Young Love

II. Adorn

      Jaden was complimented and adored his first day. He barely went a class without someone telling him that he has nice shoes, he dresses nice or he's just good-looking. And when it comes to lunch, everyone seemed to be fascinated with the fact that he was from Los Angeles. They queried if he knew any celebrities and all he could think of is that he met 2 Chainz on a plane once. His basketball skills were great. People compared him to Lebron James "without the hairline" and Kobe Bryant. Even though Jaden was surrounded by girls, there was none he truly felt for until he seen Sherane.

      Sherane was a mulatto with flowing curly hair and not a bad body. She found herself staring at Jaden as he stared back, then went up to him and the crowd of people.

        "You're pretty good with the ball," said Sherane, "where'd you learn?"

        "I watched a lot of games growing up and I played with my friends back in L.A.," he explained.

        "I bet you can't take me on."

        "Sherane, you can't beat him in a lifetime!" one of the girls surrounding Jaden exclaimed.

        "Bitch, was I talking to you?" Sherane shaded. "Clap back."

        "Ha, alright. Lemme see what you got. One on one, right now," Jaden said playfully throwing the basketball to her.

       "You about to lose, boy. You know that right?" She said dribbling the ball between her legs.

       "Bring it on."

       Sherane dribbled the ball to the three point line. Jaden followed her shadow attempting to block the girl. However, she motioned she'd go to the right, Jaden followed, and Sherane stayed right in her place making the jump shot. The basketball circled the ring and slipped through the net. 

       "You ain't bad," Jaden breathed heavily.

     The spectators at the basketball court egged on another round. Sherane eyed Jaden and smiled, bouncing the ball into his hands.

      "One more," Sherane stated, "and it's your turn with the ball."

      "Alright, but I won't take it easy on you," Jaden warned.

      "Bring on your worst, playboy." 

      Jaden bounced the ball as Sherane followed trying to take every chance to snatch the ball out of the boy's hands. When Jaden reached the free throw line, he went to do a twirl-in-the-air jump shot. But when he jumped, his hand landed dangling on the net empty. Soon he realized, when he went for that twirl, Sherane snatched the ball and there she went to make another successful shot from the three point line.

       "Where'd you learn how to play ball like that?" Jaden asked.

     "Oh, I just watched a lot of games growing up and I played with my friends." Sherane replied imitating him.

       They both shared a chuckle as the crowd slowly dismantled. 

      "You're pretty cute for a boy who can't play ball," Sherane joked.

      "And you're pretty hot for a girl who beat me at it," Jaden reciprocated.

      Their hands slowly slid into each others. They looked at each other and smiled cheekily. 

     London watched them as they flirted. The same guy who caught him staring at Jaden the day before, whose name was Amari, noticed him doing it again.

      "London, are you going to play?" Amari asked with an obvious irritation.

      London turned around, nodded and looked his lips. "Yeah, gimme the ball.