Its 1978, the day of the C.Y.O city championship basketball game against St Marks high school and OLPH
Lenny's House
Lenny woke up to the sound of his mom knocking on his bedroom door and shouting his name from outside his private space
Lenny's mom: Lenny! Wake up sweetheart
Lenny looked over to his clock that was featured on the small bedside table beside his bed that read 07:45, he sighed and choked the covers off himself
The pre-teen rubbed his eyes restlessly before getting up from his messy bed; he opened his bedroom door and walked to the bathroom to get ready for school
About 10 minutes later Lenny walked down stairs and strolled into the kitchen to be greeted by his parents and also multiple choices of food on the kitchen table for his breakfast
Lenny's dad: Morning Lenny, make sure you eat something, you have a big day today -Lennys dad said before folding up the newspaper he was reading, he threw on his coat and picked up his briefcase
Lenny: Dad! Are you coming to my game tonight? -Lenny asked before his dad opened the front door
Lenny's dad: Yeah son, I'll be there I promise. See you later -His dad said opening the door and closing after him as he began his journey to work
About a quarter of a hour later Lenny left his house and walked down the street meeting up with his best friend Eric Lamonsoff
Lenny and Eric has been friends for a long time and nothing was about to change that, has everyday their friendship grow stronger
Lenny: Hey Lamonsoff, Where's Higgy?
Eric: I don't know, I haven't seen him
Lenny: Let's go to his house
Marcus's House
Marcus woke up, his tiredly got out of bed and strolled down stairs for his breakfast, the small 12 year old looked over at the wall clock that revealed the time 8:30
Marcus: Crap! I'm gunna be late!
Marcus rushed around to get ready for school changing into anything he could find
Marcus: Hey dad! Why didn't you wake me! -Marcus shouted after he found his dad passed out drunk on the couch with empty beer cans around him
He got no response, Marcus thought it would be funny to slap his dad on the forehead with the back of his hand but got no reaction
Marcus sighed to himself has he was used to his dad being drunk and coming home late night with random girls, strangely enough Marcus looked up to his dad as a kinda of role model
There was a knock on the door, more like 10 seconds of banging; the blonde haired boy opened the door to find 2 of his best friends Lenny and Eric
Lenny: Hey buddy, are you comin' to school today, or are you not bothering? -Lenny starting giggling with Eric
Marcus: Yeah, Just give me a sec
Marcus went back inside the house and grabbed his bag from the kitchen counter that had left over pizza and takeaway boxes scattered on it, he quickly written his dad a note and stuck it on his old man's forehead
Marcus walked outside and closed the door behind him, about less than a minute into his journey to school with his friends, some strange noise was coming from his stomach and then he realised that he forgot to have breakfast this morning as he over slept
Eric: What's that noise? It sounds like a dying walrus -They all laughed
Lenny: Lamonsoff that was a good one! -Lenny stated laughing along with his friends
Marcus: I over slept this morning, so I didn't have time to eat
The boys finally made it to school on time and just on queue with the arrival of the school bus where they usually wait for Kurt and Robbie
Eric walked over to greet them, Lenny held Marcus back
Lenny: Your dad was drunk again wasn't he?
Marcus just nodded as he wasn't really amused about it himself
Lenny: Here's an extra lunch I made, you can have it if you want
Marcus: Thanks buddy
Lenny was probably the only one out of the group that knew about Marcus' dads reputation with drinking and sleeping around with different girls but Marcus didn't seem that bothered about it, His friends all liked him, and they thought he was funny and weird. One night Marcus invited his friends (in other words the basketball team) over for a sleepover at his house, his dad strolled in at 2 o'clock from a night of partying and pulling women, the dad walked into Marcus' bedroom waking everyone up, after he interrupted the sleeping pre-teens, he phone for pizza and gave each 12 year old boy a slip of his beer just to show them what to look forward to in the future, They stayed up all night long.
Lenny and Marcus joined the others and all walked into school together, they all went their separate ways to their lockers, each of them cramming books and other essentials into the storage place, the bell rang which they all knew that it was 1st lesson and the start of another boring school day
They carried their day on like normal, attending their chosen subjects and meeting up with each other in different classes, the school day was nearly over in addition Lenny and his friends could hardly wait for their basketball match after school
The last school bell rang of the day and the corridors filled with screaming children ready to go home and enjoy their weekend, but some kids stayed behind and journeyed to the Gym to watch and support tonight's basketball game
Marcus was at his locker chatting up 3 girls at once
Marcus: Are you coming to my basketball game later on?
Heather: Sure we'd love to, wouldn't we girls
April & Sarah: Yeah
Lenny and Kurt walked down the corridor and watched Marcus talk to somewhat slightly older girls, so they decided to interrupt him
Lenny: Hey man
Marcus: Can't you see I'm busy here -Talking to his friends behind his hand so the girls didn't hear him
Kurt: You do know we have the biggest game of our lives in 30 minutes -they said pulling him away and literally dragging him down the empty corridor
Marcus: I'll see you ladies later -He shouted back to the girls he had just pulled and winked at them
All 3 Girls: Bye.. 'Giggling'
The 3 boys eventually joined Lamonsoff and Robbie in the changing room, the 5 lads looked like they had just magically transformed from typical school boys to Pro basketballs'
Lenny: The big game tonight boys and whatever the outcome, let's make the coach proud
All 5 boys: For coach! -They all high five'd in the air
The boys were kitted up and ready, the coach had one last team talk with them before the big game 5 minutes for now
Coach Buzzer: I want you to play this game, not just to win... But I also want you to enjoy yourselves to try and have the best game of your lives
They all walked out confidently in a line as they entered the Gym where everyone was to support them, the away team OLPH was busy having a team talk with their coach on the opposite side of the court, they all broke off with everyone's hand placed to the middle in a mid-air pile and shouted 'OLPH'! Then lifted their arms in the air and walked away in different directions of the court
Each boy was in their starting position, sharply marking their opponents
Lenny and Bailey
Bailey: If it isn't Lenny Fader
Lenny: Nice to see you again Bailey, ready to lose
Bailey: Just you wait Fader, I'm gunna wipe the floor with all you little know-it-all's
Lenny and Bailey was already at rivalry
Kurt and Malcolm
Malcolm: Well well well, if it isn't the other black guy who grows up here
Kurt: Nonono, in this town I'm the black guy and your da' other black guy
Malcolm: No man, in this town I'm the black guy, and when white people see me coming into da' classroom they get scared
Kurt: Well, when white people see me comin' in to the classroom they Run, Okay
Malcolm: Wow -Sarcastically
Kurt: These are my white people, now run along and get your own white people
Malcolm: Yeah, you're crazy mann
The ref threw the basketball up in the air as he blew the whistle near enough the same time, Eric and Muzby both jumped up to try and knock it to their teams, Eric who jumped slightly higher than Muzby, pushed it out of the way into Marcus' hands
The short blonde haired boy looked around to see who was open and thank god Robbie was, Robbie dribbled the ball around his marker and bounced it to Eric, who passed it backwards to Lenny, the captain nearly lost control of the ball but eventually gained a tight grip on it, he went in for a shot and scored in the first 15-20 seconds, The crowd went wild with the cheerleaders at the side line rustling their pomp-poms cheerfully
Malcolm bounced the ball down the other side of the court where both teams where, he bounce passed it over his head to Bailey, Bailey then passed it backwards to Robideaux who instantly made a shot and swept it in the hoop
It was St marks ball, Robbie was at the side line with Robideaux marking him, Robbie faked passing the ball one way and threw it the other, he bounced the ball over to Marcus, Marcus grabbed the ball and made the letter 'O' twice in the air with the ball in front of Tardio making him dizzy, Marcus then threw it to Eric
Eric caught the ball bouncing it one way with Muzby blocking him, So Eric decided to turn the other way, which he saw Kurt patting his chest motioning for Eric to give him the ball, the chubby 12 year old threw it in excess of Kurt, Kurt headed the ball instead of catching and even the cheerleaders made a 'ooo' sound on the bench side-line
Marcus clutched the ball as it was free on the floor and sprang it over to Lenny, who straight away made the scoreboard change St Marks Score, the crown once again bellowed, He high fived Robbie before running in a different direction
There was a strange noise and Robideaux was curious to what it was, he was just standing there bouncing the basketball multiples of times remorselessly before Lenny swiped it from his hands
Lenny set Marcus up by handing him the ball and giving the blonde boy a chance to shoot, he did and exchanged the favour
Bailey: What?! - He said sounding surprised as he couldn't believe that Marcus actually scored even though he was the shortest there
Marcus: What? I'm sorry -Marcus said jokingly, has he run passed him
Marcus glanced in the crowd of people to see his dad stood up cheering for his son, Marcus knew that his dad found the note he left him
Marcus' Dad: Go Marcus! That's my son -Marcus' dad said to a total stranger sitting beside him
Robideaux ran up the court and rebounded the basketball on the backboard, boosting up OLPH's score, Lenny then bounced the ball between his legs and lobbed it to Robbie, Robbie then easily scored, there was numerous amount of times each team missed and scored before the Ref blew his whistle for Half time
Lenny ran over to his mom who pasted him the bottle of water
Lenny: He's not coming is he? -Lenny stated looking around for his father
Then before his mother could reply out of the blue his dad appeared
Lenny's Dad: Hey son, you winning?
Lenny: Dad! -Lenny shouted, as he hugged his father around the neck
Lenny's Dad: I always keep promises, now go out there and Win
Coach buzzer gave every single boy on his team a word of wisdom to get back out there and claim victory
After 5 minutes or so the ref blew his whistle again to start off the Second half
About a quarter of an hour later and It was half way into the second half ,the game was getting boring with both teams tired and hungry for more hoops, Lenny started showing off his basketball skills bouncing the orange ball around his legs as Dickie Bailey marked him ,egger to swipe the ball but he just couldn't get it, Lenny bounced the ball a couple of more times to annoy his opponent and then showed off one more skill by pretending to pass the ball to his team mate causing Dickie to follow his direction but instead threw the ball around the back of himself, caught it in his opposite hand and ran in a different direction.
Tardio ran towards the position of the ball, Eric managed to step in his way and knock him down like a sack of potatoes, Eric Shouted 'arrrr' and tensed his upper arms like he had just won a wrestling fight. By this time Rob passed the ball to Kurt, The mixed raced boy caught it and starting to bounce the ball in front of him with his two hands, the referee started to blow his whistle and walked over to Kurt
Referee: Double dribble -He said taking the basketball
Kurt: What cause I'm black!
The ref walked off with the ball and shook his head
Kurt: Yeah that's what I thought
The ref gave the ball to the other team, Malcolm had the ball with Marcus trying to get snatch it back, The small 12 year old spotted one the girls he was chatting up later today and gave her a cheeky little wink, the girl with 2 ponytails wearing a cream and black striped hoodie pointed to herself and looked at her friend in amazement her friend exchanged her look, Marcus just smiled and pushed the right side of his hair back and nodded with a crook smile across his face
Robbie was looking around for the ball until something else caught his eye in the crowd full of supporters, He smiled and nodded at a particular person, The young girl slightly chubby sat on the bench pointed to herself with a big smile featured on her face as she thought it was her, Robbie just shook his head left and right lifted his arm up and pointed over to the middle aged women sat right behind the young school girl, The women confusingly pointed to herself and motioned with her mouth 'Me?', Robbie just nodded his head in the response of her question and ran off to get into the last few seconds of the game
The score board was counting down
Coach Buzzer: 10 Seconds left, Come on we need a basket -The coach shouted to his team
Lenny ran and passed the ball to Robbie, The small dark haired boy bounced it a few times before he threw it to Kurt
Coach Buzzer: Kurt, Kurt, Kurt over here -The coach shouted to him from the side lines indicating that he should pass it to Lenny
Kurt lobbed it half court back to Lenny, Lenny then bounced it to Eric
Coach Buzzer: Bring it in!
As there was only 5 seconds on the clock, Eric passed the ball the his best friend , Lenny was near the side line and caught the ball
Coach Buzzer: Heads open Lenny
Lenny knew that the final buzzer was just about to sound, so he instantly threw the famous banks shot, the clock was ticking down 3... 2... 1... The final buzzer went off with the ball hitting the backboard and smoothly dropped in the hoop.
The home team roared, related at the 32 to 31 victory the team had just accomplished.
All of St Mark's basketball team huddled together as they had just won their first basketball game, the couch celebrated by running over to his team and huddled with them like a big kid jumping up and down
That was the one game that St Marks basketball team would never forget
The coaches told his team to get showered and changed, and then meet him outside in 30 minutes
Lenny and his friends followed the coach's demands doing exactly what he told them; Marcus and Robbie walked out of the schools shower cubicle, dried off and threw on their clean clothes
Bailey and his team mates entered the changing room to see Robbie and Marcus talking about their basketball victory, the OLPH team approached the 2 smallish boys
Bailey: Here Midgets! -Bailey shouted throwing the game ball at Robbie
Marcus: Wow! I'm surprised Muzby didn't eat the ball before we finished the game
Muzby was on edge and about to react to Marcus' comment but Robideaux put his arm out in front of his friend stopping him from making a scene
Robideaux: Same old Higgins he can talk to talk but he can't... Damn! I forget the rest
Meanwhile Lenny, Kurt and Eric was still showering, until Eric turned his shower-head off and heard shouting that came from the changing rooms, he instantly shot out of the shower and banged on his team mates shower cubicles
Eric: Hey guys, something is happening in the changing room
Lenny: Oh, come on Lamonsoff! I'm in the middle of conditioning my hair
Eric: I'm serious! Get out of here now!
Lenny wrapped himself in a towel, jumped out the shower and followed Eric to the changing rooms
As they entered the room that smelt like dirty socks and sweat, the 2 friends saw bailey and his team run out of the exit
Bailey: Peace-Out! Suckers! -Bailey shouted looking back at Lenny and Eric
The couple looked at each other with confused emotions scattered along both of their faces, after turning around to see Marcus and Robbie hanging from clothes hangers by their underwear
Eric immediately ran after them with the wet towel still wrapped firmly around his oversized waist, with Lenny following
The duo caught up to the other team and Eric pinned Muzby up against the wall
Eric: If you or your team ever disrespects my friends again I will-
Bailey: You'll what? Get your mommy on us? –Bailey mockingly tuned towards Eric
Eric pretended to throw a punch at Bailey, but he instantly ran off like a little girl with the rest of his team following behind
Lenny and Eric walked back to the changing rooms, with instant greetings from the rest of their team mates
Robbie: Did you get them?
Lenny: Yeah! You should of saw Eric throwing them punches
Of course Lenny had to lie, just to impress his friends
Marcus: Really mann?
Eric: Well, let's just say… That they want bother us again –Eric said going along with Lennys lie
Marcus: Thanks Buddy
Eric: Hey, what are friends for?
So even though Eric and Lenny lied to thier friends, the St Marks basketball team of 1978 had the strongest relationship a group of friends could ever have, with the combination of trust and loyalty thought out their years in school