knocked me down

chapter four

nash POV

Game day is never particularly breezy. Especially when it's the first game of the season — which is exactly what today is. It's almost 10 in the morning and our house is already buzzing, all four of us excited about basketball starting up again. I'm extra excited because I got picked to be captain for both this and next year. Today we're versing the Daperdon University Diamonds, so we're not that worried about losing. It's not that their team is bad, our team is just better.

"Game day, boys!" I hear Owen call out as he comes crashing down the stairs. He's the late sleeper of the group; Kody and I wake up first, then Jadyn and we have about an hour of peace before Owen turns up downstairs. "How we feeling about the rookies?" Kody asks as he scarfs down his cereal and I glance up at him from opposite the kitchen island. "I'm not too worried about them. Luckily our first game is against Daperdon cause if it was Park Ridge we'd be fucked." I spoke with confidence but I'm not lying about either of those things. The rookies that will be debuting today mix quite well with the rest of our boys. And Park Ridge has a damn good team — one that we will be preparing to beat in Round 4.

The game doesn't start until 2pm but as a team we get to the arena around 12:30. We don't normally do much in the hours before we have to leave, which calms most of our nerves if we have any. We're collectively sitting on the couch as Jadyn flicks through Netflix, finding something to watch. "Remember that chick that was looking for her friend at the party the other night?" Owens voice breaks into the silence of the room, everyone turning their heads to look at him. "Yeah, the hot brunette. What about her?" Kody speaks while he scrolls through his phone. "She's Lewis' daughter." Owen announces gaining our full attention.

"I'm not weird-" He holds his hands up in defence. "-her pictures are in his office." I turn my head away from him and think about what our coaches office looks like. I do remember there being photo frames on his desk but I never paid attention to who was in them. "I've never seen her at games or even talking to Coach." Jadyn states from the opposite side of me. I haven't seen her either, I'd remember if I had. Eventually we find a show to watch but we only get through one and half episodes because when I glance down at my phone in my lap, the time reads, 12:15pm. "Shit. We gotta go. Grab your stuff." I say as we all push ourselves off the couches to grab our bags from our rooms.

I pick up my keys and force my friends out the door. Everyone sits in their regular seats of the car — Jadyn and Kody in the backseat, Owen in passenger and me, driving. I'm the designated driver as everyone else refuses to do it. Plus, whenever I get in the car with one of them, I almost have a heart attack from the amount of near misses. We travel down the road, making turns towards campus. Our home arena is just behind the school, making it convenient for us. It doesn't take long to get there and in all honesty, we could've walked. I pull into a park, only a couple spots away from Coaches. We all climb out of Jeep and begin walking into the huge arena. I enter last and most of the team is already here and practicing. Coach Lewis is talking to a couple of the sophomores when he spots us.

"Connors. Get over here!" I hear him call out. I throw my bag over my shoulder as I walk over to him. One on one conversations with Coach are either about something amazing or something terrible, and judging by the expression on his face I'm guessing it's not good. "Everything okay, Coach?" I ask and only get a blunt look in response when he pulls me further away from the boys. It's definitely not good. "I'm telling you this because I trust you, Nash, but you can't tell any of the other boys. Got it?" Oh shit. I nod cautiously, wanting to know what's going on as soon as possible. "Carlton is being transferred to Kelvin after this game." All emotion is pulled from my face. James Carlton — our team's manager, as in the person that organises and knows every little detail about everything — is transferring. He's been the manager for the Bulls for as long as I've known. I mean he was the manager when my brother, Bennett, went here.