Slam Dunk

Chapter 2

After a brief introduction to the class, to my pleasure, we have P.E. class. As soon as the bell rings I dart up out of my seat and rush out of the door. As I'm exiting the classroom, someone rams me hard in the shoulder, I whip around, but the culprit this time wasn't a bully. I turn to face him.

"Sss-sorry," the kid mutters.

I shrug it off, "Your fine."

He flashes me a smile, then turns away. Before he is too far. I ask him his name. Kyle, he replies normally, but still in a shaky voice. I nod, and race down to the Gym.

The Gym is enormous, way bigger than my old one. And I glance around, noticing all of the Gym supplies in the corner. I smile when I see a basketball. As soon as I dress into my gym uniform, I Sprint to the basketball, but the bully gets there first. I reach it, but am quickly shoved back. I turn to the bullies, in an expression murderous.

"Newbie, tryin to take the basketball," he mocks.

He then darts away to go make a lay-up, but does not notice me in pursue. As he goes up, I leap over and stuff him. All around us I hear different collaborations of "wow", and "he's good" he whips around, but punches me hard in the mouth. I quickly taste blood, and back away.

"You scared?," he growls, his voice crazy.

I rear back and kick him hard in the gut, he stumbles backwards, clearly exasperated. He knows it, he is humiliated and torn. But to my surprise, he's not finished. He screams running my way, punching me continuously. He scream, but his malice is strong. I collapse to the floor. I'm done, it's over. As P.E. actually begins I nurse to my mouth, and black eye, and grunt. He hasn't got the best of me yet.

At lunch, I find a seat near Kyle. We both converse about sports, and statistics. At least one person is nice. He quickly notices my bent physical shape and checks if I'm completely  okay, I nod. As both of us finish our lunches, I quickly ask if he could, you know, hang out after school. He quickly accepts, beaming at me. I manage to smile back, barely.

As recess clears up, school is over. We ride the bus. And at my house (Kyle already have texted his mom) we walk. I find myself, genuinely laughing, a sound not heard by my own ears in a long time. Also to my surprise, he loves basketball. When we arrive, at the home. We dump our packs in the grass, and Sprint to my hoop. At first we just kinda shoot around, but as I warm up to him we play one-on-one basketball. I can't believe I'm saying this but I laughed more than I had at Mrs. Tootisky' s name. After dark, I walk him home. We say our manly goodbyes and I turn to walk back to my house. I can't help smiling, even though I wince at the state of my mouth. I guess other than being beat up be a (some cuss word that will not be said due to my Christian side). Life is good, very surprisingly good!