A New School, New Friends: Part 2

"What are you doing?"

I sighed and turned my head to the side to look at Homura. Sitting up, I reached for my water bottle, only to find it gone. I then turned my head back to Homura, who held my water bottle in his hand. With a sigh, I stood up, my breathing and heartbeat, slowly returning to normal.

"Well, as you can clearly see, I was taking a break you know. A little shut eye, get my heart rate back down to 15 BMP, you know? All normal things." Homura sighed and tossed me my water bottle back. "Thank you. I wasn't planning on taking that long a break. I mean, Hanakawa-senpai did say to go and take a break."

"Yeah, I did, but I didn't say leave the campus, Ogiwara-kun. Though I do admit, the only person who's ever hid under the bridge before was the captain back when he was a freshman. That I know of anyways. For all you and I know, hiding under the bridge is a sort of sign or something that says you're the next in line to be captain or something."

"Oh hell no. I'm the last person you'd want to be captain." I call back, as we make our way back to the gym. "Besides, Hanakawa-senpai is going to pick you after all." Homura grimaced and shook his head. If there was anything that I'd learned in the past two weeks or so, was that Homura Reki, did not want to become captain.

Over the past week, I'd gotten to know every member of our basketball team. It was unlike my previous school's team, or even my junior high team, in that anyone could join, as long as the coach deemed them good enough. Shizou, was different. The five starters, chose who joined the team. Well, the five starters, manager and coach do, but for the most part, the starters choose. Which is why, our team is…well shorthanded would be an understatement, as we only really have a 7 man line up as of now.

Leaning against the doorway into the gym was our captain, Hanakawa Toru. His shoulder length black hair was tied up into a short pony tail. As usual, his nose was buried into a book about chess. As we approached, he looked up and snapped his book closed.

"Good, you're back. I guess we can finally start with the actual practice. You know, passing drills, cone drills, lay up lines, free throw lines, and hey, maybe you two can stay behind do, I dunno, a hundred suicides? Maybe a 50 wind sprints? How's that sound? Or how about you guys stay here till one of you can do an Aztec push up?" A sadistic smile formed on his face as he dragged Homura and I into the gym.

Yume sat on the stage hiding her giggles behind her clipboard. Sitting beside her and looking at a clipboard was Kumagawa. Despite this not being the first time that Hanakawa-Senpai had dragged the two of us into the gym, Yume still couldn't help but laugh at the sight of it all.

Hanakawa-senpai took a look at the rest of the squad and motioned for them to come closer. "All right, everyone let's begin!" Right away, I blanked out and couldn't remember a single thing about what we did. Not that it was important. Just some passing drills I think. Nothing too big or important really. I think we also did some cone drills.

After practice, as I was putting the balls away, Hanakawa-senpai called me over. "What's up? Is my expertise needed?"

Senpai scoffed and bopped me on the head. "Don't be stupid. I just need you to referee Kumagawa and Homura's one on one. Bastards got riled too riled up during practice, and now they can't end the day without a duel. I have to go and discuss a practice match with Coach Shirozaki, so make sure that no one gets injured, or does something stupid, alright Ahowara?" I frowned at the nickname, but nonetheless nodded. "Good. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

I sighed and made my way to Homura and Kumagawa. Both of whom, were standing at the other end of the court. But with no ball. Seriously? Another sigh escaped my lips as I turned around and grabbed a ball of off the rack and threw it towards the two of them. "Oi! Here catch!" To my right was a desk with a whistle on it. I picked it up in my hands, but otherwise left it alone.

Without turning around, Kumagawa reached up and caught the ball with one hand and shot me toothy smile. "Thanks. You'll be the referee Ogiwara-san?" I nodded and pulled a nearby seat over and sat down. Some of the other guys on the team were standing nearby as well and waiting for Kumagawa to start. One of the guys brought out the scoreboard. And by scoreboard, i mean a bunch of cards that they flip over to whenever someone scored.

Kumagawa palmed the ball and brought it down it low between his knees. Across from him, Homura stood, with his knees bent and arms spread out. From what I could tell, Homura was close enough that Kumagawa couldn't shoot, and far enough that Kumagawa couldn't blow by him.

Dribbling the ball backwards toward the half court line, Kumagawa must have noticed as well. "Hey, the hell's up with this? Can't you give me a little bit of a break Reki?" All of which was said with a sly smile on his face "Ma…I can never get a break."

Hesitating to the right, Kumagawa managed to get a sliver of daylight, and blew by Reki. The ball was almost ripped from Kumagawa's grasp had he not wrapped the ball around his back and floated in with the left hand. "1-0! Come on Reki! It was only a hezi, man! Didn't have to go leaning."

Homura scoffed as rolled the ball up to the half court line. "Leaning? I think you need to get your eyes checked Kizashi. Oi! Ogiwara! Watch closely. I'm about to drop this fool."

"Only thing that'll be dropping is your reputation Reki." Kumagawa called out, knees bent and arms out, though his right foot was slight forward. "Now come on!"

A grin appeared on Homura's face. "As you wish!" He dribbled forward and did some sort of move that looked like Homura was deliberately throwing the ball towards Kumagawa, and then, at the last second snatched the ball back before Kumagawa could rip it from him.

I turned to look at Yume, who was sitting behind me. "What was that?"

"That, Ogiwarin, is called the shamgod. It's a high level dribble that is often used by the handler to create and is mostly used in transition. Lots of NBA players like Kyrie Irving and CP3 are known for their use of the technique. It's a pretty deadly technique when you know how and when to use it." Yume replied pulling her seat over to my side. "I just realized, you've never seen Kumagawa-kun and Reki-kun go one on one before. Just watch Ogiwarin. You don't even have to referee."

"I don't know, I take my job pretty seriously. I mean, I got a whistle and all, and it'd be so sad if I didn't get to use it." Yume rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, just watch. You won't be disappointed."

Homura, according to scoreboard on the other side of the room, had scored 2 times in a row as Kumagawa had possession of the ball. He was driving towards the rim and pushed off of his inside foot. For a second I thought Homura was going to smash the ball against the backboard. I quickly changed my mind when Kumagawa wrapped the ball around the backboard with one hand and flicked it in.

"Nice finish!" Homura called out. "Could've used a bit more English you know! You wouldn't have had to bank it in then."

"Shut up. Like you would've been able to do any better man."

As soon as Homura got the ball back, he wasted no time in trying to get past Kumagawa. First he did a simple right to left crossover, but didn't get the reaction he wanted, and so backed out with a behind the back move. Homura must have seen an opening because he booked it, driving towards the rim with Kumagawa at his hip. And then, just as Homura neared the rim, he stopped on a dime, and with Kumagawa flying past him, and got nothing but net.

"Momentum's a bitch man. Would've blocked that trash."

"Pssh. As if. You're delusional Kizashi. Just admit it already. I'm better than you."

At this Kumagawa laughed. "Who's the delusional one now? You need to go the doctor or something? Looks like you might need to get your eyes checked. Now…Newbies! Ogiwarin! Watch closely, and see how easy it is to break someone's ankles. Put someone on skates. Watch, very carefully. Each dribble, each head fake, all of it." Kumagawa's pupils dilated and his eyes narrowed.

"Ogiwarin. Do as he says. Kumagawa's going to show why you don't need an Emperor Eye to break someone's ankles." Yume told me, her voice dead serious.

Kumagawa dropped down into a low stance and time seemed to slow down. One dribble. Then another. And another as he walked forward, before he suddenly blurred and crossed over right to left, and then left to right. Huh…He's attacking Homura's front foot…Why is that? During Kumagawa's relentless assault, Homura kept back peddling until he lost his balance and fell to the ground on his butt. With Homura on his ass, Kumagawa pulled up and drilled the jumper.

"See that!? That's how you break ankles! No gimmicks, no slipping on the floor or stepping on someone's foot. Just straight up murder!" Kumagawa called out as Homura slowly stood up and shot Kumagawa a dirty look. "Salty bro?"

"Nah, just trying figure out how I'm gonna wreck you." He dribbled the ball between his legs, pondering how to put Kumagawa on his highlight reel. "I got it. This'll be something, none of you have seen before. Even you Kizashi."

Laughing, Kumagawa beckoned for Homura to begin. "Show me this new trick of yours that I have yet to see. I'm the streetballers here after all. So I'll be the judge on its nastiness." Homura smirked and palmed the ball with his left hand. With a quick jab step, Homura dribbled to the right, Kumagawa following closely behind him. "Come on! That all you got!"

Ignoring his taunts, Homura dribbled slowly to the corner. Just as he reached the corner, Homura dribbled the ball through his and Kumagawa's legs and quickly spun around the puzzled Kumagawa, caught the ball and began to drive to the rim. Kumagawa managed to recover from the dribble move and was quick to get back on defense, rushing to get in front of his opponent. In turn, Homura threw the ball off the backboard, jumped and tapped the ball into the hoop, using the rim as protection.

"Okay. Okay. I admit, that was nice. Never seen that before, but I'd say that was only a 6/10 on the nastiness scale. But that was good bro. The through the legs dribble could've a little bit smoother, but yeah, that was pretty good."

"Alright boys, put the ball away, the coach wants to talk before practice ends. Hurry up!" Hanakawa-senpai called out, stepping back into the gym. Yume grabbed me the shoulder and nodded her head at me. I put the whistle that I didn't even use back onto the desk where I had seen it.

"What do you think the coach wants to talk about?" I asked her. Yume grabbed a few loose strands of hair and put them behind her ear.

"Probably the practice match. I don't know which teams the coach managed to schedule a game with, but I do know that the school is in this prefecture. And all of the schools that Shirozaki-sensei and I went to schedule a game with, were all top 10 in the prefecture. So it could be Samaguchi High, it could be Kodai High or it could be the second ranked Shoei high. Regardless of which, we are at a slight disadvantage."

"What do you mean?"

"Two of our starters aren't here. One them is out with a broken arm and the other is...Well, I don't really know what Ashiya-kun is doing. He never really said. Which is really bad. He's the ace of our team and there is no way to contact him because he never answers his fucking phone and he moved houses, so we don't really know where he is. Good thing is, he should probably be back by the time the Nationals begin."

"And if he doesn't?"

Yume smiled bitterly. "Then we can kiss our chances at the title goodbye. He's the only reason we even got that far last year. Every other elite team in the country probably already knows that he's not here and are going to use it their advantage. Normally Kumagawa-kun is our sixth man and gives us a scoring punch off of the bench, but now he's going to be a starter and I'm not sure how well that's going to go. Our bench is rather weak and he plays more minutes than most of the starters. So this could very well mess with our style of play."

"Who are the starters? Or rather were? Before this year's Nationals."

"Hanakawa-senpai and Reki-kun were the starting backcourt. Shizoma-senpai and Akagi-Senpai were the starting front court, but Shizoma-senpai is in college now. And Ashiya-kun was our starting center. Now, only Hanakawa-Senpai and Reki-kun are the only ones remaining from last year. At least until Akagi-Senpai and Ashiya-kun come back. Hopefully they'll be back soon."

"I see." I mutter. Considering things, I was probably going to be on the bench and play limited minutes, but who knows? The coach might make me a starter or he might not. Either way, I don't care. Because at least I was playing basketball with a team again.

"All right, everyone, gather up!" I sat next to Yume, just to the right of Shirozaki-sensei as he wheeled in a whiteboard. "Now listen up. I got a call from Ashiya and bad news, he won't be able to return until after the qualifying round of the Nationals."

"What is he doing!?" Homura snarled, having to be pulled back down to his seat by Kumagawa. "What the hell has he been doing all this time?"

"Apparently he's in America at a basketball training camp in Chicago where he apparently caught the eye of former NBA player and legend Dennis Rodman, which is why he'll be late to return. But when he returns he'll be better than ever, so at least there's a silver lining to all of this. And for the good news, Akagi-kun is going to be back by next month or so." A round of cheers went throughout the room.

"Now, onto current matters. Next week, on Saturday we will be going up against Kodai High. They are currently ranked 4th in the prefecture and will try their absolute best to beat us. Are we going to let them!?"

"NO!"

"Good. Kodai High should be an easy win, if we don't make any stupid mistake and if we don't underestimate them. But otherwise, there shouldn't be any problems. Now, rotations. These aren't set in stone, so don't worry about how many minutes you're going to get. So don't complain about only getting 5 minutes of play. Some of you won't even get to play." He then pulled out a black marker. "The starting point guard should be of no surprise to anyone, that's you Hanakawa. Shooting guard, Homura. Small forward, Kumagawa, I'm expecting you to at least score for us, regardless of how inefficient you are. Power Forward, Ogiwara Shigehiro." I perked up at this.

"What?"

Shirozaki-sensei turned to me. "Don't worry about it, you'll probably only play 15 to 20 minutes or so unless you really blow me away. At center, Tomoe. Is that clear?"

All of us nodded and then went to go and change out of our gym clothes. I donned a black shirt and a pair of jeans, grabbed my bag and practically ran out of the gym. Until I bumped into Yume. "Ow."

"Isn't that my line?" She smirked and helped me up. "Don't worry about. I was waiting for you." Waiting? Why was she waiting for me? "Homura thinks that there's a chance that you might win the starting 3 spot. Kumagawa was never really meant to be a starter, despite having the skill to be an ace at another school. He is the epitome of what a sixth man is supposed to be." That caught my attention. Kuroko was a sixth man. Or at least he claimed. "The first 6th man, or the one that pioneered the role was legendary Boston Celtics player John Havlicek. He's one of the best scorers in NBA history. Kumagawa based his playstyle off of the best 6th man in the NBA today. Jamal Crawford. The thing that they all have in common? They're all scorers. Kumagawa isn't that good at anything else really. He's an average defender and his passing isn't that good either. But if you want scoring, then Kumagawa is the one."

"Are you praising me again Yume? I could've sworn someone was praising me and telling someone else just how good I am." Yume and I turned to see Homura and Kumagawa with Hanakawa-senpai behind them, making their way towards us.

"Please, don't say anything Ogiwara, it'll just make this fool's ego bigger. As if it wasn't already big enough." Hanakawa-senpai called out. "Now, to the mall!" He then ran past Homura and began to make his way to the bus stop. On the way he turned his head over his shoulder. "What the fuck are you waiting for!? The bus is already fucking here!"

The rest of us looked at each other and ran. I think I'm going to like it here. Yeah, I think I will.