Rebound: A 2nd Chance

For the next two days Jason directed the training for all of the new members of the basketball team as he had both the varsity and junior varsity team focus on running defensive focused drills.

Their first scrimmage game against another school was this Saturday. Jason thought about it and decided that even if they were to practice running plays the amount of time that they had wasn't enough for them to learn them completely.

So instead of wasting their time trying to cram multiple plays into their heads it would be more effective to work on their individual defensive abilities.

Defensive fundamentals were easier to pick up in the short term compared to memorizing plays. And with a good defense it was still possible to win games even if your offense was subpar.

But just because Jason was choosing to make a sacrifice in one aspect of practice didn't mean that he would make things easy.

School ended at 3 p.m. and practice started at 3:30 p.m. After some quick warm ups Jason had the new guys spend an hour and a half running a variety of defensive drills including the three level defense drill that he introduced to the team last year.

After an hour and a half of intense defensive drills Jason had all of the players spend the next hour on conditioning.

Despite the grueling and demanding practice sessions none of the new players voiced out a single word of complaint.

How could they when Jason was harder on himself than anyone else? Jason made it mandatory for all of the varsity players to participate in morning practice before the start of school.

And even though Jason had set the practice to start at 6 in the morning it was clear to all of the new players that he was there way before that.

Ever since he had started skateboarding Jason had began to add early morning practices to his schedule since he no longer had to bother his parents by asking them to drive for him.

So every morning he and Kyle would skate to the school and start practicing at 5 a.m. To all of the new players Jason's insane work ethic made it so that none of them could complain about their own workload which seemed light in comparison.

But what they didn't know was that what they saw was only the tip of the iceberg. At home Jason would carry on with his own personal training regiment.

Over the summer Jason had bought a set of weights and moved them into the office room where he had started sleeping after Shania had moved in with them.

Everyday after practice Jason would eat dinner with his parents and Shania before starting his own weight training session.

And although not as extreme as when he was attending the Nike training camp in New York Jason had kept himself on a hypocaloric diet consisting of 4,000 calories daily.

Thanks to all of his efforts he had managed to put on 5lbs (2.26kg) of weight. Although that was only half of the weight that he had managed to put on after the Nike training camp Jason was more than happy with the results.

Now that he weighed 143lbs (64.86kg) he no longer seemed like the rail thin twig that he was before. He was still skinny but not overly so.

- - -

Two days had passed since the varsity spots had been decided as it was now Friday. Third period had just finished as David went to Sam's locker to wait for him so that they could go to first lunch together and hang out.

After a few minutes Sam showed up as he smiled at David. He greeted him as he opened his locker and stuffed a few books in.

"Yo David! How's it going bro? You ready to eat?" David smiled "Same old same old. And you already know I'm ready to eat. 

But you must be starving. I heard morning practice was even rougher today." The corner of Sam's mouth twitched as he hung his head.

"Don't remind me. Jaya said that we had to go even harder since our first scrimmage was tomorrow. I was almost late to first period because of how wobbly my legs were.

I felt like I just finished doing a triathlon." David laughed. Although he was on the junior varsity team and Sam was on the varsity team he didn't feel an ounce of jealousy.

In fact it was the complete opposite. He was overjoyed when he heard Jason call out Sam's name that day. 

He knew that even though he dreamed of being on the same basketball team as Jaya that his friend wanted to join the team even more than him.

In the corner of his vision he saw Jason in front of his locker across the hallway. He was with the other players who had been on the team last year and a red haired girl.

Sam saw David looking across the hall and looked in that direction to see just what it was that his friend was looking at.

After seeing Jason Sam had a complicated smile on his face as he sighed "The dude really has it all doesn't he?"

David looked at him with a confused expression "What do you mean?" Sam responded "I meant what I said.

The guy has it all. He's the star of the school, pretty much a local legend, he's an honor roll student, and he's got the prettiest and most popular girl in school.

He's living every guys dream." David playfully punched him on the shoulder "Instead of talking about all of that we should head to the cafeteria. Who knows how long the line is by now."

Sam laughed before closing his locker. Just as he was turning around to start walking toward the cafeteria he felt himself bump in to something.

He saw that it was a Hispanic looking student who had a snapback on backwards and both of his ears pierced with fake looking diamond earrings.

He saw a can of soda spilling out on the floor and assumed that he had knocked the can out of the boys hand when he had bumped into him.

Sam looked at the boy "Hey my bad man. I'll pay you back for the soda. How much was it?" But the boy ignored Sam's offer as he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"Ay what the fuck are you doin fool? I know you got small eyes but is you blind too Chino?" David saw this happening and stepped closer to the two of them.

"Hey come on. He said that he was so-" Before he could finish saying what he wanted to say the boy pushed him back as he held on to Sam's shirt with one hand.

"I wasn't talkin to you pendejo!" He then turned his attention back to Sam "You think you can buy your way outta this?"

Sam was nervously thinking of the best way to get out of this messy situation as drops of sweat began to roll down the side of his face.

"Come on man. I said I was sorry. Can you let me and my friend off just this once? We're both on the-"

Sam flinched as he saw the boy raised one arm up with a closed fist. He closed his eyes as he waited for the pain to come.

But despite a few seconds passing by nothing happened. He opened his eyes and saw that there was a hand grabbing on to the boys wrist preventing it from coming down and smashing him in the face.

He smiled as he saw who it was "Jaya!" Jason was holding the boy's wrist. He let go as he smiled at the boy.

"Hey Gabriel. I don't know what these guys did but think you could let them off the hook this once? They're on the team and we have our first scrimmage tomorrow.

It wouldn't be a good look if he had some of our guys show up with shiners." The anger on the boys face disappeared almost instantly after seeing Jason.

He smiled at Jason as he let go of Sam's shirt "Ay my bad Jaya. I didn't know they was on the team." He then turned around to face Sam.

He smiled as he straightened out his shirt for him "My bad Chino. Don't worry about the soda. You can pay me back by kickin some ass tomorrow."

He then turned back around to face Jason "Tell Marcus I said wassup. Good luck on your game tomorrow." Jason cracked a small smile "Ay thanks Gabriel but you know we won't need no luck haha."

The two of them dapped each other up before parting ways. David looked at Jason in astonishment "That was crazy Jaya.

You didn't even need to do anything. As soon as he saw you his attitude took a complete 180." Jason laughed "His older brother is friends with one of my friends.

He might seem like a bad guy but he's pretty cool once you get to know him. Anyways you guys be more careful.

I need to head to fourth period now. Shit! I'm running late!" He turned around and speed walked away.

David looked at Jason's back as he walked away from them "He's so cool. I think you were right Sam. He does have it all."

- - -

Practice had just come to a finish as Javier stood in front of Jason as he sat down on the lowest level of the bleachers.

Greg had his camera in hand as he filmed Javier interviewing Jason "So Jaya. You have your very first scrimmage tomorrow.

How do you feel the varsity team and junior varsity team will perform?" Jason took a second to wipe the sweat off of his face with his towel.

After he was done he looked at Javier and then at the camera 'If the media wants to make us in to villains then I'll give them what they want.

I'll use those dumb asses as a tool to get my name out even more haha.' Jason grinned at the camera "We're going to do what we always do, dominate."