King of the Court [Chapter 22]

A/n: I still can't believe how far we've come lol. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO (By the way, try to guess who's in the picture! If you want a hint, the one in the middle is someone who hasn't appeared in a while. (Look at his hair, and you might guess). Hopefully you can guess the one on the left and the right. 

The girls' team is also at the courts, but they're already finished with their game. Each of them have a sweat towel and seem to be in some type of argument. Thea seems to be the most vocal of all the team members, but Alex knows that's expected. Uninterested in whatever topics that the girls argue about, he finds that his own team has a few bumps that need to be straightened.

Immediately realizing that there are quite a few problems encircling the team, Alex decides to get to work. If he can't get them fixed quickly, Marble Creek could be in a really bad predicament during the game.

Problem one, which is probably the most obvious one, is that Chris, for some reason, seems terrified of the other team's captain.

"Are you scared of Connor?" Alex pokes Chris' back.

Chris flinches and says flatly, "No."

After one word, Alex already knows how Chris feels about this topic. It's not very normal for Chris to be so flinch-y.

"Really?" Alex crosses his arms and stares up at Chris, "Then how about I give you two choices. Either you get your head in the game and stop being so scared of an opponent, or I'm only going to call you 'Christopher Miller' for the next entire week, including during school, near your friends, and around your classmates, teammates and acquaintances."

Dramatically shivering in fear, Chris nods, "I think I'm more scared of you now."

"You'd better be," Alex frowns. He never really liked threatening people, but he knows Chris would be really prone to threats, especially to ones about his first name.

Problem one: solved.

Problem two, which is probably one that only Alex would be able to notice, is that Dwayne is starting to act cocky. A lot more cocky than usual.

The audience, cheering for a team in a game Dwayne isn't even playing in, roars after a scored point. Alex sees Dwayne visibly trying to hide a giddy smile.

Dwayne and Thea are much too similar. For Thea, every time the ball lands into her hands, she suddenly feels a burst of energy and power. For Dwayne, it's similar. He also seems to have the opposite problem of the usual player. Dwayne almost never gets nervous during a game. Either he has nerves of steel or he's stupid. Alex suspects that it's probably a combination of both. In fact, Dwayne seems to get less nervous during a game.

Alex begins, "Dwayne-"

"No no no no no no no," Dwayne turns around, facing Alex with a smile that seems a bit too magnanimous for a guy so short.

"Uh, what?"

"You don't need to ask for my help, even though I'd gladly accept," says Dwayne. How exactly did he come to that conclusion?

"Dwayne, you-"

"Shh, quiet. Let me listen to the sound of the crowd for a bit longer."

"Okay, Dwayne can you hear yoursel-"

"Alex, I know you are trying to tell me something, but can it wait?"

"Dwayne, if you don't shut up and sit down right now, I am going to convince Jacob to not put you in the game," Alex growls. Alex inwardly sighs-- I had to resort to threats again.

For a moment, Dwayne seems genuinely scared, but he replies, "That makes no sense. Why would you want to get rid of an asset like me?"

"Jacob!" shouts Alex, "Can you come over here for a mo-"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Dwayne grumpily says, "Really, you're ruining my moment here."

He stomps away, but is still visibly grinning.

"And our final problem here," Alex frowns, murmuring to himself, "Is that we're going to need to rename the Crazy Trio to the Nervous Trio."

"What if we lose?" Hunter screeches. Alex had walked over to them hastily, considering the time they had to warm up was shortening by the second.

"Then we'll come back again next year," Alex smiles, and then realizes that neither him nor the Crazy Trio have a 'next year'.

"We're eighth graders, dude!" Brady frowns, "We don't have a next year."

"We can't go to high school without winning at least once!" Josh says frantically, "Come on, we need to win."

"Calm down! If you go into the game nervous like this, we might actually lose! When you three weren't here, we beat one of the best teams in the league!" Alex grabs Hunter and Brady's shoulders, noticeably leaving Josh out because . . . Alex doesn't have three arms.

"But . . . haven't you heard the stories about this team?" whispers Josh.

"I have. It doesn't mean we have to be affected by it," Alex growls.

"But-"

"Just because this risk is high, the team is scary, and we're immensely inexperienced, doesn't mean that we have to go in shivering and sweating!" Alex roars.

After a short pause, Brady gives a weak grin, "You know, you kind of sounded like a real team captain just then."

"I am a real team captain. Now shut up and start warming up," Alex sniffs.

The warm-ups begin. Both teams take a side of the court to warm-up on, and Alex starts feeling confident. We can win this!

The warm-ups end quickly, and Jacob calls in the five of them for a starting lineup.

"We'll have Hunter, Brady, and Josh on the bench," Jacob says, "The rest of you . . . give us a good initial push, and then we'll just pull our way through the rest of the game. Got it?"

"All right," Alex grins. Jacob must be happy that there are finally substitutes. If any of the players don't play to Jacob's satisfaction, they could be subbed out of the game.

"Go make Marble Creek proud. By the way, what's our mascot?" Jacob asks.

"I'm . . . not sure. I don't think that was ever mentioned," Alex laughs.

"What kind of team are we if we don't even have a mascot?" grumbles Spencer.

Chris smirks, "Our mascot will be Jacob."

"No, I'll be the mascot!" Dwayne shouts.

Alex smiles. This team has come a long way. When they had first met, it was almost like the team was full of seperate players. Maybe during this game, Alex can watch as his teammates crush the opponents.

"Apparently," Colin says, "Our mascot is the jackal. Marble Creek Jackals."

"What even is that?" Dwayne blinks. How typical of him. By this point, Alex begins to not doubt Dwayne's lack of brain cells.

"Jackals on three!" Jacob shouts with a smirk, "One, two three . . "

"Jackals!" shouts the team, laughing and grinning ear to ear.

The five of them walk onto the court, high-fiving and fist bumping each other. The spirit is high, and Alex doesn't doubt that each of them will play strong.

"Chris, go do the tip-off," Alex pokes him, "We believe in you."

As Chris walks forward into the center circle, the jumper on Jackson Wills' side goes in as well. Remembering the captain, Alex smiles at him. Connor returns the smile, but with narrowed eyes, making Alex nearly jump.

What's with those eyes? They were so nice-looking a moment ago. Now he seems . . . determined . . . but in a threatening way.

When the game is about to start, Alex notices that Connor is actually quite short compared to Chris.

However, when the ball is thrown into the air, Chris seems almost frozen. Connor jumps up and slams the ball back to his team.

What?

And before he knows it, the game has begun, while the illusion of high spirits a moment before begin to shatter, with their pieces scattered and crushed underfoot like the dead leaves of autumn.