Haley's P.O.V.
Summer had come and gone, but it was now time for us to go back to school. At the beginning of every school year, there is a one-on-one basketball tournament that is held for the students. Trent, who has won for the last five years, is competing against Leo. Yes, you read that correctly. Leo Dooley.
The only reason Leo signed up was because Janelle is hosting it, and she told Leo that she loves basketball. Leo is like in love with her, so he would do anything to try to impress her. That's all he's been talking about since he found Chase and I in the lab.
"And no matter what I do, Trent always makes me look like a fool in front of Janelle." Leo was saying as he told us about how Trent picked on him in front of Janelle today.
"Well, he does get a little help from you in that area." Chase pointed out, which was honestly kind of true.
"Ha Ha Ha." Leo laughed sarcastically at him, "How awesome would it be if I beat him in that basketball tournament?"
That's when I started to laugh at Leo's joke. When I saw him and Chase just staring at me, I stopped laughing quickly and said, "Oh, you're not kidding."
"If I beat him in that tournament, it would really impress her." Leo finished. Chase suddenly jumped up and had his annoying 'I have an idea' look.
"Wait a second." Chase said excitedly. He looked like he was about to jump out of his seat.
"Oh, you just turned on the Chase 'I'm smarter than you and I have a big idea' lightbulb face." Leo said excitedly with a big smile and Chase looked pretty proud of himself.
"By the way, it's not your best look. It kind of makes people want to punch you in the face." I added. Chase glared at me before telling us his idea and leading us towards the bench in the lab.
"Davenport has been working on antigravity hightop sneakers for astronaut training. Maybe the sneakers will up your game with a few gravity defying slam dunks." Chase said as he picked up a very large pair of blue hightops from the bench. These things looked way too big for Leo's baby feet.
"Chase, not to play the obvious card, but there's no way my compact kickers are going to fit into those shoe canoes." Leo said to him.
"Just put them on."
Leo sighed as he sat down on the bench and put on the large pair of shoes. They were still for a moment before shrinking into Leo's foot size. Our eyes widened in amazement.
"Woah! Oh yeah baby!" Leo said as he walked around in the cool sneakers. He jumped up and he went at least ten feet high when he jumped. Once he came back to the ground, he said, "Say hello to Air Leo!"
"Now it's time for the real test." Chase said to him.
The next thing I know, Chase and Leo were playing one-on-one basketball while I sat on the stool and watched them. Chase dribbled the ball, but Leo stole it from him. I'm pretty sure Chase let him though. Leo jumped up and over to the elevator. He pressed his foot off of the elevator and jumped over to the hoop. He slam-dunked the ball like it was nothing.
"Yes!" He cheered excitedly, "Did you see that? I don't need these shoes. That was all me. Watch."
Chase handed him the ball again and he came over to stand next to me. Leo took of his shoes and backed up towards the basket. He threw the ball up in the air, but he ended up completely missing and falling on the ground. Chase and I started laughing at him as he looked up at us from the floor.
"Okay, it was the shoes." He admitted.
———
The next day, Leo was ready to sign up for the tournament. I told Leo that Chase and I would be his number one cheerleaders there for him, but let's just say Chase heard me and took it a little too seriously. He showed up at school with a bullhorn, and he was giving Leo a grand entrance into the school.
"Ladies and gentleman! If I may have your attention, I present to you the soon to be champion of the one-on-one basketball tourney, Dunkin' Leo Dooley! Aaaahhhhh!" Chase said as he pretended to scream through the bullhorn. I walked over and pulled him out of the middle of the crowd with an eye roll. Leo ran into the school with a black and gold robe on that said the words 'Dunkin' Dooley' on the back.
"Will assist, flick a wrist, win the game and pump a fist!" He said to the crowd and ran over to Trent, "You think you'll go down smoothly? Well you've never played a champ like Dooley! Yes, that just happened!"
Believe it or not, the crowd started to cheer for him and Trent became flustered. Trent said, "Oh yeah? Well, I'm the dude who's going to... somebody give me some words that rhyme!"
When Leo, Chase, and I walked over to Janelle, she asked, "Leo, what are you doing?"
"He is signing up for the Hoopa-Palooza." Chase said and started to speak through the bullhorn, "Don't miss the event of the school year, where Trent will be destroyed by a scrawny, underdog one sixteenth his size!"
My hand flew up to high five Chase. As we high fived, I laughed and said, "That was actually a pretty good one."
"Laying it on a little thick, aren't ya?" Leo asked Chase, and Chase just shrugged his shoulders.
Leo signed his name up on the sign up sheets, but Janelle quickly erased it.
"Hey! I want to sign up! I can play ball!" Leo said.
"He can play ball!" Chase said through the bullhorn.
"I've been practicing!" Leo said to Janelle.
"He has been practicing!" Chase yelled through the bullhorn again. I looked over and glared at him because it really was getting annoying.
"Miracles do happen." Leo pointed out to Janelle.
"Miracles do hap-" Chase started to say, but I ripped the bullhorn out of his hands before he could say another word. He gave me a sad look before looking over at Leo and Janelle.
Leo wrote his name down again on the sheet, but Janelle quickly erased it. He tried writing it down for a third time, but she erased it right after he wrote it.
"Stop it!" Leo said to her.
"Yeah, stop it!" Trent said as he walked over to us, "I want to play!"
"Fine. Trent, I guess you finally have an opponent. Leo." Janelle said when she finally gave in to putting Leo down for the tourney. Trent walked over to Leo, and he got so close to him, they were pretty much chest to chest. Trent's chin practically rested on Leo's head.
"I'll see you on the court, and try not to be so short. Just rhymed!" He yelled happily and high-fived a random stranger before walking away.
"Leo, you don't have to do this." Janelle said to him.
"I don't have to do a lot of things, Janelle." Leo said to her, even though I had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
"I don't know what that means." She said.
"Neither do I." He admitted.
"Hey, can I keep this for the day? I need it so I can scare people in my way." I said to Chase. He gave me a weird look.
"We need that bullhorn for the tourney!" He said to me.
"Relax, I'll let you have it during the tourney. And I will let you use it when we go to the mall and observe the weird people." I said to him and he smiled.
"You got yourself a deal."
———
Later on that day, Leo was getting ready for the tourney. I stayed with him while Chase went to the boys locker room to get the antigravity sneakers. When I saw Chase run inside the gym with no shoes, I knew that something was up. I grabbed Leo and ran over to him quickly.
"Where are the shoes?" I asked him.
"Trent stole the sneakers while I was in the locker room!" He said. He pointed over at Trent, who was now wearing the antigravity shoes. Leo's eyes widened massively.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Leo started to freak out.
"Alright, calm down. Let's look at the bright side of this." I said to him.
"What's the bright side?" He asked me.
"He is going to kick your butt much faster now!" I pointed out to him. Chase smacked my arm, and I glared at him.
"Trent is wearing my sneakers. What am I supposed to do?" Leo asked us.
Chase grabbed his arms and said, "Run. Run far, far away. Cry like a baby and hope for sympathy. Fake a cramp!"
"Is that all you've got? Where's the unattractive lightbulb face when we need it?" Leo asked him. As if on cue, Chase's unattractive lightbulb face came back.
"I'll be right back. Stall." He said to Leo and he turned to me, "Save me a seat and don't lose my bullhorn!"
He ran out of the gym quickly. I wished Leo good luck before walking over to the sidelines. I used the bullhorn to yell at some people to move so I could get a good seat. When the game started, Trent made a basket in the first two seconds while Leo just stood there. Leo looked at me before doing the first thing he could come up with.
"Ow! Charley-horse!" Leo said as he pretended to fake a cramp in his right leg.
"Oh, what a faker! Walk it off!" Trent said to him.
"Ow! Double Charley-horse!" Leo said as he now pretended to have a cramp in both of his legs. I rolled my eyes and placed my head in my hands.
This was going to be a long tourney.
———
By the time the first game ended, Trent had smoked Leo. He didn't even get a single point, and Trent was really kicking his butt with the antigravity shoes on. Chase still wasn't back yet, and I was getting very annoyed with him because he left me here by himself. Trent was now being obnoxious and yelling around the gym about how he won the first round. Finally, Chase ran back into the gym and Leo and I stormed over to him.
"Where have you been? I tried stalling, but I ran out of injuries to fake!" Leo said to him.
"And I got stuck sitting next to the guy who picks his nose during chemistry! Since you weren't here, you could suffer for me and sit next to him!" I exclaimed. He gave me a weird look before pulling out two green glowing devices that looked like a pair of drumsticks.
"The compound in the sneakers is highly susceptible to electron beams so I ran home got these electron beam generators from the lab." Chase said.
"So in the English language, you're saying those will mess up the shoes?" I asked him and he nodded his head at me with a grin.
"Say hello to attract and repel. I'll make Trent dance like a puppet! If I were less mature, I'd evil laugh." Chase said, but a moment later, he started doing a creepy, evil laugh. Leo and I gave him weird looks.
The second game was about to start so Leo had to go back out on the court. Chase and I ran over by the doors and I stood behind him as he got the generators ready. While Chase was turning on the devices, Trent jumped all the way from the three point line and made a slam dunk. He was the only one who cheered for himself.
"I'm even greater than I thought!" He was yelling at the crowd.
"Got it!" Chase said to me.
He held up the devices and began to swing them around. All of a sudden, Trent dropped the ball and he started to dance like crazy. Chase and I laughed quietly to ourselves as Trent looked very confused about what was going on. That gave Leo the opportunity to pick up the ball to shoot it, but he missed. Trent ran over and picked up the ball again, but before he could take another shot, Chase made me start line dancing. Now everyone was laughing at Trent.
"What is this?!" He exclaimed as he watched his dancing feet.
"Hey! You're not a cheerleader! Quit stealing our boom pow!" Adam yelled from the crowd.
"Hey! Stop laughing at me!" Trent yelled starting to get angry as he began to spin around like a ballerina. Chase and I continued to laugh as he made Trent dance, but we were laughing so hard, we didn't even notice Janelle walk up to us.
"What are you two doing?" She asked angrily and Chase quickly stopped.
"We are... cheering." Chase said to her. I grabbed the bullhorn and yelled, "Go Leo!"
She rolled her eyes at us and walked back out to the court. Trent was now taking off the shoes and he said, "I want my old shoes back!"
He ran out of the gym, and Janelle walked out to the court. She said, "Okay, since Trent left the court, I guess game two goes to Leo."
We all started clapping for him because we didn't actually think he would win one of the games without the shoes, even though the only reason he won was because Trent walked off the court.
"That's right! Me! Leo! Winner! Small's the new fall y'all!" He yelled from the middle of the court.
When it was time for the cheerleaders to perform, Chase, Leo, and I sat on one of the bleachers until the next game started. They ran out and I automatically rolled my eyes. I hated cheerleaders with a passion. To my disgust, they did their stupid dynamite cheer, but once they were done, Adam and Bree ran out onto the court. They did a much better cheer than the cheerleaders did, but at the end of it, Adam shot his fist up in the air, and a plasma grenade flew out of his hand. It hit the ceiling and some pieces of it hit the gym floor. Chase, Leo, and I looked at them with wide eyes.
Bree turned to the cheerleaders and said, "That's right! Special effects! When we say boom, we mean BOOM!"
"Yeah, and when we say brunch, we mean a delicious combination of breakfast and lunch!" Adam said to them, even though that had nothing to do with anything. But with Adam, I don't think anyone is surprised anymore.
Janelle walked over to Chase, Leo, and I with the antigravity shoes behind her back. She asked, "Did you have anything to do with our little display with dancing of the jocks?"
"What makes you think that I would be responsible for giving Trent his comeuppance for always picking on smaller, smarter, cuter people?" Leo asked her.
"Yeah, not Leo." I said to her.
"Nope." Chase said. That's when he started doing his evil laugh again. I slapped him in the chest so he would stop it.
"You're right. It's crazy to think the guy with the inventor dad and genius brother would somehow use electron beams to manipulate Trent's shoes so you'd win." Janelle said sarcastically as she pulled out the shoes from behind her back.
I leaned over to Chase and muttered, "She is good." And he nodded his head in agreement.
"Don't be ridiculous." Leo said to her.
She dropped the shoes and the flew straight through the ceiling. I cleared my throat and muttered, "Woah, who knew shoes could bounce so high?"
"Good luck buddy!" Chase patted Leo's back as he saw him staring up at the ceiling where his shoes went.
"Leo, do you know why I can't stand Trent? Because all he does is make people look bad, and now you're doing the exact same thing." Janelle said to him. She walked away from him, and Chase and I stood up and walked over to Leo.
"Well, I guess there's only one thing left to do." Leo said to us.
"Yeah, I agree." Chase said to him.
"Get out there and lose fair and square." Leo said, and I honestly agreed with him. If he wanted to impress Janelle, that's what he had to do.
"What? No! That's a terrible idea! I was going to say slip out the back door!" Chase said to him. Leo rolled his eyes and walked out to the court.
"Wow, you're idea must've been terrible because we didn't see that unattractive lightbulb face." I said to him.
"Enough with the unattractive lightbulb face!" He said to me, getting aggravated.
I laughed and said, "Come on. Let's go sit with Adam and Bree."
We walked across the court quickly and found two spots open next to Adam and Bree. Leo and Trent at the middle of the court, and Janelle held the ball in her hand.
"Okay, let's finish this thing. And this time, you're getting the real Leo." Leo said to Janelle.
She smiled at him before handing Trent the ball. She blew the whistle and the game began. Throughout the whole game, Trent continued to make shots like it was nothing. Leo was trying as hard as he could though. Everyone would groan when Trent would make a basket. The only one impressed with him was himself. When Trent made his tenth basket, Leo rolled his eyes and Trent did some weird dance. He didn't even need the shoes to do that dance.
"Come on, Leo! Don't give up!" Janelle cheered for him. He gave her a look before she started to chant, "Leo! Leo! Leo!"
We all joined in chanting Leo's name with her. Leo got a smile back on his face, and got ready to play. Trent dribbled the ball, but Leo managed to snag the ball from Trent. We all started to cheer like crazy, and Leo turned around to take a shot. Leo faked a shot so Trent would jump up and fall to the ground. When Trent hit the ground, Leo shot the basketball. I grabbed onto Bree's arm as we watched the ball fly through the air in anticipation. The ball hit the backboard and the rim, but it fell straight into the basket! We all stood up quickly and started cheering for him. Leo actually scored a point!
"Yes! I did it! I scored a point! That was nothing but net!" Leo said to us and we all gave him weird looks, "And rim and backboard, but it went in!"
When Leo wasn't looking, Trent grabbed the ball and scored the last point he needed to win. I rolled my eyes when Trent started being his obnoxious self.
"Yes! Winner! Right here! I'll be signing foreheads in the hallway!" Trent yelled as he ran out of the gym. Janelle ran over to Leo.
"Leo, you may have lost, but that shot was awesome! And you did it on your own. Without any gimmicks or gadgets." She said to him.
"Nope. I just relied on the other G. Greatness!" He said as he placed his hands on his hips. Janelle rolled her eyes with a smile and walked away.
"Good job, Leo! Why don't we all go get ice cream to celebrate?" I asked everyone.
"That's a good idea! My body needs time to recover from doing all of that physical exercise." Leo said to us and we gave him weird looks.
"Leo, no offense, but you were pretty much just chasing Trent around on the court the whole time." Bree said to him.
"Did you see that shot?! It took a lot out of me!" He said.
We all just laughed and walked out of the gym together.