Nothing feels better than having the ball in my hands. Actually, scratch that, holding hands with Annabeth is the best feeling. Holding Riptide is probably second to that. And Mom's cookies, oooohhh, so good. Okay, dribbling the ball is top five, but you get the point. I'm at the top of the key and I look to my left. Brandon is covered and Kyle can't get open in the post. I look to my right and Dennis is double teamed and Connor is trying to set him up with a screen. I look at the shot clock. Ten seconds left. Okay, plenty of time I thought. My defender is quick, but he isn't that tall. I dribble with my right and do a quick double crossover and step back to the three point line. The guy is too short to bother my shot. I thought Easy money. Released the ball with 2 seconds left and watched the ball.

It rolled out.

Dam, I thought, Dennis is not gonna let me hear the end of it.

Bzzzzzzz. Buzzer goes off and that's the end of the third quarter.

I go sit down at the bench and I look up. I see Dennis staring straight at me.

"What the hell, Percy, why didn't you pass me ball," he yelled

"Bro, you were double teamed and I had an open look. I went for it," I answered.

"Dude, I had the hot hand. Give me the damn rock and let me score. I'm gonna carry this team to state, so don't mess this up for me," Dennis countered.

Coach Kevin looked at both of us and just seemed to be done. He commented, "You guys relax, were up by 15. We need to stay on the page. Dennis go get a drink of water and cool off. Connor, setting a screen is not hard. If you can't do something so simple, I'm taking you out. Brandon get open, stop standing around. Kyle keep fighting for position. That is a big fella, but he is gonna tired and we will eventually feed you the ball. Percy, that was good shot, just unlucky. Let's try to extend the lead to 20 'kay guys? Alright, hands in. Perce?"

I took a deep breath and said, "Win on three, 1, 2, 3."

Everyone shouted, "Win!"

We walked onto the floor with the other team. Dennis walked towards me and whispered, "We win this game, I'll forget that you didn't pass the ball." And he walked away.

Typical Dennis, gets all upset that he doesn't get the ball, but will be the happiest person in the room with a win.

The thing that sucks about these road games is that the crowd always gets into it. Especially Boston fans. I'll never understand why Coach agreed to preseason games in Boston. Doesn't he know that this is like the worst atmosphere to play in. I mean, I've been around some rough places and I fought in arenas against monsters and giants. But Boston fans, one of the loudest people ever. They're even worse when they are losing. And their players, don't get me started. I thought only monsters played dirty.

Brandon walked over to me and said, "Hey Perce, forget what Dennis said, let's go win this game."

I looked at him and said, "You right man, we got this in the bag."