Foster Park filled with numerous crowds of people gathered together for the basketball game that night. Foster Park was considered ‘basketball kingdom’ to the people living in the city. Everyone who was anyone played ball there.
Justin locked the door to his white truck with his alarm piece, and made his way to the court. Damp wind rolled past, causing him to hug his jacket closer to his body, and adjust the strap on his duffel bag. He ran his hand through his massive head of curls and rolled his eyes. It hadn’t quite taken to the gel he’d put in it, as he’d hoped.
Justin furrowed his eyebrows in confusion when he’d noticed that the court was inside of a building. Not many parks in California had indoor basketball courts. Hastily, he tried to get around the large crowd that had formed outside the building. Justin looked at his watch and realized that he only had ten minutes to get inside. Looking at the crowd, he angrily realized that he wouldn’t get inside to meet his ten minute deadline if he stood in that line.
Impatience came quickly, and Justin made his way to the front of the line, ignoring the sneers and dirty looks he got.
Justin reached on of the guards at the door and approached him meekly. “Excuse me, sir,” he beckoned. The guard raised an eyebrow and looked at him expectantly. “I need to get in there.”
The guard scoffed, “Yeah, and so does everyone else you see standing here.”
“No, but you don’t understand. I’m playing tonight.” Justin tried to explain.
“Sure. Do you know how many times I’ve heard that tonight?”
“Sir, I’m telling you the truth.”
The guard saw him as just another lying fan trying to get in, before everyone else, for a good seat. “You really expect me to believe that?” he asked rhetorically. “Especially, coming from someone like you?”
Justin took a step back and for once that day, was offended. The thought of not being able to play basketball because the guard wouldn’t believe a white guy like him could, upset him. Realizing that there was nothing else he could do, he pulled out his cell phone and called Jerome.
“Yo J-man, where you at?” Jerome answered.
“I’m in the front…still trying to get in. The guard isn’t letting me in,” Justin whined.
“Hold on, bro. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Justin hung up the phone, relieved and waited for his friend to arrive. Just like Jerome had said, he came jogging out the building. Some fans of his cheered for him and clapped as he retrieved Justin. Justin followed Jerome through the door when he told the guard, who had given Justin a hard time, that he was with him.
“Sorry ‘bout that, sir. It’s just hard to tell who’s lyin’ these days,” The guard said.
Justin only nodded his head; he could care less now. He was going to play ball. So, after going through, what seemed like, a maze, Justin and Jerome finally made it inside.
Tall, beige walls held everyone in and the hardwood floor adorned the bottom of the two story building. Basketballs echoed in Justin’s ears as people bounced them, and his mouth hung agape as he stared at all the plaques and banners mounted on the wall. Justin walked past the speakers, which where about two times taller than he, and looked around at the crowd.
They were rowdy and loud, as usual, and he was loving every moment. He looked out to the middle of the court, where he saw the Calumet steppers performing. Justin finally took a seat in a chair, among others on the sideline, and watched the performance.
Instead of the maroon skirts and matching tops they wore yesterday, the steppers were clad in baby blue velour pants and white, strategically shredded shirts. The moved to the beat of Ludacris’ “Saturday (Sticky Icky)” and pumped up the crowd as they did it. Justin watched them closely again still looked on in awe at how talented all of them were.
“Milk Man, it’s almost time,” Mike said, and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hell no,” Justin said and began to shake his head, "i'm not using that name," He stood up and made his way over to Jerome, but Mike stopped him.
“Don’t worry, man. Jerome didn’t tell the MC yet.” Mike reassured.
Justin exhaled and nodded his head. Now he could play with ease. The MC announced all of their names and they ran out onto the court when it was their turn.
Some selected people from Fenger High stepped out on the court and started the trash talking body language. Their team ranged, small and tall, slim and large. Some of the guys walked over to Melanie and the rest of the girls, trying to touch them and ‘seduce’ them. They weren’t having it though. Melanie pushed one of the jerks further onto the court, causing people from the crowd to laugh.
Justin stood at half court, waiting for the jump ball to come. The boy he was jumping against, sized him up by looking at him up and down. Maliciously, he stared at him and then chuckled sarcastically.
He turned to the referee and said, “Man, I gotta jump against this white boy? I’ll crush him!” He turned to Justin now, “Y’all are always tryin’ to get in on what we got.”
Justin just looked at him, and focused on what he was going to do next. As soon as they were about to touch the ball, Mike interfered.
“Yo, Justin. You just gon’ let him talk to you like that, dog?” Mike asked.
Justin didn’t say anything, he just furrowed his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know what he was supposed to say. After all, he didn’t even know this guy. All he knew was that he was pretty ignorant.
Mike started again, “Hey, cuz. Next time you wanna talk, be able to back yo shit up! Cause if I remember correctly, how many times did we beat you? Um…I think three, not including play-offs, that is,” He boasted and told the ref to start the game.
Justin touched the ball with the guy who had disrespected him and stood back for a moment before hitting the ball to his side of the court. Justin ran down the court quickly to catch a lob pass that was thrown to him from Jerome. With that lob pass, Justin jumped as high as he could when he was close to the basket, and dunked with one hand.
The crowd stood on their feet and cheered for Justin as he ran down to the other side of the court. The same guy that had dissed him before the game started try to get away from Justin as he tried to block him, but Justin wasn’t letting him go anywhere. An opponent from the other team was looking for someone to pass the basketball to, but found no one. So, he shot, hurriedly and missed.
Mike got the rebound and passed the ball to Damien. Damien quickly dribbled the ball up the court and stood in place for a moment to look around. The guy guarding him came up and tried to steal the ball, but Damien wouldn’t let him. Instead, he crossed him over, and dribbled around him. There, he came to another defender and bounced the ball through his legs before making a flawless lay- up.
Mike, Justin, Samuel, Damien, and Jerome ran back up to the other side of the court, and got back on defense. The score was tied, and Melanie turned and faced her team and told them to start a routine.
“Defense!” was what they shouted, and their synchronized steps added something extra to the chant.
Justin followed his man, as he tried to taunt him with the ball. He prepared to shoot, and Justin prepared to block. So, he followed through and knocked the ball out of his hands when he tried to shoot the ball. By the look on the other team’s faces, they didn’t like Justin that much. It surprised them that this white kid, could play extremely well on offense and defense.
Jerome caught the ball that Justin knocked in his direction, and ran down to their side of the court, with nobody behind him. Then he did a graceful, finger-roll lay up.
A buzzer sounded telling them it was the end of the second quarter, telling the Calumet Steppers that it was their turn to take center court. Justin, slightly out of breath, sat down in his chair and winced when the muscles in his calves contracted, sending a pain in his legs. He noticed that the steppers didn’t have music to dance to this time, and they were going to make their own beat. Their precise sounds game out audibly as they stomped their feet and clapped their hands correspondingly. Justin also noticed that it was the same routine that Melanie had her team grueling over earlier that day, and it sounded better- even without Tami, who kept messing up.
After the girls finished, the basketball players stood up and took their positions on the court. Calumet went into the second half leading by 5. The score was 61 to 66. The whole second half was played with more aggression and more trash talking. More tricks were performed and each and every player probably played harder than they had before. The crowd was on the edge of their seats with anticipation. Things were starting to get ugly, but they liked it. To them, that was what street ball was about.
The boys from Fenger played rough, but Calumet took it all in stride. In the end, Calumet won 90 to 86 and would be playing the next day. Each and every one of them hoped that they would make it to the end of the week and win the title. Mike, Samuel, Jerome, and Justin became closer that night. They each realized each others strengths and weaknesses. Damien, on the other hand, kept his distance. Justin intimidated him, and he wasn’t one to handle intimidation well. Pretty soon, he was going to loose his MVP title if he didn’t step up, and put Justin down.
The large crowds moved to the parking lot and proceeded to get into their cars. Melanie walked hand in hand with Damien to his car, but kept quiet. She didn’t talk much when she was around him, he would disregard her comments anyway, so she didn’t see the need to speak much when he was around his friends. He signed autographs on the way to his car for nearby people that came up to him, Melanie allowed herself to get dragged along for the ride.
“Damien, can I have your keys? I wanna go wait in the car. My legs hurt,” She asked softly as he singed a man’s paper.
“Girl, can you be patient for one moment? I’m busy right now. Your legs can’t possibly be hurting all that bad. All you’ve been doing was yelling and shakin’ yo ass.” Damien dismayed her presence.
Melanie rolled her eyes, let go of his hand, and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked up to the night sky that was filled with stars, and sighed. She truly hoped that God would send her someone worth her time.
***
Justin slowly opened the front door to his home and walked into the house just the same. He looked to his left and to his right and saw no one in the front of the house. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the clock on the wall. It was only 9:00, which meant that usually his brothers would be running by in their pajamas chasing one another. Justin set his bag down on the floor and walked around a small corner, where the living room was. There, he saw his mother sitting on the couch watching TV.
“Hey, ma,” He said quietly.
Lynn turned around in her seat to face her son, “Hey, Justin. How was school? Where were you?” she asked.
“School was fine. I was at the library studying for a test I have tomorrow,” He lied and proceeded out the living room, but his mother called him again.
“So, are you ready to ace that test?” she asked expectantly and looked at him just the same.
“Yeah.”
Justin walked out the living room now and made his way to he and his brother’s room. There he saw both of his brothers, John and Steven, sitting on the floor with their mouths hanging open, looking at the TV. Justin stepped over the both of them and set his backpack on his bed.
“How bout you guys go into John’s room and watch TV?” Justin suggested and sat down on the bed.
“No,” Steven said, “we can watch TV wherever we want.”
Justin rolled his eyes and sighed, “When are you gonna stop acting like you’re so big and bad?”
“When you stop lying to mom about playing basketball,” Steven teased and smiled a toothy smile at him.
Justin had widened his eyes at his brother’s intelligence, but didn’t question him any further. “Steve, take your little brother to his room please? It’s too cluttered in here and I’m about to pull out my keyboard,” He said.
Steve rolled his eyes and stood to his feet. “Come on, John.” He said and tapped his little brother’s shoulder. “Let’s go to your room and watch TV. Justin’s gonna do that horrible thing he calls playing piano again,”
Justin shook his head and went to his closet. He then pulled out the keyboard that was leaning on its side and set it on its stand. Justin then took a seat on his bed and turned it on. He stroked the keys gently, and produced soft, melodic tunes from it. He closed his eyes as his soul poured more into the little piece he had written. Slowly, he stopped playing and picked up the notepad he had written the lyrics for the song in.
Lynn stopped suddenly when she walked past Justin’s door, and heard him humming. She grinned approvingly at her son’s voice. She absolutely adored it, and only hope that he would use that talent, or his grades to get him somewhere, instead of playing basketball.
**
I stepped out of Chasity’s car and adjusted the straps of my backpack. I looked at her over my shoulder and grinned. She carries herself so funny, but then I looked across the parking lot and saw Jerome and Mike standing and talking. This girl has the biggest crush on Jerome it’s not even funny. She even has pictures of she and him in her folder. I bet you she tells her family that he’s her boyfriend.
Chasity linked her arm around mind, and walked next to me. “Melanie, that boy is so damn fine!” she gawked.
I only grinned at her, “Mmhhmm”
“What’s wrong with you today, sweetie? You haven’t said a damn thing all morning,” She looked up at me with concern in her eyes.
I hate it when she looks at me like that, cause then she can figure out what I’m thinking about.
“It’s Damien huh?” she guessed.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t cause if I did, she would just lecture me again. My mom had already done that last night.
“Girl, I tell you time and time again to stand up to that no-good nigga! What did he do this time?” she asked.
“Nothin’,” I said sadly.
I un-linked my arm away from hers and walked quickly in the opposite direction. Hurriedly, I entered the school and jogged down the large hallway. Headed for the bathroom, I turned a corner, and walked into the girls’ bathroom. I looked into the mirror and sighed. I hate my life. Damien and I got into this huge fight last night and he almost hit me because I told him the truth. I told him that he need to stop being so mean to people. Yesterday, at break, he thew some white kid up against a locker because he thought he had said something to him. And, after the basketball game, he was all pissed off at Justin. For what? I don’t know. He’s probably jealous that Justin might actually be better than him.
**
Melanie walked into her second period Spanish class with a smile, contrary to how she’d been feeling earlier. She plopped down into her seat behind Jerome and took out her book. Jerome turned around his seat and faced her now.
“Are you feeling okay, ma?” he asked.
“Yeah why?” Melanie asked and looked him in the eye.
“Damien was kinda heated this morning. He said y’all got into it last night.”
“Yeah, well we all know that Damien can be a jackass sometimes. So, what happened last night is on him.”
Melanie looked over Jerome’s head and saw Justin walk into the classroom sluggishly. A smirk formed on Melanie’s face now as she watched him sink low into his seat like always. The bell rang, and Mr. Gonzalez walked to the front of the class. He explained what they’d being doing today and asked if there were any questions.
Melanie raised her hand excitedly.
Mr. Gonzalez gave her a bored expression and said, “Melanie I can’t let you go to the bathroom. You’re gonna have to hold it,”
Melanie smacked her teeth and said, “Nah, man I have a real question to ask you.”
He raised his eyebrows now, “Okay…what is it?”
“I need to know how you say ‘milk man’ in Spanish?”
Melanie fought the urge not to laugh when Justin snapped his head in her direction and shot her an evil look. Jerome fell out laughing, turned around and gave her props by slapping her hand when she held it out.
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