Percabeth: A New Beginning

My Best Friend's Secret

"Luke, come on dude, let's play!" I heard Troy's voice pull me out of la la land, the basketball bounced off the blacktop and into my hands.

"Sorry, lost in thought. Christopher, Ruth let's beat them this time." I laughed, Ruth and Christopher gathered behind me in the classic three vs three position. When Lauren was here, she played with Troy and David against us, Lauren was really good at basketball.

All too soon, the bell rang and we all dispersed towards our teachers. David and Troy were in the same class with Mr. Weaver as their teacher, he was a super funny guy. Lauren and I were in the same class, Miss Westbury was our teacher, she was very nice. Miss. Westbury was short and pudgy with frizzy black hair. My class and I raced inside to put our backpacks in our cubbies before we took our seats. "Ok class, multiplication quiz!" Miss. Westbury waved the tests in the air.

The class groaned, ugh, I hate these quizzes, they're so dumb. We get one minute to answer as many multiplication problems as we could. These were so easy, I could finish the whole test in thirty seconds. Our teacher handed them out and as soon as she started the timer I was off like a rocket answering simple questions. In no time flat, I had finished. On days like today, Lauren and I would usually race each other, we were by far the smartest kids in class.

We compared every worksheet, test and quiz to see who scored higher. She usually won, but every once in a while I would beat her, Lauren was brilliant. "Ok class, time for math book work."

We pulled out our books an began to work. I finished the division pages without a second to spare, math was so easy. I found myself gazing out the window, which gave me a perfect view of the basketball court, I sighed, it was too nice of a day to be cooped up in this classroom. I wondered where Lauren was and what she was doing, I hope she's alright, I hope she's back next week, I hope we play basketball together on Monday morning. She had blown Troy and I off the court the first time she played with us on the first day of kindergarten.

After spending the whole class time talking about books, I invited Lauren out to play basketball with Troy, because at the time it was just Troy and I. "Hey Luke! Ready to play?" Troy bounced the ball towards me.

I caught it and shot a layup, "yeah, I'm gonna beat you this time."

"No you won't." Troy teased.

"Oh and Troy, this is Lauren Winters, she just moved here from Las Vegas."

Lauren gave Troy a shy wave. But Troy had other ideas, "hi Lauren, I'm Troy, can you play ball?" He asked her with a smug look on his face.

"I've played a little, yes. Bet I can kick you butt into next week." Lauren looked him dead in the eye.

"I don think so, you, me, one on one." Troy dribbled the ball proudly.

"No, you and Luke against me." Lauren put her hands on her hips.

"You're funny. Let's play." Troy snorted. The two of us set up in formation, Troy whispered to me, "don't take it easy on her, we're gonna beat her."

"Ok, let's go." I grinned at him. We bounced the ball then I ran out wide and Troy passed to me, but the ball didn't reach me. I saw a flash of brown hair jump in front of me and I heard the sound of the ball bouncing quickly on the blacktop. I watched in awe as Lauren flawlessly maneuvered around Troy to shoot a layup.

"Luke!" Troy pouted.

"Sorry Troy. Good shot Lauren."

"One more point, no more easy play." Troy scoffed. One point turned into eight more, we only scored one basket, no matter what we did, Lauren was better. Even Troy was impressed.