Chapter 3, The Basketball Game

We arrived at the school, I followed Liv in, but then lost sight of her. Awkwardly, I stood looking around at the school, and searching for any sign of where they all went. While I looked around I was amazed at the large, beautiful school. Jenny’s father, who had driven us to the school, came in and saw me. “Are you lost?” He said, I bit down a laugh, ‘Was it that obvious?’ I thought to myself, it must’ve been. “Oh yeah, I was following Liv an-“ He cut me off as he guided me towards the basketball court. Once more, I hardly moved as I stood out of place with a coat and bag in a basketball court. I was scared, shy, and excited. I was to shy to move from where I was though. Later on, after a game of shooting hoops with some classmates, Jenny’s father, who I had guessed was a coach, was now suggesting a full court game. Wearing that confused look that hadn’t started to wear off when I arrived, I timidly walked towards the court. I watched as the girls there laughed, and got along so well. I knew with some time I wouldn’t be so shy anymore, but it bothered me how long it took to warm up to these people. The first round started, I walked on the sidelines, not really pushing myself to get in and help. I figured Zerilan had it under control, he was quite good at it, and I was scared I would mess up if I joined. Suddenly, one of the girls dad’s came out of nowhere and joined the game. Until later on, would I learn that he was a P.E. Teacher there. Second round. This was it, I had already spent enough time shying away, I had to stop being a wimp and get into the game. So I did, I ran fast, the P.E. Teacher passed the ball to me, I threw it in. Score. I heard applause behind me but the sound of my heart racing blurred it out, I ran across the court, trying to get the ball, failed. Determined to not loose, the ball was passed back to me, and once more, score. I won’t go into to much detail, but I did shoot it the wrong way once. I laughed it off, and went on. Later that day, after the basketball game, I stayed in Liv’s house and we played video games, and made pizza. Her older sister and her younger sister, invited me to there bible study group. I was very tired, and I wanted to rest, but I went on anyway. As I arrived there, a lady who scared me at the time, but turned out to be very kind, came over to greet this new stranger to her house. “Hi! I’m Mrs. Ginny! Your father is taking my job.” Not knowing what else to say, after this confusing greeting, I smiled and took my shoes off. “Oh, let me get that coat for you.” I handed her my coat, after clumsy taking out my pink iPod nano. Bowing my head, and smiling, “Thank you.” I whispered. I sat on the couch beside Liv, since she was the only soul I knew so far. Waiting for the praise and worship songs to begin, I felt as if I was being ignored, I was getting used to that, I put in my headphones, and stared at the wall, scanning the room from time to time. Liv talked to me once, “Hey do you know any good songs?” She said in that slow soft voice she had. “Oh! Yes, ’Like a Match’ by Toby Mac.” I watched her type it in, and listen to it, “Do you have the full album yet?” I asked, re-calling a song I heard while having dinner with her family. “Not yet.” She replied. That was all that I could say before her friend started to call her name, I sat there again, sighing. Suddenly Zerilan plopped on the seat of the couch beside me. I felt like I was burning up, but I told myself to stop. “Hey Ziah!” He said in that up-beat, odd sounding, yet captivating voice he had. I turned to look at him, not in the eyes, for fear of blushing. “Hi…” I said, trying to contain all flirty-ness to myself. “Good job on the basketball game-“ I spoke, a bit louder this time, “Thank you.” I said trying to not smile to much. “I thought you wouldn’t make the shot, but you did, and that was amazing.” He nodded, in a manner as if he was talking to himself, about me. Unable to trust myself to speak, I lowered my head slightly, and smiled.