Once a Dog Always a Dog!

Chapter 17

  The car that my agent had taken me to and from the club was the best thing in the world, because by the time I left the club at three in the morning I was in no shape to drive. And what was worst was that by the time I got home I was feeling sick as a dog, but I couldn't go to sleep because I knew that I had to be back up at six that morning so that me and Derrick could go to the airport for our trip to the basketball tournament in Orlando. After taking Alka Seltzer and eating a ton of oranges, I dragged myself into the shower and stayed there for about a half hour. I really felt like shit. Hangover didn't do me any justice in explaining how bad I felt. But as I walked into my room and gathered clothes to bring with me on the trip, I knew that laying down on my bed even for just a second would be the worst thing in the world for me to do. My cell phone started to vibrate and I didn't even have the energy to walk over to the phone, but I eventually answered it. "Hey, just checking to see if you were up," Meagan said on the other end. "Thank you. Yeah, I'm up. I'm getting ready now," I said, trying my hardest to mask any of the hangover effects. "Kha'Darious, I am so excited. And you know, I never told you this, but I have never even been to Disney World," she said. 

She was sounding way too cheery and way too chipper, especially since I had the worst pounding headache in the world. We spoke on the phone for a little while longer and before we hung up I confirmed everything with Meagan and told her that I would see her when I got to the airport. I had purchased a round-trip plane ticket for her so that she would be on the same plane with me and Derrick and the rest of the team, but I made sure that she wasn't seated next to us. I also booked her hotel room in the same resort that we were staying at, only we were on the fifth floor and she would be staying on the sixth floor. My plan was to keep Meagan away from Derrick as well as away from any of the other parents of the kids who were on his team. And being that she was only going to be one sleeping one floor above me, I was planning on going to her room when Derrick went to sleep and also when we took the kids to Disney World I was gonna make it where Meagan would be there already and then I would just bump into her as if it were a coincidence. Since Cheyenne couldn't make it down to Orlando, I didn't want Derrick to see me with any other females because I was really worried about the message that I was sending to him. I mean, as fucked up as I was I didn't want Derrick to grow up and be even remotely like me. As time was flying by, Cheyenne called me and told me that Derrick was up and dressed and ready to go and that she would be at my apartment in twenty minutes to take us to the airport, being that I couldn't drive. 

When Cheyenne arrived I got in the car, trying my hardest to be as normal as possible and not let on to my hangover. "Hey, what's up, superstar?" I said to Derrick, who was dressed in full LeBron James gear. "You supposed to call me MVP," he said, correcting me. "Derrick, what did I tell you about that?" Cheyenne said as she turned down the radio. "I know, Mom, but I'm just doing what we learned in Sunday school. They said that we can speak things into existence and since I wanna win the MVP at the tournament, I'm speaking it into existence." I looked at Cheyenne and all I could do was smile. And at the same time I wished that I was as focused on God as my eleven year old son was. "You okay?" Cheyenne asked. "Yeah. I'm good. Just real tired. But I'll sleep on the plane, so it's okay." "Well, they don't have any games or anything today, do they?" Cheyenne asked. "Nah, today and tonight is a free time for them. So we'll probably hang out in the hotel until about three o'clock and then we'll take them to the amusement parks. This way it's not just about basketball and then tomorrow they have their semifinal  game, and if they win, then the next day they'll play for the championship," I explained. 

Derrick then spoke up and he said that his coach told the team that the past MVPs of that tournament all ended up in Sports Illustrated and that they were ranked in the top twenty five sixth graders in the country. "You know, Kha'Darious, see, this is a little crazy! Why are they ranking kids in the sixth grade? Why don't they just let them play the game and have fun? This is exactly how these athletes get so spoiled and walk around like the world owes them something. It's because of being told that they're all of that from the time they can walk." "It is what it is." I replied. "But there's also gonna be college scouts there." "For sixth graders?" Cheyenne said with a laugh. Cheyenne really didn't understand just how good Derrick was. He was playing for an AAU team called Riverside. And he wasn't just on the team, he was one of the stars of the team. So with Riverside's history of producing some of the greatest players to ever come out of New York City, Derrick was pretty much a shoo in to get a basketball scholarship in six years. We finally arrived at the airport and Cheyenne pulled to the curb. She got out of the car and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then she hugged Derrick real tight. And even with the crazy hangover that I was feeling, it didn't prevent me from feeling real nostalgic like the three of us were a family again.