The Streetballers

The Streetballers

By

Joey Hubbard

3/9/06

Has there ever been a time in your life when you were so good at something but you never got a chance to show it; if so then this is the kind of story you should read. My name is Josh Myers and this story is about how I, my best friend Benny Jones, and several of my other friends worked together to show our entire school how great we were at the game of basketball. It was the best time that not only changed my life but many others as well, including my own friends and parents.

It all started about a month and a half ago before summer started. Benny and I were hanging out at Chippewa Park on a Friday afternoon shooting hoops. We were anxious and excited because that was the day when our school was going to put up the roster showing who made our high school basketball team which was called the Cobras. As I bounced the ball, I checked my watch and it read 1:00 so I said to Benny, "It's already 1:00 so we'd better head back to school and check the roster to see if we made the team." Benny replied, "Okay but I wouldn't get our hopes up because after all this is the third time we're trying out and might be the third time we don't make the team." As much as I hated to admit it, Benny was right because this was the third time we tried out for the team and the last two times we did not make it but I still don't know the reason why.

We started to walk back to school and were shortly joined by my sister Cynthia, my cousin Veronica, and two of our fellow classmates, Ronny Thomas and Johnny Vennaro. We all walked into the school and checked out the roster but our names were nowhere to be seen, not my name or Benny or even Johnny and Ronny's name was on it at all. We all walked back outside and sat on the swings of the outdoor playground. After what seemed like forever, Cynthia broke the silence and said, "I've got an idea guys. Why don't we go get something to eat at Dog Years and it'll be my treat?" We all agreed and got into her car and drove to Dog Years.

I would like to take a moment to turn away from the story and answer some questions that you may have right now. In case I haven't mentioned yet, Cynthia and Veronica both go to school with me and they are both cheerleaders and Cynthia can already drive because she has a learners permit and she drives an SUV truck. Dog Years is a diner in the neighborhood that mostly serves hot dogs, burgers, and stuff like that. I also would like to point out that I live in Chicago.

As I was saying, we went inside the diner and everyone ordered except me because I was too angry at the moment to eat anything, although I couldn't ignore the growling in my stomach on account of the fact that I hadn't eaten lunch that day so I followed them and got in line behind Johnny. We took our trays of food and we sat in a booth by the soda dispenser. I sat on the right end side next to Benny and Veronica. We all ate in silence for a while until Johnny decided to break the ice and he said, "Hey Josh, would it make you feel better if you and Benny were to join me and Ronny at the park tomorrow to shoot some hoops?" I nodded unenthusiastically because I was still a little angry about the rejection from the team. We finished eating the hot dogs and then had some soft-serve ice cream for dessert.

After we left the diner, we took the guys home and then we headed home ourselves. Cynthia pulled into the garage and parked her car by the garage door. I knew our parents were not home because I noticed their car was not there as we went inside the house. That did not surprise me because they always went out of town on the weekends. Our house was the biggest on the block; it had an outdoor pool on the patio and a balcony upstairs, which was accessible from my room. It also had five bedrooms inside, one for me, which was the second biggest, compared to my parent's bedroom, one for a guest, and two for the girls.