. We don’t live in the woods. What am I supposed to write about?”
He sighed deeply, but he knew it was no use to moan and groan. Complaining to his empty room wasn’t going to get him out of it. He looked at his alarm clock—the red numbers said 9:30. Derek blew out another breath. He was going to have to find something embarrassing to share, and fast.
AARRGH! His mind was a total blank!
He knew there must be dozens of times he’d crossed paths with animals—at the zoo, around the neighborhood—so why couldn’t he think of any now, when he needed to?
His mind was running through memories, one after the other. They started to blend together… and at some point, they turned into a dream.…
Derek shook himself awake and stared at the alarm clock—it was past ten!
His brain was totally fried. There was no way he could possibly write this stupid essay when he was this tired!
Still, he knew he had to try. He’d already committed tomorrow morning to reviewing for the test.
Make something up! he told himself. But even that proved difficult.
Finally, around ten thirty, he remembered the time he and a couple of his friends found that stray cat near the Mount Royal Townhouses’ maintenance shed. They named her Miss Jiggy, built a little house for her out of pieces of wood and asphalt shingles, and brought her food and water every day. This went on for almost a week. And then one day Miss Jiggy simply disappeared. The boys went crazy trying to find her, but they never did—until months later, when Derek saw Miss Jiggy looking at him from the neighbor’s kitchen window—wearing a satisfied cat smile and a jeweled collar around her neck!
It wasn’t much of an animal adventure, Derek thought—but it would have to do. He got to work, scribbling as fast as he could, struggling to keep his eyes open.…
“Derek?”
Derek woke up suddenly and realized he’d fallen asleep at his desk. His light was still on from the night before, and his alarm clock showed 9:45—a.m.!
“I’m awake,” he said sleepily.
“Breakfast is ready. It’s late—weren’t you going to do some review this morning?”
“Uh… yeah. Be right down.”
Derek felt a sense of panic rise from his stomach up through his chest. His essay!
Staring at the paper, he saw that he hadn’t even filled up half a page before falling asleep last night.
He had to finish it before Dave got there!
He washed up, got dressed, ran downstairs, ate breakfast, ran back up to his room, and scribbled away madly for half an hour until he’d finished his essay. Then he looked up at the clock—five to eleven! Dave would be there in half an hour!
Derek looked down at what he’d written. The essay was long enough, at least. But his handwriting was totally messed up—it looked like a crazy person had written it—and when he read it over, he realized that he’d mixed up the order of events. His teacher would definitely lower his mark if he didn’t rewrite the whole thing—neatly.
Derek set to work, knowing he’d blown it royally. This was going to take up the rest of his reviewing time. Unless he called things off with Vijay for tonight—and he’d already done that once this weekend—there would be no time for studying this weekend.
Derek gave in to the grim reality. He would just have to put in double duty studying during the week.
Of course, that would cut into his other commitments—the ones he cared about the most. But there was no time to think about that now.
Derek let out a big yawn, shook his head to get the cobwebs out, and started rewriting his essay.