Chapter 27: Buzzer.
Humphrey's POV:
The next three days seemed to fly by and before I knew it Friday morning had arrived, thankfully all but bringing the week to an end without something else reminding me of the past too brutally. I thought about that as I prepared for the day, unsure of what it was exactly that had changed and was allowing me to move past things without over-reacting but I was grateful for it nonetheless. Friday's classes seemed a little strange; one moment the seconds were ticking by agonisingly slowly and then the next we were packing up to head to our next class. I assumed that my nerves about that evening were playing with my head since I was fairly nervous about playing my first game in a few hours.
"Three assignments on the same weekend..." Chris said sadly as he, Abby, Kate and I left Science class. We already had an assignment from Automotive Engineering and today we'd been hit with another two, one from Science and the other from Mathematics. I wasn't too concerned since I'd all but polished off the AE assignment already and we'd been given time in our classes today to work on the other two so I'd gotten them roughly half finished. 'An hour or so on each should be enough.' I thought to myself.
"Well at least we didn't get anything from Social." Kate said as she and I headed for our lockers and Chris and Abby turned to head for the gym to get seats for themselves and our friends for this evening's game. The Jasper Howlers, my team, was currently placed second on the ladder and would be facing the top team tonight which meant that most of the students in the school would likely show up to watch, of course only adding to my nerves.
"Catch you later guys, you got this man." Chris said to me as we turned to go our separate ways and I just smiled weakly in response.
"Yeah Humphrey, you got this." Abby pitched in and I forced myself to nod and at least look confident as I grinned.
"See you at the game guys." Kate called as we walked away towards our lockers, mostly in silence as I was deep in thought about the game and I figured Kate could see that I wasn't in a chatty mood. We arrived shortly, both of us swapping our bags for our sports ones before heading towards the gym. We ran into Brittany on the way there who turned and waited for us when she noticed us, falling into step as we drew level. She and Kate would naturally be at the game as part of the cheer leading troupe and both gave me a few words of encouragement before we separated, they heading for the girls change room and me the boys.
Hutch's POV:
Hutch looked over as Humphrey entered the change room, grinning a bit along with the others at how nervous he looked. His grin widened as Humphrey looked up and greeted them with a meek 'Hey.' before beginning to get changed into his uniform. Hutch noticed that a few of the others were admiring Humphrey's physique as he removed his shirt. They'd all seen it before but even he had to admit it was still amazing to see how good a shape he was in.
"Glad you made it Humphrey, we were beginning to think you'd wimped out." Kevin said with a laugh, stepping forwards and giving Humphrey a friendly punch on the shoulder to try and help shake his nerves. It seemed to work a bit as Humphrey pulled on his '13' jersey and grinned back.
"Of course not. I figured I'd come play, fail spectacularly and ensure that you all never get top spot on the ladder." He joked as he and Kevin moved over to join the circle around Hutch. This comment caused a wave of friendly banter from the others as they joked about practice as well as their last game against tonight's opponents, the EJ Red Wolves. Hutch didn't join in but let them go for a while, knowing that it was certainly helping their morale to be joking around like this. A minute later he heard a knock on the door and walked over, opening it to see Coach standing there. As usual she'd been waiting for them to all arrive and change before coming in to give them a pep talk and the game plan as well as the starting lineup.
"Hey coach, come on in." Hutch said, stepping aside to let her through. He whistled sharply to get the attention of the others as coach entered before joining them in a semi-circle around her.
Charlie's POV:
Charlie stepped through the door as Hutch let her in. She was a little worried about the state they'd be in given who they were facing tonight but she was relieved to see them in high spirits, standing around and joking with each other. Slightly surprising was that even Humphrey appeared to be in good spirits and was joining in given how nervous he'd seemed that morning about his first game. 'He's been playing basketball for quite a while but I guess this is his first official game ever.' She thought to herself as Hutch whistled to get everyone's attention and they formed a small group around her.
"Alright boys, there's a hell of a crowd out there and they seem eager so I want you to put on a big show tonight and send these rank one pretenders home in tears." She said, grinning at them despite the strong words. Most of them grew even more jubilant to hear about the crowd awaiting them since they all enjoyed playing at home in front of a favourable crowd but Humphrey's grin faded a little. Charlie didn't think he was the shy type but she knew that nerves could get to anyone. She made a mental note to have a word to him personally if necessary but she had a feeling that after watching the others from the bench for a little bit he'd be itching to get onto the court, all fears forgotten.
"So here's the starting lineup and I'll be making changes as necessary." She said, pulling out a small whiteboard and showing it to them. It showed the starters would be: Hutch - centre, Kevin - power forward, James - small forward, Thomas - shooting guard and Kyle - point guard. This was their usual starting lineup and left Humphrey, Jeff, Bryan and Collin on the bench.
"There won't be any specific game plan tonight, I'll leave it to you to decide the plays." She continued, turning to Kyle as she addressed him before returning her gaze to the team at large.
"That's it, let's get out there and get warmed up." She finished, stepping aside as Hutch lead the team out onto the court.
Humphrey's POV:
The team fell into step, following Hutch single file as we entered the gymnasium with Charlie behind me, bringing up the rear. The noise from the students assembled in the stands grew with each step, growing to a clamour as we arrived, applause raining down as we jogged onto the court. I looked around in amazement at what the now familiar gym had become, with the regular seating on one side of the court mirrored by a temporary set up on the other side, providing around 200 seats in total, many of which were filled with more students streaming in. I followed the others towards our end of the court as we began to warm up, noticing Kate and Brittany amongst the cheerleaders who were performing in the centre of the court. They were all excellent, perfectly in sync as they danced, much to the entertainment of the assembled student body.
The Red Wolves were already on the court, engaging in some rather lacklustre warm up exercises that likely were providing little to no benefit to them. I couldn't help but wonder if they were just that uninterested or whether they were trying to hide their true level, a common practice in street ball, where players would attack the inside all game before shooting a three right at the end to win. I shrugged the thoughts away, figuring it didn't really matter as I continued warming up, following James towards the hoop in a rebounding exercise.
Soon enough the buzzer sounded to indicate that the game was about to start and we wrapped up our warm up as the cheerleaders finished their performance to a large round of applause, moving to the side of the court opposite the team benches. Before we split up we moved into a tight circle, yelling "Howlers!" once everyone had their hand in, Hutch leading the starters onto the court as I followed the others to the bench where Charlie was waiting, having greeted the Red Wolves' coach already. I marvelled at the spectacle that the game had become, there were at least 200 students present, not including the two teams and the cheerleaders, who'd probably push that number to 250 or so. Though on a much smaller scale, the atmosphere was just like what I'd felt at the NBA game I'd been to years ago, the thought making me smile.
As the two captains shook hands and both teams prepared to begin I noticed Kate and Brittany looking my way from the other side of the court, grinning at them before the umpire's whistle dragged my attention to the game that had just begun.
End of the third quarter.
I slumped onto the bench with the others as the third quarter ended, breathing heavily as I took a long drink of water. I'd been nervous when Charlie had first put me in but through some miracle had managed to avoid making any undue blunders, quickly getting into my rhythm as I scored a few and assisted a few more. I thought that I was doing well but Hutch's performance had been truly stand out, we'd only played three quarters and it was all but guaranteed that he would be selected player of the game. I took a deep breath as I sat, bringing my breathing under control to try and recover as much as possible before the start of the fourth. We were up by ten, largely thanks to Hutch but the starters were all getting tired and I knew I'd likely see most of the fourth quarter in play.
Sure enough Charlie put me straight back in as play resumed and we had the ball as we went on the attack once more, trying to extend our lead to the point where they couldn't come back. I ran to the corner, catching the ball as Bryan sent it my way. I had a little space and was about to shoot when I noticed Jeff cutting inside and slung a fast bounce pass his way, giving him an easy layup that he made without a problem.
At this point our victory seemed likely but I supposed the Red Wolves realised this too as they pulled themselves together, bringing the game back and then taking the lead by 1 point with a shot in the dying seconds that I'd actually managed to tip slightly in my attempt to block it but hadn't hit enough to throw it off. Charlie called our final timeout with roughly 5 seconds remaining, putting the starters back in but choosing me over Thomas, who was too tired to be of great help in what would be the last play. I was vaguely aware that the crowd was practically screaming at this nail-biter, their chant of 'Howl-ers!' reaching new heights with every repetition as we prepared to resume play.
Kevin tossed the ball in to Kyle who saw Hutch below the hoop and flicked the ball to him in a daring pass that just got through. I ran along the left side of the three point line as Hutch jumped, attempting to make a shot but it was impossible as three defenders had closed on him, blocking any chance of a shot. As he fell back he noticed me on the outside, wide open and sent the ball my way in a wild pass that was way off. 'There's no time left.' I thought as I dived for the ball, way over the line and off balance as I twisted in mid air, sending the ball skyward but having no time to see if my crazy shot had missed as gravity began dragging me back to earth.
I'd been sprinting to catch Hutch's pass and hadn't had time to slow myself as I hit the ground, barely feeling the impact from the adrenaline in my system as I crashed into the cheerleaders who were sitting there and had no time to react. I heard the buzzer sound, signalling the end of the game but it was drowned out almost as soon as it began by what seemed like an explosion of noise as I came to a stop. After a moment I looked up, expecting to see the angry faces of the cheerleaders that I'd practically fly tackled but instead I was surprised everyone within reach hugged me, all of them smiling and cheering.
"I guess... we won?" I said to no one in particular as I smiled.
A/N: Sorry this is so late, it's just been one thing after another recently. Hope you enjoyed it. Although if you don't like basketball... review and tell me so. Should be back to a more regular schedule now I hope.