In Every Bird.

Chapter 10: Secrets

It's Friday night, and while football season ended before Cole could play again, he's also on the basketball team.
Tonight's theme is Sparta, since that's the mascot of Michigan state. One of our biggest rivals due to them being apart of our city.

There are spears, shields, belts, helmets, anything you can think of, they're wearing it.
Em and I have on white skirts with white tops and headbands on over our curled hair.

Cole is number 8 in basketball and he's a point gaurd, it's near the end of the last half and it's 65-67 with Michigan State being ahead.

Cole is on the side lines as his team calls their last timeout.
He sprays water into his mouth with his Gatorade bottle and runs his hands through his hair.
His coach then looks at him and he nods his head after saying whatever it is he said.
The timer buzzes and the teams walk back onto the court.

The ball is states, and they're up for a free throw.
They make it in and go again.

Miss.

Our team rebounds the ball and runs down the court.
They pass it to Cole and he passes it to another player who shoots it from the three line and misses.
Cole runs up and gets the rebound, barely beating a different player.
He runs to the sides and the guy he just passed it to is open again so he passes it.
The guy aims and shoots, missing again.
Cole runs up again and grabs the ball, again barely beating someone else.
He repeats his steps and the same guy is open again, he pretends to pass it to him then shoots from the three and makes it.

"68 to 68. Sometimes you just have to do it yourself." The commentator says on TV.

"There we go there we go." Graham says watching from home.

The team takes it back to their side of the court and Cole is booking it after the player he's supposed to be guarding.
The player is passed the ball and Cole is still down a couple of feet.
The player goes to do a layup but Cole comes out of no where, putting his hand on the ball and slamming it to the back board making it fall back down away from the hoop.
Our student section starts to scream and the other team gets the ball again.
They are passing it every which was and eventually get up in the paint and make it in.
68-70
The ball is ours and they start running down the court, they're passing the ball trying to confuse the others and that's when they come to a standstill.
Cole is running freely around our side of the court and is then passed the ball as he gets away from his guard.
That's when he runs up to the hoop and jumps up, dunking the ball.
Our section goes crazy again.
It's now tied 70-70.

The game goes on for about ten more minutes due to some timeouts and an injury,
but Michigan state has not had another score.
Meanwhile we're at 82 now with 15 seconds left.
That's when one of our players knocks over the opposing teams player while they were trying to shoot at the three line and so they get two free throws.
The player makes both of them getting the score to 82-72.
Our team wasn't able to call another huddle but Cole gets the hint.
He fights for the rebound and gets it.
He runs down to our side, kinda of moving around to milk the clock, and once it's at 3 seconds left he runs up and again dunks it ontop of another player.
The buzzer blares and our school shouts in victory.

After Cole is off the court we head to his house.
He showers quickly then comes in and snuggles with me.
"You did so good tonight." I say.

"Thank you, I'm not proud of the score but it's okay." He says.

"How'd your arm feel?" I ask considering that was his first game back.