Wednesday, November 9, 6:15 am
1 week until first game
7:25
My dad and I walked into his office and sat our stuff down.
"I meant to ask you yesterday, how was school going?" He asked logging in to his computer.
"Great! Diamond, Kay, and I are getting closer. We sit with Isaak and them at lunch."
"Oh yeah? How'd that happen?"
"Isaak practically begged me to." I said kinda under my breath.
My dad laughed. "What? I couldn't hear you."
"Nothing." I said standing up after changing my shoes.
I walked into the gym to shoot around while I waited for Isaak and Kameron. Not too long later, Isaak walked in.
Swish.
"Hey Isaak." I said grabbing my rebound. "Where's KP?"
He walked up to me. "We're going to go meet him." He said grabbing my ball from me. "Grab your stuff."
"Um okay..." I jogged to my dad's office to change my shoes and grab my stuff.
"Where are you going?"
"To meet KP somewhere. Isaak's showing me."
He turned in his chair. "Be safe."
I laughed. "Dad, I'm literally on campus. I'll be fine." I said walking out. Isaak walked to me and we left the gym.
"You know you're the only one that calls Kam KP?"
I looked at him. "Why?"
He looked back at me. "I don't know. I just hear you say it all the time. You got a phone?"
"Of course I have a phone..." I said laughing.
"It's just cause like I never see you with it."
"Why?"
He hesitated and looked back at me. "I was gonna ask for your number."
I looked at him and slightly smiled. "Uh sure I guess."
We walked into the cafeteria and saw everyone at our usual table.
"Y'all sit here and wait for school to start everyday?" I asked him as we were walking up.
"Yeah."
We sat down.
"Hey Des!" Kayoni said.
"Hey!" I looked at Isaak. "Let me see your phone." He took it out and handed it to me.
I looked at his lock screen and it was a professional picture of him dribbling up the court.
I smiled and looked at him. "You gotta unlock it dude."
"You right." He opened it with face ID and handed it back. I typed my number in.
"Here." I said passing it back to him. Kameron and I made eye contact and he raised his eyebrows. I covered my face trying not to smile in embarrassment.
"Yo Des. We got our first game in one week." Diamond said excited.
"When do y'all play?" Kayoni asked the group.
"Day after y'all." Trevon said while leaning his head on his hand.
"Better support us like we did for y'all at tryouts." Darrien said rolling his eyes.
"Two things DD. #1 Imma be on the bench with y'all anyways. #2 Y'all better support us on Wednesday too." I said after removing my hands from my face.
"Do we get to be on the bench for yo game?" Darrien asked mugging me.
"Closest you gettin' is the bleachers behind the bench. You know Coach Sines don't play that." I said laughing with everyone else.
"You right. You right." Darrien said looking off.
"Bench or not, I'll be there to support y'all." Trevon said looking at Diamond.
"Me too." Jayquan said looking at me. I dapped him up and we both snapped at the end.
"But how though? Don't we have practice still?" Kameron said looking between everyone.
"Not a problem. 7th grade plays first at 4:45. We play at 6." I said pointing at him and opening my water bottle.
"Ohhhh." He said as Isaak looked at me.
"Bet."
We all talked until they released us from the cafeteria at 8:30. Isaak, Kameron, Kayoni and I all split from the rest of the group because our classes were in a different part of the building. We still had 10 minutes until school started, so we just walked and talked.
"What are y'all doing after school?" I said looking at everyone.
"Practice." Isaak said being smart.
I hit his side. "You knew what I meant."
"Calm down, I know, and I'm doing nothing."
"Same." Kayoni and Kameron said at the same time.
"You guys should come over to my house!" I said excitedly.
"Is your dad okay with that?" Kayoni asked looking at me with her head tilted to the side.
"He won't be at home. He has an important dinner or some shit, that I can't go to. He'd rather me not be at home alone anyways. Better y'all than my neighbor." I said looking at her.
"When you pass it by your dad, I'm in." She said opening her phone to check the time. "I'll see you guys later, my class is in the other direction." She said turning around.
"Bye" We all said.
"What about you two?" I said.
"I'm down as long as Kam's down." Isaak said stopping at his class.
Kameron looked at me. "I think as long as your dad is okay with it, I'll go. My mom doesn't get home until late anyways." Kameron said shrugging.
"Alright, I'll ask during lunch." I said looking at Isaak.
"Okay. Bye y'all." He said walking into his class.
Kameron and I walked towards our Spanish class.
"Soooo, you and Isaak?"
"Man you was just WAITING to ask that question weren't you?"
"I mean" He said putting his hands up in defense. "What happened to 'no objectification'?" He said laughing.
"That was when we hated each other-"
"For like a day."
"Whatever KP!" I said smiling. "DD and I argue more than me and Isaak. Plus that's not objectification. Besides, we're friends now I think."
He scoffed. "Bouta be more than that."
"Go on somewhere!" I said pushing him as he kept making fun of me.
12:50
The bell rang indicating it was time for lunch.
"Come on Kay, I need to ask my dad."
We both grabbed our stuff and walked to the gym. We got to the gym and the kids who had PE were walking laps. We walked into the office and saw Coach Williams and my dad laughing.
"Oh, what's up Ny?" I walked up to his desk.
"Kay and I had a question." I said looking at him.
"No sir! It's her question, not mine. I'm here for support." She said causing my dad to laugh.
"What's your question?"
"Can my friends come over after practice? Since you have that special dinner and I'll be alone unless the neighbor checks on me."
"What's wrong with Mrs. Mabel?" He said leaning back in his chair.
"Well to start, her name is Mrs. Mabel...a dead giveaway. I don't know her like that, and three, she's low-key creepy."
He thought for a moment. "How many people?" He said sighing.
"Kay, Isaak, KP, Diamond, DD, Tre, and Jay." I said quickly.
He looked at me with his head slightly tilted. "As long as y'all don't tear up my house and they all have rides home cause it's a school night, then they can come over-"
"YES!" I said excited.
"BUT, Mrs. Mabel will drop in still to make sure everything's okay."
"I'll make sure the house is exactly as it is now." I said walking out the door excitedly with Kayoni.
We made it to the lunch table and sat down excited.
"Her dad said yes!" Kayoni said smiling.
"To everyone?!" Kameron said surprised.
"To everyone!" Kayoni said.
Darrien looked between us confused at what was going on.
"Your dad deadass said yes to everyone?" Isaak said looking at me surprised. I nodded."Everyone?!" He said again just as surprised as Kameron.
"Swear! Only catch is that everyone needs a ride home, so no sleep overs." I said shrugging.
"Yo what are y'all talking about?" Jayquan said confused.
"Right" Trevon said.
"Crazy to say but I agree with Jay." Darrien said tilting his head.
"Yeah what's going on?" Diamond said taking a bite of her food.
"My dad said everyone can come over after practice."
"That's wassup." Diamond said laughing.
"We can squeeze in my dad's car. We're only short 1 seat." I said grabbing my stomach because I was hungry. I looked up and the lunch line was closed so I frowned.
"Make sure you all have a ride home though." Kayoni said pulling her lunch out her backpack.
Isaak looked at me weird. "What's wrong?" He said concerned.
"They already closed the lunch line." I said resting my head on my hand but still looking at him.
"You can have some of mine." Isaak said sliding his tray over a little.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'm not hungry. Or, I brought some snacks if you want some of those." He said looking at me.
"Thanks" I said looking in his eyes for a second before looking away.
6:00
Us girls were already in the locker room because coach lets us out early enough for those who want to shower. Normally I don't shower and just leave with my dad, but I already know that eight funky kids in a car would NOT smell good. I made sure that Diamond showered too and we walked out the locker room at 6. Just as we walked out the boys team walked out the gym.
"Yo KP!" I yelled calling him over. "Make sure everyone's funky ass shower because I don't wanna be in a car that smells like 10 cans of bounce dat ass." I said to him.
"You could've just said funky, but 10 cans of bounce that ass is way funnier."
"Kameron I'm for real." I said mugging him.
"OOOO, she used your whole name! I'd listen." Diamond said instigating as always.
"Alright, I got you. Makes sure everyone showers. Got it. Just don't hurt me." He said laughing at the fact I said his full name.
"Man whatever. Just hurry up cause my dad needs to get home to change." I said as he walked away.
6:20
"I got everyone. They're clean and don't smell funky." Kameron said laughing.
"NyNy thanks for telling them." My dad said as he walked out his office. "I would have sent y'all back in there to shower." He said. We all followed him out to the car.
"I got shotgun!" Jayquan yelled as he ran to the front seat.
"You know, sometimes I wonder if Jay pretends to be slow." Darrien said as the rest of us walked to the car. I slapped the back of his head. "Man what the- you lucky you a girl." He said rubbing his head.
"Whatever." I said laughing.
"Just so y'all know, you boys are squishing in the back." Kayoni said laughing. All the boys started complaining as we made it to the car. We pulled the seats down.
"Hop in!" Diamond said smirking at the boys.
"Yo that's wild." Darrien said looking at her.
"You too." I said looking at him. He rolled his eyes and hopped in the back. We pulled the seats back down and us girls finally sat down.
"Yo, how is it back there?" Jayquan said turning to us.
"Dude shut up"
"You lucky"
"Whatever"
"Jay shut up!"
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Y'all can't be yelling up in here." My dad said as he pulled out the parking spot.
I laughed a little at how quiet everyone got. "Why y'all so quiet? He said not to yell not 'don't talk'" I said turning to the boys in the back. "Just cause we all in the same car." I said resting my head on my arms which were on the back of the seat. "Y'all got plenty of room back there even since there's only 3 chairs." I said looking between them all.
"She's right. Could be worse.... I guess." Kameron said sarcastically turning to me.
"Okayyy then.." I said sitting back in my seat the right way.
I talked with Kayoni and Diamond until we pulled up to the house. We quickly got out and let the seats down. The boys in the back got out and stretched their legs.
"Man my legs feel like I played 20 games in a row." Trevon said with his legs stiff.
"I feel like I ain't walked in months." Darrien said leaning on his knees.
"I feel like I haven't walked in YEARS." Kameron said trying to stretch.
"Shoot, I feel like I haven't walked a day in my LIFE!" Isaak said shaking his legs.
Trevon started to walk stiff and I burst out laughing. "Boy why is you walkin' like that?!" I said laughing hard. All the boys mugged me. "So dramatic"
"I rode comfortably." Jayquan said as he walked to us.
"You guys need to get inside." My dad said, and we all walked into the house, tonight was gonna be fun.