When star athlete, DeAndre Parker clashes with a tough no-nonsense female classmate, he quickly learns that unlike basketball, there's no playin' hard in the game of love.
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TWO MONTHS AND TWENTY-SEVEN DAYS LATER
The first day back to school always made me nervous, but this was different. I'd been gone all summer and would be seeing some of my friends for the first time in months. Not Tremaine and Chris, I'd seen them over the summer when Chris and his parents had come down for vacation and brought Tremaine along. Together we'd hung out at the beach and explored all that Fort Lauderdale had to offer. My grandparents were a little curious of our friendship, especially when Tremaine and Chris acted like, well, Tremaine and Chris.
Both of my mother's parents were loving people, though. They were big on hugs and kisses and asking about my day. I'd gotten a job at their local bakery while I was down there and worked most mornings. Grandma Bessie liked buying my pies just to support me and Grandpa Heath was big into fishing. He was more of the type to catch and release, unless he caught a big fish, then he'd take it home and grill it for us. He told me scoring Grandma Bessie was a lot like fishing, once he fell in love with her he knew he couldn't release her. He told me that was what real love was like, or at least dating, it was a big game of fishing, catching people and releasing them when they weren't exactly the right fit.
Together my grandparents told me all kinds of stories about their past and how they fell in love. They were destined, as far as my grandmother knew. Grandpa Heath had been shy and nervous, while my grandmother had been all stuck-up and bougie. She was all diamonds and pearls and my grandfather hadn't that much money when they were young. Somehow he got her walls down and they fell in love and he proposed with a sandwich tie—she still had it. My grandfather managed to get a good paying job and my grandmother took to bearing him children, my mother and my two aunts. They hadn't the perfect marriage, times were hard, but they fought with all that they had and they were still standing.
I admired that about my grandparents. They'd lost a daughter and nearly a granddaughter as well but they still managed to stand by each other. I looked at them and wondered if real love like that still existed. If people were willing to put that much amount of work into a relationship and fight for each other and truly hold each other down. My heart ached with doubt.
Together we were a unique trio, but I loved every minute of it. In July things got even crazier when my two aunts came down to visit. My mother's sisters, Tami and Karen, reminded me of Loraine 2.0. They took me shopping and to the salon where everyone deemed my big textured hair as a no-no. They styled it to their liking and dressed me as a lady. I was just happy to be bonding with more women from my family.
I rarely danced, and I was okay with that. With each day being spent with my family, I didn't feel the need to dance. It almost felt like there'd been a void my whole life and it was now filled.
The stories about my mother and the video footage I'd seen of her dancing was what made the decision easier for me to put dancing in a real perspective. My mother was elegant and poised, beautiful and charismatic—and I looked just like her.
