My Boy Hood

Practice was hell. It was nothing unusual. You just go through crazy running, drills, and then the Coach teamed us up to play a practice game. We continued our practice until 6:30, and then the Coach ran us off to the locker room. I didn’t bother changing. My house was ten minutes away and I could just take a shower when I got back.

I threw all my stuff in my bag before the guys could even strip for a shower. Yeah, it’s going to take me a while to cope. I said bye to the guys, and I realized that I had homework so I rushed back into the school to grab my math. I walked down the hall to get to the lobby. As I rounded the corner, my bag ran into a girl, making her drop her papers.

“Oh, sorry!” I automatically said, dropping my bag to help pick up the papers.

I noticed they were music sheets. I looked up, and I got a good look at the girl. She was blond, and her eyes were the bluest I’ve seen. She was really pretty. She smiled, and I couldn’t help but smile back. “Summer! Gosh, what did I tell you about running off on your own?”

Another girl with dark brown hair came over and quickly started to help. “It wasn’t her fault.” I started, “My bag ran into her.”

I looked at the brunette and she stacked the papers neatly, “We’ll have to put this in order but oh well.” She looked at me, “Oh, you’re the new guy! Nick, right?”

I nodded, and looked at the two girls. “Oh, we heard so much around school about you. I’m Penny, and this is Summer.”

I smiled at them, “It’s nice to meet you.”

I saw Summer touch Penny’s shoulder and started to wave her hands around. “Oh! Summer wants to know what you were doing.”

I looked at her, “I was heading home.”

Summer smiled, and nodded. “Is she…?”

I couldn’t bring myself to finish, but it felt strange she was doing sign language with Penny, but she wasn’t doing it back. “She can hear just fine, but she just can’t talk.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.” I said, and handed her the stack of papers in my hand.

We stood up, and Penny clapped her hands, “Well, Summer, I think we should go practice.”

“Practice what?” I asked.

Penny blinked, “Oh! Summer plays the piano, and she’s plays like a champ.”

I nodded, “Okay, sorry about the papers.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Penny said, “Come on, Summer, let’s go fix the papers up.”

Meeting those two was something. I walked home, and it was still daylight. Practice at school was going to be something that I had to get used to. I knew dad would advise me that I’d have to training more at home than I do at school, so I decided to make something to eat and then go jog. I felt that I needed to do this.

I jogged about a mile before turning around and going home. Jogging was something I was used to doing, and it cleared my head a lot of times. I made it back home, Dad wasn’t home yet, which was unusual. It was eight thirty, and even though he worked long hours, he was always back before eight.

I took a shower, and as I rubbed my head with the towel, I checked my phone. Lala left 8 voicemail, 20 text, and I had about 30 missed calls. I sighed and called Lala, “It’s about time!”

I walked over to my duffel bag and started to take my stuff out. “Sorry, I’m just now settling down.”

“How was your first day?”

I threw my homework on my desk, and I started to pull out my clothes as I spoke, “Not too bad, met some guys, made it on the team, and got advice from a teacher.”

“Wait, advice?”

I grabbed my outfit, and walked over to my drawls, I told her about Ms. Tooshay. “How old is she?”

“She can’t be that old. She’s probably fresh out of college.” I said.

“Oh well, tell me what else happened.”

I told her about Penny and Summer. Lala was interested in that, and I told her about the guys. We talked for about fifteen minutes until I heard the front door slam, “Lala, I got to go. Dad’s home.”

We hung up and I walked downstairs. Dad was standing in the living room, looking through the mail, “Anything special?” I asked.

“Just bills.” He sighed, “I am worn out.”

“Go to bed.”

He groaned, “I think I will. Oh, how was school?”

I made a face, then shrugged, “Fine, I guess. Made some new friends and managed to join the basketball team.”

His eyes sparkled at the news, “Great! Practice went well?”

I nodded, “You know, our Coach knows you.”

“What’s his name?”

“We call him Coach Dee, but he said he was your senior in high school when you got recruited into college basketball.”

Dad’s face became thoughtful, “Hm, maybe I’ll meet him at one of your home games.”

He looked at his watch, “I’m going to wash up, then go to bed.”

I said goodnight to him, and went upstairs to do my homework. When I got done I got my duffel bag ready and I lay down to go sleep. When I fell asleep, I had a dream. It had something to do with future, but I couldn’t remember what it was. But in the dream, all I felt was pain in my heart.