Lincoln's new life

First basketball game

February 3rd. It's here. After weeks of practicing, Lincoln was going to his first basketball game. He was so excited. Plus, Akari was going to be there. He didn't know how he would be able to concentrate seeing her in that cheerleading uniform. 

He was in the locker room in his basketball uniform. He heard the coach talking he could understand a lot more now, but he was still a little rusty. "Watashitachi wa kore o nan-shūkan mo renshū shite kimashita. Watashi ga dorehodo anata o hokori ni omotte iru ka, minasan ni shitte moraitai dakedesu. Watashitachi wa kore o motte imasu, otokonoko. Soko ni itte, karera no o shiri o kerimashou!" (We have been practicing this for weeks. I just want you all to know how proud I am of you. We have this, boys. Let's go out there and kick their ass!) The coach said. Everyone, including Lincoln, got up and cheered. "Watashitachi ga nandede kite iru ka o karera ni misemashou!" (Now, let's show them what we're made of!) He said as they all walked out.

As they ran out to the court, they all heard the cheering of the crowd. As Lincoln was running on the court, he looked in the crowd for his mother. It wasn't that long before he saw her face. She was waving her arm and say, "Mama loves you, Lincoln!". He was a little embarrassed by that, but he waved back at her. "Love you too!" he said to her. Typical mom thing. And then he saw Akari. There she was doing the cheerleading dances. When he saw her in that cheerleader outfit, he suddenly got butterflies in his stomach. 

Akari was currently getting into position to get thrown into the air. She was the flyer. All her partners put their hands into position to get her ready. Akari then laid in her partner's arms and positioned herself. They lowered their arms a bit and then flung her into the air. Akari's mind was racing. She was so scared out of her mind. When she came back down, that didn't help. She was eventually caught in her partner's arms. After standing up from the arm field, she had a traumatized look on her face. "Daijōbuka, Akari?" (Are you ok, Akari?) on of her cheerleading partners asked. "Hai, sukoshi kowaidesu. Sorede zenbudesu." (Yes, I'm a little scared. That's all.) Akari said, "Demo, genkidesu" (But I'm fine). Her partners nodded. Thank God she only had to do this once.

Lincoln saw all of this and had a face of amazement. Akari noticed him and said, "Hi, Lincoln-San!". "Hi, Akari!" Lincoln said as he ran up to her. They then hugged for a moment before breaking it up. "I just saw that flip, that was amazing!" Lincoln said. "Yeah, um... thank you." Akari said, "So, are you ready to play?". "All ready! You don't know how nervous I am!" Lincoln said. "Hey, Lincoln-San, it's ok to be nervous. You know how nervous I was while flying up in the air? I thought I was going to die!" Akari said, "Being nervous is normal!". "Thank you, Akari." Lincoln said, "I got to go.". "Wait! Before you go..." Akari said as she got up close to Lincoln and kissed his cheek. "Good luck, Lincoln-San" She whispered before running back to her cheerleading squad. This left Lincoln with stunned face and burning cheeks.

"Lincoln! Bōgyo daiichi!" (Lincoln! Defense first!) A boy said in the chairs. Lincoln snapped back to reality and understood what that meant. The other team was offending first so he had to sit down. Lincoln went to his team and sat down with them. "Iziko Sakura No Hana!" Lincoln shouted. The first quarter officially began. 10:00 minutes on the clock. He watched his team play. 

After 5 minutes, his side was up. The current score 8-5. His team was winning by 3 points. He walked up to the court. He was nervous but he remembered what Akari told him. It's ok to be nervous. He took a deep breath and exhaled. He went to his team's half of the court. He was the point guard. He had to toss the ball back 3 times before the action begins. He did. 

That's when he started dribbling. He then started slowly walking. One of the guys started getting up to him and putting his arms out to block him. Lincoln stopped dribbling for a second and got low for a second before sneaking out and dribbling while running. All of his teammates were putting their arms out as they were open. He gave the ball to the kid that was closest to the basket. The kid took his shot and scored. The crowd cheered. The score was now 11-5. "Yakko yaka Muto!" (Nice job Muto!) Lincoln said to the kid. "Arigatō, Lincoln! Anata no tasuke ga nakereba, watashi wa sore o nashitogeru koto ga dekinakattadeshou!" (Without your help, I couldn't have done it!) Muto said to Lincoln with a smile. The two fist-bumped each other. Suziko saw this and got a little teary-eyed. She was so proud of her boy.