B-ball and the Art of War
Therapy, Nathan had decided, was becoming a full time job. There were weekly visits for everyone solo and then again in various combinations. The therapist had decreed that for the time being they would not all meet together, so it was never the four of them all at once, but about half the time Mrs. Plumber would also attend, including those sessions at which Nathan was not present. This, more than the forced therapy itself, was what seemed to get Dan going. Nathan had overheard him on the phone with his lawyer once, referring to her as that "judgmental nosy- parkering old biddy", but there was nothing he could do about it and he knew it. To try and calm Dan down, Nathan had distanced himself from her a little, cutting phone conversations short and finding reasons to be out of the house when she came over, but she'd figured out what he was up to almost immediately and brought him up short. "Don't even bother trying, young man," she'd said. "I've got moves you can't imagine." His first weekend with Karen's had come and gone but it had been awkward. He didn't know how to relate to her except as a mother, and to do so felt like betraying his real mom, so he hadn't known what to say or how to behave. He'd relaxed enough by Sunday afternoon to accept her invite to a few hands of blackjack. Vegas boy that he was, he'd thoroughly trounced her and won all the buttons they were using as chips, and they'd had a really good time. He found he was looking forward to the next "sleepover", as Karen called them.
The only black spot was, as expected, Lucas. After the hearing, Karen must have put the fear of God and Satan into him, because the intimidation stopped cold. As far as Lucas was concerned, Nathan had gone back to invisibility. The only communication they ever had was the bare ecessity needed to play on the same team. Whitey wasn't happy, he knew, but the team was still winning, so he didn't say anything. Nathan was torn on what to do next. As long as Lucas wasn't doing anything to him, there was no need to retaliate. On the other hand, he knew that under that hooded squint plans were being formed; plans that boded nothing good for him. If he took the initiative, he could catch Lucas off guard and force him to play by his rules. He just hadn't figured out what the best approach was. That book that had gotten Dan in all the trouble (and which he had taken away the minute they got back from court) had said to attack something the enemy must save, but for the life of him Nathan couldn't figure out what might qualify. The only thing he could think of was Lucas' relationship with Haley, which Karen had reported was back to its old self, but he didn't want to hurt Haley. It was as he was walking to practice that it hit him. Of course! Two guard! He'd steadily gotten his shooting average up in practice until he was in a dead heat with Lucas. All he had to do was beat Lucas from the three-point line and Whitey would give him the position. It was genius. The only little flaw was he'd discovered he actually really liked the challenge of playing point guard, but he'd just have to suffer a little. He chortled to himself as he strolled into the gym. This was going to be sweet.
And it was. It was a non-Lucas week, so he could safely ask Dan for help without alerting the enemy. They'd worked on his three point shot every day before school, and he'd managed to steadily improve to the point where Whitey finally noticed. After Nathan managed to sink one at the buzzer to win a tight away game, Whitey came up to him on the bus on the way home. "So, son, you interested in moving back to two guard for a while? Because that was some damn fine playing out there tonight."
Nathan had shrugged his shoulders, since part of the plan was not to appear too eager despite what he was feeling inside. "Yeah, I'll give it a shot. Nice to have a change of pace."
"Glad to hear it. Scott! I'm moving you to point guard."
Lucas, who had been as far from Nathan as possible and who therefore had missed Nathan and Whitey's conversation, jumped. "But Whitey, I'm the shooting guard."
Whitey harrumphed. "That's funny, because I'm the coach, and I say you're the point guard."
Nathan had only just managed to keep the triumph off his face.
It took another week for Lucas to take the bait though. Nathan internally gave props to Lucas' self-control. The unfortunate thing is what it took to snap it turned out to be Haley. Haley almost never came to games since she usually worked the caf‚ so Karen could go, but there was something going on there that night that required Karen's presence. Dan wasn't there either, which was truly bizarre, but he'd had some kind of dinner to go to he couldn't get out of. So Nathan was getting a rare night in the gym without Dan but with Haley. He'd been glad to see her there. He'd kept his promise and largely stayed away except for a few mild pleasantries at Karen's, and he'd been surprised by how much he was missing her. Maybe it was because he'd run in a different crowd before, or maybe there just weren't too many girls like her in Vegas period, but he'd never really known anyone like her, and he'd felt like they had just been getting to know each other when she'd brought it to a screaming stop. So when he'd seen her in the stands, he'd given her a big smile, not even thinking that Lucas would notice. It had been just for him and her, but Lucas did notice, and for some reason wigged out. He'd started hassling him 10 minutes into the game while they were lined up for a free throw, telling him to stay away from Haley if he knew what was good for him. Nathan had flipped back that they were just friends, and that despite what he seemed to believe Lucas didn't own all the girls in the school. He may also have waggled his eyebrows a bit suggestively, but that was it. It was enough though, and Lucas had charged across the box and tackled him to the ground. It had taken most of their team to break them up while the other team laughed and pointed, and then the ref had thrown them out of the game. In the back of his mind, Nathan knew they'd deserved it, but mostly all he could think was that this was his first game as shooting guard and Dan was going to be furious. But it turned out it was Whitey's wrath he should have feared more. He'd stopped the bus going home as soon they left town, and put both he and Lucas off the bus. "I don't know what y'all's problem is, but you've got 30 miles to figure it out," he'd said. It was after the bus pulled away that both he and Lucas had realized they'd left their phones and wallets on board.