Chapter 1
PJ Harris looked down at his shoes, size 13. He was the tallest guy on the Wildcats basketball team, and his feet were the longest. But he wasn’t thinking about his feet, or his height. He was thinking about the foul line.
He looked up. The basket hung ten feet high, thirteen feet away. Down both sides of the lane, players stood in red or yellow jerseys, watching him out of the corners of their eyes as they looked up at the basket.
PJ looked down at his yellow jersey, then at the ball, and took a deep breath. His heart was pounding. He could hear the voices of people watching, cheering him on or taunting him.
He looked up at the basket, pulled the ball back over his shoulder with both hands, and shot.
Brick!
The whole backboard shook as the ball slammed into the rim, then fell right back to the wood. It bounced hard into the lane, and one of PJ’s opponents grabbed the rebound. In seconds, it was back up the court, and the other team had scored.
A whistle blew and PJ shook his head. “Scrimmage over,” the coach called out. “Red jerseys win.”
It was only practice, but PJ felt awful. “Man, why can’t I ever make a foul shot?” he muttered to himself.
Dwayne Illy, the starting small forward, heard him. “What did you say?” he asked.
PJ turned and said, “Oh, nothing. No big deal. I missed the foul shot. It’s just practice, right?” He laughed and gave Dwayne a high five.
“Practice is where we improve, PJ,” Coach Turnbull said. “If you’d stop goofing around when you miss those foul shots, maybe you’d improve.”
“I know, Coach T,” PJ replied. “I’m not goofing around.”
I’m only laughing so I don’t look stupid, he thought, but he didn’t want to explain that to Coach Turnbull.
“Don’t even worry about it,” Dwayne said. “Who cares about a center shooting foul shots?”
“Yeah, that’s your job,” PJ said, smiling. “You take most of the foul shots, ‘cause you get fouled a lot.”
“That’s right,” Dwayne said. “And I have the best foul shot on this team. So no worries, right?”
PJ laughed. “How many foul shots do I even take a season?” he said. “Like four?”
Dwayne nodded. “Maybe two!” he said. The two boys laughed and joined the rest of the team for layup drills.