recognize / b.simmons

23

chefs place way too much food for four people onto the table, but ben and amari are thankful nonetheless. "you're not vegan, are you?" savannah asks amari as lebron pours wine for all of them.

"oh, no," amari says and looks at the spread of the food. it all looked so good.

there's yelling coming from outside, that makes everyone turn their heads towards the window that showcased the backyard that had a built in lakers basketball court, and several young boys and a tiny girl, playing on it.

lebron sets the bottle of wine down and goes to the back door and slides it open. "hey! we have guests!" he yells and a synchronized "sorry" is able to be heard. "bronny, bryce, come say hi to our guests!" he adds and leaves the door open for the two boys.

moments later, three children, presumably the james', come barreling in. the first child is a little girl with big hair and a big smile, who looked about five years old. the next kid was older and wore glasses and care in dancing. the last, and tallest, was a spitting image of savannah. "yoooo! wassup, ben?" the third kid says and daps him up, followed by the younger boy. the little girl jumps up onto her mother's lap.

"mommy, she's pretty," whispers the little girl, making savannah smile.

"tell her, Z," she says and the little girl jumps off of her lap and prances over to amari, who was focused on watching how ben interacted with the two boys. it was like he was their older brother.

amari feels a tap on her exposed leg and she turns around, to be met with the shy smile of the youngest member of the james' family. "hi, i'm Zhuri, and you're pretty," she says shyly, playing with her hands and shifting her weight from foot to foot.

amaris heart swells at the compliment and the cuteness of zhuri and she smiles down at her and extends her hand. "thank you so much! i'm amari," she says, and zhuri smiles and shakes her hand and then quickly runs over to ben and steals his attention away from the two boys by jumping in his lap and yelling, "ben!", which makes amari all gooey on the inside.

the youngest boy takes this as a chance to introduce himself to the pretty girl, otherwise known as amari. "i'm bryce, nice to meet you," he says, making his voice slightly deeper and extending a hand. savannah and lebron both notice and share a look before trying not to laugh.

amari shakes bryces hand and introduces herself with a smile that makes bryce blush, but no one would ever know. he quickly let's go of her hand and his brother moves in to make his move. "i'm bronny, nice to meet you," he copies, clearing his throat afterwards. amari is taken aback by his voice and height, given the fact that he sounded and looked 35, but was probably only 15.

"amari," she says and shakes his hand giving bronny the same smile she gave bryce and Zhuri. bronny gives her his best smile and his mom laughs and shakes her head.

"boy, quit trying to show out!" she says, and bronny immediately drops her hand and laughs out of embarrassment and nervousness. if amari reached out and touched his cheeks, it'd feel like lava.

she laughs and looks at ben who rolls his eyes and shakes his head."don't make me dunk on you in front of her and all of your little friends, bronny," ben threatens, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. he glances at amari and sends her a quick wink before turning his attention back to bronny.

"bro, don't act like i didn't handle you just a few weeks ago!" bronny says incredulously, a giant smile plastered on his face. amari laughs at them assumes that they probably go back and forth all of the time.

but dinner calls, and their little feud is cut short by lebron telling them to go back outside with their friends and that they can continue this after dinner. amari says goodbye to all three kids and earns a hug from amari and a purposeful "bye, amari," from bronny, who smirks at ben as he says it. kids.