Tuesday
Mid-semester break was right around the corner, and Lincoln, Clyde and the rest of Royal Woods Elementary were already enjoying the rest of their day as they finished school already. For Lincoln and Clyde, the rocket to start their break had already lifted off!
They were at Lincoln's house watching TV, a rare occurrence for Lincoln as it was always one of his sisters watching the TV.
"Hey y'all! I'm talking to every single person that's watching this commercial! This is Wizard Kelly speakin'! And if you not from Cali, then you may or may not know who I am! If you don't, I am the owner of Wizard Kelly Enterprises! A multi-billion dollar conglomerate that owns businesses! Venues! And so much more to the point I that I wouldn't be able to fit it all on this commercial segment!" Wizard Kelly said, basketball in hand.
"Sup Lincoln! Sup Clyde!" Lynn Loud said, walking into the room to go to the kitchen for a glass of water.
"Hey Lynn!" Clyde and Lincoln said, with Lincoln giving her a high five.
"You may also recognize me for my participation in sports! And even if you don't, that's fine too!" Wizard Kelly says which gets Lynn's attention. "Because all you need to know is that on Friday, Wizard Kelly Enterprises will be hosting an amusement park! Filled with games and prizes that we know you'll love! But that's not all y'all! The main event is the basketball tournament we're holding to see who's got game! The tournament will be in the span of three days! Anybody's allowed to make a team, but only the top 8 teams will be allowed in as decided by a preliminary round! Don't got game? That's cool! Because you can get tickets to watch! The winner will get this unique Wizard Kelly trophy! And this limited edition copy of Wizard Kelly sports, signed by Wizard Kelly himself on the gaming console of your choice, or an assortment of Wizard Kelly themed jewelry! From diamonds to necklaces, to earrings, and so much more! And guess what? All of the money earned from this event will go towards an assortment of charities! So you get to help the little kids out while you have fun!" Wizard Kelley said.
"Tickets are limited in quantity! And so are tournament entries! So if you want to get into the amusement park or enter the tournament, grab a Wizard Kelly entry form wherever you see a Wizard Kelly poster!" Wizard Kelly said.
A messages comes up which scrolls very fast. The man saying it also seems to be sped up as well, not making it easy to understand.
The Message read: Entries and tickets are served on a first-come, first-serve basis. Tickets are non-refundable on the day of the event. Employees or family members of Employees of Wizard Kelly Enterprises are not allowed to participate in the tournament. Tournament participant age range is from 11-15 years old and each player must individually sign an injury liability form to participate. All coaches for each team must be 18 years or older. If the coach is not a parent or guardian of a player, all parents of the participants must sign an approval form of the coach. ID verification from the coach may also be required on tournament day before entry is allowed.
"We've got to enter that tournament!" Lynn said.
"That amusement park looks like so much fun!" Clyde said.
"I know!" Lincoln said.
"I think we know one thing we're going to be doing over the break!" Lincoln said.
Lincoln and Lynn ask their parents about this would Clyde leaves Lincoln's to ask his about going.
"All the way in California? For an amusement park and a tournament?" Lynn Loud Sr. asked.
"Can we go? Pleeeease?" Lincoln asked.
"I don't know." Rita said.
"Besides, if you need to make your own teams, you're going to need players. And a coach." Their father reasoned.
Lynn was thinking for a few seconds until she came up with an idea. "What if you could be our coach dad?" Lynn proposed.
"Me? A coach. No way." He said.
"It'll be fun! Plus, I can teach you some of the plays ran so you can make a playbook and a game plan." Lynn said.
"Well... it couldn't hurt. Plus, we'd be helping out charity." Their father said.
"First, we need to see posters or advertisements to make sure this is real." Rita said.
"You're also going to need a team. Once you get your teammates, their parents are going to have to check in with us." Their dad explained.
Then, we'll make our final decision by the end of the day." Their mother said.
"Shake on it?" Their father said, offering a hand.
"Deal." Lynn said, shaking hands with her father.
"Now Lincoln, if you want to go to that amusement park, its only fair that Lynn and your other sisters want to actually come along too. If they don't want to, or if Lynn can't make a team, then we can't go. It's only fair." His dad explained.
"Deal." Lincoln said, extending a hand that his dad took and shook.
After asking his sisters, only Lori was reluctant to leave. However, when Bobby said he would be accompanying his sister to the amusement park, she was more than happy to go.
"Now to check on Lynn."
Wizardville, CA
"So, what do you say son?" Michael Collins' dad asked Michael after seeing the ad for the tournament that Wizard Kelly was hosting.
"Okay Daddy!" Michael said.
"Please don't call me that in public. I've asked you not to do so several times, but I'm reminding you again. It's coach when we're in public. Coach. Got that?" His dad asked.
"Yeah coach." Michael said, still smiling.
"Now, the question is: Can you hire assistant coaches, because if so, I know exactly who to hire to put some backbone and edge to the team." His dad said, walking to another room.
Michael frowned.
"Something tells me you weren't exactly a fan of that were you?" Adrian asked.
"Uh uh. The only reason I even did it, was because it was my dad. And you know something's wrong when I don't want to play basketball." Michael said.
Proud Residence
Oscar picked up the phone while he was watching TV. "Hello? Yeah, I saw the ad. Assistant coach? Yeah I wish I could, but I'm still healing from that beatdown I got from those weightlifters. Okay then, later!"
"Dang weightlifters! So what if the snacks did make them sick! With how they work out every day, they supposed to be as strong as the Man of Steel. Ain't my fault they got unlucky and got a bad batch." Oscar said out loud, still looking at TV, grumpy. He was wearing a neck brace and a right leg boot.
"Well I guess your snacks are like Kryptonite." Sugar Mama said entering the room, laughing.
"Mama! You lucky I got this neck brace on!" Oscar said.
"Neck brace or no neck brace you ain't gon' do nothin'. And don't tell me about no arm wrestlin' cause I'll embarrass you like I always do." Sugar Mama said before taking the remote from Oscar.
"Hey! Have some sympathy! I'm in pain here!" Oscar said.
"Oh hush up boy! That ain't the worst you've been, and it sure ain't gon' be the worst you'll ever feel." Sugar Mama said.
Meanwhile Penny was upstairs in her room talking to Michael.
"Please tell me you're going Penny." A voice said on the phone. It was Michael.
"I was going to ask my parents if we can go. But it's all up to them. What's wrong? You sound stressed." Penny said.
"It's my dad. He wants to enter the tournament." Michael said.
"You must not want to leave." Penny assumed.
"No, it's not that. In fact, I wanted to enter as one of the players on the team he's making! But it's how my dad treats me! It's like, he's embarrassed of me or something. If I do this I want to at least know that I'm not by myself out there when I play."
"You're asking me to play?" Penny asked.
"You can play if you want, but I'm not asking you to be there as a teammate. I'm asking you to be there as a friend." Michael said.
"I'll be there Michael. I promise." Penny said.
"Thanks Penny."
"You're welcome, Michael. Bye." Penny said before hanging up.
Penny goes downstairs and sees that Sugar Mama was the one watching TV now.
"Daddy?" Penny said.
"When you sound like that you're asking for something. What is it baby girl?" Oscar sasked.
"I was just wondering if we could go to the Wizard Kelly amusement park. Please?" Penny said.
"After what he did to me the last time he had a competition? He sold me out and put the blame on me! No way! The only chance you had is if I could coach. But as you can see here I'm in no condition to be trying to coach." Oscar said.
"Come on Daddy, please? Michael's gonna be playing in it! I promised him I would be there to support him." Penny pleaded as Trudy opened the door, coming home from work.
"No! And that's my final answer!" Oscar said.
"Hey Trudy!" Oscar said to her as she was walking by.
"Hey Mama!" Penny said.
"Hey Penny!" She replied.
"Mama can we please go to the amusement park? Michael's playing in the tournament. I want to be there to watch and cheer him on." Penny said.
"I don't see why not. You've been doing your chores and making good grades." Trudy said. "Why didn't you ask your father about it?"
"Because he still salty over what Wizard Kelly did. So he told her no." Sugar Mama said.
"Mama!" Oscar said, covering his eyes, knowing he would have to face the wrath of his wife.
"Oscar, just because you feel a certain way about someone doesn't mean you can involve anyone else in your issues with them." Trudy said.
"No! I'm not changing my mind! That man put down my business doing that!" Oscar said.
"I don't see how you can put something down that was already buried." Sugar Mama said.
"I'm sticking with my answer, and there's nothing any of y'all can do to change it! And since it's 1 to 1, I own the tiebreaker since I'm the man of the house! And I say we're not going! Penny, you can give Michael your support through spirit I'm sure he'll feel it." Oscar said.
"You gon' let that girl go boy. 'Cause it's 2 to 1 now." Sugar Mama said.
"What? How can you get a vote when you don't pay any of the bulls here?" Oscar asked.
"Because, there wouldn't be no man of the house without me. Now let that girl go!" Sugar Mama said, hitting him on the top of the head with her cane. "Don't make me hurt you now."
"Alright! Alright! She can go." Oscar said, caving in and folding his arms, clearly unhappy.
Penny screamed for joy. "Thank you Mama! Thank you Sugar Mama!" Penny said, running to hug both of them.
"You're welcome Penny." Trudy said.
"You're welcome baby girl." Sugar Mama said.
"I promise I'll make it up to you Daddy." Penny said, kissing him on the cheek before going upstairs. "I gotta go see if the rest of my friends are going!"
Friday
"Well, today's the big day!" Lynn Loud Sr., the Louds' dad said to them all.
"This is gonna be totally rockin' dude!" Luna said.
"All right! Lynn! Lincoln! I want you to have fun but don't tire yourselves out! You'll need that energy for the preliminaries." Their dad said. He was wearing a yellow-orange shirt to match the main color for his team. During their practice in running their plays, they agreed on the name "Lions" because just like Lions they were loud and proud! Something that Luan loud approved of heavily.
Their team consisted of Lynn Loud Jr., Lincoln Loud, Liam, Diane, Maya, Amy, Paula, Jamie, and Kevin.
"You got it dad! I mean... coach!" Lincoln said, winking as he said coach. During Lynn's search for teammates, Lincoln volunteered to join the team to help fill the roster, and make sure they had enough players to participate. Since the quarters were only 7 minutes as opposed to 12, the rules required that at least seven players be on a team, meaning that at least two reserves needed to be on the team in the case of an injury. Up to a maximum of 10 players were allowed per team.
Lincoln went to find Clyde.
"Clyde!"
"Lincoln!" They fist bumped each other.
"Ready for this to be an awesome day?" Clyde asked.
"Heck yeah I am!" Lincoln said.
They looked around. "So which game do you want to go to first?" Clyde asked.
"Hmmm." Lincoln said, looking around and thinking.
"Let's try the Wizard Striker!" Lincoln said.
They go to the Wizard Striker sledge hammer ball game.
Clyde goes first. He slams the hammer and the ball goes up to "You Got Some Strength!"
"You got some strength! That's tight! That's tight!" The voice of Wizard Kelly said from the game.
"See if you can top that Lincoln!" Clyde said boastfully.
"When you've been training on the basketball court like I have, you'll get a little extra on those muscles." Lincoln said, bragging. He gets the hammer and slams it. It goes up to a few lines below where Clyde was.
"You got it! You got it! Put a little more on it and I'll really know you got some strength!" Wizard Kelly said from the game.
"Dang it!" Lincoln said.
"Let me give it a try." Lynn said, approaching them. She picks up the hammer and gets "Wizard Strength!" the highest one out of them all.
"Wiz Strength baby! You got strength! Yes you do! If I were there right now, I'd shake your hand!"
"Yeah!" Lynn said before doing a celebratory dance.
"Man, Lynn really is something else." Clyde said.
Not too far where they were, the Prouds were exploring the amusement park as well.
"Mama, Daddy can I go find my friends? I definitely want to make sure I see Michael before the preliminaries start." Penny asked.
"Go on ahead, Penny! Just make sure you stay out of trouble!" Trudy called after them.
"I may be here now, but you can bet I'm not showing up to the preliminaries. And if I do is gonna be far, far away from the front rows." Oscar said.
"Why not?" Trudy asked.
"Because, I don't want to been seen here in this wheelchair looking like Professor X! It's bad enough Felix is gonna see me like this. You can bet I'm not lettin' Wizard Kelly see me."
"At least Professor X can read minds. You couldn't do much even when you weren't in that wheelchair." Sugar Mama said.
"I can do much more than you." Oscar said, low.
"What was that boy?" Sugar Mama said.
"Nothing mama." Oscar said.
"That's what I thought."
Felix, Papi and Sunset found the Oscar, Trudy and Sugar Mama.
"Felix! What's up bro!" Oscar said.
"Oscar, how ya been bro?" Felix said before seeing that he was in a wheelchair was wearing a neck brace, and a boot on his right leg. "Oh man. What happened to you?"
"Don't want to talk about it."
"Come on Papi, we're about to have some fun! Plus, I can keep an eye on Penny too." Sugar Mama said. Papi and Sugar Mama walk off from the rest of the family.
"If this is having fun, then maybe I should have stayed home." Papi said in Spanish before laughing.
"Michael!" Penny called out.
"Penny! You really came!" Michael said. He was already with Zoey, LaCienaga, Sticky and Dijonay.
"I promised didn't I?" Penny said.
"I say we go on a rollercoaster ride first!" Zoey said.
"Probably a bad idea. Michael's got to go to the preliminaries." Sticky says as he checks his watch for the time. "Which is about 50 minutes from now. We don't want there to be a chance that he gets sick before then."
"Why don't we try playing some games to win some tickets?" Penny suggested.
"That's a great idea!" Zoey said.
They pass by a claw crane. A flaming-haired kid along with a kid with seemingly more hair than normal wearing a shirt that said "not a dog" were already there. "Darn it!" The flaming-haired kid said.
"Why are you even playing this anyway?" The kid with the "not a dog" shirt asked.
"Because, tickets."
They go past a water dunking machine and to a game with hoops.
"Can we give this game a try please?" Penny asked.
"Sure! The objective in this game is to get basketballs into the moving hoops you see here. Basically you're making the perfect pass. The more points you get, the more prizes you win and the more tickets you get! So what do ya say?" The employee manning the game asked.
"I say, bring it on." Penny said confidently as she gave the man the money needed to play.
After all of them went, Penny came out as the top scorer, scoring perfects even after LaCienaga believed that it was beginner's luck that she got a perfect score the first time.
"Dang girl! I knew you had game in football, but I didn't know you had game in basketball too!" Dijonay said.
"It's just an amusement park game. It's not like its a real game." Penny said.
"Even so, I have to admit, that I am impressed Proud." LaCienaga said.
"Maybe you should have joined the team Penny." Michael said.
"Maybe next time. I'm just here to cheer you on Michael." Penny said.
They went on to play other games and won tickets for those as well.
Eventually, it was 20 minutes until the preliminaries began.
"All right, I gotta go meet with coach and the rest of the team. Sorry I made y'all miss out on the rides." Michael said.
"It's all good man. You really want to make it up to us, get out there and hoop." Sticky said as he and Michael pound fists.
"Coach! I'm here!" Michael said to his dad.
"Good! We just need to wait on one more and we're good to go." Coach Collins said.
Eventually, the last member of the team showed up. Their team consisted of Michael, Omar, Tookie, TJ, Jason, Adam, Tommy and Murray(their tallest player).
"Alright Hawks! You already know the game plan going in to the preliminaries and into the tournament. Because its not a matter of if, it's a matter of when we get in that tournament. We can have as many plays as we want in this playbook! But at the end of the day, effort is going to decide how far we go! Effort, energy and toughness! And that's what we've been working on more than anything else! We call ourselves the Hawks because we're gonna make sure we soar higher than the rest for rebounds! Be faster than everyone else! Be tougher than everyone else! Now let's suit up and play some ball!" Coach Collins said, leading his team into the gym.
Lynn Loud Sr. was also preparing his team with a speech before the preliminaries. "Alright team! I may not know every single play in this playbook off the top of my head, but when we need them, we'll use them! Obviously, we have our star player in Lynn here, but everybody's an important part of the team! It's five on five for a reason! Now let's get in there and have some fun!" He said, blowing his whistle.
"Man, I love doing that! Too bad I can't do that in the actual games." Lynn Sr. said.
Every team that qualified entered the gym and their players were already in their jerseys.
"Alright y'all! Settle down!" Wizard Kelly said on the mic. "Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! To Wizard Kelly's 'Who's Got Game?' Youth Basketball Tournament! And yes! I created that name after the tournament announcement!"
He continued. "As said in the advertisement and sign-up forms, there will be a preliminary round to determine which 8 teams get to compete in the tournament. And we've got a whopping 20 teams here! That's a lot of players! But we're about to find out which of these players are ballers y'all! But before we begin, I want y'all to go in that wizard hat over there and grab a piece of paper out of it. One person from each team please!"
Tookie grabs a piece of paper out of it. It had the number "12". A player from another team grabs another piece of paper that read "17". Eight other teams later, Lynn grabs a slip of paper. It read "10". "All right! Now that y'all have your papers, let me tell you what those numbers mean! Those numbers represent your place in the preliminaries. Don't worry! If you didn't grab a number in the top eight that doesn't mean you're gone! Because every team is going to be in this preliminary round! We're doing a 1 on 1 contest! Each team picks one player to represent them in this preliminary. You may want it to be your best player. Or not! Maybe you want to save 'em for the tournament! In this tournament, we're gonna be running a half-court game! First to 3! Normal violations in games will be enforced, so don't try anything dirty y'all! To get in, all you have to do is win! Simple! But, here's where things get interesting. The 3 teams remaining from the 10 with the lowest numbers will play a game of 11! Like 21, but instead you go to 11! You can choose another player, or stick with that same player. The winner of that game will get the 8th and final spot for the tournament!" Wizard Kelly said.
"Does anyone have any questions?"
"Oh! And one more thing! The tournament matchups are by ascending order! So 1 goes against 2, 3 goes against 4 and so on and so fourth!" Wizard Kelly said. After several seconds of silence, he spoke again.
"All right! Looks like nobody's got any questions! The first round begins in 10 minutes! So you've got 10 to choose which player you want to represent you in the tournament!"
"Get out there and knock 'em off their feet Lynn!" Lynn Sr. said to his daughter.
"You got it coach!" Lynn said.
"We're not taking any chances. So what if they get to see our best player in action early? That just gives our competition one more thing to think about!" Coach Collins said.
"Michael! You're up!"
Michael said, "Let's do this!"
