Basketball is Not Life

Chapter Nineteen

It was Thanksgiving, and the team was just finishing eating. The whole house goes silent. Every guy on the first floor stopped to stare at who had just stepped through the front door of the house. Most of them were still shoving leftover turkey into their faces and stopped to stare. Parker is next to my side, frozen.

"Renee," My father said, looking around the full house of Michigan State players.

"Dad," I said, watching his face. The sight he was seeing was a little weird. I was the only girl in the kitchen. The only girl in the house, actually, the rest of the people were Michigan State's basketball players. Where was Daisy when I needed her?

Parker's eyes look as if I had betrayed him.

"Parker Baer," my father said, his voice booming. It was his coaching voice, the voice I had heard so many times before.

"Parker is my roommate. I'm renting a room from Parker's family." I had yet to tell my parents that I was sharing a house with a guy. That guy being Michigan State's starting point guard. The point guard that played and shot the last winning three at the buzzer-beater against Duke, my father's team, in last year's March Madness tournament. Michigan State beat Duke out to get to the Elite Eight and then fell to Pittsburgh, a team that had come out of nowhere. That was the beauty of March Madness no matter what; even an underdog could persevere.

"That was a heck of a winning game shot," my father, Coach Renner, said to Parker, all of us recalling last year's play. It ran on ESPN sports center over and over.

"Thank you," Parker said, unsure of what to do.

My dad turned back to me. "Your mom and I are checking into the hotel. We made dinner reservations to surprise you for Thanksgiving. I will text you the address." He leaves, letting me wonder how mad he really was at me.

It was one thing to not go to Duke, but it was a whole other thing to live with the enemy. But I had no clue it was Parker when I signed up for the house. I had plenty of time to let him and my mother know the truth, and I never did.

The players erupt as soon as my father leaves. All of them looked at me suspiciously. "Coach Renner is your father?" Parker repeats to me, slower this time and more emotion in his voice. I had started climbing the stairs to find a different outfit to wear to supper with my parents. It had been nice having a few days off and being able to wear sweats. It was too comfortable, and now I would have to change and go out in the cold. It was also the fact that I didn't want to leave the festivities for the soon-to-be awkward dinner I was about to have. Parker slipped by me and got to the top of the stairs. I pushed past him and walked into my room.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He is standing in the doorway, watching me.

"Tell you what? That my dad is Coach Renner. He won 16 ACC Championships, been to 14 Final Fours, and won five NCAA tournament National Championships? That his team lost out to you in the Sweet Sixteen matchup last year. That I sat behind his bench as you threw that buzzer-beater shot up from the corner of the three. The one I have watched you practice most mornings. That's the sum of everything you need to know about my dad; I just told you everything that he cares about."

"Ren."

He stepped in further to my room, and I walked into the walk-in closet and locked it to get changed.

It was foolish of me that I had thought I could have kept my past from him a secret. He would look at me like everyone else did at Duke. Coach Renner's daughter. The daughter of one of the greatest college basketball coaches, and he was still coaching. What more could he add to his resume. And here at Michigan State, in this basketball house, it obviously mattered.