｢NEXT HOOP｣
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“Your love and passion for something will overrule all pain.” The stranger encouraged.
“Understood!” Germaine nodded, a true sweet smile blooming across her face.
Chapter 5: Sensei
“Germaine’s late…” Claudette grumbled, eye brows twitching.
“What’s wrong with her? Hazel asked Anne as she looked at Claudette.
“Don’t know.” Anne shrugged.
“Chill… she’s just stressed up… I think…”
“ANNE!
“NOW!!” Claudette boomed when none of the trio complies.
“Yes…” They groaned in unison as they walked to the outward of court and formed a line before they ran around the perimeter.
“Yeah, I won’t hold it against her; I’ll hold it against you instead.” Hazel growled as she passed by
During their eight round, Germaine then strolled in with her headphones plugged in her ears.
“Germaine!” Claudette called out. Germaine turned and saw Claudette glaring at her, her metallic blue orbs burning with fury.
“Yes?” Germaine queried as she approached Claudette.
“Why? Why are you late?” Claudette boomed, her hands rested on her hips.
“Late? I thought Saturday training starts at 8.30am? Now’s 8.25. I’m early.” Germaine jumped into her defense.
“Didn’t you receive the message that said that training will start at 7.30?” Claudette asked.
“Nope.” Germaine shook her head.
“Then, can’t you ask your teammates? For being late without a legitimate excuse, run 10 rounds around the court!” Claudette ordered and Germaine agreed grumpily.
After completing her tenth round, Claudette called the team together. The team slowly dragged their feet to
form a semicircle in front of Claudette.
“Too slow! 50 push ups!” Claudette commanded. Groaning, the team immediately fell down.
“One!” They yelled as they went down at the command of Anne.
“Stop!” Claudette suddenly ordered, the team hurriedly arose and looked at Claudette.
“Why aren’t you doing the push up?” Claudette asked. Yuki stared at her with her brown hazel orbs staring back in rebellion.
“I was here almost when you gave the command for us to gather. So I don’t think I deserve the punishment.” Yuki yawned.
“Where’s your team spirit? When one falls, we all fall together.” Claudette lashed angrily at Yuki.
“90 counts. Down!” Claudette ordered. Yuki opened her mouth to rebut but shut her mouth. Looking away, she fell to the push up position and started the count down.
“Gather please.” Claudette boomed. The team shuffled their feet and gathered in front of Claudette. “Team, I went home and thought through it, I figured out that getting Akishiro to coach us is a big mistake, after all, he’s just a normal school kid…”
“Who got into this school with his basket ball skills.” Yuki grunted. Claudette shot her a silencing glare and her gaze swept through the entire team gathered in front of her.
“Whatever I’m doing now, it’s for the sake of the team’s well being.” Claudette emphasized.
“Yeah, for the team’s sake or just to make you look good?” Yuki snorted with disbelief. “If Akishiro is a normal school kid who got his basket ball skills from the sky, then what are you who only managed to become school vice captain only after the second seed fell?”
“Yuki! I know you are upset on me punishing you, but if I don’t punish you now, our team unity will fall!” Claudette replied clearly upset.
“Don’t crap with me. If our team really had team unity, you people wouldn’t have last minute changed the coach without informing us. If you people really had team unity, Germaine would have been informed in
regards of the change of timing!” Yuki spat. Claudette glared at Yuki and looked at the team.
“Yuki! 30 laps.” Claudette snapped. Yuki glared at Claudette and ran around the court. Claudette swiftly briefed them and dismissed them.
“What happened to Claudette?”
“Aliens abducted her, changed her brain and zapped her back down to Earth.” Yuki grunted as she passed the two seniors and headed for the door.
“Hey! Yuki! Where are you going?!”
“Home.” Yuki replied as she waved her hand.
“Yuki’s going home?” Germaine asked as she popped her head over Anne and
“Oh well, if Yuki is leaving, then, we first years must as well leave too.” Fione sighed as she slung her bag over her shoulder. Behind her was the remaining of the year one. After bidding their farewells, the group left chattering. But only Germaine remained.
“Since you are here, we must as well teach you some stuff right?” Anne sighed as she looked at Germaine. Germaine stared at Anne and pointed at herself dazedly.
“Yes, you.”
“Okay, so the first thing I’m going to teach you is how to do the lay up.”
//~//
“Hey, this is my spot.” Germaine heard somebody grumble. She turned and saw the blue haired stranger.
Now, night has fallen, and the dim moon has risen from its resting place to take its place in the serene sky. Even as the moon watched over the calm earth, soft gentle winds would occasionally blow across the land.
“Sorry.” Germaine whispered as she got up.
“Haha… what’s wrong? You don’t seem well…” The stranger asked as she sat on the floor.
“I want to improve my basket ball skill.. But I can’t… why am I so weak?” Germaine cursed. The stranger stared at Germaine persuading her to continue.
“Today, my seniors were teaching me how to do a layup… but no matter how I try, my layup just won’t score…” Germaine grumbled frustrated.
“Well, whenever you are trying to score, there is 2 factors – strength and angle. If you use too much strength – especially when you are relying the backboard – the ball will rebound. If you shoot at the wrong angle, the ball won’t enter in the right angle, thus leading a miss.” The stranger said as she rummaged her plastic bag and offered Germaine a chocolate doughnut. Germaine smiled and accepted it willingly as she sat down beside her.
“When doing a layup, its not only the hand muscle that contributes to the strength, but also the leg muscle. So always keep in mind that the strength mustn’t be too hard or it will rebound.” The stranger said as she fished out a bottle of orange juice and cracked open the bottle and sipped gently.
“How’s your dribbling?” The stranger suddenly quipped.
“Urms, okay?” Germaine shrugged.
“Okay, its not good an answer.” The stranger said as she fished out a basketball from her bag and passed it
to Germaine, which Germaine caught it clumsily.
“Your reaction time is too slow.” The stranger observed. “It need to be quick.”
“Urm… what’s reaction time?” Germaine asked a little lost from the conversation.
“How about this? I’m going to loan you a tennis ball? And tomorrow, during your school break, you ask your friends to toss this ball to you in different directions and you are suppose to catch it.” The stranger instructed as she passed the green tennis ball to her.
“Oh… okay! Then, I will go now! Bye!” Germaine exclaimed as she pocketed the tennis ball and ran down the brick steps happily. Not looking at where she was going, she bumped into a petite lass causing the latter to fall.
“Oh no! I’m sorry, I did not look at where I was going!” Germaine apologized as she helped up the petite lass. The lass looked at Germaine taking Germaine’s breath away by her astounding beauty.
“Eh! Aren’t you the girl who was with Akishiro?” Germaine finally remembered and exclaimed to the platinium blonde lass who let her straight shoulder hair length hair down. The lass surveyed Germaine with her keen crimson red orbs and looked away and ascended the steps. Shrugging off the incident, Germaine eagerly descended the steps, once again missing the stare that the lass shot at her. [A/N: Chapt 3]
//+//
At the basketball court, the stranger was still seating on the side of the court gazing at the moon which was
now covered by a whisk of cloud.
“Amazing, you are actually teaching somebody basketball.” A feminine voice suddenly appeared. The stranger turned and saw…
+END+
A/N: Finally done with chapter 5~!! Haha! Review please! Thankyous!!
