Me and Fishlegs just finished a training session but I still wanted to put some shots up so I shot a couple more and I barely missed a single shot, then I added a couple of moves before shooting, and the feeling of my heart pumping and sweat dripping down my forehead was something I was longing for.
"Woah! Why does every time I saw you, you just gotten better and better." I heard Fishlegs commented, "I'm just trying new stuff out." I replied passing him the ball, "How about we play one-on-one?" he suggested, "I want to know if all the training paid off." he followed, "Let's do it." I replied.
I have the first possession, I started dribbling and Fishlegs went into a defense position, I still couldn't believe how his wingspan could be so huge.
I decided to hit him with some between the legs, when I saw him back up a little bit, I dribbled hard going towards the right when he bit I immediately pulled back giving me enough space to escape his huge wingspan to take a shot and make it.
I saw him smile, its my possession again since I scored, so I'm dribbling again and doing some between the legs and I followed it with a hesitation move and step back, faking a three when I saw him jumped, I dribbled towards the right and I was able to leave him behind for an open lay-up.
The score now is 2 - 0, "Yo! You got me again." John commented smiling and he gave me the ball again, "Check!" he said and now he tightened his defense, not letting me to even dribble the ball, I nudged him a bit to make some space.
I pulled back and dribbled the ball but he closed the distance and tightened his defense again, I was dribbling left to right and he still got me lock, I made a move, dribbling hard to the right then using my left hand to pull back the ball to shift its direction to the left because of the speed I was going to the right and he was stuck to me like a glue and then when I suddenly shifted my direction he was not able to stop his momentum when he tried following my movement making him slip and I was able to make an easy lay-up.
I picked up the ball and when I turned around I saw John with his mouth wide open and his eyes full of awe, he stood up and ran towards me, "That was... That was... SHAMMGOD!" he exclaimed, I looked at him confused, "Shamm-what?" I asked, "The move that you just did, it was one of the smoothest shammgods I ever seen." he replied, "Oh. You mean the move when I dribbled the ball towards the right then pull it back with my left hand?", "Yeah that one. It was the shammgod.", "It has a name? My mom always did that move and I could never managed to stop it." I replied, "Woah! Leave it to the First Valkyrie to make awesome moves." he answered, "That's real talent. just like you, Hiccup." he said.
We ended the game with the score 3 - 0, "I still couldn't beat you." he told me, "But you were far greater than before. you were faster and stronger. You're defense improved as well." I replied, "You think so" he asked, "Yeah. I'm sure we'll be able to make the team." I remarked and he smiled in reply.
At around 9 pm, I went home and I saw my dad chilling on the sofa watching something on the television. "I'm home." I told him and I went straight to the fridge, "Hungry?" I peeked out from inside the fridge , "Kinda." I replied while already biting a piece of bread.
I went up to my room carrying the food. After finishing the food I brought with me, I literally flopped down on my bed and slept like a log.
I woke next morning through my phone's alarm, I wiped away the drool dripping down the corner of my mouth and went straight to the bathroom.
I walked down and saw my mom preparing breakfast, "Mornin' Dad!" I greeted, "Oh! You're awake! Good timing I just finished breakfast, let's eat." my dad said and I sat down and started eating.
I finished eating and it was already 7:30 am, so hurriedly went out and ran towards the bus stop when I suddenly heard a shout from behind me, "Hey Hiccup! Wait up!" I turned around, "Hey Fishlegs." I greeted him and we both ran towards the bus stop and luckily the bus just arrived.
We were seated next to each other in the bus, "Are you free this afternoon after classes?" Fishlegs asked, "Yeah... I think so? Why?" I answered, "We'll go somewhere awesome." he replied grinning, the first thought that came into my head was "I hope it not something bad."
The day went by fast and I was out the door of the classroom when I saw Fishlegs standing in the middle of the hall waving at me so I walked towards him, "You ready?", "I guess.." I replied with no sign of excitement because I don't know where we were going and I just met him yesterday so I really don't know him that well yet.
We left school, "Uh... So where are we going?" I asked, "It's somewhere that you will really love." he replied with a huge smile on his face. We walked for about 30 minutes when I started hearing faint bouncing noises and shouts, the noises started becoming clearer and I can clearly hear basketballs bouncing, nets swishing, and trash-talking.
"Welcome to 'THE PIT'!" Fishlegs exclaimed and I was in utter shock, it was five full-courts and about a hundred people there.
"This is awesome." I said, " Are you ready to play?" he asked, "Always." I replied, we walked inside and there were so many people there that you can almost see every kind of basketball player there; the tall ones, the full-geared, the less-geared, the noisy ones, and the REAL BALLERS.
We sat on a bench and started changing, "So this is why you told me to bring a pair of basketball shoes and some basketball gears." I told Fishlegs while I was tying my shoelaces, "This is the place where you let your talents shine." he said as he stand from the bench and began to stretch.
"Where are we going to play?" I asked, "We need to head to the number 5 court." he replied, "Number 5? Why can't we play here at... number 2 court." I stated pointing at the label near the court, "Ahhh... It's like this... Newbies always play at the number 5 court and you move up based on your skills and talents and the number of wins so to reach the number 2 and number 1, you need to be insanely good." , "I see. It's kinda like levels or ranks.", "Yeah, like ranks." so we walked to the number 5 court where so there were many people standby.
We waited and watched almost 3 games before we can even step on the court, it was 5v5. I thought that we will play already but all the players faced each other and forked out money, I saw them pulling out $50s.
I look at Fishlegs and he pulled out a $50 so did I. We huddled up with our other teammates, "Uhm... What was the $50 for?" I asked Fishlegs, "Yeah... I forgot to tell you that here in 'THE PIT', everyone play for cash." he replied, I nodded because I understood that if money is involved, it is not simply a game anymore.
I familiarized myself to the faces of my other teammates, "I'm Hiccup." I introduced myself but they all just turned their back at me, "Don't mess this up for us." one of the guys said, "Don't mind them." Fishlegs patted me on the back, "No worries." I said as I follow them to the middle of the court, the game is about to start and since Fishlegs tower over everyone in our team, he's gonna jump for the ball.
The whistle was blown and the ball was thrown up. Fishlegs and the center of the other team battled for the ball but the other team got the first possession of the ball game.
"No worries." I told him as we set up on defense, their point guard got the ball so I moved back and I ended up guarding the point guard of the other team, he was dribbling the ball and smirked at me.
"Whose kid is this?" he said and the audience started laughing, he made a move; a quick crossover towards the right while pulling my jersey making me a few steps late to reach him and he pulled up for a jumper, and he scored.
He ran back and bumped me intentionally, "You can't guard me." he said but I didn't react.
It's our ball and our other three teammates were just passing to each other and was ignoring me and Fishlegs.
The ball was stolen, giving the other team an open lane to the hoop.
I didn't say anything and it's our possession again and they did the same thing.
One of them took a shot and it was nothing but air, they other team got the rebound and ran towards the other end and I chase the open man and contested it but he still got it in, "Too slow." he said and now we were behind by 6 points, I still didn't say anything and I just walked back to the other end when I heard someone called out to me.
"Hey! You handle the ball." my teammate passed me the ball, "Finally." I said in my head.
I was dribbling the ball, trying to look for open teammates when the other point guard started clapping his hand, it was like telling me that he can lock me up, "You think you can pass me?" he mocked so I pulled up from about 30 feet and looked at the ball as it was travelling in the air, I was still holding the follow-through and it swished, nothing but net and he looked at me and I just smiled at him.
Fishlegs ran towards me, "How far was that?", I just smiled and the game resumed, the point guard of the other team started talking smack again. He did a quick crossover to the left and tried stepping back but I got a hand on the ball and it escaped his grasp and I saw one of my teammates already at the other side, I took the ball with my left hand and threw it behind the back to his position for an open lay-up.