I'd like to say I'm a pretty decent basketball player. It was about 5:00PM on Tuesday practice, and I was getting a little tired. Coach Dilon was repeating his daily rituals of complaining about how we don't pass enough and that we need to play better as a team. One thing you learn if you join the basketball team is how to drown out the coach's persistent whiny voice.
That works for most of the team. I mean, it did work, until he started shouting my name. 'Nate, are you even listening to me?" My head snapped round quickly, and all I could manage was a silent, pathetic nod. "Oh yeah, then what did I just say?"
"Um, well, you were talking about how we needed to play better as a team," I replied. It was a random guess, but I would have bet my bottom dollar that it was right.
"And," he prompted with an ugly frown on his face.
"And that we need to pass more?"
Coach Dilon sniffled and nodded slowly, biting his lip. "Well, it's no use hearing all that if you don't put it into action. I'll see you back here on Thursday morning before school for a bit of team-building exercises. Do you lot understand me?" Everyone muttered quiet yeses and trudged out of the room.
My best friend, Paul, walked up beside me and started to complain about the coach: "I mean, he's such an asshole, really. Always complaining and telling us to get better without explaining how. If we fail the championship qualifiers this year, it's all because of his fat ass."
I agreed with him to get him to shut up so I could start talking about something I actually found interesting. For example, I like cars. No, that doesn't make me weird. Cars are cool, and it's perfectly normal for someone who has liked cars since they were 6 to still like them. It just means I'm dedicated to my hobby.
The boys and I got out our sweaty basketball kits in the changing rooms, and they all decided they were going to go get some fast food. I couldn't come for 2 reasons:
1. I was too broke to afford anything other than rice and water at my own crappy house.
2. I had to go to lost property because I lost my backpack in one of my lessons earlier that day.
So yeah, I went alone to lost property. That's my alibi, my story. I didn't know what I was going to find.