THE SCHOLARSHIP. » D. SWING

• ✧- chapter one

"He ain't talking to me... that's what I know." Chris inquired. Alright maybe I wasn't talking to him, he was far from the worse on the team as well as Kareem and my little brother Jacoby but Lord knows they were far from the best- the best being myself .

"Yeah whatever all y'all can suck my dick Ight."

"Fuck that, you took away our chances of making it to the finals!" Lil D finally spoke up, displaying his inner frustration which was a shocker seeing that he was never the one to argue.

"Ayo D, sit your ugly ass down like you always do when you on that bench, Ight?" I quickly hushed him as I arose to my feet, eyeing him to see if he would dare to make a move.

"Don't be talking to my mans like that J. You cost one for the team and now you mad at him, fuck outta here man." Darnell added into the tension, defending Darius as if he couldn't speak for himself.

After a few involuntarily moments I finally allowed the word to roll off my tongue "Look, look I'm sorry y'all." I apologized as I finally took their words into consideration, allowing my anger to drop seeing that it actually was my fault. "I know I fucked up..." I took a seat in the cold metal chair once again as I punched my fist into my opposing hand as the circumstances hit me all at once. I fucked up badly and the whole team knew it. And worst of all; I fucked up and my dad knew it. As if on cue the doors opened once more, breaking the once overbearing awkward silence.

"Ayo Bari... dad wanna talk to you." The voice of my breathless brother was suddenly heard followed by the many 'oh shit's' that allowed the boys to believe I was in trouble. They all knew who my father was and how serious he took the game, sometimes he even popped up at our many practice sessions even when our coach told him not to just so he could see how well me and Jacoby were doing. He even made it his appointive to to embarrass us if we weren't doing better than the others. I still believe he should cut us some slack, for God sakes Jacoby made the varsity team in the tenth grade and I was already being scouted. But to him there was always more room for improvement and I could see what he was getting at but sometimes I just think he's plainly trying to prevent us from being on the streets which is what he didn't have to do. Jacoby and I both knew there wasn't shit for us out there besides an outdoor court and that's that. If anyone needed to be restricted from their visiting hours to the streets it would have to be Khalif. His lateness to games and practices would mainly be due to him being high off his own product but nobody from the team had the nerve to snitch on him, it just wasn't ethical.

I exited the locker room, bracing myself for the speech my father was bound to give in a matter of seconds. I entered the gym once more, quickly taking notice of my father who was apparently conversing with someone else whom I hadn't known. He took notice of me from the other end and immediately put his conversation to a holt with the male who wore a suit as if he dressed up for the wrong type of court. I came to a holt allowing him to meet me halfway and I could already tell he was far from happy with me.

"The fuck was that out there?" He inquired as soon as we were face to face. "Who were you playing out there? Yourself? 'Cause it sure as hell looked like it."

"Pops, I was just tryna make the shot." I explained as I stretched my hands out in defense.

"Put your fucking hands down, you hear me." He stated through gritted teeth as he thumped his finger into my chest which was covered by my black and white jersey that evidently represented the Westbrook Wolves. "You can't be acting like a dumbass on that court. You know damn well you can't afford that." He finished, ending the conversation which I knew would be awakened once we got home. "Now look, I got somebody I want you to meet." He stated, suddenly plastering a false smile across his lips as he placed his hand upon my back guiding me to the guy he was previously talking to in the lonesome court.