Jamdown

Chapter 5

Donavan Malt

The sun glossed over me. The beaming light bleached my dark skin and left me drained. Grass lessened against the edge of my shoes. This grassy knoll was near Hill’s house and it faded, exposing the dirt in some places, so we needed greener pastures. 

“How you practice like that?” Arden retorted, with a smile. I wrinkled my brow at him, for as I was now, I was wearing no shirt. Half of the players were without shirts, while the ones in shirts battled us. We practiced routes and coordination mostly in football practice, because this was a violent sport and unnecessary injuries were something we avoided. 

The protective gear we had was rather old and we preferred playing without them to preserve them for matches anyway. 

As usual, some of our members weren’t here. Those were the typical members. A typical member was someone who joined up and was more absent than present. A lot of people just were not interested in the sport to take it seriously.

“Yes, we should be fine. What, you worried about me?” I asked.

He snorted. “No, like hell I would.”

I snickered for a bit and reached for the laptop out of my backpack, handing it to him. “Still, thanks for dealing with this for me.” 

Arden looked at the laptop back and front. His eyes drifted. “Seriously though, who took it?”

“I can’t disclose that. You are not supposed to mention me either.”

Arden frowned. “Boy, a bare problem you're put yourself, inna brother. Who you defending?” 

Terry Arden was too inquisitive.  “Nuh worry about that, just take that to them,” I said.

Arden shrugged and nodded. 

I begin to say, “Hey if they give you any prob–”

“Don’t worry.” Arden crouched, slid it into his backpack, and got up. “The man will be too happy to get it back. But yo you need to make sure your friend nuh steal again. We can’t have them type of tiefing foolishness round Berry Hill yuh ze me.”

“He is not a friend of mine. I just recognized something about him and acted on it.”

“Whatever you say.” He watched Leon charge and push over Ember who tried to sidestep him. Ember skated the dirt and laughed at the raising dust blanketing him. Some of the other guys laughed, congratulating Leon on that tackle. Arden widened his eyes momentarily. 

I opened my mouth. 

“See ya.” Arden turned and swiftly left. I closed my mouth, hesitantly. I wanted to call him back, but I had to realize it was not the right moment. Besides if I pushed too hard he would resent it. A second ago, I saw interest in his eyes. 

Would he join? Probably not, best to tackle some younger blood. Arden was a bit short, but his overall build showed he could power his way to a good position on the team. His arm and leg muscles looked chiseled.

I blinked. Shaking my head, I twirled and trekked to my teammates. Leon watched Arden walk away. Leon pointed at Arden. “New team member?”

Leon was one of our best players and my friend, but we were never emotional about it. He was short like most of us on the team, but that pink-shaded smile never fell off his face in the face of any man or woman, especially women.  

I shook my head. “Nah.” Though, I would love for that to happen.

“You good?” Hill patted my back as he faced me.