When star athlete, DeAndre Parker clashes with a tough no-nonsense female classmate, he quickly learns that unlike basketball, there's no playin' hard in the game of love.
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I should've been happy. I should've been running around squealing and jumping up and down elated that I'd gone through with the talent show and won. I wasn't Cree Jacobs, that girl who was probably letting the Ballas have their way with her, I was Cree Jacobs, the girl who could secretly dance and put on an amazing show. Something that should've had the biggest smile on my face, but instead I was kind of bummed.
After the talent show my father took me out to dinner to celebrate, even if the gesture read as loving, it wasn't. It was just face-value nice. He spent the majority of the meal focusing on cutting his steak while Loraine kept going on and on with her praise.
It wasn't Loraine's praise I wanted, it was my father's. Weeks of preparing my routine just to have him barely acknowledge it and brush it aside? It hurt, it hurt so much.
Needless to say I barely ate and when we'd gotten home I'd immediately gone upstairs to shower and lounge around. After changing, I'd pulled my hair up into a bun and flipped through magazines aimlessly.
It wasn't really fun, but it beat being around my father who barely looked at me since the talent show.
I let out a breath as my phone rang. I picked it up, finding Troiann calling.
"Hey," I answered as I turned the page of my magazine, seeing a cute photo of Big Sean.
"What's up? How'd Mack take it?" I could hear the fear in Troy's voice and that only caused me to roll my eyes.
"Oh Mack barely took it at all."
"What do you mean?"
"He's been ignoring me since we left the school. We went to dinner, or really, he accompanied Loraine and me to dinner where he mostly sat staring at his plate." I lay on my back and stared at my ceiling. "I give up, Troy."
Troiann groaned. "I swear, our daddies suck, Cree. I'm sorry he didn't like it."
Blinking back tears, I let it go. "Forget it." I was embarrassed at the sound of my own voice breaking. "At least Nelson Edmonds really liked it. He said he'd like to get together and do some dancing sometime."
Nelson Edmonds wasn't my type. He played basketball with DeAndre and Chris, and after becoming friends with the Ballas, I wasn't too sure about ever really dating one.
Troiann clicked her tongue. "Eww, nah. He's mad corny, Cree. You know the type. Light skin dudes be like 'the only thing a man should change about a woman is her last name.'"
I couldn't breathe due to how hard she made me laugh. I knew she was only kidding due to the fact that her brown sugar complexion put her in the light skin category right next to Marcus and me.
In the background I could hear Marcus's response as he asked, "What you trying to say?"
"I ain't trying to say anything, I said it," Troiann replied. "Anyway, Cree, don't even waste your time. Nelson ain't nothing but a heartbreaker. You want more and it's not him. He does play basketball."
