The Precocious

Chapter 26 (Coyote)

Chapter 26

Coyote POV: Uriah

       "Any word yet?" Astrid asked as she passed the basketball to me.

       I shot the basketball at the hoop and, like recently, completely missed. It wasn't a huge miss --it did bounce off the backboard, but it was still a miss. 

       I sighed heavily as Astrid retrieved the ball and passed it to me. "Not yet," I said.

       "Was that sigh directed at the miss, or the fact that you don't have word on Alvin?" Astrid asked.

       "Both," I said. "I'm getting impatient, and a bit worried, waiting for Alvin. And I also haven't been good at shooting hoops recently, so I'm still upset about that. I just... can't make it in the basket anymore."

       To prove it, I made a shot and once again, I completely missed. This time, it went around the hoop before falling off. What kind of Coyote captain could I be if I couldn't even do something simple as scoring points in basketball.

       "Well, you do have a lot on your mind," Astrid said as she retrieved the ball again. She walked back to where she was and shot the basketball towards the hoop. And of course, it went in for her. 

       "Or it could be because, you know, you have a bad leg," Levi spoke up from his spot on the bleachers where he was playing a card game with Ester. We figure the gym was the best place to be for us to stay together and talk to the other four while they were 'interning'. Apparently, it was way too suspicious of us to constantly be meeting in the cafeteria.

       At least here, it was quite normal for me and Astrid to be here. It wasn't so normal for Levi because he said he would rather stick needles in his eyes than be in the gym, but he only said that to me. For anyone else, it probably just looked like he was just hanging out where his boyfriend was.

       "Should you even be playing basketball with your leg?" Ester asked me.

       "I shoot with my arms and hands, not my leg," I said. "And I'm not technically playing basketball. I'm shooting hoops. There's a difference."

       "You should still be sitting down," Levi said in a sing-song voice as he placed a card down on the pile between him and Ester.

       "I'm fine," I said. "I'm not doing much with my leg. That's why Astrid is always the one retrieving the ball."

       "Though, I do agree with Levi and Ester," Astrid said as she passed the ball to me. "You should be sitting down. I'm just passing it to you anyway because I know you're stubborn, and you would probably try to take the ball from me."

       "Well, you're not wrong," I said. 

       I prepared to shoot the ball towards the hoop, but I froze in my place when Alvin's voice came from the earpiece in my ear. "Uriah? You there?"

       I placed the basketball under my arm. "Alvin, finally. What took you so long?"

       "Sorry," Alvin said. "I was searching for a list of employees that are possibly connected to the scan, so we'll know to avoid them. Now, I'm just hooking up all the other earpieces before we finally head into the HQ."

       "Are you going to be in the HQ for long?" I asked.

       "No, not today," Alvin said. "This is just going to be a quick investigation since we're taking quite some time to make sure we're prepared. And... Everyone else's earpieces should be up and running. Pearl, Piano, and Diesel, can you test to see if your partners can hear you?"