As I walked out the front doors of Evergreen Middle School, I hear a familiar voice calling my name.
"Hey Cody, wait up!" my best friend, Mike, yelled sanguinely. He was a tall kid, with brown hair that almost covered his brown eyes.
"Oh hey, what's up?" I asked him.
"I was just going to ask you if you were comin' to the arcade with us," He said.
"Oh right, I'm gunna have to pass man," I responded quickly.
"What? Just come with us," He said, almost pleadingly.
"Nah I gotta go home," I told him.
"Right, and work on that jump shot?" He asked, sardonically.
"Yeah, I am!" I told him, smiling.
"Whatever man, only you." He said as he walked away, laughing.
Mike, and just about everyone else in this tiny town, knows that basketball means a lot to me. Here in Ohio, basketball means a lot to many people, mostly because we all root for the Ohio State Buckeyes. For me, basketball has just always been important. I know it sounds cliché, but when I'm on the court, everything just feels right.
Most people don't understand how much basketball means to me. It isn't until I tell them about my pre-game ritual that they finally understand just how obsessed I am. Some of them like to call me crazy because of it, and other just call me superstitious. I started it when I was in fifth grade. There's three parts to my ritual, and I'll explain to you where each of them originated. Before one game, when I was ten years old, my mom made me breakfast, because it was a morning game. My mom says it was nothing special, but for some reason I ate those scrambled eggs and drank a tall glass of orange juice like a glutton. After that, I went to get dressed, and I put on my black, ankle-high socks with the white Nike logo at the top, along with my black Nike sweatband, and my uniform, of course. Then, right before I left, my dad said, "Hey Cody, I wanna show you something." He put an old videotape into our VCR player, and fast-forwarded until he got to the part he was looking for. He said, "Watch this, this is good basketball right here." So I did, it was an old game, Duke versus Kentucky, from 1992. After I watched a bit, I went to my basketball game. For some reason, I had the best game of my life. I scored twenty points and we won. The only thing that explained my success was everything I had done before the game. So I kept doing it, and it kept working. The one game I didn't do it, we lost. It was horrible, we needed to win that game to make it to the playoffs, and I couldn't make a shot to save my life. After, I was extremely doleful, and so was everyone else.
It's been two years since that awful game, I'm in seventh grade, and I've learned my lesson. Now, I always do my pre-game ritual before every game. This year our team had a great season, and we made it to our league championship. Yesterday was our last game, and since we won, Coach gave us the day off today. I decided to go out and shoot some hoops. I was working on my foul shots when I heard my phone vibrate.
"Hello?" I said, as a pressed the green talk button on my black enV2.
"Hey Cody, I got big news!" Mike said, almost screaming.
"Okay, calm down big fella, what's up?" I said, laughing.
"WE'RE PLAYING THE COURTLAND COUGARS IN THE FINALS!" He yelled, without any composure. He would be the first to know because his dad is our coach.
"Good, we're gunna get 'um this time!" I said enthusiastically.
"Dude, do you remember the last time we played them? Do you know who's on that team?" Mike said, getting even more worked up.
"Yes, yes, I know, they beat us in overtime, it was close, and I don't care about Johnny," I told him decisively.
"Well I care, that whole team is a bunch of no goods," He said.
"Exactly, so we're going to beat them!" I told him.
"Yeah, okay man, I gotta call everyone else. I'll talk to you later," Mike said.
"Okay, bye," I said.
I went back to shooting foul shots, but it was hard for me to concentrate. Even though I had acted like playing the Cougars wasn't a big deal, I knew it was. We had played them twice this year. We won the first time; they won the second time. It was our only loss of the season, it was tough. The championship game was going to be even tougher, no doubt about it, and I had to deal with Johnny. He was the best player on the Cougars; they would be nothing without him. He was cocky and conceited; he thought he was infallible. I always had to guard him. He guarded me too, and did whatever he could to make me look bad. Even more than that, he's basically out to vilify me, and it's a little ridiculous. All I know is that we have our work cut out for us.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
We had a week to prepare for our meeting with the Cougars, and now that day was here. I woke up at eight so I could get ready. I walked down the stairs and there was my mom, in the kitchen, making me delicious scrambled eggs. I sat down at the table, and we ate our scrambled eggs and orange juice together. The game didn't start till noon, but we had to be there by eleven. I went upstairs and took my time getting dressed. At 10:30, when I was just about ready to leave for the game, I grabbed my basketball bag and ran down the stairs. I went to get the tape, knowing that I had purposely juxtaposed it next to the VCR, except there was one problem - it wasn't there.
"Dad, where's the Duke game?" I asked, trying to be phlegmatic.
"It should be right next to the VCR," He said as he walked into the living room.
"Well it's not, and I need to find it!" I said, growing more anxious.
"Okay, that's weird it should be there, are you sure you didn't put it anywhere else?" He asked me.
"Positive, I always leave it right next to the VCR," I told him.
"Okay, well we need to leave soon, so let's forget about it," He said, trying to assuage my worries.
"How can I forget about it? You know how important my pre-game ritual is, and you know how important this game is! I need that tape!" I said, almost screaming.
"Cody, you will do fine without that tape, let's go," He said, as he grabbed his coat.
"I can't leave yet!" I told him sternly.
"We have too, get in the car," He said, calm as he could.
I walked out to the car without another word. On the way to the game, which was at our home gym, I was very taciturn. I tried to imagine where I could have put the tape, and flashed back to everything I had done last night. I know I put it next to the VCR! It doesn't matter now though, I have a game to focus on.
When I arrived at the gym, some of my teammates were already there. I walked over and began getting ready with them. Of course, as I walked by the other team I saw pompous Johnny. All he did was smirk. As soon as everyone on our team had showed up, we began working warming up. We did stretching, dribbling, passing, and shooting drills before coach called us in for a pre-game talk. I had done fine during warm-ups, now all I could do was hope the game would be the same way. Coach's talk got us all fired up, even more then we already were. When we walked out of the locker room, we were ready to go. The starting five walked out onto the floor, and we prepared for the jump. The Cougars got the ball, and we got ready to play defense. I found Johnny, and guarded him. They passed it around, and shot, but we got the rebound. One stop for us, now we just had to go score. The game continued, and I tried to forget about the fact that I hadn't watched Duke versus Kentucky, and, surprisingly, it wasn't too hard. The first half flew by, and at halftime the score was 28-25 us.
In the locker room, Coach gave us a speech about what we were doing well, and what we needed to work on. He said that I needed to have another big half for us to win this game. I wanted to say that it wasn't going to happen, but then I remembered that none of them knew I hadn't done my pre-game ritual. If I hadn't said anything, and they still didn't know, then it obviously wasn't showing. I could do this.
We ran back onto the court to start the second half and win this game. The Cougars came out and made a little run, but we got ourselves back on track. We had gotten it down to thirty seconds left and we were winning 47-42. The Cougars were going to come out and run some fancy play to get a shot right here. They in-bounded the ball to Johnny and had another player set a screen on me, so he got a wide-open three-pointer. 47-45. Then, they threw on a zone press, something we weren't used to, and Johnny stole the ball. He threw it to another player who was wide-open under the basket. It's all tied up, with ten seconds left. Coach calls timeout and gives us a play to run. Mike sets a perfect screen, and I'm wide-open. I dribble up the court, and I hear the pounding of feet catching up to me. Soon, Johnny's trying to play defense, but I've got him. I think. I drive to the basket, and go up for a lay-up, but I miss. I hear the horn go off, signaling the game is over, and the referee's whistle at the same exact time. Foul. On Johnny. I'm shooting. I walk to the line. Everybody in the stands is elated and going crazy. I pretend like I'm in my driveway shooting. I've done this a million times; it's muscle memory. The referee bounces me the ball, and I shoot it. Miss. Still 47-47. Last shot, it's going into overtime, if I don't make this. "Maybe I really do need that tape," I think to myself, but I try to push the trepidation and negative thoughts out of my head. The referee bounces me the ball again, and I shoot it. This time, it's nothing but net. It's over, 48-47, we win!
The crowd goes wild, and so do we. As we go through the line, we shake hands and say, "Good game." After that, I walked over to my parents in the stands.
"Guess you don't need that tape," nefarious Johnny said, smirking. As soon as he said that I wanted to punch him, but then I remembered something - we won. He's the one that should want to punch me, so I decided to be the bigger person.
"Yeah, I guess not. See ya next year Johnny." I replied, and walked out of the gym, with my parents, feeling like I was on top of the world.
