Revenge or Revolution?

19.

College is said to be the best time of a student's life. It had proven wrong for Steve so many times. After the heart problem incident, Steve was made to sit out of even the second game. He had tried explaining to his coach that he was all fine and it was due to a prank by a couple of other students. But the coach had straight up denied it unless those friends agreed that it was them who caused this. And Steve knew that that was not going to happen. He was to be given rest for next 7 matches.

Kyle, on the other hand, had scored 2 goals in his two matches and 3 assists. He was the school hero. It was clear to the whole sports committee who was going to lead it now. Kyle was elected as the head unanimously. He had no other competition.

Steve knew Kyle would ruin his Basketball life but he had no idea it would be this bad. After almost a month of not playing basketball, Steve was really excited to finally play after such a long time.

He was practicing in the gym when he got a call from his coach.

'Steve, I have some news for you.'

'Yes, sir?'

'You are not going to play henceforth. The sports committee had a meeting yesterday and Kyle had put forward a point that you are unfit to play and the college would be liable if you die on the court next time. If the college is held accountable on your demise, our reputation would go down the toilet. And if that happens, we wouldn't get more admissions.'

'That's nonsense. I am a better player than anyone else on the team. You can't just drop me. How can you let this happen, coach?'

'I strongly opposed the motion. But it went through a vote and out of 12 of us, 6 were with the decision and 6 were against it.'

'If the decision wasn't by the majority that means I can play, right?'

'The head actually gets an extra vote when there is a tie.'

Steve's heart sank. He knew that Kyle was not the best of the person but he always thought that as a sportsman, he would respect his game. But he was wrong.

'You can still help the coaching staff. You are an excellent player and we think the college can use you on the sidelines. It's just that you can't play on the court.'

'I will think about it.' Steve hung up the phone. He was not just upset, he was devastated.

The strongest bonds are made on the court and whatever people say, if a major part of a shared topic is taken away from friends, the friendship collapses. Same happened with Steve. For the first 3 months, he didn't accept the offer of helping the team from the sidelines. He didn't even go to see the college matches. When you are passionate about something, it's impossible to see someone else enjoying it.

During this time, he used to practice a lot on public holidays or till late at night practicing to become better. He knew that he could play the game after college where Kyle didn't have any jurisdiction. But he had to stay in shape. Another hobby he adopted during his 'break-from-Basketball-and-Sandra' time was writing a diary. His life wasn't the worse.