Second Down - Chapter 28

I hurried into the gym, rushing enough I nearly slipped on the recently polished floor on my way in. I’d told Li at lunch I didn’t think I could make it to the tryouts because I had practice at the same time it was going on.

I still made a try for it, asking coach if I could be late to practice so I could see my friend try out for the basketball team, explaining that I’d been helping her get ready for it and really wanted to support her. To my shock, coach had said yes, although in a very Coach Holloway kind of way, adding that I needed to hurry my ass back when the tryouts finished and put in double the work once I did.

I honestly hadn’t expected it, but I also wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Instead, I hustled my ass to the gym, hoping I didn’t miss anything.

Luckily they were still stretching and warming up when I got there. I climbed the bleachers, settling into a spot with a good view of the court. Li stood out among the other girls, not just because of her height, but something about the way she held herself, like she was trying to fold in on herself despite being nearly six-foot-four.

I’d seen her when she’d let her guard down a little bit, when we’d been practicing for tryouts, and she’d almost … grown. It also made it easy to see when she pulled back into her shell, trying to hide from everyone.

When she caught my eye, I flashed her a thumbs-up and my biggest grin. The tiny smile she sent back looked more like a nervous twitch, but I’d take it.

“Ladies!” the basketball coach yelled, waving them over to her. “Circle up!”

I couldn’t hear what she said to them, but she would say a bunch of stuff then point to one end of the court, clearly giving them instructions. After a couple of minutes of this, the group broke up into lines, apparently to do dribbling exercises.

Li’s first runs weren’t great. She was hesitant and that made her a lot less smooth than she’d normally be.

“You’ve got this, Li!” I shouted.

A few heads turned my direction, including the coach’s, but I didn’t care. Li needed to know someone was in her corner.

I’m not sure if it helped, or even if she heard me, but she did start to relax and do better as they drills continued.

The drills progressed to passing exercises. She did a lot better on these, including a particularly nice bounce pass through the two players assigned to block it that had the coach making a note on her clipboard.

The shooting drills came next. This was what we’d worked on most. She was really good with layups and close shots, but her mid range had been really weak. She started with layups, her long strides eating up the distance to the basket.

She made each one without a problem.

I got a little tense when they moved to the mid-range jumpers. Her first attempt clanked off the rim and I worried she’d let it get in her head. Instead, she looked up at me in the stands, took a deep breath, squared up, and released. The ball arced through the air and dropped straight through the hoop.

She made the third of her attempts too, bouncing it off the backboard and into the net.

The three point drills were really rough, and she missed all three, but I don’t think they’d hold that against her. She was a big body to put under the net, and wouldn’t be way out on the three point line much.

They ran through more drills – defensive slides, rebounding exercises, full-court sprints. Li wasn’t always the best, but she held her own, and was near the top on the ones she wasn’t the best at.

Then it was the moment of truth. The coach split them into teams for a scrimmage. Since everyone had to try out every year, she was up against people who’d been on the team last year.

Which meant Li was up against Taylor Stine, the senior who was on last year’s varsity team and played the spot Li was trying out for. She wasn’t nearly as tall as Li, only about six feet even, but she had a lot more experience than Li playing actual, organized games.

They lined up against each other for the tip-off. When the whistle blew and both girls jumped, Taylor got there first, tipping it to her point guard who took off down the court. A quick pass to the wing resulted in a jump shot that bounced off the rim.

Li grabbed the rebound but held the ball too long, letting two defenders collapse on her, one of whom grabbed the ball, resulting in a jump ball.

The next few minutes were rough. Li stayed close to the hoop on offense but kept her hands down, not really showing she wanted the ball.

In one play, the white team’s point guard drove toward the basket, drawing the defense before dishing it to Li in the post. Instead of going up strong like we’d practiced, Li immediately passed it back out.

I couldn’t take it anymore and jumped to my feet. “Come on Li! You’re bigger than them! Take the shot! Be aggressive!”

“Young man!” The coach yelled up at me. “Sit down and shut up during my tryouts!”

I dropped back onto the bleacher, but I didn’t care. I just wanted her to find her confidence. I knew if she could, she’d make the team for sure.

And she did. Or at least she started to. The next time down the court, Li planted herself deep in the post, both hands up, calling for the ball. When it came, she didn’t hesitate. One dribble, then a perfect drop-step move that left her defender behind. The ball rolled off her fingers and through the net.

“Yes!” I whispered, pumping my fist.

Blue team tried doubling her on their next possession, but Li spotted her teammate cutting to the basket. The pass threaded between defenders for an easy layup.

Then came the blocks. Two shots in a row, smashed the ball right out of the other player’s hand. The second one started a fast break that ended in another white team basket.

The blocks I think were what made her finally forget she was at a tryout and just start playing basketball. And it showed.

She started actually taking passes, using her size to box out the defenders and making some really good layups. She also started doing some good rebounding, especially on offense, taking missed shots and putting them back up for points.

The rest of the scrimmage belonged to Li. She scored three more times from the low post and had two more beautiful blocks, really using her size to push the other team around, including Taylor Stine.

I wasn’t sure how long they were going to go, since there wasn’t a scoreboard or clock or anything, but after one of her teammates launched a three that bounced off the board that Li then rebounded and put back up, the coach blew her whistle, ending the scrimmage.

I got up and started walking down the bleachers, since that was the end of the tryouts, but I looked back as they all gathered around the coach and saw a much more relaxed, happy Li looking back at me.

I gave her another thumbs up, and she grinned her big goofy grin that I recognized as her actual smile, and not the timid, tight-lipped one she’d give most of the time.

I couldn’t stay to see what else was going to happen since I didn’t want to make the coach regret giving me this chance, but I knew the scrimmage was the last part of the tryouts and they wouldn’t list the results for like a week.

I was glad I got to come see her though. She’d done amazing. I was really proud of her.

***

“Here, try this one.” I slid the pre-algebra worksheet closer to Melanie, tapping a finger on problem number four. “It’s all about isolating the variable, see?”

When Melanie had asked to come to my house to study, I’d envisioned a heavy makeout session. True, we’d only had a few fairly chaste kisses so far, but a boy could hope. I was honestly surprised when she pulled out her math textbook and sat down at the kitchen table.

She’d apparently really been struggling in school and said she was in danger of failing the class for this six-weeks, which would mean being benched for cheerleading.

Which she really didn’t want to happen.

I think Ms. White may have suggested to her to start getting tutoring, and I also think she suggested I do it, which was almost as big of a surprise as the no makeout session. Yes, I’d maintained all As so far and I was doing really well on the algebra stuff she’d been assigning me so I could skip that step and go right on to one of the other on-level maths for sophomores next year.

That didn’t mean I should be teaching anyone else math.

But I also didn’t want to let Melanie down. I really liked her and, while we weren’t official, we were starting to spend more and more time together. So how could I say no.

“But what about the negative sign? Doesn’t that mess everything up?”

When she leaned in to look at the problem, a strand of her golden hair came loose and fell on my arm. It tickled a little bit, and I hoped she never moved.

“Nah, just treat it like any other number. Move it to the other side, but remember to flip the sign. Positive becomes negative, negative becomes positive.”

I had to focus hard to keep myself on task as I pointed to each part of the equation, trying not to get distracted. She smelled like vanilla and cinnamon. It was nice.

“Oh, okay.” She bit her lip, then started writing. “So, like this?”

“Exactly.”

Mom had hovered for the first ten minutes that we’d been studying, I guess to see if we were up to any funny business, as if we’d start going at it right there on the kitchen table. Finally, after her fifteenth trip into the kitchen, she told me that she had a headache and was going to go lay down, and that me and my ‘friend’ weren’t to leave the kitchen.

I didn’t love the way she said friend, like I was nine again, and we were two kids just playing, instead of Melanie being the girl I was dating, but I knew better than to sass mom when she got her headaches. They gave her a short fuse, and I’d prefer not to get into some blowout fight with her with Melanie sitting here.

While she wrote, I caught a glimpse of motion in the doorway behind her. I expected Mom coming to check on us again, but Josh’s face appeared around the corner. He hovered there, no expression, just watching.

I guess Melanie felt me tense up, because she stopped writing and glanced back. She offered a polite smile, but he didn’t return it.

“Need something?” I asked.

Joshua didn’t move from the doorway. “Just getting some water.”

I said nothing else, waiting for him to leave. He held my gaze for a moment, then stepped to the sink and filled a glass. I think Melanie could feel the tension, because she shifted in her seat and pretended to go back to the problem, even though her pencil didn’t move an inch.

I exhaled once he was gone, but the mood felt off now.

“He always that friendly?”

“Pretty much,” I said, having absolutely no way to explain my brother was a psychopath in the making. “I try to ignore him.”

We returned to the pre-algebra worksheet. I guided her through the next question, reading it aloud. “If n is three more than half of m, and the sum of n and m is twenty-one…”

She dropped her pencil. “I’m lost already.”

I slid my notebook toward her so she could see the steps. “All we’re doing is turning that sentence into an equation.”

We went back and forth on it for a few minutes. Some of this stuff we’d covered weeks ago and even had a quiz on. I wasn’t trying to judge, but if she didn’t know any of it, then she must have really bombed the quiz, which would explain her low grades.

“I appreciate this. Really,” she said after we finished the problem, placing a hand on my arm.

I liked the feeling of her touch. Her hand was warm and soft. We’d only gotten one more problem in when I heard movement behind me again. I looked up to see Josh in the doorway again, glass in hand, although it was empty this time.

Melanie saw him too, and shot me an uneasy look. She had every right to be. He wasn’t even looking at me. He was just staring at her, barely blinking.

“What?” I said, meaning it to sound every bit as harsh as it did.

“Trying to find the remote.”

“Why would the remote be in the kitchen?”

“Who knows? You lose stuff here all the time.”

“Get lost.”

He scowled at me, but turned and left the room again.

“I can handle random weirdness,” she whispered, “but he’s creeping me out.”

“Ignore him. He’s doing it on purpose.”

“Okay, but if he stands there one more time, I’m calling him out.”

I didn’t know if I wanted to see that, or if it would be a bad idea.

“We’re almost done, right?” she asked, trying to make her voice sound lighter.

“Two more, then you’re free.”

She angled her body closer, resting an elbow on the table. I pointed out the next equation. She wrote down each step, biting her lower lip when she hesitated. It took her a couple of tries, but she got it right.

“That’s it,” I said. “You figured it out.”

She flashed a wide grin. “It’s a lot simpler with you showing me.”

“Blake, let your brother get into the kitchen,” Mom called from her room. “It’s his house too. I don’t have the energy for this.”

Of course, the little shit went and lied to mom. He almost certainly didn’t mention he was being a freak and staring at Melanie like a psycho.

Melanie looked at me and I just shook my head. There was no easy way to explain how screwed up our family was. Besides, I knew what was coming next.

Josh reappeared in the kitchen, setting his glass by the sink and then opening the fridge, rummaging through it. He found an apple and took it out, leaning against the kitchen counter while he slowly ate it, staring holes into Melanie’s back.

“Seriously, Josh, can’t you do that in your room?”

He took another loud bite. “I like it here.”

This wasn’t how I wanted the afternoon to go.

“You’re bothering us,” I said.

He didn’t budge. “I can go wherever I want in my own house.”

I guess Melanie had enough, because she finally turned to him and said, “Could you leave us alone, please?”

He ignored her and took another loud bite.

I got up and took a step toward him. He hurriedly backed away, but not too far, and yelled for mom.

“What did I say about noise, boys?”

“He won’t leave us alone to study. He’s just ….”

She cut me off. “Both of you settle down.”

I glared at Josh, trying to make it very clear I was within an inch of beating the shit out of him. He must have gotten the message because he finally left the room.

“We should probably do this at your house next time,” I said.

“Yes, please,” she said, shutting her textbook.

“No. Let’s at least finish this. We have the unit test next week and I want you to do well. If you couldn’t be on the field cheering, how can I possibly play well?”

That got a smile out of her. She bumped me and then opened her textbook again. We managed to get most of the problems done and were on the last one when I heard the old floorboards in the hall creaking. I didn’t need to guess who was out there.

I called out, “Josh, cut it out.”

Silence. Then his voice from the hallway: “I’m not doing anything.”

Melanie started gathering her things, shoving papers into her backpack a little too forcefully.

“I think I should probably get going,” she said. “My mom wants me home for dinner.”

It was barely five. I doubted that was true, but I wasn’t going to call her out on it. She was clearly uncomfortable, and who could blame her?

“Yeah, okay. Let me walk you out.”

This wasn’t how I’d pictured our study session ending.

I followed her down the hall, pointedly not looking at Josh, who’d relocated to the top of the stairs.

“I’m sorry about him.”

“It’s fine,” she said, although her tone said otherwise. “He just … made me feel uncomfortable.”

“I know. I get it.” I reached out, touching her arm lightly. “I’ll deal with him.”

“No. Just… let it go, okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed reluctantly.

She gave me a small, forced smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

I opened the door for her, and she stepped out onto the porch. As she turned to leave, I noticed Josh in the hallway again. he was just standing there, watching us. I saw Melanie shudder.

“Bye,” she said quickly, practically running down the steps.

I watched her go and felt almost sick to my stomach, thinking I’d just screwed up whatever chance we had. When she was out of sight, I closed the door and turned to face him.

I think he could see the look in my eye, because he turned and ran upstairs, slamming his room door closed. Part of me wanted to just go up there and beat the shit out of him, but I’d just be in trouble again, even when he was doing everything he could to instigate a fight.

What I did know was there was no way I could bring her back here again.