Keshav Shylesh - 8IG-A - 2018-19

The evening sun had started to set. Everyone had left the classroom and all the chairs were put up on the desks. Joey walked out of the room, back hunched to carry the weight of his bag. He ran the way home. He opened the door and dropped his bag in his room. When he turned around, he looked gloomily towards the couch where his mother was sleeping.

“Mum?” he called out but he got no reply. He ran out the door treading across the carpet that lined the floor. He continued running, once he shut the front door behind him, across the road to the basketball court opposite his house. He heard the sound of a basketball hitting the hoop; as he inched closer, the sound got much clearer.

“Hey! Over here!” a voice came from the direction of the basketball court.

“Hey Drew” Joey said as he ran towards Drew.

An hour later, Joey came back to the house, drenched in sweat: out of breath. He opened the front door and entered the dark living room and walked to his room.

The next day, after school, Joey had just managed to get through the day. He stuffed a piece of paper--his report card-- into the depths of his bag; piled under the English and Science books. The uninterested look made it evident that he didn’t care.

Joey walked to his home carrying his bag, which weighed about the weight of a brick elephant.

He reached out to grab his door, as he reached the front door. He suddenly stopped as he saw an unusual figure walking towards him. The figure stumbled from right to left. “A drunk man…” he thought. “That can only mean--”

“Hey Joey!” said the figure “I’m back early!”

Joey was about to run as his dad reached out into his bag. “Hmm… The school said that a report card was sent. Oh! Found it!” A wave of fear spread across Joey’s face to face his da-- no. A reincarnation of the devil. His dad’s face was as red as blood . His hair parted as if to reveal a pair of horns. He cursed at Joey. His head started heating up. He couldn’t hear a thing. His legs moved on their own: they started running away. Tears started dropping from is face as it started to rain. “You vermin! Don’t set foot in this house ever again!” those were the last words Joey heard as he disappeared from sight.

Joey just realized what had happened. He had run away from home-- and had been kicked out as well. “Great! Now i don’t have anywhere to go!” he thought aloud. “What do you mean?” said a voice from behind. Joey turned around to face Drew. Joey had known Drew for 3 years now. He was in 9th when Joey was in 5th grade. Joey told his situation to his 17 year old friend. “Hmmm… I might be able to do something about that.” he said.

“Really! You’ll talk to my dad?”

“Well no. I thought that you could stay over at my house.”

Joey had met Drew one day 3 years ago. Joey was walking around school, and he kept staring at the basketball court. All the older kids were taking up one side of the court where they were aggressively tackling and running around. On the other court, the 5th graders-- Joey’s grade-- were playing. Joey was usually excluded from everything. Everyone talked down to him because he was skinny and small. “Hey. You wanna play?” a boy asked. He had came from the side where the 9th graders were playing. “Who are you?” Joey asked.       

“I’m Drew. What’s your name?”

Ever since then, Drew had been playing basketball with Joey and teaching him everything about it.

Joey had stayed at Drew’s house for a while: around a week. Joey was about to meet Drew at the basketball court. Joey walked to the court. Unusually he couldn’t hear any basketballs. He looked both sides and crossed the road. He reached to court to find no one there. He waited for hours. He gave up and started playing basketball.

Joey walked back and forth, still waiting. “I’ll go and check at his house.” he thought as he ran toi Drew’s house. He knocked on the door multiple times, but no one came out. “Hey who’s a knockin’?”a funny voice came. An old woman dame from the side of the house. “You looking for the lad who used to live ‘ere?” she asked. Joey nodded his head. “Don’cha know that he left for another city for some job or som--” she continued as Joey interrupted her “WHAT?!” he cried as his body crumpled down, head in arms. He curled into a ball and lay there for a minute or two. He helped himself up and ran back to school.

When Joey reached school, he didn’t know what to do. He walked slowly, to the basketball court. It was already evening and the sun was setting. “Hey Joey!” a voice a voice exclaimed “What are you doing here?” Joey turned back to face hisa class together . “Hey Mr. Lewis.” He replied in a down voice. “What happened? Why’re you here at school?”

“Well…’ Joey said as he explained to his teacher. “Just try going home. I’m sure he’s forgiven you by now.” Mr. Lewis encouraged. “Just go and see.”

Joey entered his house. The living room was still dark. His mom silently stared at him from the couch in the living room. He entered his room and moved his hand to the switchboard to switch the lights on. He sighed. “That man’s not here...” he thought. The next day Joey walked to school. As he entered his classroom, Mr Lewis asked Joey “So, how did it go?”

“Fine. He was not in the house. Like usual.” he replied. He went and put his bag down next to his seat and sat down.

School was over. Joey had stayed back to study. “You studying?” a voice said from behind. He looked back to see Mr. Lewis. “Ya.” Joey replied unenthusiastically.  “The selection for the basketball team is coming up right?”

“Mmhmm...” Joey muttered under his breath

The next day, Joey stayed back again, however he wasn’t studying. The selections for the basketball team had started; Joey had waited since 5th grade to be part of the team, ever since he had been learning from Drew. “Okay… Let’s get started” the teacher said. “So, we’ll have a match between two teams the best people in the match will be in the team.” the teacher segregated the kids into two different teams. The teacher held the ball up in the middle of the court while the teams huddled into their sides of the court. “Okat start!” the teacher shouted as he threw the ball into the air while the two teams jumped to get the ball.

Soon after Joey was running all over the court. He grabbed the ball and ran to the opponents’ basket. He jumped and pushed the ball out of his hand. The ball had just gone through as the teacher said “Stop! The match is over. The results will be posted at the notice board tomorrow.” The next day, the first thing Joey did was run to the notice board. He saw the list posted, and skimmed through the list. His eyes lit up as he saw his name, 7th on the list. He read the line written below: “The first match is on next Saturday”  and he got excited.

Joey’s exams had just started. Since he had been chosen for the basketball team, a huge weight had been taken off his chest. He spent the next week leading up to his exams, studying and practicing for his exam. A few days later he had to do his exams. He was really nervous his dad wouldn’t let him go for the match if he didn’t get good marks. He finished his exams and headed home.

The day after that, Joey headed home after a tiring day at school. He knew that the results were sent to parents today, he was ready for the worst.

“Hey!” Joey’s dad yelled across the living room, as soon as Joey opened the door. The lights were on and the room was cleaned up. He looked up from the floor and saw his dad, not drunk for once, standing near the couch where his mom was lying down . He slowly walked towards them preparing for anything. His head was racing with thoughts. “Is he mad at me?” “Did I do well?” “Am I a goner?” “Did I fail?”  That last thought stuck with him as he reached the couch. “I-I’m sorry” He heard his dad say quietly. Joey looked up to face him as he said “You got a good score . You can go to the game.”

Joey was nervous. His heart was racing at unbelievable speeds. The basketball team members had started to warm up to him, after tons of practice matches. The bus ride was fairly quiet. Everyone got off the school bus and entered Harrison High. The team was lead to the Basketball court . The court was massive. The seating for the spectators stretched across the length of the massive court. Joey stepped into the changing room, along with everyone else, to get ready, for the game in half an hour.

It was time for the game Joey and the team warmed up and get to the stands. He was chosen to play the first quarter. The match started with a jumpball. “Hey pass here I’m free!” Joey yelled as the captain jumped and slapped the ball towards him. “I can do it” “I can do it” he thought as he jumped to catch the ball and started running towards the basket. His feet slammed on the ground as he sprinted, bouncing the ball away from him. As he saw the basket, he jumped thrusting his hand forward. He landed back on his feet as he saw the ball falling into the hands of the opponent. This continued like this every time Joey’s team got the ball, the opponent stole it and scored a basket.

“No!” Joey said as he ran towards his team’s basket to block the ball to not let them get another point. But he was too late. Just as they scored a basket, the referee called “Time!” Joey fell on his back and looked up. I heard a mixture of cheering, screaming and howls of defeat.

Joey reached home to see his dad home early, once again, and his mom in the kitchen. Joey stepped outside to see if he was in the right house. I double checked and saw that i was. He walked in and went to his room he dropped his bag in the room. He was disappointed that his team lost the match. He walked out of his room into the living room and saw some papers on the couch. He walked towards them curiously, and saw his name written there and an ‘A’  next to that. He read a comment next to the grade “Good job Joey! I knew you could do it. -Mr. Lewis”  His eyes lit up as he read that and went through all the papers: He had not only got into the team of the one sport that had always been a part of his life, but he had gotten better at studies.