Through The Hoop
Chapter 1
Introduction
Don't know how this got deleted before, but I'm gonna reupload the first two chapters. Also I've decided to work on this and O and O at the same time. It might be kinda difficult and I might end up taking time to post chapters, but I wanna try it. Anyway, here's the intro, the basketball game starts in the next chapter.
Opening Music: Kuroko No Basket OP 1
(Shows a basketball rolling across the floor in slow motion)
(Shows sweat run down my cheek) (Shows me run forward and tap the ball)
(Shows me and the rest of the team on a basketball court with lots of people watching)
(I wipe my forehead on my shirt) (Shows William)
(Shows Dick)
(Shows Stephen)
THROUGH THE HOOP
Dakara itta janai ka!
(Shows my sitting on a little wall in front of the leisure centre)
Yowosa wo uri ni shitatte mai ni nanka!
(I look to my right and see Sam and Ben standing there with me) Susume ya shinai nda zenee!
(Ben eats a burger while Sam waves at me)
Hakanai jibun
(Shows the whole team exercising) enshutsu shitatte dare mo mu kandou!
(Shows all kinds of different basketball courts)
Kodoku ga sainamu yoru ni datte.
(Shows me, Ben and Sam watching a basketball game)
Asu machiwabiru hikari ga aru! (Shows me practicing dribbling a basketball)
Tsuyogaru yowai jibun wo!
(Shows Dick catch the ball and long shot it)
Mitomera eru tsuyosa wo!
(Shows Jack and Aidan next to each other)
Hajimeru n da!
(Shows William score a three pointer)
Yareru mon sa!
(Shows Stephen catch the ball and pass it)
Sokoka a mae wo mui chatte! (Shows me and Sam bro fist) Aruke! Aruke!
(Me and Sam run down the court) Hashire! Hashire!
(Shows Dick watching the match) Nandodemo!
(I pass the ball behind my back) Chousi hazure no
(Stephen catches the ball) koe datte ii sa!
(Stephen runs alongside Aidan) Sore ga doushita n datte!
(Aidan steals the ball and scores) Sakebu nda ore no
(Shows me running around with the ball and then throw it behind my back)
banda! Can you do it?!
(The ball goes past Sam's head, but he reaches back and gets it) Suruto dou darou nani datte!
(Sam throws the ball)
Kowaku nanka
(William catches the ball and throws it)
naku nattenze!
(I catch the ball and throw it behind my back)
Kyou ga wagimida!
(Ben dunks the ball)
Can do it!
END
Me, Sam and Ben stood outside the door to the basketball changing room in the leisure centre. After my doctor had told me during my sixth month check up that I needed to get more exercise to keep my back from getting sore after the surgery, I had decided to take up basketball. It had taken a couple of months, but I was finally happy enough with my skill level to be confident in joining Haverhills official under twenties basketball club. Over the last two months, Sam and Ben had been practicing with me over the previous month, at first just doing it so is have someone to play with, but soon their skills came a level where they too wanted to join the club. We were slightly worried we wouldn't get in, we expected the club to have many members, but we went all the same.
"So, it's finally time..." Sam mumbled to himself as we stood there, probably picturing himself as a star player in the future. "All the time we spent practicing has been for this, let's make sure we impress the coach."
"What if we don't impress him enough?" I worryingly said, not wanting my time training to be for nothing. "If he's got a lot of members in his club, we might not be good enough for him to let us in."
"I wouldn't worry about that, you at the very least are good enough to get in." Ben reassured me. "I've got my awesome dunks to show off, so...Sam might not get in."
"Hey!" Sam snapped at him, angry at his brothers mean taunting. He didn't argue any further however, as the two of them noticed I had already stepped in front of them and was knocking on the door. After I stepped back, there was the sound of someone running over from inside the room, then the door opened.
"Hey, are you here to join the basketball team?! Please say yes!" The guy who had opened the door said, seeming desperate. The guy was about the same age as us, but a lot taller than me and Sam, just about meeting eye to eye with Ben. His hair was black and ruffed, a pair of quaint glasses resting on his nose. He was already in his full basketball outfit, a tank top and shorts with cool looking trainers. The colours of the team were white with strips of orange around the edges. He looked fairly athletic, but also had a lean body structure.
"Umm...yeah we are here for that." I answered, taking a few seconds to do so due to the suddenness of him opening the door.
"Thank god!" He inexplicably exclaimed, raising his arms as he cheered. "We've been low on players for weeks, ever since the bulk of them turned twenty!"
"Wait, we though you had plenty of members." Sam said, the three of us surprised by that fact. "We were actually worried we wouldn't be able to get in because of it."
"Like I said, a bunch of people left." The guy said, seeming to be depressed by the mere memory of it, his body slouching then straightening up as he continued. "But we're all good now since you three are joining, we might be able to get into some actual games now! Although we won't be able to go into any official games since we still don't have enough members to sub out many times, but I might be able to sort out some special friendly matches with some adjustments to the player count..." Snapping out of his train of thought as he realised we were all standing and waiting for him to tell us his name, he smiled as wide as he good and said, "I'm Dick."
All three of us burst into uncontrollable laughter at that. First Sam started, then I began to laugh at the sound of him laughing and soon was chuckling too. "Dick?!" He cried out between laughs. "Is that a nickname?"
"No, it's my real name." Dick responded very seriously, looking very peeved off that we were laughing at his name. "My dad picked it."
Once we had calmed down, we introduced ourselves to Dick one by one, telling him about the time we had spent training to join the club. After that, he escorted us into the changing rooms, where two other members of the team were sitting tying up their shoelaces. "This is William." Dick introduced, pointing to very spotty, thin and tall teenager to the left. "And this is Stephen."
"Hi there." William said somewhat shyly. Despite being so tall he seemed so timid, perhaps because his acne was so bad. My mind went back to a time when mine was even worse and I shuddered. "Are they joining the team, Dick?"
"Yeah, we're finally gonna have enough to sort out that deal with the team I told you about." Dick told him, his face brightening up at the good news. It was then that Stephen walked up to me, a strange look on his face as he said my name.
"Olly?"
It took me a second, it really did. He looked so different than what he had the last time I saw him. Stephen had been the name of one of my friends back in primary school, about 7 or 8 years ago. When we had gone on to secondary school, I had gone to a different place than everyone else and so we hadn't seen each other since then. It was him that was stood in front of me right now, I suddenly recognising him after a few seconds. "Stephen! I can't believe it's you! How have you been?" I asked him, wondering if I was in a dream.
"Oh, I've been plenty fine, just as you probably remember me." Stephen answered, looking very pleased to see me. "So, you decided to join the basketball team with your friends?"
"Yeah, where's the coach?" I questioned next, having been wondering from the moment we walked in, since everyone in the room was wearing basketball outfits.
"I'm the coach." Dick plainly told me, as if it was obvious.
"Wait, I assumed you were the captain." Sam told him, saying what Ben and me were thinking.
"I am the captain and the coach." Dick quite bluntly replied, sounding as if this wasn't the first time someone was surprised to hear it.
"Is that allowed?" Ben wondered out loud, neither me or Sam having heard of such a thing before either.
"Well since we've got such a shortage of people, it's all right for friendly matches." Dick explained, motioning to the other door with his hand. "Well, let's go see what you three can do."
Following that, we were set up in a three on three match against Dick, Stephen and William, they testing our skills for the next thirty minutes or so. It quickly became clear what our strong points were, so Dick went to take a quick phone call whilst we continued two on three for a while. Even while at that disadvantage, Stephen and William held their own, keeping the score even.
After another ten minutes, Dick returned with his phone in his hand, gesturing for us to stop playing and come on over. Obediently, we ran over to him, wondering what news he had. "I've got some good news for all of us, and some not so good news." He said, not waiting to hear what we wanted to hear first before he continued. "Good news is I got us a match. There's a team of players within the same county willing come and play a six player game, meaning each team will have one player on the bench to substitute. The bad news...they're really good. They came fourth in the regional championship last year."
After a quick discussion, we all agreed that we would go forward with the match. We knew it would be difficult, but most teams would've turned down the offer of they couldn't use all their players and it was a friendly match anyway, so it didn't matter if we lost. That said, I knew we were all feeling competitive regardless.
The next day the two teams gathered on the indoor basketball court of the leisure centre, six players on each side. The limited stands for the lowly funded court were seated with the families of the players, our families included in the crowd. We all sat in a line on our bench, preparing on the final moments we had before the match would begin. Looking up from tying my shoes, I saw someone I knew on the opposing team. Aidan Foo. He had been a member of my class back when I was in secondary school, one of the more popular guys. He looked just the same as always, except a little more mature. He saw me too as I looked at him, but either didn't recognise me or didn't care, because he went jogging back to his team without any sign that he had.
"This isn't going to be an easy game, they've got a team of skilled players, even if it is only six of them." Dick said from beside me, drawing my attention away from Aidan. "First they've got Aidan, he's a great shooter both with dunks and outside shots. His one weakness is passing, so keep that in mind. He can receive a pass but once has the ball his only use it shooting and dribbling, so be sure to mark him, maybe even double team him."
Dick was speaking to the whole team now, all of us leaning forward in our seat and listening closely to his instructions. He really had thought out the match extensively, analysing every player. "Their second player is Cole, he's an excellent passer, watch out for his throws and move quickly to steal the ball. Then there's...Garth. He's ridiculously good at defending, with that large body of his. The other three are not to be underestimated. They've got skill in defending and passing so that Aidan can take shots, he'll probably stay near our hoop so he doesn't have to dribble too far, since he can't pass. They're also not bad at shooting themselves, so don't assume shutting Aidan down will necessarily stop them."
"What about us?" I asked him when he finished, the rest of the team looking quite worried. "Weigh our assets against them, what've we got?"
Not expecting that sort of question, Dick had to look down at the notepad on his lap for answers, where he had noted down all the teams skills. "Well, you've got some skills with redirecting the ball, we can use that for steals and advanced passes. Ben's proven he can dunk like a champ, so combine you two and we've got a combination that'll get us a few points at least. Sam's pretty good at straight shots, so we can use him to get the ball around and pass it to you for redirection. Then these two..." Dick stopped mid sentence, trailing off as he looked over to Stephen and William, who were arguing over a pack of mints. "Those two are decent at everything, but not excelling at anything in particular. I guess they can stay on defence."
Stephen and William didn't seek to notice their captains mediocre assessment of their skills, still squabbling. At the refs call however, five members of each team rushed onto the court and got into formation, Dick staying on our bench and Garth staying in theirs. Ben and Aidan stood opposite each at the centre line, ready to knock the ball their teams way when it was served. "I remember you, Ben." Aidan greeted in a big headed manner, as if sure he would win. "I played basketball with you a couple of times in school, kicked your arse of course."
"It'll be different this time, I've been practicing for a month." Ben retorted, getting fired up by the preliminary taunting.
"Oh that's cute." Aidan replied mockingly as the ref threw the ball into the air above them and blew the whistle.
"I've been training for four years."
END OF CHAPTER ONE