Author's Note: Glad you guys are enjoying it so far! These chapters are sort of fillers, please bare with them!

Nathan trudged up the steps of his front porch as he lugged his gymbag of fresh clean clothes in his arms. Him and Jill spent all of the afternoon doing laundry and pigging out on junk food. It was getting late so he decided to head home so he could tackle the English Lit paper he had been putting off. Jill had already finished hers Friday night and offered to help him with his but he politely refused. It wasn't because he didn't want to, of course he did, why wouldn't he? He just knew if he stayed over longer he wouldn't really get much done. He would be too busy watching her as she brainstormed ideas with him, which meant no work done, and he really wanted to get a good mark. Jill always surprised him with something every time he did well, and so far it had him getting pretty good grades. He didn't want to blow it all now. Plus he kind of liked doing his homework and actually getting A's instead of D's, which were only given to him as an acceptable pass because he was the star basketball player. He liked the fact he earned his grades, it gave himself something else to be proud of about him.

Balancing the bag on his knee he managed to get the key into the door and open it without toppeling over. Placing the bag on the side table he went to close the door.

"Nathan is that you?"

Someone had heard him come in, and he knew exactly who it was. The voice was coming from the living room.

"Yeah."

"Come into the living room, I want to talk to you about something."

He let out a sigh sort of hesitant on following orders but made his way nonetheless.

"About what?" He entered the darkened room. No lights were on except the porch light shining from outside. He barely saw him in the chair, but he knew he was there. His shadow's presence loomed everywhere.

Dan remained silent not speaking a word. Instead he chucked sheets of paper that scattered everywhere once they hit the coffee table. Telling from the way he threw the papers, he wasn't happy.

Nathan remained incoherent. He quickly glanced at the papers after Dan threw them. He knew what they were, he just didn't know why Dan seemed upset.

"What is this Nate?"

"What does it look like, university application forms," he was ticked off cause he realized Dan had been snooping around his room.

"I know what these are, the question is what are you doing with them?"

"Applying for university."

"You don't need to, we've already got you a good deal for Duke next fall. You're going for basketball with a full scholarship."

"What if it doesn't work out dad?"

"What in hell are you talking about? Of course it's going to work out."

"Yeah but what if it doesn't, what if I'm not good enough or it just suddenly falls through? What am I going to do then?"

"Never ever question basketball," his voice rose, "we've worked too hard for you to act like a pussy."

"Dad.."

He was interrupted by Dan. He was on a roll, nothing could stop his boiling anger.

"This is what you're supposed to do, this is what you're going to do."

"I thought you'd be proud of me for having a back up plan and for trying to pursue other options."

"Only losers have back up plans. They create them because they're too weak to see their first choice come through. They don't work hard enough therefore their back up plan turns into their intial plan."

Nathan's blood was boiling now. Dan always managed to do that to him.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"No, you don't know what you're talking about. If you want to be a loser than go be one. Go follow through with your crap ass plan and give up basketball. In fact throw everything you've worked for since grade school away. All your basketball camps, High Flyers, and just chuck them out the door."

"I still want to play baketball, but I also want to try some other things out too."

"If you want basketball then you can only have basketball. All your energy, your passion, your drive should only be for basketball. Everything else is a waste of time."

"No it's not."

"You're going to go for basketball, it's final. I've made my decision and you're going."

"Whatever," Nathan didn't want to take anymore, He turned to leave but was stopped when Dan began speaking again.

"Get rid of all your other options, you aren't smart enough for those anyways. Good thing you have all these opportunites for ball, something you're at least good at."

Nathan shook his head in anger. He couldn't take it anymore the house, Dan, basically everything that involved the devil. He felt like he couldn't breathe, his body was burning up, he needed to get out. He was about to retreat up the stairs to his room but changed his mind. He didn't want to be anywhere near or inside the house, so he just left. Opening the front door he left as quickly as he came in.