It's In the Dark

Chapter 5: Locker Room Fun?: Brandon

That was crazy don't you think" I said, throwing my towel across my shoulder.

"Yeah man, running us that hard the day before a game." replied Josh.

"No, dummy, I meant the thing with Ciara, not to mention the thing with Riley," I sighed "maybe you could call one a dream, but what about the other? Is it possible for two people to have life-like dreams like that?"

"Well yeah," said Josh, "if one person says it, and then another goes to sleep thinking about it, they'd definitely, probably dream about it."

"Maybe you're right," I said flopping down on my bed, "but what about the scratch on Riley's neck? And Ciara's leg... that's not a dream, and no regular accident could cause her leg to need bandaging like that. Courtney said she almost died man... Idk, it's just strange."

"You're right, it is crazy, but there's no sense in killing your brain about it right now. There's nothing you can do- besides, what you should be thinking about is Seaside High and how we're gonna kill them tomorrow. You might wanna work on that jumper too." Josh joked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I laughed as I launched a pillow at his head, let's get some sleep." I crawled into my bed as he laid down on the fold out couch that I had in my room. I turned over and gazed at the wall. It sucked thinking that something was harassing my friends, dreaming or not, and I couldn't do anything about it. To see Courtney crying like that. "Dammit" I said quietly to myself, dozing off to sleep not long after that.

"Yeahh. Game day, game day!" Josh cheered. He was way too hyped this morning. "Dude, you just woke up, I mean, wash your face first." I thought to myself. I was pumped too but let me wake my brain up first before you start yelling. We got dressed and walked to the bus stop. Josh and I live about two stops apart. Usually, I'd get on the bus first, and then two stops later he would join me. The next stop is the school, so most days we arrive together. He's like the brother I never told my parents I wanted. We decided to be early today, "players late on game day don't get to play." A rhyme our coach made up trying to be funny, but he meant it. On game day, all players must wear a white button-down shirt with a navy-blue tie to represent our school colors. It makes it obvious who's on the team, and everyone loves it. I don't want to brag, but I'm kind of a celebrity these days. I'm only on the freshmen team, but we have a great record, and I'm "The Ace". I hadn't given myself the name, but everyone tends to call me that when they see me in the hall or whatever, so it just stuck. I don't really care for all the attention, but I definitely can't say that I hate the recognition.

We arrived at school and were immediately greeted when we walked onto the grounds. Lots of "Good luck tonight's" and high fives all around. The prior stress that had been on my mind the night before had melted away and was replaced by the love of my peers. "This is nice." I thought to myself. I looked over my shoulder and Josh was following behind me, soaking in the praise and grinning like an idiot. I sighed and let out a laugh. After a small stroll, we finally made it to the classroom. Classes continued normally for us players. The game was going to be right after school. It was going to be held in our gym today, so players didn't need to leave class too early to make a trip. We did, however, get out an hour sooner than usual, to go change into our basketball uniforms and warm up. Admittedly, after all the love we had gotten that day, I was pumped. I was ready to meet the expectations that the whole school had for me. "I think I'll drop at least 20 today." I said smiling to myself. "Talking to yourself bro?" Josh said, interrupting my thoughts. "Yeah. I said I'm dropping twenty!" I shouted this time, imitating a quick crossover move and jump shot. A few of my teammates turned to look in our direction, and one imitated the sound of the net swishing as my jumper landed. "Oorah!" called out another. Followed by the monstrous uproar of the rest of our teammates repeating the same, including me... Yeah, we're definitely going to win this one.