Light crept between the trees outside my window and illuminated my room. I opened my eyes and sat up in my bed, limbs still aching from last night’s workout. I rolled out of the side of my bed, slid my blue Beats headphones around my neck, and looked at the calendar on my door. Social Studies test today, Science review to turn in, open weight room after school. “Wow,” I thought, “I might have some time to finish my essay tonight”. Basketball practice wasn’t until tomorrow, right before the conference championship. My school, Ramona High School, has only lost one game this year, we are 11-1. Our conference rivals, the Patriot Warriors, gave us our only loss with a game winning 3 at the buzzer by their star player, James Pierce. James was a fast talking, 6’6 forward who gave even the most level-headed players fits. I’m Drew Conners, a Junior, 6’5 forward. I can play anywhere on the floor, from the low post to the backcourt. I can finish at the rim our pull out for the three ball. I love to wear casual sports clothes all year round. Today I put on some of my favorite clothes, black and blue Nike Elite shorts, with a dark blue Nike shirt. I grabbed a pair of my black and blue Air Jordan socks and slowly shuffled down the stairs. My dad, as always, was already away at work. My mom was in the bathroom getting ready for her job at the Riverside Elementary School. As I grabbed a glass for my protein drink, my phone vibrated in my pocket. My best friend Jordan Jackson texted me asking if I was going to the open weight room tonight. I texted him back saying that I was and continued making my drink. Jordan, a 6’3 point guard, is the best free throw shooter on the team. Him and I have been best buds since we played ball on the eight foot hoops. Our freshman year we both made varsity and we both play on the same AAU team. I finished up making my protein drink and downed it. I grabbed a banana, and headed for the door. The door of our bathroom swung open and my mom, all beautified up, walked swiftly over to me and gave me a hug. “Have a great day at school,” she said. I walked out the front door, and headed to school.

I’m walking along the sidewalk when Jordan pulls up in his blue Honda CR-Z. “Hey,” he says’ “need a ride?” I hop in his car and we speed off for school. As we pull into the parking lot, Hannah and Katherine (girls from the women's basketball team), walk up and ask us what colors we want the posters to be for the game Wednesday. Jordan says to make them light shades of blue, like our school colors. The girls say thanks and sprint towards the entrance of the school. The rivalry between Ramona and Patriot go way back, so the game Wednesday is a big thing. Everyone in our school is making posters and banners. Jordan and I grab our school stuff out of his car and casually walk into the school. It was like most school days, Phy. Ed and then Science in the morning. Jordan and I sit with a couple of the other players on our team during lunch. Our big man, Austin, is 6’8 but can still dribble pretty decently. Chris, the sharpshooter on the team, is 6’1 and deadly from downtown. The other forward on the team, Lewis, is 6’4 and is a fantastic finisher at the rim. We all talk about the normal stuff guys chat about, funny moments, girls, and college and NBA basketball. After we all finish, I proceed to my afternoon classes. I have Social Studies with that big test today, Business class, and then to finish up the day I have Language Arts. Right after class I go to my locker, put away my school supplies, grab my gym bag, and walk with the guys to the weight room. It’s two days before a game so it’s all light stuff tonight.

When I arrive back at home later that night, many things are going through my head for Wednesday. After a nice shower, dinner, and another protein drink, I sat on my bed working on my paper for Language Arts. It’s hard to think with all of the commotion going on in your head. After about a half an hour of backspacing, I just layed in bed and listened to whatever came up first on my playlist. Music is like a stress zapper to me, it helps calm me and distract me from all the junk happening in my life. After awhile of the same song over and over again, I began to feel much more clear headed and a little drowsy. I decided that I’d head to bed and see if a little extra sleep would further help my state.
“Make sure you have extra socks for after practice,” my mom lectured, “and put your flip flops in your bag too.” Everyday of a practice or game my mom would run through a mental list of things to make sure I had in my gym bag. Jordan was going to be a little late to school this morning because of a dentist appointment. I walked all the way to school, which was fine because it was a beautiful day. Not too cold nor hot, a nice breeze, and not too cloudy. When I arrived at school, student council kids were putting up posters for the game everywhere. I decided to pitch in and help with whatever I could until the bell rang. Another normal day, but I couldn’t get tomorrow out of my head. I started to feel almost scared about tomorrow. Practice didn’t start until a half an hour after school got done, so I shot around with my Beats on until it started. Most of practice was watching game film of the last time we played Patriot and talking about ways to beat them. We then ran five on five dummy defence to go through the motions of new options. We ended practice with some shooting drills and free throws as usual.
Later, at my place, my family and Jordan’s family were sitting in our dining area eating spaghetti and garlic/cheese bread. The day before a basketball game we would always invite the Jackson’s over for a spaghetti dinner. Jordan and I would usually finish and go shoot around in my backyard, but I wanted to take my mind off of basketball for a bit. Him and I went into our living room and played Xbox and struck up a conversation about tomorrow’s game. “So who do you think James is going to guard tomorrow?” Jordan says.
“I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“Are you nervous?”
I sighed, “Yeah, I don’t know what it is, I just don’t feel the best about it.”
“Hey to be honest, I’m kinda shaken up too.”
“Really?”
“Yup.”
Jordan’s mom called from our kitchen.
“Hey, get some sleep tonight, maybe you will be fine tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I hope so.”
“Hey man, I need you tomorrow, our whole team needs you.”
“That’s one of the problems.”
“Just remember we all gotch yo back.”
Jordan’s mom yelled for Jordan again.
“Coming! Hey see ya tomorrow bro.”
“Yeah, see ya.”
Jordan walked out of the living room. I heard the front door close and the Jackson’s car leave our driveway. I turned off the Xbox and went up to my room. It was getting late so I decided I’d work on my paper tomorrow in study hall. I laid down and slept.
The next morning was chillier than usual. I packed all of my game gear in my gym bag and pulled on a navy blue Nike sweatshirt. I walked downstairs to find my mom, dad, and pancakes waiting for me at the dining table. As I sat down to start eating, my parents asked, “Nervous at all for the game tonight?”
“No, not really,” I lied.
“Well we wanted to make sure,” my mom said.
“It’s just like any other game, right?” I asked them.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
I finished up my breakfast and put my dishes by the sink.
“You got everything?” my mom asked. She then listed all of the things I should have for tonights game.
“I have everything mom,” I droned.
“Just checking.”
I grabbed my backpack and gym bag from the entryway and walked out the door.

School was a blur. It seemed like everything around me was going faster than I was. My fellow students came up to me throughout the day and wished me good luck. Before I knew it we were in the locker room 20 minutes before tip off. I laced up my dark blue and white Nike Hyperdunks and leaned back against my locker. I slipped on my Beats and tried to relax and clear my head. I started to feel a little bit more confident and energized. My coach came in and told me it was game time. I slid my Beats off, strapped my ankle braces on, and walked calmly from the locker room. My teammates were waiting for me at the entrance of our gym. Our high school band began to play, and the crowd erupted into a deafening mix of applause, shouts, and screams. We jogged into the gym and began our warm-ups. Opposite of us, the Warriors were doing defencive slides and slapping the floor. We continued with warm-ups until the scoreboard read 2:00 minutes. Both teams ran to their benches. The horn sounded, and the lights in the gymnasium dimmed. The Patriot starters were introduced first, I cringed a little when James name was announced. After the last starter for the Warriors was declared, the whole gym went electric. My whole body went almost numb, my mind went into auto pilot. “Just like any other game, remember?” I said to myself. “Drrrrrrrrrewwwwwwww Conners!” bellowed our announcer. I stood up from my spot on the bench and jogged out to Jordan, we did the same elaborate handshake before every game. The sound in the gym was tremendous. The five starters from each team took center court and shook hands with each other. James walked up to me and said “Can you believe this heat man? I think I’m gonna start on fire.” We very firmly shook hands and walked to our spots around the center circle. The referee blew his whistle and all the noise in the gym seemed to be drowned out. Austin won the jump ball and we started our assault on the other team. The other team’s tallest player was 6’7 so they played a 2-3 zone to help shut down Austin. We were expecting it so when Jordan brought the ball down the floor he passed it to me, I swung it to Chris in the corner. Lewis dropped into the middle of the lane and Jordan slipped in by the free throw line. When two Patriot defenders went to trap Chris, he bounced passed it to Jordan, who passed it to Lewis who was pinning his man. Lewis grabbed the ball and drained a left hand hook. “2-0, great way to start the game,” I thought to myself. We ran straight up man to man, I was tasked with guarding James who immediately went to the basket. Chris stepped in and drew the charge. James stood right up and started getting in Chris’s face. “You think this is your answer!” he yelled, “Getting me in foul trouble early?” Chris got up and ran back down court to play offence, totally blowing James off. The referee put a hand on James’s chest, telling him that he needs to calm down. James ignored the ref and ran down court. I passed the ball in to Jordan, who brought it down and passed it to Lewis. Lewis split two defenders made a pass back out to Chris in the right corner. Chris faked the ball up like he was going to shoot, and took a dribble baseline. One of the defenders guarding Austin came out to help, so that left Austin one on one. Chris passed it down to Austin who lobbed it to me cutting down the middle of the now wide open lane. I grabbed the ball mid flight and slammed it down with both hands. The crowd went berserk. At the end of the first quarter the score was 19 -13, James and I both had around eight points. My worries from the past few days seemed to melt away. In the middle of the 2nd quarter, I had stolen the ball and passed it up to Jordan for what looked like an easy layup. Jordan went up for the easy two, when from out of no where came James sprinting at full speed to stop the easy bucket. Jordan and James went up together, and down together. Jordan fell on top of James and cried out in pain. The ref blew the whistle, it wasn’t a technical foul, it was just an unfortunate incident. James was called for goaltending and the bucket counted. I rushed over to Jordan’s side when the trainer came over and told me to go to my bench. I gave her a look of worry and then jogged to the bench. Jordan got up with the aid of the trainer, and hobbled out of the gym. She came back saying that it was just a sprained ankle and that it would be his choice whether he would feel good enough to come back. The game resumed and we had to bring in our backup point guard, Alex who was 6’0. Patriot began to make a run after the accident and by halftime the score was 32-34.
In the locker room, Jordan was sitting with an ice wrap on his ankle. He hobbled over to sit with us as our coach went over our second half game plan. “You alright?” I asked him.
“Kinda, I really want to be out there with you guys.” he almost whispered.
“We really need you out there.”
He sighed ,”Yeah.”
Coach finished up his speech and we all huddled up.
“One, two, three, Rams!” We yelled as we did our break down.
Beginning the second half the the Warriors went into a man to man defence. Alex passed me the ball on the wing, I pass faked and went by James, who was now guarding me, right into the middle of the lane. Austin’s guy came to stop me, I jumped up, hovered for a second and dumped it down to Austin for the easy “bunny” shot. I did my best to stick to James like glue on defence, and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Our two teams went back and forth and by the end of the third, we were tied 44-44. The whole fourth quarter Patriot pressed full court. For the most part we broke it, and sometimes we would get trapped and turn the ball over. With a minute to play the score was 52-53, our coach called a timeout. “Ok, Drew when you get past half court I want you to swing it over to Lewis.” “Then I want Austin to set a screen for you on the block.” “I want you to go around that over to the far corner…” Our coach ran through our play. “Go back and play hard defence, and help Drew out on the Pierce kid.”Alex inbounded it to me, Patriot let up there press and we began our play. I swung it over to Lewis who dribbled around for a bit until the clock was about to forty. Chris came off a screen from me in to the corner, Chris who had already lit it up from out side with four, threes. Everyone was expecting him to pull up for another one when I came screaming around a screen from Austin out to the far wing. Chris ball faked and took a dribble in, three Warrior defenders collapsed on him. He kicked it out to me for the three ball. I pulled up, all net. 55-53. The crowd again went nuts and we hustled back to play flawless defence. Of course, James brought up the ball and with ten seconds left, surprisingly gave it off to the wing. I, just for a second, let my guard down. James went right to the basket, the wingman gave him the ball and James floated the ball right over Austin’s fingertips. 55-55. With 3.6 seconds I called a timeout, and Jordan jogged back into the gym. The crowd went crazy. Our coach subbed Jordan into the game and set up a play. Lewis stood with the ball out of bounds, four of the five Patriot defenders were back behind half, one was up guarding me. James was all over me. Jordan came up to set a back screen on James and I sprinted towards Lewis. He gave me the ball. Jordan flew to the other sideline, caught my pass with 2.1 seconds to go. He took two dribbles and went up to shoot with a second to go. One of the Warrior defenders came up to contest the shot. But Jordan pump faked, got him up in the air and shot just as he came down on top of him. The referee blew his whistle just as the horn sounded. Three free throws, with our best free throw shooter at the line. We all went to the sideline by our benches. Jordan lined up the first one, went up, and it went off the back of the rim. You could almost feel the whole crowd’s worry. It was dead silent, no one shifted in the crowd. Jordan went up followed through and it hit the back of the rim, and went in. Everything afterward was just frantic. Everyone mobbed Jordan and the rest of our team. The final score 56-55, the Ramona Rams were state bound.