Basketball is Not Life

Chapter Seven

College felt a lot like high school as far as classes went. The whole day was filled with syllabus and rules. Only one of my classes had an assignment, and that was from my creative writing class. It made me regret signing up for that class a little bit. One of the Michigan State players that had been at Parker's house the day before slid into the desk next to me; he studied me for a moment.

"Hey, you are the Ringer?" He loomed over me even while sitting down. I knew he was one of the posts, his height gave that away, but I could not remember his name. I shake my head yes at him. "Larry," he introduced himself, what an unfortunate name.

"Hi, Larry."

"Are you on the girls' basketball team?"

"Nope. Just a hobby" At one point, it was more than a hobby; I was like Parker; just wanting to get the damn ball through the hoop every single time I had shot it. It was like a drug when the ball sailed through, getting that swoosh just right.

"Yeah, it's just a hobby for me too," Larry smirked; I swear they took classes after practice on how to execute the world's cockiest smile. "Marshall is still mad; he got shown up by you. He just wanted you to play so he could get extra minutes with you and to show off. Not for you to embarrass him."

"Like I want to be on his radar."

Larry is full-on grinning now, his eyes looking at a girl sitting across the way. "Well, if you didn't want to be, you sure are now. I think half of the guys wanted to get your number yesterday, and the other half were mad for showing him up."

"And which category were you in?"

The girl across from us had long black hair that went past her shoulders. "You are not my type, but any girl that can play with us is cool with me."

"Cool."

"I'll catch you later," he said, getting out of his chair and sitting next to the girl he had been eyeing. Part of me was relieved, so I would no longer have to talk to him. Larry was friendly enough, and he may just be my favorite from the players who had come over to the house yesterday. He had a down to earth feel about him. I watched as the girl started typing her number into Larry's phone. Whatever he said must have been funny; she was laughing at whatever he had said.

I had made one friend, my last class of the day. Daisy, we were in speech together, and the first speech would be a partner speech to get our feet wet, the professor had said. He was the fastest at going through his syllabus and rules. He then handed out our first assignment that would be due the following week.

Daisy sat two seats in front of me. She wore a yellow sundress and had short blonde hair; she looked like a southern belle. She turned around and smiled at me, she pointed at herself and then me, and I shook my head yes, glad I would not be left alone.

"Will you be my first partner?" She asked officially after walking over to my desk and sliding in next to me.

"I would love to." I had found out that she was from Michigan and was only coming here because her parents would help if she stayed in the state. If she went out of state, she was pretty much dead to them, her words. She attracted a lot of attention. We had walked out of the classroom, and she had already had one admirer come up and ask her number. She, of course, said yes and entered it into his phone.

"Why did you do that?" I asked horrified.

"Gave him my number?" She raised her eyebrows. "I'm single, and he's hot." She said of the guy who was walking away and had heard what she said. He turned back and smiled, and she smiled back, he had his phone out, and my stomach was sick when I heard Daisy's phone ding with a text a few seconds later.