Children Of The Crucible

Tommy

Tommy's PoV

Hearing the door shut, I lay back down on my bed and continued playing on my Xbox. I played for a good half hour until my mum shouted me downstairs for dinner. I could smell it from my room. Mac n cheese, one of my favourites.

I bounced down the stairs and into the dining room where there was a big portion of it sitting in front of my seat. The bowl was practically brimming with pasta and creamy cheese sauce. Perfect. I sat down, my younger brother to my left and my parents across from us.

"You'll need to eat pretty quickly or you will be late for basketball."

Crap. I had completely forgotten about that. I glanced up at the clock and realised I had to leave in ten minutes. I would probably have to run to be there on time.

I gobbled my food down, trying not to go overly fast- I didn't want to make myself sick. I pushed my chair back and ran up the stairs two at a time to get changed.

My parents had signed me up for this basketball club a couple of months ago because they wanted me to start getting some decent exercise. I didn't hate the club, but it wasnt exactly something I looked forward to. The only reason I went was to make my parents happy, and also to see James, another player with whom I had formed a friendship.

I grabbed my empty sports bag and threw in a towel, a packet of crisps and a bottle of water. I put it over my shoulder, said bye to my family, and set off to the court.

I was hit with a bitterly cold wind that immediately made me start shivering. Thank goodness it was an indoor court, otherwise I'd die of hypothermia. Glad to be wearing a jumper, I jogged (partly to be on time and partly to keep warm) down the street, heading for the sports centre.

I was about halfway there when I caught up with James. I met him on the first day I went to basketball and liked him off the bat. He was the only person who was remotely friendly to me when I joined. Like me, he doesn't think much of the rest of the team, which consists mostly of big lads who barge you out the way to get the ball, like it's some priceless relic that only they can hold. Honestly, would it really be so hard to pass it once in a while?

"Hey, excited for today's game?"

I obviously wasn't being serious, but not being the quickest to catch on to sarcasm, James looked at me oddly.

"Haha no. You know I hate these games."

"Yeah same here- sorry I was being sarcastic. I still don't understand why you haven't quit seeing as you dread it so much."

He looked thoughtful for a moment before replying.

"I suppose I could quit, but the coach is a good friend of my dad's and I'd be worried he would be really annoyed if left."

"Huh, makes sense. The only reason I come is to keep my parents happy. They used to moan at me all the time for being too lazy, so when they signed me up I guess I just went along with it to stop them nagging at me."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Come on, better hurry up or we're gonna be late, and then the coach really will be annoyed with us."

We ran down the pavement, avoiding patches of black ice, and entered the sports centre, readying ourselves for two hours of boredom.

After the game, which was pretty uneventful, we hit the showers, and began our journey home. We discussed all the usual, boring stuff: school, basketball, movies we had recently watched.

"So any plans for tonight?"

It had just gone 7 so I didn't expect he would be up to much, but I thought I might as well make some conversation.

"Nothing much. I said I'd head over to my girlfriends after practice so that's probably what I'm gonna do. We usually end up watching a movie before she starts banging on about the new eye shadow palette she just bought. Don't get me wrong, I do love her, but she does go on sometimes, especially about make up."

"Oh I know exactly how you feel, that's literally all my cousins talk about when they come over, which is all the time. I don't get what's so interesting about it. I'd so much rather just talk about normal stuff like TV series and music."

"Search me. To be honest I just zone out and nod my head intermittently so that it seems like I'm paying attention when I'm actually thinking of what food I'm going to eat when I go home."

I laughed at this. As we continued walking, I thought about introducing James to Blair. They seemed like they would hit it off, and it wouldn't hurt to have another friend in school. More people to help me with my homework. Just about to suggest this to James, I opened my mouth, then realised it was time to part ways- my house was just to the left, and James had to keep going straight to get to his girlfriends. I would bring it up another time.

Calling out goodbye, I walked down my road, still chuckling lightly at our earlier conversation, and I arrived at my house. I let myself in, collapsed onto the leather sofa and turned on the TV.