“No goaltending,” I said. I pointed to the basket by the side of the pool with the rubber ball and waved my teammates out of the way. “I’m serious, no goaltending.”
“Just shoot it,” Zoe said.
I adjusted my goggles. I wasn’t getting a clean shot. No way. Zoe, Speedy, and Super-Size were already moving closer to the hoop, and Super-Size was waving his noodle.
I ran toward the pool, leaped into the air, and fired the ball down at the rim.
Splash!
I popped out of the water and shook my hair.
“You missed,” Speedy said.
“That was so going in,” I said.
“No way.” Super-Size swatted me with his noodle.
Hudson and Diego scrambled out of the pool and chased after the ball bounding toward the lounge chairs in the corner. Diego got to it first.
We were the only ones in the pool. Coach Acevedo was letting us stay in until he and Ms. Yvonne finished filling out forms for the Showdown. They were in the lobby area watching us through the windows.
“Incoming!” Diego shouted, sprinting back to the pool. He ran off the diving board toward the hoop. “Boom! In your face!” He two-handed tomahawk-slammed the ball.
Splash!
I headed for Red and Maya in the shallow end. They were floating on their backs with noodles tucked under their arms.
“‘I don’t need a noodle to swim,’” I said teasingly to Red.
He squinched his face under his goggles.
“Told you you’d want one.” I turned to Maya and smiled. “You should have heard Red this morning. He was whining all about how he didn’t need—”
“I wasn’t whining, Mason Irving,” Red said.
Maya dropped to her knees and blew bubbles on the surface. “You were whining, Red?”
“No.”
“Yes.” I reached for a noodle, tapped the water with it, and teased him more. “‘I’ve been taking swim lessons with Coach Lisa since kindergarten,’” I mimicked.
“Very funny,” Red said.
I reached out to ruffle his hair, but he ducked away. Then he reached for mine and got in a good shake. A little water sprayed his face, but he didn’t even flinch.
I glanced over at Mehdi and Mega-Man sitting on the lounge chairs near the entrance. They were the only two who didn’t come in. Mehdi didn’t because he was getting over an ear infection. Mega-Man didn’t because he didn’t want to. I’d tried to convince him—especially since I knew how much Coach Acevedo wanted Mega-Man included—but I couldn’t.
“Cannonball time!” Diego shouted. He stood in back of the diving board while we cleared a landing zone. Then he raced onto the board and sprang off. “Look out below!”
In midair, Diego wrapped his arms around his legs in cannonball position, but he hit the water more on his back than on his butt.
Splash!
“Boom! In your face!” Super-Size yelled. He scooped up the ball and held it over his head.
Diego popped out of the water and grabbed a noodle. He pointed it at Super-Size like a light saber. “Kill the giant!” he shouted, and lunged at him.
Suddenly, Mimi, Hudson, and A-Wu pounced on Super-Size. A-Wu knocked the ball out of his hands. Speedy grabbed it and threw it toward the shallow end. Maya got to it first.
“Let Red take a shot,” I said.
Maya tossed him the ball. “Dial it up from long distance,” she said.
“It’s like your Valpo play,” I said, adjusting the straps of my goggles.
“No, it’s not, Mason Irving. I’m not passing the ball. In the Valparaiso University Crusaders—”
“Take your shot.”
“Oh, man.” Red sized up the rim.
“Two-point-five seconds left on the clock,” I play-by-played. “Blake Daniels will need to go the length of the pool. He’ll need a full-court miracle. Daniels launches the shot … It’s got a chance…”
“Bam!” Hudson leaped into the air and punched the ball out of the pool. It bounced past Mehdi’s lounge chair toward the door to the pool area just as it was opening.
Another team walked in.
Well, it looked like another team. It was a group of kids about our age, and since other teams were staying at our hotel, I figured that’s who they were. It was a team of all boys. They all wore bathing suits and had blue towels. Most of them had the towels wrapped around their necks; two of the kids were wearing them like they’d just gotten out of the shower. They all had on flip-flops—some the kind you got at the dollar store, some the fly kind with white stripes and logos. One kid had on orange Houston Rockets socks.
“What’s up?” said one of the kids wearing the dollar-store flip-flops. He walked to the edge of the pool and flashed a Red-like smile.
Diego held up his fist. “I’m Diego.”
“Don’t pull me in.” He gave Diego a pound. “I’m Kasaan.”
“We’re Clifton United.” Diego swatted the side of the pool with his noodle.
Kasaan motioned to the two boys who’d walked up beside him. “He’s Noel. That’s Freddie.”
Both gave pounds to Diego, Speedy, and Hudson.
“That kid with the Mohawk over there is Carmelo,” Kasaan said, pointing. “The kid next to him is Andre.” Andre was wearing the Houston Rockets socks.
“Yo, where are you from?” Diego kicked off the wall and floated back on his noodle.
“We can’t come in until Coach B. gets here.” Kasaan grabbed the ends of the towel around his neck. “She’d send us home if we went in without her again.”
“What’s the name of your team?” Speedy asked.
“Check out that hoop!” Andre said. He started walking around the pool.
“Where you going?” Kasaan said.
“Coach B. better get here soon,” Andre said, tossing his towel onto a chair and kicking off his flip-flops. “That’s all I have to say.”
“Andre, man,” Noel said, “you have to wait.”
He stopped by Red, Maya, and me and fist-bumped Red, who was sitting on the side of the pool. “I’m Andre.”
“Hakeem ‘the Dream’ Olajuwon played for the Houston Rockets,” Red said, looking at his socks. “Hakeem ‘the Dream’ Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets was the NBA Most Valuable Player in 1994. Hakeem ‘the Dream’ Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets was the Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals in 1994 and 1995.”
“Send that up.” Andre motioned to the ball floating near Zoe.
“Andre, man, you have to wait,” Noel said again. “C’mon.”
“One shot,” Andre said.
Maya passed him the ball.
“It’ll be fine.” He headed for the diving board. “There’s no slide at this pool, so I can’t get in trouble for…”
The door to the pool area opened. A woman walked in. She pointed at Andre.
“I know you weren’t about to—”
“No way, Coach B.,” Andre said, cutting her off and smacking the ball. “I was … I was just scoping things out.”
With a tilt of the head, she told him to get rid of the ball.
He passed it down to me. Diego snatched it out of my hands.
The door to the pool area opened again. Coach Acevedo walked in.
“My crew is just getting out,” he said, heading for Coach B.
“That’s not necessary,” she said. “My guys can wait.”
“No, no, no,” Coach Acevedo said. “We’ve been in long enough, and they need to be at dinner in twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes?” She laughed. “Good luck with that.”
“Look out below!” Diego shouted.
With the ball raised over his head, he charged off the diving board and leaped toward the hoop.
“Boom! In your…”
Splash!