My Shot

Chapter 2

Who Is She? Izaak's POV

"Izaak, what are you still doing in the bed?! School starts back today remember!" 

I open my drowsy brown eyes to my mom yelling at me from my bedroom door.

"Hurry up and get ready so you won't be late!" She exclaims and closes the door again.

I roll over on my side and reach for my phone. As soon as it lit up I noted the time on my phone.

7:30 A.M.

"Damn, school starts at 8." I whisper to myself while rubbing my eyes.

I do not like my new school. I like my old school in Pasadena better and I can't wait to go back once my dad fights to have custody over me.

I rarely get to be with my mom because I am always at school, basketball practice, or hanging out with the crew.  

I take a quick shower and put on my new school's basketball hoodie and sweatpants along with my new Jordans. After I put on my chain that my dad bought me, I hop in my grey Dodge Charger.

On my way to school I thought about something different. What would my life be like without basketball? 

Honestly, I don't ever think about that because my life is always centered around basketball. My dad taught me how to play basketball when I was just three years old. He was a part of a community basketball team and he would take me to his basketball games. 

"One day you'll be great like your daddy!" He would always say to me. 

 Once I make it to school, I know I'm late because nobody is in the hallways. At this school, if your late you have to go check into the office first. They fill out some paperwork saying you made it but was late and then they turn it into the counselor.

This is not my first time being late since I got to this school. These hoes count  30 seconds past 8 as late.

Trust me I know they do.

"Good morning, Izaak late again," the front office lady says looking at me from out of her glasses.

I don't even know her name.

"Yeaaa," I say then looking on her desk while I wait for her to fill out the slip that excuses me for being late.

This why I don't understand this school. Why the fuck does it matter if I'm late? I made it, shit.

After she hands me the slip, I walk to my health class that Coach Clayton made the counselor put me in. He said I needed the class because all basketball players are required to take it to graduate. Something about he teaches valuable information for young kids like me.

I knock on the door and come face to face with Coach Clayton and the whole class looking at me. I focus on Coach, and he looks at me with a disappointed look.

He looks me up and down in the Lions basketball team sweatpants and hoodie. 

"Let's try to make it to school on time before the end of the season, so I don't have to bench you for being a delinquent," he says with a father look.

My teammates all go "oooh" in the background. I look at them and brush them off.

"Aye coach, at least I made it. I didn't even want to come today." I say to him with a shrug.

I don't care about anything he just said. He wouldn't bench me unless he lost his mind.

As I walk in, I see some of my teammates I'm close with like Trey and Kordell. I also see Trey's girlfriend Imani and then the neighborhood hoe Destiny.

She not too bad looking, but the one in front of her is cuter.

I decided to sit next to the cute girl because she seems interesting.

"As I was saying- one of our first assignments will be peer interviews. I'll need y'all to partner up when it gets closer to that time. Well, that's all I had to say, y'all can do whatever until the bell rings," Coach says and sits down at his desk looking up stuff on his phone.

Valuable information huh?

"Ayo, my nigga Izaak. Wassgood?" Trey says while reaching up in front of his gf Maya to try and dap me up.

I return the dap. Trey is a good homeboy.

Trey is one of the first dudes I met when I got here. I was at practice and he saw I was new and showed me the ropes. He taught me who to stay away from, who to fuck around with, and who to trust. It's niggas like him that I had back at home. We was family and took care of each other. Trey is like a brother to me and I know my dad would love to meet him. 

"Nothing much man, shii I'm tryna get my ass to school on time" I reply and slightly turn back to notice the unfamiliar girl sitting beside me. 

"You in the class now?" He asks me. 

I nod "Yea, the counselor said I needed to take this class if I want to graduate this year." 

As I'm interacting with Trey, I see Destiny looking at me from the corner of her eye watching the interaction and her homegirls gawking-well except for Maya.

I decide to introduce myself to them since I never really conversated with them before. 

"Hey ladies, my name is Izaak with a z , two a's, and a k at the end," I say and smile. I notice Maya has her phone out and she's typing, but she stops typing once she hears me speaking. 

A few minutes later, I see Destiny and homegirl Imani phones light up. Destiny, whom I know of but haven't met yet spoke to me first.

"Hi Izaak. I'm Destiny.." She says and then pushes the girl gently in front of her.

I've already heard a lot about Destiny. Plenty of dudes have said they use to mess with her and she is hard to handle. I don't know if she has just been heartbroken or what, but they talk about her like she's the plague. 

The cute girl next to me smiles and says "I'm Maya". She does a quick wave at me and types some stuff in her phone. For a brief moment I think "maybe they are talking about you in the group chat".

Girls do too much sometimes. If you wanna talk to me then just say that. You don't have to do  all of that crushing stuff.

Kordell starts to lean back in his desk messing with Maya a bit by having his head on her desk.

I can see that Maya is ignoring him to continue whatever conversation she's having on her phone.

Kordell hasn't spoken to me since I got into the room. Of course we are teammates, but I'm just not that close to Kordell. We are close to the point that we hang out a lot with Trey around, but talking outside of school is not a normal thing for us two. He's not that good of a ball player either if I'm just being honest.

Last week in practice he got mad with Coach because he missed five free throws in our 4x4 and coach told him if he didn't improve then he would be benched by the first game.  

I hope he doesn't like this Maya girl, not that I would care if he did. 

"Aye Imani," I say as I turn around.

Trey eyes me but not in a mean obsessive way. He trusts me not to be tryna talk game to his girl in front of him.

Imani looks up from her phone and says "hm..?"

I lean in and whisper "Is Maya single?"

She starts smiling and whispers back "Yep, why?"

"Just asking," I say smirking and she returns the smirking with a happy smile looking back at the phone. I see Imani typing and all of their little friend group starts smiling and looking at each other.

I pull out my phone because I have no clue what could be making them smile this much.

I read the text that my mom sent for me.

Come straight home, we have something to discuss.

Shit.