Faith Around the Hoop

Chapter 1

Calista Irish M. Lowell, daughter of Doctor Skyler Peter Lowell and Attorney Aimee Claire Marquez-Lowell. With that you might assume there is a lot of pressure set on me. Yes there's a lot, but not from my parents but from my grandparents. They aren't vocal about it but I can feel it. My parents were kind of chill and cool. 

"Cali!" Stacey called. "Ang gwapo ng pinsan mo kahapon sa laro!" She said. My cousin from my dad side is a basketball player of La Salle. Stacey is my friend since we were little. Our parents were close also. I introduced her to my cousin almost two months ago during one of his games and ever since she didn't stop talking about him.

"I want to eat my lunch in peace and not talk about my cousin." I said and focused on my food. It was our break right now and the last thing I wanted was to talk about my cousin. I was getting annoyed since I almost hear his name everyday from her.

"Your dad studied here, right?" She asked.

"Yes, he did." I simply answered. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to study here,  since my dad told me a lot of stories about UST. 

"We should ask advice from him. Hindi 'yung nagpapakahirap tayo rito." She said. It's not that we were having a hard time pero parang gano'n na nga. It was hard studying, lalo na pre med palang kami. I don't even know why I chose to follow the footsteps of my dad. Maybe because I grew up with him in that field and everyone telling me how nice it is to save lives. It was scary to place the lives of people in your hands well I'll tell you that. 

I kind of basically got scammed by every people I knew who told me that. I was fine with it though. I saw my dad work so many times and I admire what he does.

My mom on the other hand, as said, is a lawyer and with the amount of times her life was in danger, I don't want to put my life in that situation. I grew up with my parent sometimes fighting about it and I understood why they fought. Dad didn't want anything happening to mom, mom didn't want to stop fighting for justice. Mom loved the thrill of stepping into a courtroom almost everyday, but she also said she wasn't into the idea of me or my brother doing the same work she does, I mean she's fine if I wanted it but also not because she doesn't want anything bad to happen to me. Of course my brother grew up like her and wanted to be a lawyer like her.

"I don't want to." I said. I wanted to figure things out on my own. Having a dad that is famous in the field, it is hard to create a name for yourself specially when all they see is your family name.

"Fine, just set me up on a date with your cousin." She said wanting to make a deal out of it. I glared at her.

"You have my cousin's number, ask him out. You also know my dad's social media accounts, message him also for advice." I seriously said. I took the last bite of my sandwich and stood up, Stacey on the other hand followed me.

"Come on! Reto mo na ko sa cousin mo!" She said whining. She was persistent with it.

"I know I'm close with him but I can't just tell him to date you." I said. That would be weird. What will I tell my cousin? 'Hey my friend likes you, do you mind dating her?'

Sakto naman sa pangungulit niya, my cousin started calling. I looked at Stacey and she was telling me to answer the call. I rolled my eyes at her.