Chapter 12
A/N: So I've had a backlog of chapters I never bothered to upload on . If you only use , go to chapter 8.
I lined up the ball to the hoop and swooshed it through.
The clanging on the rim and the bounces afterwards were the only sounds for miles.
With a heavy tap on the ball, it bounced up back into my hands. My cool basketball moves, woo.
I hit the ball and let the bounce lift it back up to my hands.
But no one was around to see it.
No one really goes to the park in the winter.
I kinda get it. Or more like, my nose gets it. It's been running non-stop in this cold. I had to keep sniffing or my nose water would leak out.
Cold weather is super annoying.
On the bright side, thanks to it, I get all this open space to practice in!
And as a bonus to the sorta good happy news, I got onto the basketball team. Yay!
When I told Mom and Dad, they were both proud, and congratulated me! They even said they'll come to watch if I played in any games. Except that's not really going to happen since I just joined and I don't really know how to play as a team. I didn't even know basketball had different positions until I joined!
Coach made a really funny face when I told him that.
Who even has time to learn in basketball!? It's a sport! People don't play sports to learn! They play to win!
And he made a even funnier face when I said that.
So the position of a starter was pretty far away.
Mom and Dad still celebrated with me though.
That night, Mom made her super amazing hotdogs! With ketchup, relish, and mustard!
Victory was delicious.
But the day after, everything was still the same.
I felt hollow. And not because of the hot dogs, it could never be because of the hotdogs.
That's what happened. I won.
Now, everyone will apologize for looking down on Kel! Honestly, all I need to forgive them is a high-five!
But I was left hanging.
But the day after, I felt agony. And not because of the hot dogs, it could never be because of the delicious, delicious hotdogs.
It must be something else. Like milk.
But I didn't drink any yesterday.
So why did I feel so… bad?
It's like, I woke up went to school, slept through class, ate lunch, slept to burn off my lunch, and went to practice. A normal day like any other.
A completely normal day. So why was it so miserable?
I did it! I did what I set out to do! I'm supposed to be going yaaaaaaaaay like a dog sticking his tongue out of a windshield.
But I didn't feel a thing.
I went to the park afterschool as usual. But I already got into the team, so is there a point anymore?
Sure I can still get better, but I didn't have to get better.
What was a even practicing for?
I asked my brain but it gave me nothing as usual. Thanks brain.
I proved that I could do it if I tried. That's really good to know, but what should I do now?
Something was supposed to change, but nothing did.
Weeks passed with nothing happening.
And I still had just as much of an idea of what to do when I made it.
I mean, sure I could go and rub it in their faces that I succeeded, but that's not what a winner does. What kind of winner has to go to the people they proved wrong just to say they were right?
Even thinking about doing anything that lame gives me the heeby jeebies.
So I just did what was familiar.
I practiced.
And all do now is practice.
And as it turns out, practicing is really boring.
When I practiced for the team, it felt sort of fun! Probably because I was going to prove everyone wrong. Kel could make the basketball team.
And then he did.
But now what am I practicing for?
I wish Hero was here. He'd know what to do.
Maybe I should try to become a starter? I thought about it, but I'm not really feeling it.
It's like, I want to be as good as the starters but I don't really want to take their spot. They really care for it, and well, I could wait a year or so until they graduate.
I shot the ball again, and it went through the hoop with no rim. Amazing.
And someone caught it on it's way down.
My ball! What the heck are they doing!
I started running up to my ball, who did that guy think they were?!
Wait… I know that guy. It's been a bunch of weeks, but I'd be a mega moron if I didn't recognize him.
Sunny?
"Hi." He waved but didn't move his elbow at all. It looked as stiff as a robot.
"Hi Sunny."
"Um, can we talk?"
"Sure," About what though? But I wasn't about to shut him down just from showing up. I led Sunny to my usual sitting spot near the fences. "Come over here."
I plopped onto the chilly floor and Sunny plopped down too.
"Here," he gave me back my basketball.
"Thanks."
And we fell into a silence. But Sunny broke the silence first. That's new.
"It's… been a while."
"Yeah. It has. You've been okay?"
"Mhm. I heard you made it on the basketball team."
"Yup." I did.
…
The silence was deafening.
We hadn't spoken since the fight with Aubrey.
Memories of it drifted up to my head and I had to swat them down.
I hadn't thought about it for a long time. Mainly because we said some really mean things to each other.
Just another Aubrey and Kel fight, but… it was more than that.
All the things we figured out about each other were just ways we hurt each other.
We just kept screaming at each other. It's a good thing someone pulled us away before we started hitting each other.
I totally would've won though.
The day after that, there was zero percent chance I was going anywhere near Aubrey. So I chose an empty lunch table as far away from her as possible.
I kept thinking about how it was all Aubrey's fault.
I waited for Sunny to come sit with me, but Sunny never did.
He came into the cafeteria, but he sat at the usual lunch table. The table where we had our screaming match.
I didn't want to move. If he didn't agree with Aubrey, he would walk over here to me.
I looked over to him, and our eyes met. But he didn't move.
He wasn't going to come over here.
He never came. That meant that…
He's taking her side, wasn't he?! Why!? That whole fight was Aubrey's fault!
I got up, and went straight over to the guys from the basketball club.
They welcomed me with open arms.
Out of the corner of my eye, I kept watching Sunny's table. I hadn't seen Aubrey yet, but it was only a matter of time, I thought.
Aubrey never came.
For the days and weeks after that too.
I never saw him with Aubrey. He wasn't with the delinquents she hangs out with now either.
So maybe I was wrong.
Sunny didn't back up Aubrey, but he didn't take my side either. That doesn't mean it's all okay though.
And now, after all these weeks, he finally talks to me?
Why did it take so long for him to reach out to me?
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's here for something else entirely.
I dunno. I have absolutely zero idea of what Sunny wants or what the heck is he tries to do sometimes.
He could be here to close out our friendship forever and move on. But, that wouldn't happen… right?
I've seen Sunny around playing music with that music guy that's always by Hobbeez.
What did Sunny want?
So many questions, but I couldn't ask a single one. If I said the wrong thing, it might just scare him off.
What should I do?
In times like these, I wish Hero was here. He'd help me figure out what to say.
But he's not here. He's stuck in college. So I have to deal with this myself.
My fingers kept wiggling as neither of us said a thing. I desperately needed something to distract me from how awkward this is.
With a twirl, I made the ball spin on my index finger. Sunny's eyes stayed glued to the ball.
Well, there's another person here and a basketball. Might as well ask.
"Wanna play?"
Sunny nodded.
I made something happen! I have no idea what it'll do but it feels right! Good idea Kel!
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
It's not like I lost, I completely dunked on Sunny with a score of bazillion to zero, but what happened afterwards was… definitely bad.
There was a collapsed body twitching in front of me. It's head was directly facing the ground and it looked like they were trying to make the concrete remember their face.
Sunny was a fish drowning in land. He's a Sun(ny)fish! He needs to kick and swim back up! But he didn't even have the energy to stop kissing the ground.
Man, his breathing is not slowing down at all.
"W-w-water…" I responded to Sunnyfish's cry for help.
I picked him up and lugged him to the water fountain. Sunnyfish put all his weight on the water fountain button but no water came out.
I think he'd cry if he had any water left. It was like looking at the face of a kid who was told there was no dessert after eating terrible terrible vegetables like cucumber and carrots.
I couldn't let my fish friend die like this. Thankfully, I know how to get the water fountain working. The water fountain is weird because you need to turn the knob to get water. I got really annoyed when I found that out as well.
"Here you go."
Sunnyfish glugged water.
He drank like he needed it to live. Well actually, we all need water to live. But if the human body is made up of 70 percent water, then Sunnyfish looked like he was shooting for 120 percent.
Wow, I didn't think he was this tired.
"You didn't have to keep up with me until you flopped to the ground Sunny."
Sunnyfish gulped down more water, but he finally took a moment to breathe air like a human. He's evolving.
"But I wanted to." He said.
"Why? No offense, but you kinda suck at basketball." Sunny was awful at dribbling and moving so whenever he got the ball, he shot a hail mary from the three point line.
"I just… missed playing with you." He looked away as he said it.
That's why? I laughed a little.
"Yeah." It wasn't a very good game, but I had more fun in this lop-sided game than all the time I spent practicing for the last few weeks combined. "I did too."
Sunny finished drinking his water, and he evolved from a fish back into a human again. Evolution is amazing!
"Um, if you want, we could play again…" he said.
"Really?" After how he became a fish?
"Not today though. But, some other day."
"Sure! I'll be ready for you Sunny!"
"I won't be. But I'll be there anyway."
Man, this day has already been looking up already.
"Oh right, I forgot I had this." And Sunny shuffled into the pocket of his hoodie.
Then, he tossed me something.
My lightning reflexes got it and I gasped.
It was a can of Orange Joe!
"I kind of forgot to give this to you. It's super shaken up, so uh, be careful."
"Who cares, it's Orange Joe!"
Free stuff is free stuff!
I cracked the tab the wonderful orange foam began to burst and bubble up. My mouth caught all of the orangey goodness before it could even touch the ground.
And my world exploded.
The tangy orange flavor, the amazing burn as the soda goes down my throat, sugar so plentiful and rich that my body fights against itself to get to it first.
It's the drink of the gods.
Whenever I drink Orange Joe, I always try to make it last as long as possible.
I try to take sips until the can is empty.
But for some weird reason, the can is empty after three seconds and one single sip. I stared into the empty can. The emptiness is like the bald spot on Dad's head.
I wept. Not for Dad though.
But the soda finally reached stomach filled with happiness and the Orange Joe kicked in.
Shivers tingled from my spine all the way to my brain. Jeebus, I love this sensation so much.
Each second was absolute bliss, but it had to end at some point. The tinglies faded away and all I was left with was the memory of a better time.
I'd cry if I had tears left to give.
I opened my eyes to see the park, and Sunny standing next in front of me.
Right, I should probably do something. I checked my brain again if the soda fed it any new ideas.
Nope, nothing again.
I might as well ask Sunny.
"So what do you want to do next?"
Sunny stared at me in confusion.
His face lit up.
"Hobbeez?"
"I'm down, let's go!" I grabbed my basketball and led the way with a dash!
A bell clanged as we entered the warm innards of the hobby store. My soul flared up, it's been way too long since I've last come. I hadn't had a good whiff of Hobbeez for way too long. It smelled of comic books and plastic. Amazing.
"Heya Shopkeep!"
"Oh look who it is, my least favorite customer, I hoped that I would never see your sorry mug around here anymore."
"Aww, you missed me?"
"Missed you like you miss the laser power-up in Contra." Ugh, the worst one. Sunny chuckled. He got the reference. "So are you going to buy something for once, or are you going to get your grubby mitts on everything."
"My hands aren't grubby! I washed them in the park water fountain!" I showed him my palms, no dirt here. "I'll be getting my clean hands over everything, thank you very much."
"Yeah, yeah, go wild Kel." He laughed. "But if you tear anything, you're gonna pay for it."
Good ol' Shopkeep. He used to have a name, but he lost it after no one ever bothered to call him by it. It's just Shopkeep now, from now to the long, long, future.
We went over to the comics section and I looked for all the new stuff that came out.
Apparently a Spaceboy vs. Pinkbeard series just came out. How could I miss this?!
I showed it to Sunny and we read it on the floor.
We turned the pages in silence except for when we laughed at a joke or were awed by the amazing art and action scenes.
After an intense comic reading session, we went straight onto the next comic that caught our eye, and just binged as many as we could.
By the end of it, I had read more pages than all the textbooks I kept in my locker. Great comic reading sessions always make me so proud of myself. I should've come here sooner.
I hadn't been in here since I got Hero his birthday present. I spent twenty bucks on a cookbook that we used to have, but, uh, it mysteriously disappeared one day. The world will never know of Hector's sin as long as I'm around.
Hero sounded pretty happy when I gave it to him. He knew the cookie recipe by heart now, but he kept drawing blank on the other recipes like apple pie or brownies.
I can't wait for him to get home and make it for me. I'm hungry.
It's just too bad that Hero called two days ago to tell us that he couldn't make it home. Jeez, how does a random freak snowstorm even happen?
At least he has Mari to keep him company. Sunny must be bummed out about that too.
Wait. Something clicked in my head.
Did Sunny start talking to me again because Mari isn't going to come back? He would've gotten the call at the same time I did.
Is that why Sunny finally tried to talk to me? Mari won't be coming back so let's just hang out with Kel? Oh, not because he was wrong about Kel making it to the basketball team, but just because Mari isn't coming?! That's so stupid! I'm not going to be a backup plan for when he has no one else to hang out with!
I'm not going to be a stand-in.
I was completely ready to start yelling but I second guessed myself. I didn't want to ruin the fun atmosphere. I didn't want to go back to how it was yesterday.
I'll… give him a chance to explain himself.
"Sunny. Why did you finally choose to talk to me?" The anger in my voice surprised me.
"Huh?" And it surprised Sunny too.
"Why now of all times did you bother to be friends with me again? Why now?!"
"Did something happen today?"
He still didn't get it. I spelled it out.
"Did you only come to me because Mari won't be back for winter?"
"No!" He instantly said, "T-that's… that's not why I came!"
"You stuttered."
"I'm serious! I mean, it kind of was but no! That's not what I was thinking!"
"Then what is it?"
"I… I…" Sunny took a breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he looked straight at me.
"I've… wanted to talk to you for months. But I didn't. I was scared. Mari not coming back… wasn't what made me come talk to you. When that happened, I was going to hide away and stew in my own sadness. Even before I found out that she wasn't coming back, that's all I did. All those days, I hated how each one went by. I never even thought on doing anything myself. All I did was wait for someone else to fix everything. It sounds bad because it is. But I don't want to do that anymore. I want us to be friends again, even if Mari nor anyone else is here."
His voice teetered on the edge of tears.
"I want to change. I can't rely on her nor anyone else for things I should do myself."
I thought about what Sunny said. I rolled out the words in my head like pieces of paper and carefully cut them up.
Was it sincere? Was it honest? Was it a good enough apology?
Honestly, I didn't feel the angries. I thought I would feel something, but nope. Not even a speck of anything.
Honestly, everything Sunny was talking about sorta sounded like my whole thing with Hero.
Oh.
Oh so that's why I can't get angry.
I get it. I finally understand.
"Yeah, I get it too. I'm sort of the same way with Hero. I thought he would come back and everything would turn back somehow too."
"So you're not angry?"
"Nah, I'm not." It was easier to talk now. "Sorry for yelling at you Sunny."
"Don't worry about it."
Sunny let out a sigh and collapsed on the floor.
"You good Sunny?"
"Yeah. Just relieved. The floor feels nice."
It sure looks like it does.
I can hear the floor calling out to me.
It's promising me things.
Like a warm blanket… and a plate full of cookies!
I'll dive in too!
My face made contact with the floor, and the floor made my cheeks so happy. It's warm like your bed when you first wake up in the morning.
Warm fuzzy yes.
"Let's be friends again."
"Yay." Sunny pumped both of his hands. But on the floor, he just looked like a stretching cat.
And then someone behind us began to clap.
"Man, this is as good as the Spaceboy Christmas special. I wish I had some popcorn." Ah shoot, we did all that in front of Shopkeep. "Though I'd appreciate it if you both got off the floor. I have to clean your drool myself y'know."
"Bwuh." Said Sunny.
"Hey, if you're going to put on a show, don't blame me for watching."
"Don't eavesdrop!" Sunny hissed as he picked himself up.
"Hey, it's my store. I can do what I want." Shopkeep leaned in on his elbows, "But either way, good job making up you two."
"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up." Sunny held his face in his hands. But it was so red, I don't think hiding it really did anything. "Let's go Kel."
Sunny rushed his way to the door and left with the bell clanging.
"Bye! Come back again!"
I followed Sunny out the door.
"See you later Shopkeep." The door made a nice crisp *ching* sound.
"Bye Kel! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"
Lousy December weather. We couldn't have been in Hobbeez for more than an hour or two, but the sun was already beginning to set.
Sunny rubbed his hands together and he breathed white air as he started walking with me.
"I don't think I can show my face in there ever again." Sunny mumbled.
"It's fine Sunny! I embarrass myself half the time whenever I'm in Hobbeez too!"
"That doesn't make me feel better."
"But we can embarrass ourselves together now!"
"I mean… heh, yeah, I guess we can."
We made talked about all sorts of things as we walked back together, despite shivering like a bumblebee, I felt warm.
We walked until we got right in front of our houses and Sunny stopped in front of me.
"Let's hang out again tomorrow Sunny! Though you might have to wait a bit, basketball practice could take a while."
"Oh yeah. You have to do that." Sunny stopped. "Hey Kel. There's something I have to apologize for."
"Hm? What?"
"Back when the fight happened, when everything was said, I should've done something, or at least tried to make the fight stop."
"Yeah… I wanted you to take my side Sunny." Sunny winced at my words, "But it's fine. I don't think you meant anything bad."
"No. I think I did. I hoped you weren't going to make the basketball team. I hoped you were going to quit half-way through. If you did it, I thought you'd replace me with the people from the basketball team."
"What?! I wouldn't do that! I couldn't just replace you! We've been friends for years!"
"Yeah, in hindsight, that was really stupid of me. We've been through way too much that we could just replace each other. I was being stupid."
"Don't sweat it Sunny, if you're stupid, then I'm super mega dumb. I probably should've talked to you once before everything became too weird."
"No, it's my fault! I didn't believe in you!"
"No I messed up too! I didn't give you a chance!"
"No, it was me!"
"No, it was me!"
"No, me!"
"No, me!"
Sunny sniggered.
I giggled.
He began to laugh.
I started to chuckle.
Sunny leaned over and started to erupt!
I guffawed so much that I fell onto my butt!
Our non-stop laughter continued until we finally had to stop for air. Sunny gave me a hand and pulled me up.
"Sorry for not believing in you. It's super cool that you got onto the basketball team. You can really do it when you try Kel."
I punched my hands in the air.
"That's fine Sunny, I know I'm awesome too. You don't have to keep saying sorry though"
"Sor- sorry about that one."
I laughed.
"Not accepted. There's one thing you need to do to earn my forgiveness."
"What?"
"High-five me! Then I'll forgive you."
I started moving my hand.
Sunny started moving his.
We high-fived.
Our high-five was legendary. Everyone in the neighborhood would talk about the sound from generation to generation. The sound it made could be heard for miles and it beat out even the best songs ever made. It probably killed people and brought them back to life as well.
At least, that's what it should do!
My hand grew red and hurt, but that's the price of epic high-fives.
"Bye Kel."
"Bye Sunny!"
I closed the door and began to dance.
WOOOOO! Today was so much fun!