The Basketball Atrocities

Fourteen - Amused

Ashley sighed. "Fine. Me and him have been getting a little closer lately. But we aren't even close to dating. He's not even my type!" she protested with an offended look on her face.

Jordan started oooo-ing. "Ooooooooooo, Ashley Dun has a boooooooyfriend." he teased with a smirk.

"Shut your mouth the up." she ordered, her hand coming around the seat and popping Jordan on the head.

"Ow! And also, what the fuck is 'shut your mouth the up'? Doesn't sound like good English to me." he pointed out.

Ashley's hand came flying at Jordan's head again. "I never want to hear you criticize my grammar after I read the essay portion of your 7th grade English finals." she responded aggressively.

"Damn, Jordan, she got you there." Josh chimed in. "But regardless, y'all two chill out. Jordan, stop antagonizing your sister. Ashley, stop slapping your brother with the truth." he ordered as he pulled into their driveway.

He got out of the car and walked towards the porch. He noticed that his mother and Tyler's mother, Kelly, were sitting outside on the porch chairs talking about something. He didn't see Tyler anywhere, but then realized that his truck wasn't in his driveway either. Jordan, Ashley, and Abigail went inside, so he just shrugged and walked up the steps.

"Hey, Mom. Afternoon, Kelly." he said, with a wave.

They both smiled. "Afternoon to you, too, Josh." Kelly answered. Laura grabbed his arm before he went inside. "Hey, once you go inside, can you sit out here with us for a bit? I was just telling Kelly how you were one of the best basketball players at your old school."

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure. I can do that."

Josh went inside and up to his room. He sat down on his bed, deciding to stay in his room for a minute. It was pretty hot outside for Columbus, considering they were approaching October. He stepped over to his desk. Josh pulled out his biology work and finished up the last few questions he had left on the paper. It was a boring class for the most part; Mr. Sanchez was not much of an improvement compared to Mr. Farfield. The girls in the class seemed to think otherwise, though. Most of them couldn't stop undressing him with their eyes and whispering about how hot he was. A couple of the more popular girls would also make jokes about staying after school and going to his class to "finish up some work" and "get help on some confusing topics."

People were weird.

Once he had finished his biology work, he went to his bathroom. Josh noticed his hair was looking faded and that the purple was now a lilac color. It wasn't even remotely as bright as it used to be. Josh had been trying to schedule an appointment to the hair stylist in downtown Columbus, but school had been getting in the way and Josh's mother had been extra picky about where he was going ever since the tornado. He sighed.

He went back down to the front porch. "Oh, there you are! Took you long enough." his mother said excitedly.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I was telling Kelly about how you've been playing basketball since 4th grade and that you are one of the best players on the team." she answered. "Kinda wanted to get your point of view."

"Y'know, Tyler is actually one of the best basketball players in the country. Ranks in the top 100 basketball captains in America. Columbus hasn't seen a loss in basketball games since either 1997 or 1998." Kelly bragged proudly.

Oh, not these conversations. Josh realized. It was one of those subtle and casual conversations between mothers where they brag about their children, compare their talents, subtly berate the other mother's child, and try to size them up to each other. He mentally sighed. Maybe this was his chance to get his hair redyed.