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Gray Dreams by Babymamma787
Number of reviews: 69
Print:  Chapter or Story
The cold and somewhat wet basketball, dribbled repeatedly in his hands. The cold, Chicago wind bustled over the wet, cement courts that had been touched with snow two nights before. He stood at the top of the key, over the free-throw line. Focusing in on the basket in front of him, he threw the ball, and successfully made the shot. He jogged to retrieve the ball and rolled up the sleeves on his gray sweatshirt. Dribbling the ball, he sauntered to another part of the worn basketball court. He repeated shooting and continued making the baskets, like he’d always done. The game of basketball was Justin’s sanctuary. He always made time to play basketball at least once a day, no matter what he’d be doing.
Justin, a senior at Calumet High School, sighed and closed his eyes. He stood in the middle of the court and lifted his head to the sky. He didn’t want to be in Chicago. He wanted to go back home, California. They say home is where the heart is, but last year Justin found out that the one person he trusted the most betrayed him, his mother, and two younger brothers. For that, he cursed his last name, and everything that his father once stood for. Because of his father’s stupidity, Justin and the rest of his family had to start all over. Meaning, he didn’t get to be the most popular kid in school anymore. Nor, was he the star basketball player he was in California. Instead of wearing shorts, riding in his car with the top down, he was bundled in large jackets and boots with the heater on blast in his car. As a matter of fact, he found out that in Chicago, they barley use their cars- they’d rather take a train.
Justin shook his head at that thought and began to leave Wellington Park. He needed to get home; his mom was going to kill him. It was already about 11:00 at night, and he was freezing his butt off. Slowly, he walked down the dark streets and looked around at the neighborhood. Compared to where he used to live, it would be considered the projects, the dumps, the ghetto…etc. In Chicago, it was considered the middle class parts of town, not exactly the suburbs, but definitely not the projects. He continued to walk further, silently scolding himself for not driving to the park. His mother probably wouldn’t have let him take the car to go play basketball anyway. She hated the fact that that was her son’s passion.
As he walked further down May Street, he realized he was getting closer to his high school. A sour face formed on his features as it came into view. The large mural of an Indian took up the side of the school and even shown clearly during the night. He could honestly say that he had a strong dislike for that school. However, it had it’s peaks, but being white in a school where about a little more than half of the school’s ethnicity was African American, was definitely a low for him.
He’d passed the school now, and realized he was about ten minutes from his house, and twenty from his girlfriend’s, Victoria. He debated upon whether or not to walk another ten minutes and visit her. However, it was going on midnight, and she was probably asleep. After all, they did have to go to school tomorrow.
Coming up the driveway of his small home, he sat the basketball on the porch. He then shifted his hands through his pockets in search of his keys. Once inside the house, he froze. There sat his mother, at the kitchen table, looking idly at the door. He was in trouble, he could sense it and in a minute, she was going to start yelling.
Justin counted to three in his head and on cue, she began to rant.
“Justin Randall Timberlake!” Lynn stood and yelled.
“Don’t call me that.” Justin said back and turned to face her.
“Look, Justin.” She said, putting emphasis on her son’s name. “I don’t care what you want me to call you, when I say be home at 10:00 I mean it! You know that tomorrow is Monday and you need to go to school. There is no excuse for your tardiness, young man. And tomorrow, is the start of second quarter, so that means I want you to study more, and play basketball less! Your progress report was a let down. ” Lynn demanded.
“Mom, I had all B’s.” Justin rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, when you used to get straight A’s. Justin, don’t do this anymore or else you’re grounded.”
“Whatever.” Justin mumbled with an attitude. His mother never grounded him.
Nonetheless, he proceeded down the hallway to he and his little brother, Steven’s, room. He walked into the dark room, changed into his pajamas, and got into the bed.
“Haha!” Steven teased, “Justin’s in trouble.” He whispered so that his mother wouldn’t hear.
Justin grunted and threw one of his pillows across the room, hitting Steven. “Shut up and go to sleep.”
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