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  ISBN: 9781543924114

  To my dad, thanks for being my best coach.

  To my mom, thanks for being my best cheerleader.

  To my brother, thanks for being my best friend.

  Shootin’ hoops with dad. It’s one of my favorite things to do.

  “Focus on the basket.” He says.

  “Keep your feet and shoulders pointed towards the rim.”

  “Bend your knees just a little bit.”

  “Focus on the basket.”

  “In one smooth motion, straighten your legs, extend your elbow, and flick your wrist.”

  “And make sure you follow through.”

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: A New Start

  Chapter 2: Not A Walk In The Park

  Chapter 3: Workouts

  Chapter 4: Tryouts

  Chapter 5: B-Team

  Chapter 6: Game Day

  Chapter 7: A-Team

  Chapter 8: Time

  Chapter 9: Game Changer

  Chapter 10: Playoffs

  Chapter 11: All-Star

  Chapter 12: The 'Ship

  CHAPTER 1

  A NEW START

  Hi! It’s me, Ronnie Williams again!

  I just had the best summer ever but its ending today and school is starting again. I’m not the new kid in town anymore so I don’t have to worry about that but that doesn’t mean I’m anymore excited for school. Really I just can’t wait for baseball to start back up again but that’s not happening till all the way in the spring, ugh! What am I gonna do till then?

  “Ronnie come down here!”

  That’s my dad calling me downstairs. Am I in trouble or something? I don’t think so. I have my first day of school outfit all laid out (it’s super fresh by the way) and I did all my chores. I wonder what’s up?

  I head downstairs into the living room, empty. No dad, no mom or little brother either. Weird. I walk into the kitchen and same thing. No one is here. Now I know I didn’t just make up hearing my dad so what’s going on?

  “Back here!” My dad calls again from the backyard.

  Good at least I know I’m not crazy. I make my way towards the back door. Maybe he wants to play some catch.

  “Wait, close your eyes!” My mom yells out to me right before I step outside.

  What’s this all about? A surprise? It’s not even my birthday. I hope its something cool!

  I go ahead and cover my eyes. But I try to sneak a peek between my fingers. It’s not working though I can only see good enough to not fall on my face.

  “Okay you can look.” My dad announces.

  Let’s do this! I uncover my eyes and there it is right in front of me…a basketball hoop! And not just any old hoop but a brand new, glass backboard havin’, breakaway rimmin’, height adjustin’ piece of awesomeness! Yeah this is a cool surprise!

  “You like?” My dad asks like the answer isn’t the most obvious one ever.

  “Yes!!!”

  “Cool let’s shoot some hoops then.”

  You know I’m with it!

  He tosses me the ball and I start showing off my sweet moves! And by sweet moves I mean fumbling my dribble and then bricking my first shot something awful like. But I hadn’t got a chance to warm-up or anything so no biggie, the next one is going in, watch this.

  My dad passes me the ball again. I set myself, look at the hoop, take my time and take my shot. Swish! See told ya!

  “Nice shot!” My dad says.

  I tell him thanks and we keep balling for the rest of the evening. I even almost forgot the first day of school was tomorrow…almost.

  I’m up bright and early kinda excited for school. Crazy right? But it’s for two reasons. One, I get to rock my fresh first day of school outfit, I got my brand new kicks and a new Batman shirt and matching hoodie. Like I said, fresh!

  But even more exciting than that, I get to see my two best friends Billie and Adrian! After the epic end to our baseball season and school ending we hung out basically 24/7 this summer. We played a lot of baseball, ate at Frank’s Pizza almost everyday, and partied at Funplex like crazy. It was awesome! But for the last three weeks I was back in Michigan visiting my family. Boring! I’m totally ready to get back with my crew!

  Me and my dad pull up to school. I’m starting to get nervous.

  “Enjoy your first day of sixth grade.” My dad tells me.

  Oh did I mention this is my first day of middle school? I think that’s a pretty good reason to be nervous.

  “Don’t worry.” He starts, reading my mind like usual. “Everything is gonna be great.”

  “How do you know?” I ask. I really wanna know so I can calm down.

  “Because.” He says with a smile.

  That’s not a real answer! But it’s a classic type of answer from my dad. Unfortunately he’s usually right so I can’t argue with him. But still, ugh!

  I just say fine and get out the car and start making the long march to the front door of the school. I turn back to my dad one more time and he gives me a thumbs up. Ok he’s right, it’ll be fine…I hope.

  Here we are, Jackie Robinson Middle School. I walk through the doors. It’s a sea of kids. Sooo many kids. They’re everywhere. The front of the school is one big open area with the cafeteria and bunch of lockers. And everything is red. The chairs, the stairs, the carpet, even the lockers. I’m just looking around trying to figure out where I’m supposed to go. Someone bumps into me knocking my backpack off my shoulder and spilling my books on the ground. I can hear kids laughing which is just great (and by great I mean terrible). I’m about to tell the kid to watch out but when I look up I see a really big kid with a really big snarl on his face so uh…never mind.

  Did I also mention that all these kids are huge?!? It’s kind of a shock going from being the biggest and oldest kids in school in elementary to the youngest and smallest here in middle school. I don’t think this is the start to that great day my dad was talking about. I just gotta find Billie and Adrian ASAP!

  “Ronnie! Ronnie!”

  I hear Adrian’s voice calling out. Right on time.

  My boy Adrian comes over and starts helping me pick my stuff up. I turn to say thanks but then I see it…

  “Your hair!” I blurt out with no chill. Oops.

  “What?” He replies laughing.

  The fro is gone!

  “The fro is gone!” I blurt out again. Still no chill.

  “Oh you like?” He asks sarcastically patting his hair.

  He’s rocking a flat top that’s even higher then his old fro so he looks even taller. He’s like over six feet tall now.

  I ask him why he changed it. He just smiles and says…

  “It was time to switch it up.”

  I guess so. His flat-top does look pretty cool I’ll give him that. But I have to ask him the really serious question now.

  “Where’s Billie?”

  “Billie’s around here somewhere…”

  “I’m right here boys!” Billie announces creeping up behind us.

  I turn around. It’s Billie alright but…

  “Your hair!” I blurt out again (I’m gonna have to work on my chill I know).

  She’s totally changed her hair too. Gone are the two purple dyed afro-puffs and now she has one ponytail that’s bri
ght red!

  I leave for three weeks and my best friends go crazy? I also ask her why, and like Adrian, she smiles and says.

  “It was time to switch it up.”

  And here I am same cut, same freckles, same everything. Maybe I should switch things up too? Cut the mini-fro? Nah, no way! This is my signature look.

  “So where’s your locker?” Billie asks.

  Oh yeah, lockers. I totally forgot. This will be my first locker by the way so it should be pretty cool. I have it on the school app so I pull out my tablet (oh did I mention that I have my very own iPad now? My dad finally said I’m old enough to have my own and yeah it’s sweet).

  “My locker is by the gym.” I tell them.

  “Ah ours are right here.” Billie says.

  “Yeah we’re right next to each other.” Adrian adds.

  Lucky! I think to myself finally using my chill.

  “We all have the same first period so we’ll meet you in class Ronnie.” Billie says.

  “We’ll save you a seat since your locker is way on the other side of the school.” Adrian says half joking but half serious too. My locker is nowhere near theirs.

  I wanna tell them to wait up for me but I gotta play it cool. I don’t need a babysitter I can walk around middle school by myself. It’s no big deal this is just a gigantic school filled with gigantic kids I don’t know…

  “Ok cool see ya.” I tell them all smooth like and start to walk off.

  After a few minutes of wandering the halls (did I mention this place was huge?) I finally find my locker, #808. My favorite number is 8 so that’s pretty cool at least. I check my combination and open my locker. I got a lot of space I can put all of my baseball stuff in here if I wanted…oh and my school stuff too I guess.

  Well time to go to class…

  Bang!

  Outta nowhere someone slams my door right in my face!

  “Watch it!” this really tall and skinny kid wearing goggles (yes goggles not glasses) says.

  I look at him like what’s his problem? But wait I think he has a little mustache growing! How old is he? I might not wanna mess with him. Luckily he just laughs and walks away. Weird. But now I’m late for class I gotta get moving!

  I hurry back to the other end of the school and get to class huffing and puffing but I do get there just before the bell rings!

  I spot Billie and Adrian and start making my way to the open seat they saved for me. I’m about to sit and bam! Outta nowhere some kid swipes my seat! And not just any kid, it’s the tall kid! But wait he has another color shirt on? I was sure at the lockers he had a red and blue shirt on but now he’s wearing a blue and red shirt. I don’t know I guess my mind is playing tricks on me but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that he stole my seat!

  “Too slow.” The kid says to me and starts laughing.

  Now I have to find a new place to sit away from my crew. I take the only seat left which happens to be in the front row. What a perfect way to start my first day of school (and by perfect I mean not at all perfect).

  I survive and make it to lunch (barely) but now I can really hang with Billie and Adrian and catch up with them. I walk into the cafeteria, it’s totally crazy. Super packed, super noisy, and super chaotic. Back in elementary it was simple, I just sat with Billie and Adrian and the rest of the team at the baseball table. But I don’t know what’s going on here. I just gotta find Billie and Adrian ASAP! Oh there they are! Great. I didn’t wanna stand here the whole time looking around like a lost puppy. They saved me a seat again so I gotta hurry up and get there before someone tries to steal that seat too. I get there and get my seat between Billie and Adrian. Good! Now I can just hang out with my friends with no drama finally. I open my mouth to say hi to Billie and Adrian but before I can even speak…

  “What’s he doing here?” Someone shouts out from the other end of the table.

  Who’s “he”? Is it me? I look over and…I can’t believe it…it’s the tall kid! Again! His shirt looks red and blue again but whatever, is he following me?

  “This is the basketball table!” He says loudly.

  I look around, I think he’s talking to me but I don’t know what he’s talking about. I’m just sitting with my friends. TK (that’s my new name for the tall kid) is staring at me I guess waiting for me to say something but I don’t know what to say and even if I did, I’m so nervous that now I have a huge lump in my throat so I couldn’t speak if I wanted to. But TK is still staring. I think he wants an answer. Uh-oh…

  “He’s with us!” Billie says confidently (and coming to my rescue).

  “Yeah he’s cool.” Adrian chimes in. My friends got my back.

  “Whatever, this table is still for ballers.” TK fires back.

  “Our boy Ronnie is one of the best ballers in the school!” Billie responds with no hesitation. I’m hesitating though.

  “Yeah he’s the kid James Harden!” Adrian adds.

  Uh-oh they’re going a little too far with this having my back stuff now.

  “James Harden? Yeah right probably more like Lame Harden.” TK says and starts laughing (that was a terrible joke by the way) and so does most of the table. This isn’t going well.

  “You won’t be laughing when he makes the team.” Billie randomly throws out.

  Wait what? What team? What’s going on here?

  Well whatever it is, TK doesn’t seem too worried about Billie’s comment while I’m all the way concerned.

  The bell rings so lunch is over and we all head towards the lockers. I gotta talk to Billie and Adrian so as we’re walking I calmly and coolly ask them what they were talking about back at the table.

  “Making the b-ball team of course.” Billie answers nonchalantly.

  But I can’t hoop! I think to myself and then (still all calm and cool like) try and explain that to Billie and Adrian.

  They look at each other and just start laughing. They think this is a joke!?!

  “I’m serious! I don’t really play basketball!” I tell them.

  “But you really are the kid James Harden. Remember when you beat both of us at Funplex?”

  Yeah I remember and it was pretty cool and all but that was one time and also pure luck. Plus it was an arcade hoop not a real one and they’re not even close to the same thing. I try to break that down to them but they’re not having it. For some reason Billie and Adrian think I’m good at basketball now and I can’t change their minds, awesome (not awesome).

  “So what’s up with this team?” I ask reluctantly.

  “It’s the sixth grade squad for the school.” Adrian informs me.

  “The A-Team to be exact.” Billie adds.

  I have no idea what they’re talking about by the way so should I ask or play it cool? I probably need to ask so I know what they’ve gotten me into.

  “There’s two teams for each grade, the A-Team, which is the best team, and then the B-Team.” Billie explains.

  “So of course we’re all gonna be on the A-Team.” Adrian says.

  There’s that “we” again but I already know there’s nothing I can do about it so I ask the next obvious question, when’s tryouts?

  “The end of September.” Billie answers.

  Phew I got some time which is good ‘cause I’m gonna need it!

  The rest of the school day goes by fine, I get lost one more time and we have some homework on the first day of school, ugh! But mostly I’m thinking about basketball. I gotta get home and get practicing!

  My dad picks me up and I know he’s gonna ask me how my first day was but we’ve got more important things to discuss!

  “I gotta learn how to play ball!” I blurt out a soon as I get in the car.

  “But you already do. You just pitched and won the championship last season.” He responds kinda confused.

  “No, basketball!” I inform him.

  “Oh. I guess it’s good you got a brand new hoop in your backyard.” br />
  Oh yeah I totally forgot about that! This is perfect. I can practice without anyone seeing how bad I am.

  “You wanna shoot hoops tonight?” He asks.

  “Of course!” I reply immediately. Let’s do this!

  On the ride home I’m already feeling better about things. Dad comes through again.

  When we get home I eat first then have to do that first day of school homework (ugh again) and then I can finally hit the backyard and start working on my game!

  “What do you wanna work on first?” My dad asks me as he passes me the ball.

  Hmmm. I’m kinda bad at everything so we can pretty much start anywhere.

  “Let’s start with something easy. Free throws.” My dad suggests which is cool with me.

  I walk over to an imaginary free throw line and get ready, take aim, and shoot. Brick. Ok let me try again. My dad passes me the ball, I look at the basket and shoot again…and brick again. Ok let’s try this once again. I get the ball from my dad and get ready to shoot but right before I let it go my dad stops me.

  “You need a free throw routine.”

  “Huh?” I say.

  “A free throw routine to clear your mind and get you focused on hitting the shot. All the great players have one.”

  Hmmm okay, I guess I need one too then. But what’s mine gonna be? Think Ronnie.

  “Make it something that will calm you down and have you thinking only about your shot.” My dad suggests.

  That’s good advice but I think I need something that will stop me from thinking. Because when I start thinking, I start getting nervous, and when I start getting nervous, bad things happen. But I do need to think now about what to do to not think later. Sounds weird I know.

  “Well?” My dad asks breaking my train of thought.

  Wait I got it!

  I take the ball, dribble three times, look up at the basket and immediately shoot! No thinking, good. No made shot though, bad. My dad runs down my missed shot and passes the ball back to me.