No Letting Go II

17

The next couple months fly by and it's almost that time for Riley's party. Her and Colin's birthday is on a Sunday, but the party will be on the Saturday before. In the past two months, she's opened up, made friends, as well as gained new teammates. It didn't take long for her to become a well known person around the school, and not because of her last name, but because of her skills on the court. Standing at 5'8 almost 5'9, handles and marksmanship like a Steph Curry, and just an overall high basketball IQ, she's been become a great addition to what was already a good basketball team. A team that's made playoffs the last 3 years, but they feel with her, they can go all the way.

She and Colin are in his film room watching her game film. Something always do on Monday and Thursday nights before game day which are Tuesdays and Fridays.

"Are we ready to watch how awesome I did in Tuesday's game?" She asks walking in.

"Uh, no. We're ready to watch what you can improve on, and trust me, there's a lot. I watched earlier."

"Oooohhkay."

"So, today's word of the day is..." He says going to the white board. He picks up a marker and writes defense. "Defense."

"Defense?"

"Yeah. Defense. As in, you need to play some."

"My defense is bomb, what are you talking about."

"Let's go to the tape shall we, and it doesn't lie."

"Okay." She sits back and crosses her arms.

"I think you'll like this. I put together a compilation video of all the times your man blew by you for a layup. Poor baby didn't make it and reward herself for your poor defense, but that's her problem." He says grabbing the remote control.

He rolls the video and it's every bad defensive play she could have had that game.

"How do you feel after watching that?"

"What is this, Dr. Phil?" She says with a little sarcasm and a little aggression.

"Be open to some criticism."

"Your idea of criticism is yelling at me during games. Telling coach to sit me when I don't do something right. You've been doing that for years. It's annoying."

"It motivates you, doesn't it?"

"Not really. Just makes me mad and makes me want to shut you up."

"So, it motivates you."

"Whatever."

"I'm still waiting on you to answer my initial question."

She sighs. "I guess I feel that I need to get better. Especially if I want to play at the next level."

Colin smiles. This had been the first she'd ever mentioned playing a sport in college. He didn't want to force it on her because she probably didn't want to. "That's right. You're a force to be reckoned with on offense, putting up numbers like 18 points 7 assists and 4 rebounds. Those were your stats for this game. But I want you to be an all around player Ry."

"And I will be daddy. I'll be Steph on offense, Kawhi on defense."

"You do that consistently, no ones gonna be able to mess with you."

They're in the filmroom for about 30 more minutes then Colin heads upstairs to see what the boys are up to. He walks into Aalijah's room and they're wrestling. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Aye! What's goin on in here." They both stop, and are out of breath.

"He started it." Nate says.