Mif

THE GRENADE

'Welcome to the balmy evening one and everyone here for The Grenade Cup against the two fiercely powerful teams of the state, The Legendary Shires...' the crowd oohed, '..and the Sans Cavaliers', the crowd aahed rhythmically to the electronic music played in the background and the commentators enthusiasm. Every individual shrill pierced into my body like a real ice ripping me apart. I stood at the corridor with my teammates, not knowing whether to cherish or flee. 'We'd like to thank all our sponsors on behalf of the Grenade society and the YMCA garden for this warm and calories burning environment..',the other commentator giggled,'..and the game conducted to raise money for the Grenade Cancer Endures Club. On behalf of them, we welcome everyone here and wish a blissful evening'. There was a collective gasps and claps among the crowd.

I counted the number of happy faces I was going to disappoint now.

Rohan patted my back, 'you're ready, bud?'.

I saw the spirit in his eyes and convinced myself for dumping Sameera last night, for one I've invited her today to watch me play and she might come anyway to watch Nikhil play today as she was dating him already. She wasn't mad at me for calling off the movie rather super excited when I told her that Rohan wanted me to play for the Cavaliers.

'You're kidding, aren't you?', She jumped.

'No, I'm playing the Short Forward instead of Gokul' I sighed.

She stared at me slack-jawed.

I explained her how my Courtyard played down the Cavaliers last night. We won by eight or nine points as predicted because one of our members Karthick Shiva- well, he once was a globetrotter and he was young enough that he can still dunk. Game over.

But today was going to be different. We didn't have Karthick; only Rohan and I could dunk.

My foot trembled at the icy court floor as I watched the hundreds of people surrounding us. Rohan chuckled when he heard a group of people cried out Rohan Rohan.. He was still patting my back and I came back to reality.

'Yeah, I'm alright', it was an automated lie. I could have stayed back at home with my FL Studio and composed some vexatious tracks or read some books. I felt like I didn't belong here. The crowd and the lights were nauseating. I looked at the massive crowd, bulkier than that YMCA usually attracted. I had so many people to disappoint now. I felt obnoxious and detestable of myself for having chosen my choices this way.

We took our positions after a sparkling handshake with the gigantic Shires. The Shires captain, whose name I used to know and forgot just two seconds ago, after watching his ferocious face, my hands trembled as I shook with him and he smiled slyly as if he was seeing the last sheep to be ripped off. I was not ready for the game yet.. my first star-studded experience.

I turned to see the group of girls at the first row shouting out Rohan were Shaafz, Sameera, Karishma, Terina and a few faded and just-now forgotten names. I'd called Miya and she promised that she'd come to watch me play. She was at the top row, probably didn't want to spend too much money for the bottom row to watch me play and to her right was my mom. Good thing was that, she could not see me losing the ball in high clarity, so I could later turn the blame on some corporeal objects. That way I could save too many insults. They cheered at me, I was too frozen to react.

'....let the fire lit', the commentators snapped.

This was a game that was still a dream to hundreds of other basketball players. I had to play, there was no running away. I made up my mind to it.

The crowd cheered as the referee blew the starting whistle.

Shires possessed the ball while their captain Loki, I finally got his name, whizzed past the division line. The crowd roared and besides that I could hear Rohan snarl. He called out my name and involuntarily my hands were raised to block Loki, but he was undeniable. He outjumped me on the opening tip and scored the game's first basket on a shot from the top of the key. The crowd roared with full enthusiasm and the Shires cheered.