Kiss the Rim (Book 1)

Prologue

Prologue

I ran down the street as fast as I could, sweat pouring down my face as I kept running. I turned my head to see if the kid was still following me. He was chasing me, so I quickened my pace. I turned down another street in a neighborhood to find two people already there waiting for me. I stopped, and the guy behind me stopped and tried to catch his breath. One of the guys that stopped me walked forward and said,"Nice to see you Ren. After that great game we played together." I looked up facing my basketball captain. His light blonde hair shined in the street lights and his maroon eyes had anger in them. I answered him saying, "Nice to see you again, captain." "Don't call me captain anymore. You don't deserve to call me that anymore, Ren. You won't be with us next year in high school. You left the team, so you shouldn't even look at me anymore!" he said punching me in the face, so hard that I felt my cheek hurt like crazy. The guy who chased me walked up from behind me and said, "You damn bitch, looking down on us!" He grabbed my right arm quickly and snapped the bone so forcefully, it broke my skin too! Tears started forming in my eyes from the pain, but I didn't show them I was crying. I yelled, "Trent you bastard!"

The guy that came with Ned, walked over towards me. He said to me, "You'll regret being friends with me." I responded, "I will never regret it, Kyle." He moved his arm back and punched me hard in the nose. Blood poured out of my nose and I looked up at him and gave him a sad face. Then I heard someone running down the street and it was my brothers, Eita and Eri who came running over. Eita yelled, "Why are you messing with my little sister?!" He moved his arm back and punched at Kyle, but he held Eita's flying fist like it was nothing. He responded by saying, "Wow, is that all you got? It's good your sis taught me how to block any moves." My brother grimaced and then Eri ran over quickly, punching him in the face. Then Ned and Trent tried to run away, but my other brother, Daiki caught Trent. Eri caught Ned, since Ned was shorter than him. "Where are you going, shorty?" said Daiki angrily.

After the fight, I was taken to the nearest hospital by my brothers, where we were aquatinted with my older brother Aito who came as quickly as he could from college. He said, "Ren, I'm so sorry. I wasn't there for you, I'm sorry." Eri grabbed my hand and apologized for not walking home with me because he had detention. Eita and Daiki were silent because they had nothing to say. The doctor came in, saying that I had broke my right arm pretty badly and that I broke my nose really good too. He said my right arm was badly injured, so I probably couldn't play basketball or any other sport again. He also said I could get a more serious injury it I hurt my arm again. My brothers were disappointed because they were almost done teaching me about the sports they played. Once I could start physical therapy, I got a woman and her name was Rachel Troy. Rachel was the best ever and she started idolizing my oldest brother, Aito because he came to do the therapy with me. When I could, he would train with me in basketball. It made me happy to see him a lot since I didn't at home because he was at college in Boston, while we lived in California.

Once I was let out of the hospital, I decided to play basketball in my eighth grade year, so I could play at least one more year before calling it quits. Aito always came with me because he wanted to protect me from Ned, Trent, and Kyle. We would talk about plays that the team could do and we would also practice near the side where a hoop was open. When I finally recovered, I told my brothers that I would play my last season of basketball, playing in the eighth grade championships. They freaked out, but Aito was proud of me and said it was fine as long as I did not end up in the ER again. The final game finally came, and I had practiced with my team a lot, but they acted differently towards me. Even the players that were acquaintances of mine, started hating me too. They hated me and I had no clue why, they started giving me the nickname "Shrimp" which I have no idea why they started calling me that. I tried to play normally, but nobody would pass to me. People started thinking of themselves as star players. They wouldn't pass to anyone at all. On the last game of my basketball career, we played the best middle school team in Japan. The "Generation of Miracles" which were the best players, and they decided to play here. We were the best team in America, but when we were playing we started losing.

I tried to play how I always did, but the point guard on the other team was really good. He had red hair, with two different colors eyes which were yellow and red. He didn't look like a nice guy at all. Anyway, I tried to play the same as always, but it was hard because he always knew my next move! I failed every move that I knew that worked on opposing players. Before someone passed the ball in again, he said to me, "I heard a lot about you Ren Daisuke. I thought you could beat anyone like all those American players were talking about. Seems like your not a good player at all, but it seems they idol you too much." "I don't care if they idol me or not because I don't care if I win or not," I ran past him as quickly as I could catching the ball. I ran down the court as fast as I could, so I could shoot the ball. I tried to pass it quickly to Trent, but someone with blue hair passed it to the red haired kid. The red haired kid shot it into the basket making it. Near the end of the game, it was hard to catch up to them.

When our coach called a time out, I piped up and said, "I have a great play coach." He then slapped me hard in the face and said, "Shut up bitch! I don't care what you have to say bragger! I'm the coach, and I know more than you do!" I thought I was about to cry, so I ran out through the nearest door and into the hallway. I found a bench to sit on, so I started crying and a blue haired boy with blue eyes said, "Are you ok?" Instead of answering him, I hugged him instead for some reason! He looked shocked, but knew the situation. He let me hug him and he comforted me. When I was done crying he said, "It's fine now, right? Let's finish the game, Miss." We both walked out find out that the coach was thrown out of the game and my brother was coaching us now. I tried to keep up with all of the guys, but it was hard for me to. When it was the end of the game, I tried to go to the center of the court to say thank you for playing, but my legs gave out. I fell to the ground because they were so weak from playing with these guys. I tried to get up on my own, but my arms weren't strong enough to support my weight. None of my teammates came to help me and the referee yelled at me, "Get up! You need to thank the other team!" Aito came over and helped me up whispering to me, "Come on Ren, just hang in there." He helped me to the center of the court to say thank you to the other team. Even though we lost, I never forgot the boy who comforted me even though he didn't know me. I wanted to find that boy someday, so I can tell him thank you for what he did for me.

Once the game ended, I walked home on my own because I was disappointed in myself. Then out of nowhere, someone grabbed me from behind. It was Trent and he was holding me while Ned punched me hard in the gut. I staggered back towards the wall trying to get the wind back in my lungs. Then Kyle punched me hard on back of my head, which I wasn't ready for. Then I started punching Kyle, who wasn't expecting that of course. He expected to knock me out with one punch, but he didn't hit me that hard. I was doing good in the fight, until Trent sacked me in the back of the head with a wooden board. I fell to the ground with blood coming out of the back of my head. I didn't expect to make it, but I got up anyway ready to fight anything. I ran at them punching them.

When the fight ended, I ran home. Our house was an apartment in San Francisco near the baseball field AT&T Park. Aito liked bringing me to baseball games, but he liked taking me to the Boston Celtics games whenever I went to visit him in Boston. He was the one who introduced me to basketball.

My brothers and I moved back to our home country, Tokyo, Japan. My older brothers went to high school there. We only moved to California, so it could be cheaper for him to come back and forth from Boston University to see us. When we got to Tokyo, we lived in a run down house in a bad part of town because that is all we could afford at the time. We still live there today. We wouldn't buy a mansion like Aito said because we are so use to the run down house.

During the summer, I made good friends with a girl named Trinity Harvard, our neighbor. She taught my brothers and I how to play volleyball. It was fun because we got to see everyone clash and fight in someone else's sport. We got to play boxing, my brother Eita got into the final against Daiki. They competed against each other in their different sports to see which one was better than the other. It ended in a tie because they were totally different sports. We played a ton of sports this summer, which got me sore on my first day of school.

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A Picture of Ren in her Middle School Jersy ----->