Short Stories > Series/Ongoing
When i was in the 8th grade i remembering having a feeling of relief because my mother and i finally stayed in one place for three years even though we changed apartments but not locations. i wanted to be a star on the basketball court but i failed all my classes in the 7th grade from lack of trying, so i was forced to repeat the 7th grade only to be reinstated as an 8th grader if i maintained a B average which i did but only because i wanted to play ball. i was a started for the varsity. my coach pleaded with me to stay out of trouble as well as maintain my grades. i was still an angry kid but only to those who pushed the wrong button. teachers would ask me why i failed all my classes i simply said coach shouldve let me play ball. we had a different coach the 7th grade he was a tall tough white guy very prejudice,he didn't want the star of hi team to be black so before the season began he black listed me from the try-outs him and our principle. that crushed me so to rebel i didnt finish not one assignment. they never gave me a reason to why i couldnt play they just stated i wasn't representing their school. that summer i worked on my game,i played everyday it was the one thing my mom allowed me to do only because the hoop i practiced on was directly across from our apartment. i practiced with the boys the men who ever. by the end of the summer they started picking me for their teams, passing me the ball and calling for me to shoot....i made almost every shot! so starts 8th grade girls basketball season, i showed up and it was as simple as that. the coach told me i made the team at the end of the 1st try-outs i was so excited i almost cried lol i took my sweet time getting home i wanted to bask in my accomplishment. i had something go my way for once. when i got home i was told to go take a shower, i thought ooook, but i did. shortly into my shower i felt the breeze of the shower curtain open and my mom stood there with a paddle whaling on me screaming that i was late getting home and that if im late again she would have me locked up. i remember being balled up in the shower cold water filling the tub because i was blocking the drain thinking i can't wait to get out of here. shortly after that thought i heard my sister tell me to cut the water off and get out. for days i tried to convince my mother that i was on a basketball team and i had to stay after to practice, she didnt care she felt i was a bad kid and i didnt deserve to have fun activities. so i lied,i would tell her i had detention or a test to do,i'd still get beat in the tub but at least i was able to play ball. once the season offically started my coach handed me a letter that had to be signed by my mom for insurance and stuff i thought great she will never sign this nor would she ever give me insurance money,so i put it off as long as i could. finally i told my dad about it, he talked to my mom and reluctently she signed the document but made him fork over the insurance money. i was the happiest kid ever,because unlike 6th grade sports i was able to be recruited by summer leagues of course my mom didnt allow me to sign up for none of them, not even basketball camp. then just as i started getting college pamplets to my house she relocated me, right in the middle of the season. i still tried to catch the bus to my old school but i was soon found out by the priniciple he threatened to have my mom fined for sending me to an out of district school so she transferred me. my new school wanted me on the team but i couldn't do it i felt like a trader. declining their invite to join their team came with some harsh consequences, the teachers had this idea of me being a trouble maker just because i came from a troubled school. ever see the movie lean on me? well that was my school kinda at least thats what peoples preseption was. i would get called into the office anytime a fight broke out. like i had all the power in that school like i was the God mother of lakeside middle school, the principle would say "we aren't having lakeside turn into ben f. geyer you understand me" i'd smirk at him and say you sure. he would either put me in iss (in school suspension) or suspend me for a day. i didn't care anymore. my mom eventually put me in home school for the remainder of my 8th grade year. that summer i thought myself how to drive, i also got put out of my mothers house and had to live with my older sister til she put me out because she said i was a bother, i moved into my 2nd oldest sisters house only to get caught with a boy and be put out of there. finally school started it was my escape but by then i developed a strange weakness in my legs. they would give out on me, that started while i played ball in 8th grade but that was only me being a clutze so i thought. so instead of preparing for my high school basketballl debut i was told i had to take meds which made my mind think weird and my body grow hair in weird area not to mention made me gain tons of weight. in 8th grade i weighted about 120 lbs by the middle of my freshmen year i was almost 200 lbs. i pleaded with my mom to not make me take the meds she agreed and so i worked on losing the weight but my matablism was shot there was no fixing it. the pills also made me severely depressed even though i hid it well. christmas break came along and basketball season was going through try-outs. i tried to wrap it around my head the fact that i couldn't play ball anymore and that i had to walk with a cane or walker or scooter but my young mind only saw what i could't do and not what i had to do. so on new eve i went to the kitchen grabed the biggest sharpest knife i could find and went to my room, i took a deep a breath and pointed the knife to my chest and visualized falling onto it. just as i said goodbye to the world our phone rang..for some reason i answered it. it was the little brother of one of my closest friends, he asked me if i had heard what happen to a friend of mine i told him no he insisted i turn on the news. she had been shot in the head and lay in critical condition in the hospital i screamed to him that he was a liar and he shouldnt say things like that but soon after i hung up the phone there it was on the news, she died the next day. we were 15.
