Here is the next chapter thanks to KingLeonx21 for the help and uh Enjoy...
Disclaimer: Don't own iCarly, NCAA Colleges or University that is said in this story this is just for fun.
Now hope you like this next chapter
Chapter 4: The dog days of Summer Part one
So Jerome sits forward staring at the players in front of him with a stare that would have Sam shivering.
"First week of our training Camp will consist of Conditioning, We are going to use what is around through most of the day and then get some weight lifting done after dinner at a twenty-four hour place. Then, the second week will be learning the offense and defense our team will do under our head coach, we would want to be ready for what is head in the actual Training Camp that is coming up for us, and don't worry, we will talk about it also during out conditioning week but we will go through plays the second week. Now for the last two weeks we will be actually playing." Everyone's eyes lit up at the prospect of getting to actually play in real games. "We'll do pick-up games during the third week…" He shot a glance at Rudy, "Then during the fourth week, we will be in a tournament."
When he said that everyone was looking at him with slacked jaws and confused looks. They were perfectly fine with playing in pick-up games that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things, but a tournament just carried an air of importance that scared the crap out of them.
He held his hand up to quiet the place down.
"Okay, I know you're thinking: 'why that soon?' but you guys were basketball players in high school, we learn this offense well enough, and we can do well in the tournament at Rucker Park." Jerome could tell by the look on the newcomers' faces that their fears weren't eased by his confidence. So he decided to give it to them straight. "I know that you guys can play, but the level of competition at this level is unlike anything you've ever seen before. This tournament will give you that chance. So…" Jerome's eyes darkened, "you can either, embrace this chance or let it run you over."
At that point Rudy who was sitting next to Jerome looked at him with intrigue and curiosity. "Rome, the Ruck? Ain't that around the time of the..."
"Yea," Jerome interrupted, "The Entertainers Basketball Classic"
"Rome, can we talk in private, real quick?" Rudy said.
Jerome nodded and excused himself from the table, as did Rudy, and they went to his room.
Jerome sat on his bed and as soon he closed the Door Rudy let him have it.
"Are you insane?" Rudy whispered loudly, "That is the most competitive Street ball Tournament Rucker Park holds! The most physical players in the city play there. They're the definition of roughhouse basketball! They will have to fight for every possession… every basket… they may even have to just fight… period!"
Jerome just nodded his head.
"You're gonna be bringing kids that don't really ball like that, to a fireball of great college players and pros! The only high school players that go are one and done guys. Even most of the players we played with in our district said that the EBC is something they didn't want to go into 'til they were ready..." Rudy turns around to see a look of nonchalance, gracing his friend's face. He can't anything but shake his head in disbelief, "You really are crazy… aren't ya?"
Jerome, through all of this, just raised his eyebrows, "Yeah... I am. Didn't you know that when we met in the Cage, all those years ago?"
"Of course. You was the smallest guy in the Cage, and you showed up everybody." Rudy sat on the bed next to Jerome, "But, you have any idea what's on the line, here?" Rudy hopped off the bed in frustration, "NBA scouts will be there, and those guys do not play, man."
Jerome lets out a long breath, "I know, but those kids, as you call them, need to see the level of competition that's coming at them. It's not for the faint of heart... and you know that just as well as I do."
Rudy sat in a chair in the corner of the room, "I understand that, Rome. But they may seriously get overwhelmed." Rudy leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, "If the team suffers, the scouts will question your leadership ability, and that is something that you definitely don't want, especially if you're going to be a franchise player in the NBA."
"You're right," Both men stood up from their respective places and Jerome ran his hand through his hair. "But right now, for me it's about winning a National Championship, and doing what I can for the team that is out there, for the team that I am going to be around for the next four years. If the scouts can't respect what I am doing, well they don't know what basketball is."
"True, but look," Rudy would stare back his eyes darken, Jerome looks at him with a raised eyebrow and a confused stare, he's like that when he feels something will go wrong. "I believe that this team can do something with us on this team, but remember…" He places a hand on Jerome's shoulder, "You don't know what you're putting this team through, and they don't know what lies in store for them. Those guys out there…" He points back towards the closed door, "Those are west coast boys, and basketball in the northwest, as far as talent is concerned, does not compare well to the rest of the coast. They are west coast boys that might as well say they never balled outside of the state."
Jerome smiles at his friend, "Yep…" Rudy grew confused at his friend's smile, "Luckily, that's about to change."
"Okay, but I have a feeling that this may hurt before it helps." Rudy said and they both walked back out to see the players.
They walked into the group talking amongst themselves and having a mostly fearful look, they weren't ready for this and was about to take back the tournament till he looked up at Freddie and Gibby, those guys looked as relaxed and excited as they could be. It was like they had no doubts of the future ahead it was crazy.
Jerome likes Crazy...
Week One: Conditioning
Freddie Benson thought that conditioning would be a menial task. Even though you wouldn't call him an Adonis, he still went to the gym with Gibby, and held his own.
I should be good, right?
Freddie wasn't good at predicting those things well. He started to know that this was truly another animal when he was on the third block of their morning "Run" or what Freddie would like to call.
The Urban Obstacle Course from hell...
The Run consisted of running across town, six blocks from where they were at the Corner of Bushwick avenue and Sudyam, to Bushwick Park. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't have to cut through alleys and climb over fences that seemed to be getting higher and higher the further they got. The worst part though…
"AARF! AARF!" Would be the Rottweiler that has been chasing them for the last two blocks.
He was faster than he thought he was as he was, gaining separation from the dog, and was rounding the corner to the last block till they had reached the park and Freddie looked up.
He has never seen fences this tall in Seattle. It had to be six feet tall and the rust from years of rain was showing, but as he stood there, hypnotized by the monstrosity that stood before him, the barking that he thought was gone was getting louder again.
That damn dog, Freddie thought as he tried to climb the wall. At this point, his legs were feeling it as he was climbing fences the five alleys before. He was starting to think that he should maybe find a way around the fence, but feeling the breath of the dog's bark on his butt got his butt in second gear and he got over that fence and dropped to the ground, on the other side. He ran across the street and saw the rest of the guys waiting for him at the basketball courts, they were all sitting on the asphalt with their backs against the metal fence that was surrounding the court. Their faces showed that they were feeling it just as bad as Freddie was. Heavy breathing, heads back and eyes closed. The sight made them realize that this was not what they expected.
"So the fastest here get their own Sporterade and 2nd through 5th gets to share one, while 6th gets a bottled water, and last," Jerome looks up towards Benson and with a Cheshire grin he says "The water fountain is over there."
Freddie ran to it like it was the last thing left on this barren land that is called Earth, but as he got a taste of the clear liquid he noticed what was wrong, it was warm...
He spit it out as soon as it hit his mouth and laughing could be heard throughout the whole park. Jerome walked over with a bottle of water.
"Yea, just a little lesson when you train here, don't drink from the fountain." He chuckled as he poured the water onto the ground, emptying the bottle to half capacity. He handed the half full bottle of water to Freddie, who wore a look of disbelief.
His chuckle disappeared and was replaced with a menacing look. "This is another lesson: Don't lose. Or else you'll have to watch everyone else celebrate with the thing that you want the most." Jerome walked back to the others.
Freddie couldn't believe this at all. However Freddie was overwhelmed by his thirst and couldn't really process Jerome's words. Freddie just took the colder clear liquid and it was like ice water hitting hot coals. He could've sworn he could see steam coming out of his mouth.
This is more insane than i thought...
At the end of a day full of the harshest conditioning Freddie had ever seen, let alone taken part in. Freddie lay in the room. He was absolutely exhausted.
Freddie was feeling no better at the end of the week than he had at the beginning. All of his organs threatened to stop functioning. All of his appendages threatened to fall off. He wanted to die, but he knew there was a reason he had to stay alive. To prove her wrong. Although at the moment she seemed to be correct in her assumption that he wouldn't last.
Freddie knew Sam was going to revel into this, he felt tired and broken down, the body was just not ready for this harsh of conditioning. He was taught this week how harsh the Brooklyn Summer can be, his skin felt like it was on fire, and he looks a shade darker. His throat was on fire from the number of times he had thrown up today. His stomach felt so empty but he couldn't eat a thing when dinner came onto the table, he ended up drinking water through out. He felt like he was knocking on death's door after the eight hours of Conditioning, from running suicides, to push ups and climbing more fences after the morning jog. He felt like a Jenga Tower that was barely holding on to the final foundation stick before tumbling over and demolishing, and Samantha Puckett wanted to be that person to take that final piece and send him to his inevitable doom.
Maybe I shouldn't even call her tonight. She'll just make it worse. Just as he was about to put his phone in his bag, it rang. He looked at the phone to see who it was. His breaths out a long breath of despair before answering the phone.
"Hello?" he tried to sound full of vitality but that required more energy than was currently available to him.
He hears her cackle and he knows that he sounds a whole lot worse than he wanted to. "Ha. I knew it! You're already broken. Mind if I give you your bib and pacifier and call it a day?"
"I had a feeling you would say that," Freddie whispered; in his mind he was ready to just call it, give up and get ready for repairing my reputation after the graduation.
"Freddork, I know you are feeling destroyed, like you can't do this, and its only going to get worse, before..." She paused. "You are on the way back to Seattle… and I WILL be at the airport laughing in your face!" She then gave a maniacal laugh.
He couldn't respond… he just hung up the phone. He looked at the time. It was 1:00 in the morning. He had four hours of sleep before his day started again.
His phone rang once again. It was her again. He silenced the ringer and turned the volume all the way down and put it at the bottom of his bag. If he were to keep talking to her he very well may have gone home.
Meanwhile, Rudy and Jerome were reviewing the players' progress over the past week
"So Rudy, what do ya think?"
"You really wanna know what I think?" Jerome could hear the agitation in his voice. He could guess what the issue was.
"Well of course, you're my right hand in all of this."
"I think you're crazy for putting these kids through your training regimen."
"You know what the purpose of this month is?"
"I thought that it was to prepare them for the rigors of the coach's training camp… the coach's training camp."
"Allow me to enlighten you."
"Please do. Because at this rate you aren't gonna do anything except…"
"Exactly. That's what this pre-training camp is for." Rudy's eyes widened in disbelief, "To weed out the week. Only the strong will win a championship, and I will weed out all of the ones who can't cut it."
"That's bull Rome. Even in high school, no one could keep up with you. You're gonna destroy these boys."
"Good. If they can't cut it then they don't deserve to be on this team." Jerome walked over to his charts that he used to document the progress of the boys, "So what do ya think?"
Rudy knew from previous experience that Jerome would not be easily swayed. Especially when it came to the game. He had to oblige, for now. "Well… the Gibson kid seems to be the beast of the bunch."
"Yeah, but what about the guy he came in with?"
"Who's that? The Benson kid?" Jerome nodded and looked over at Rudy for his input, "Well he seems to be a slow learner but…"
"Yeah, slow learner may be an understatement. At this rate he'll bring the whole team down."
"Come on Rome, give him a chance."
"A chance to what? To force this team down to mediocrity, to be a constant anchor, always draggin this team down… keeping us from reaching our full potential?"
"So what are ya gonna do? You're just gonna dump on him until he decides to quit?"
"If that's what it takes. I refuse to share the court with a bunch of weak links."
Rudy had to try to stop this. Jerome was sounding even crazier than he usually sounds, "Remember that game our junior year against Bushwick Community High School?" Jerome's body went rigid, "On paper, it should have been a walk in the park. What happened that night Rome?"
Rome shook his head at the memory of one of his greatest failures, "What's the point you're makin' Rudy?"
"My point is that, yeah, on paper this kid doesn't look like much but to count him out… to count anyone out, would be a big mistake. We slept on that teams potential and bit us."
"So what? Are you saying that…"
"Yeah, I'm sayin' that maybe this kid isn't the workout warrior that you may want him to be, but he may have potential. And as the leader, it's your job to pull that out of him."
"Well, Job or not, he'll have to prove himself to me." Rudy could just shake his head in disappointment, "I think it's time to turn in, got a long day tomorrow."
With those words Rudy and Jerome went to bed, knowing that tomorrow would be the start of the most mentally taxing week of the young players' summer.
Please Review, I am just glad you guys are reading though so I am cool with the hits and keep on doing the hits.
