January 10th 2018
Chapter 10
Their Adjustment to Reality
When he'd come through the door and his parents had seen his face, they'd known he'd found out what they themselves had already learned, and his mother had at once come to him and enclosed him in her arms for a beat before launching into complaint she had kept quiet around him up to then. She went on and on about unfair the situation was to Lucas and his classmates who were part of the teams, and that she didn't intend to let it stand, and much as part of him wished she'd stop, he also knew that this was who his mother was, how she worked, and the thing that was for sure was that if anyone brought any kind of injury or injustice to her son, to her husband, to her family or friends as a whole, well… she wouldn't just stand by and keep quiet. His mother's strength and love could seem overbearing, but in moments like these he really wouldn't have wanted her to be any other way.
In time he had retreated up to his room, knowing she'd reached the point where he didn't in fact need to be there to listen, that she would spend whatever pent up frustration she'd been accumulating on her own, which was just as well. It was the first real moment he had to stop and settle into what had happened that day, the revelations they'd received, or what parts of them they had received, with more on its way.
He hadn't known what to think, the entire time, since Julianne had let out the secret for all of them at her house. He'd stood and sat with his teammates, with his friends, and the whole time he was still really focused on them more than his own concerns, his own thoughts. Now it was just him, and there was no one there but him to consider what this could mean.
He loved playing basketball, he really did. He wouldn't have kept doing it if he didn't. And he loved being part of the team, part of that world, but now that the team part had been taken from them, well what would it mean? For them, for him… He still played with his friends, and he would continue to. Not having the team… Well it sucked, of course. He didn't even have to think about that. But maybe it wouldn't be as much of a disappointment to him as it was to some others.
Could he even say that to them? It was what it was, the way he felt, now that he had stopped to admit it to himself, but maybe they would take it the wrong way, like he didn't sympathize with them, when of course he did, so very much. He only had to think of his closest friends, of Dylan and Zay and the tie to their future, and to Maya, to the way he'd seen the news settle into her over the day. This was a loss for her, one that would be felt, deep down, for a long while. All he could ever want to do would be to stand by her side, by their side.
That was only part of the question though, wasn't it? This was a thing that had happened, a thing they didn't know a whole lot about just yet. Was it his one week of debate that had him wondering on the facts, on what had brought on this decision? He tried to think of anything that could have been the cause of it, if it had to do with any one of them, the players? If that was the case, then they would have heard something, wouldn't they, unless they'd been told not to? But if it was the players, it wouldn't cause what had happened, he didn't think. The coaches had been fired, so it had to be them, yeah? What could they have done that was so bad that they wouldn't just hire new coaches and carry on? He couldn't speak much to the character of Coach Reyes, except that the girls seemed to like her, and Coach Chilton… He was a good guy, as far as he'd seen. He'd coached Dylan's older brother, too, and some of Zay's cousins, there'd never been anything but good words about the man. It just didn't seem possible, none of it.
His father had come up to check on him, once his mother's diatribe had run its course. Was he okay, he'd ask, and Lucas could only ever tell him what was real, which was that he was fine, maybe tired but nothing more. It had been an unexpectedly long and tiring day, and he didn't expect the next one to be any easier. So on that his father had let him be, adding of course that if he needed to talk, needed anything at all, he would be there, and Lucas assured him that he knew this. He had also gone and seen his mother again, thanking her for her passion on the subject with nothing more than an earnest hug, and his mother had taken it gladly.
Maya had texted him… There would be an assembly in the morning. So it was all going to be out tomorrow… He wasn't surprised, but still it felt like as tired as he'd been he was more tired now. He'd gone to bed soon after, sinking into a dreamless sleep that carried him until morning. He was going to need all the strength he could get.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners