The Niche

Bad News, Good Guy

The match was in full swing and our school was leading with two points. Only fifteen minutes of game was left and the crowd was on their feet to cheer the teams.

Kabir had the ball in his hands and was sprinting towards the basket with Tushar in his heel, he ducked passed the opponent and kept running to score the basket when the opponent took the ball from his hand in a swift motion and with that Cathedral became quiet.

Everything became slow and the opponent ran with the ball towards the basket, he passed the ball to another player and that player scored a basket for St.Francis.

The opposite side enthralled and was cheering and shouting again.

We were at tie.

Anything could happen; last ten minutes were left when some turbulence was seen on the court. One of the players from our team fell to the ground face first and was limping his way outside the court.

On the closer look we discover it was Kabir.

This was not an ideal situation.

I looked at Vedika who looked beyond worried and was biting her nails like she always does.

Everyone was quiet, hands to their mouth the crowd was looking tensed. When the extra player ran to the court this player was none other than Dhruv.

How come?

Dhruv played a lot of basketball when he was young but he was too egoistic to have coach order him around. How can he be in the school team, the tension of the game was enough to have my heart beat fast but this...this made my heart explode. I looked at the girls and shared the same expression...surprise.

Dhruv ran to the court but the crowd didn't cheered, they had no faith in him he was never present for the practice or never took the PE class seriously, I am not even sure if he can spell 'basketball' correctly. Everyone was rolling their eyes.

I heard a person say "I can play better than him" to which I snapped "why don't you then?" Why did I just say that? My god!

He was jogging on the spot when most of the crowd slumped back on the chair thinking the game was out of the hands. Kabir was injured and Tushar was tired.

But I had faith in him, I believed in Dhruv. I knew that he can win this game. Remembering all the childish games we played and how many basketball tricks he thought me I shouted "you can do it Dhruv" not caring about the spectators.

But I realized mine was the only voice which was heard and people were looking at me including Dhruv.

He stopped his jogging and looked at me stunned. He eyed me for a while and then smiled his popular million dollar smile.

I blushed and looked down at my feet.

The whistle blew and the game started and all the attention was shifted to the game, my heart was beating fast with the hearts of every Cathedralite.

The ball was currently with Tushar who was running towards the basket and passing every opponent in between. He ran as fast as he could but an opponent barricaded him, he tried going through but was topped by another player who tried to take the ball from his hands.

He looked around to find some co-player, but he found none. Turning around he found Dhruv waiting by, he looked determined to make this school win this game but Tushar didn't give the ball to him and pushed a player instead.

The whistle blew again to mark a foul and the team was made to go the opposite side of the court.

The tension was palpable in the room and everyone was standing and looking really concern.