I took a deep breath. This was it. I adjusted my plaid blue bow tie. My white shirt still felt crisp from when my mother ironed it the day before.
“Jadeel, why ‘you dressed like a nerd?” A scratchy voice said from behind me. I barely had time to turn around before I got slapped on the back. It was Malcom. “It’s just a science project presentation. Not even all of the our school is gonna see it.”
“I know, but all of 5th grade will. Hopefully things go smoothly,” I told him. At least our teacher had let us choose our science groups. Me and Malcom chose each other without question, and then we decided to work with Tiya and Nory since they are our friends too.
The girls soon arrived, Tiya with a determined smile, and Nory with a bag of mini breakfast waffles.
“Stop eating Nory, it’s almost time to present!” Tiya nagged her best friend.
“Hey Tiya, if you had to date me or Jadeel, who would it be?” asked Malcom.
My mind almost blanked. “Quit it Malcom!” I yelled at the same time as Tiya. I chuckled and told the gang to settle down and get ready for the project. We would be on the auditorium stage in 5 minutes!
The presentation went well. Not even Malcom’s stupid question if I’d date him or Jadeel could stop me from acing this presentation!
I thought we did perfect, but we ended up getting second place. Second place! First place wins $400, while second place just gets a guaranteed spot on any of the sports teams they liked for the School olympics. Oh, how I badly wanted first place. How did we not get first?
Ah, I knew how. After about 15 minutes of contemplating, I figured It was all the boys’ fault. Me and Nory acted out and read like 3 ⁄ 4s of the project while Malcom and Jadeel sat on their hindquarters and watched us. After we left the stage I yelled at them and told them so. Jadeel said I was making things up. So I said, to settle the dispute, why don’t we play on the school olympics basketball team, and settle it on the court. The boys whole-heartedly agreed. I smiled at Nory. Time to really settle the score!
I felt kind’a bad about this whole competition. Tiya was so heated about losing the science project competition, that she challenged me and Malcom to a basketball tournament. To me, it won’t be fair game, since each team is a different gender, but whatever I guess. No one tells me I didn’t work hard on a science project!
With our ‘guaranteed spots on any sports team’ tickets, my group and I signed up to be on the basketball teams, and me and Tiya went to the principal with our suggestion the day before the real basketball olympic game, the girls and boys team could compete against each other ‘for fun’. The principal seemed to think our whole idea was funny, and allowed it.
Me and Malcom had barely any experience with basketball, so I knew we had to train hard.
We headed to the park to practice.
“So, did you look up any playing tutorials like I suggested?” I asked him.
“No. dude, it’s only been a day, I didn’t have much time,” Malcom told me. I was frustrated, but maybe he was right.
We played for a while, but Malcom made more jokes than hoops.
By the time we had gone home, I had made three hoops and Malcom had made none.
The next day I woke up and told myself, we’re going to train for this game, and we're gonna train hard! But somehow I got roped into playing video games all day with Malcom, who had kept telling me, we could train later, let’s try and beat this board! Though I loved playing games with Malcom, I wished he’d be serious about the basketball game sometime.
The next day, I had pleaded with him to go to the court and get at least a little bit of game in. I didn’t want to tell him the goal was to play for an hour, because then there was a chance he’d say no. He huffed, but he agreed. Soon I heard another basketball dribbling.
“Come on! Try harder! Don’t be a loser! Are you even aiming for the hoop!”
I looked behind us to the other court and saw Tiya and Nory playing. Nory was sweating and huffing, but still she groaned and threw the ball, only for it to thud against the top of the hoop.
“Terrible! We're gonna lose if you keep playing like that,” Tiya said angrily.
“I’m trying, Tiya! Stop being so mean!” Nory yelled back. “Besides, I’m exhausted.”
“Ball harder!” Tiya yelled in response.
“Aw, tiya and nory are here. We might as well leave and play another time.” said Malcom.
“But common dude, we barely got any hoops in!” I tried to reason with him. Plus, I don’t think you're trying hard enough, I really wanted to say, but I didn’t, since it would be rude.
Soon, the day of the big game came. I was staring at my team that sat on the benches. I had done 30 shots this morning before the game, and I had told Malcom to do so too. He didn’t, but I kept my anger about that to myself. Instead, when Malcom asked to be point guard, I let him.
The principal announced the competition would be best of five rounds.
We went out there and got our butts kicked. two games went by of the boys getting bullied by the girl team, who were, frankly, playing harder.
Whenever a game ended, Tiya yelled at the team to do better, and that even though they were in the lead, they better not get used to it.
When we lost the third game, I was breathing hard and my fists were clenched. As soon as we went in the locker room I slammed the door on the coach and yelled EVERYTHING ISN’T ALRIGHT! YOU ALL ARE SLACKING BIG TIME AND WE’RE LOSING BECAUSE OF IT!
I began pointing in random directions at each of my teammates. YOU CAN’T THROW! YOU NEED TO STOP HOGGING THE BALL. AND MALCOM, CAN’T YOU SEE!? YOU CAN’T PASS WORTH PENNIES AND YOU AREN’T GOOD AT MANAGING THE TEAM! YOU ARE NO LONGER POINT GUARD! I AM!
I was out of breath. I breathed hard, staring at everyone. They stared back at me quietly.
I guess criticism worked. We started to play better, and we won the next game. I felt my smile come back again, but I saw Tiya in tears.
“All of you. How could You!?” I yelled. “You let the boys score a whole game! I hate all of you!”
“And we hate you!” Nory yelled, staring straight at me. Then she looked down “Jeez. Always yelling at someone to play better. Just ‘cause you don’t wanna lose doesn’t mean you need to put your anger out on us.”
I collapsed to my knees and began to cry. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks. “I-I just don’t wanna be second place again…” I snorked up a whole glob of snot. “The science competition was bad enough. I just wanna win at something… for once…” My throat hurt badly, so I stopped talking.
Nory then came over and patted me. “Well, maybe if you gave out more compliments than complaints, we’d try to work with you better. I don’t hate you, by the way. Sorry for saying so.”
“O-Okay…” I sniffled, and wiped my face with my sweaty jersey. “You guys did do good last round…”
We won the final round. Malcom had played offence, I got passed the ball and made the final hoop. We all jumped and smiled and yelled.
“Jadeel, I’m glad to have you as my coach.” Malcom put a hand out to me. We shook on it.
Everyone tried to pick me up and the principal told us to settle down.
The girls and the boys lined up all together and the principal explained that the girls had one over all, since they had one 3 of the 5 games. But since the boys cooperated well, that last game counted as two points, and so the boys and girls had tied. Everyone was smiling. Everyone but Tiya.
I walked over to her, and so did Malcom.
“You played well.” I told her.
She looked at me, and then her mouth turned into a smile. “You did too. Good game.” She put a hand out. We shook on it.
Nory then came over. I guess we'll never know who did more work on the science project,” She said. She had enough water for all of us in her arms.
“Who cares, as long as we all pitched in, I’m good.” Tiya smiled.
Malcom shrugged. “Eh, I could toast to that,”
And then we did.
My name is Shila Williams. I am 16 years old and I have been passionate about writing and drawing since I knew how to spell. I grew up in North Carolina, as well as living and traveling abroad. I write to inspire children's minds to imagine and take them on a fun and adventurous journey.
I'm now a published author! Please support my debut children's book! Check it out here on Amazon! Imagination By Shila Willams
Check out my NFT's!
Meet the girls of Algo Green! Love for the planet and all its inhabitants, big or small. There will only be 50 green girls: https://t.co/yrwWL9ZJZI
my Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/restcity
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As always teamwork is the best when overcoming an obstacle.
I'm glad Tiya was able to appreciate the effort her team made.
Your story is great. :)
Yep. Sometimes, to beat something, a team is needed.
Thanks for reading!
You're welcome!