“Okay, everybody, let’s settle down!” Mr. Roberts yelled, and the change room became quiet.
“Congratulations on our sixth win of the season,” he said to accompanying hoots and hollers.
“That was a real team effort. We kept clawing our way back like cougars.”
“Or like Raptors!” Kia said.
“Or like Raptors,” Mr. Roberts said. “Either way, there was no quit in anybody, and we won the way we’ve won all year. Never quitting, never giving up and coming from behind to win at the end.”
It had been another nail-biter. A three-point win at the end after being down by ten points when there was less than ten minutes left. Somehow it was relaxing playing on a team where we weren’t supposed to win but kept winning. This win made us six and two for the season. Not a perfect year but way beyond where we should have been.
“This was a real team effort,” Mr. Roberts said again, “with efforts from every member of the team, including our newest member, Lailah.”
She got up and bowed, and people clapped and cheered. Lailah had scored four points, and since we won by three, it was really her points that won it for us.
“It was also great to have Greg playing his second game of the season!” Mr. Roberts said.
More cheers erupted and Greg waved. He was still a little rusty after being gone so long, but he’d played more minutes and better than he had the first game. He’d chipped in a couple of points and some rebounds, and, more importantly, having him back let Kia and me take a little more rest during the game. That meant at the end we still had something in the tank, and that was a big part of why we’d come back.
“And that was another outstanding performance from our co-captains. Nick, with sixteen points, and our leading scorer, Kia, with eighteen.”
Again there was more cheering.
“Between the play of Kia and Lailah, it looks like what this team really needs is more girls,” Mr. Roberts said. “It must be nice for you, Kia, to finally have another girl on the team.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said. She didn’t sound that enthusiastic.
The two of them had learned to sort of get along together. At least they weren’t openly fighting anymore. It was all more subtle now—a look or expression, or things that they didn’t say. Like the way Kia didn’t say how wonderful it was to have Lailah play.
“I’m so proud of this team,” Mr. Roberts said.
“Proud enough to give us the morning off?” Greg asked.
“The reason this team keeps winning is that we don’t take any time off. Not a minute off, and not a practice off. I’ll see you all tomorrow at seven thirty sharp. Great game and go home!”
I picked up my bag and followed everybody out of the change room, down the hall and out into the schoolyard. Parents were waiting to pick up kids at the door, and others were going to walk home.
I looked at my watch. My mother would be here in ten minutes to pick up Kia and me. She’d only been to one of my games all year. Her new job meant that she wasn’t as available to come to games. Before this she’d basically been at every game I’d ever played, and it was strange not to have her there. And most of the time, even if she couldn’t come, my father would have been there. But he had hardly even been home in the last month—his job had him traveling all over the place.
It was a bit strange not to have them at the games, but it was okay. In some ways it felt like I was a little kid with his mommy and daddy cheering for him all the time. But I wasn’t a kid anymore. I was in grade six.
Kia and I walked toward the swings. No need to talk about where we were going. When you’d been friends as long as we had, there was often no need to talk at all. We just knew what the other was thinking. We both took a swing, although I was so tired I didn’t feel like swinging, just sitting.
“So the Raptors aren’t coming,” Kia said.
“Doesn’t look like it. At least not coming this year when it will do any good for us. Although maybe we’ll get the mascot,” I added. “He is the best mascot in the league.”
“I was thinking that there still is one more thing we haven’t tried,” she said.
“There is? What?”
“What if we asked JYD to help?”
“I already thought of that,” I said.
“You did?”
I nodded my head. “I emailed him.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I guess I forgot,” I lied. “He said to say hello to you.”
“And you forgot that too? What did he say?”
“He wished us luck.”
“And is he going to help? You know, make a call or something?”
“I’m not sure it’s that easy. There might not be phones where he is.”
“I’m pretty sure Las Vegas has phones,” Kia said.
“He wasn’t in Vegas. He was in Africa, and then he was going to China.”
“Wow, that’s exciting. Is this like a trip with his family?” Kia asked.
“Johnnie’s with him, but the rest of the people are part of his NBA family. He’s one of a group of retired NBA legends and current WNBA players with the Basketball Without Borders program.”
“I’ve heard of that, but, you know, I think there are phones in Africa and China. I think most of the phones here are made in China.”
I shrugged. “Yeah…I guess. I just didn’t really, exactly ask him to help us…much.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It just felt bad, pestering him all the time for favors.”
“It’s not pestering him. You should email him again and ask him to help get a Raptor here.”
“You could email him if you wanted,” I suggested. “It’s not like I’m the only one with his email address.”
“Well…”
“Well what?”
“When you mention it, maybe it is asking him for another favor, like we’re taking advantage of him.”
“Exactly.”
“So unless we can come up with another idea, the Raptors aren’t coming to our school,” Kia said. “You got any other ideas?” she asked.
“Nothing. We’ve tried everything.”
“I guess,” Kia agreed.
Lailah came out the door, waved and started walking toward us.
“Hi, guys,” she said. “That was a lot of—”
Her words were lost in the roar of the plane passing overhead.
“I can’t get over how loud they are,” she said.
“You get used to it,” Kia said.
“I don’t think I could ever get used to it.”
“You won’t be here long enough to get used to it,” I said. “Next year is middle school and we’re gone.”
“And the Raptors come,” Kia added. “That really sucks.”
“Don’t you have any other ideas, Nicky?” Lailah asked.
I shook my head. “I got noth—”
A second plane came overhead and the engines again overwhelmed everything. There were a lot of them today. Sometimes it would be days and days without planes, and then other days it seemed like every two minutes. It all depended on which runway they were using, which depended on the direction of the wind.
Today the wind was coming from the right—or I guess wrong—direction, so we had lots of air traffic overhead.
Lailah was waving up at the plane as it passed.
“What are you doing?” Kia snapped.
“Just waving, saying hello, being friendly.”
“They can’t see you, you know,” Kia said. She shook her head and had a look of disgust on her face.
“Maybe they can,” Lailah argued.
“They can see the school and the playground for sure,” I said. “I even saw my house once when we were flying back from New York.”
“Then maybe they could see me,” Lailah said.
“You’re slightly smaller than a house…especially without those ridiculous nails!”
“There was nothing ridiculous about my nails!” Lailah protested. “Nothing.”
“I heard that the field is going to be ready by the end of the week,” I said, changing the subject completely.
My statement was greeted by silence.
“Did you see that they delivered all the sod today?” I pointed at the big wooden pallets loaded with pieces of sod. It would be great to have grass on the field and be able to play out there.
There was still no response from either of them.
“I wonder how long it will be after they put down the grass before we’ll be able to go out on it? Do either of you know?”
Nobody volunteered an answer. Great…I was having a conversation with myself and it wasn’t even a good conversation!
Another plane came in. It was even lower and louder. Right now I welcomed the sound to break the silence.
Lailah started jumping up and down and yelling and waving so loudly that even the sound of the plane didn’t drown her out completely. The plane passed.
“I’m sure they could see me that time,” Lailah said.
“Yeah, and I’m sure they could hear you as well,” Kia added.
“I think they could see me. What do you think, Nicky?”
“Me? You want to know what I think?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, Nicky, what do you think?” Kia questioned. They both stood there staring at me. Lailah was smiling and Kia was scowling. They were both waiting for an answer—an answer that was guaranteed to make at least one of them angry with me. I tried to think of an answer that would please them both, but I realized that was impossible.
Then, out of nowhere, an answer came into my mind. It brought a smile to my face.