Short Story #91: The Basketball Captain Part 1

I had never felt more blessed that my house was just a short distance from the school that I went to. Not that there were not plenty of benefits before. I got to save up on transport costs to and from school since the journey was literally a very short ten minutes walk. Also, I had the privilege to sleep in a little longer every morning which I fully take advantage of. 

Enough of those unimportant reasons. The real reason why I am suddenly re-stating a fairly obvious fact (that is if you are one of my friends) is really because of a certain someone. Of course you would be internally groaning at the supposedly anti-climatic reveal. "Urgh not another love story..." is what you are probably thinking right now. Just listen.

Okay, so it all started during my first year of starting school, one day, I was walking back home from school as usual. Expecting it to be an uneventful walk, I lazily gazed at the vast soccer field and the basketball courts. High fences surrounded the school compound and the grey pavement next to it was where I always take to and from school. Boys were chasing a ball in the field and only one of the three basketball courts were occupied. As I watched them running around, I thought about how I would never be as athletic as them and shrugged at that. I was about to turn my gaze when my eyes stopped at a tall boy. My eyes widened and my jaw grew slack. There, dressed in basketball shorts and the ugly school uniform is a very handsome boy. He basically towered over his two friends who were actually quite tall too as he successfully stole a ball from one of them and dribbled forward before throwing a beautiful shot into the basket. At that, I accidentally let an excited sound and immediately I closed my mouth and ducked my head, scared that the sporty boys heard it and I would automatically be labelled as 'weird'.

Sensing that the coast was clear, I carefully lifted my head and a smile slowly formed in my face. Such a breathtakingly handsome boy. He had such a charismatic aura that I just could not tear my eyes from and my mind began to fill with fantasies about him like him bringing me out for a date or him complimenting my intelligence. I seemed to be a little too into those daydreams because I almost jumped to the moon when I heard a shrill sound of a bell ringing. I whipped my head to face the culprit and smiled sheepishly as I quickly set aside some space for the irritated cyclist to move forward. 

Well, that was embarrassing. I averted my gaze to the handsome basketball boy again and hoped that he did not witness that. As I watched him performed a beautiful alley-oop, I smiled once more before resuming my walk back home, my thoughts filled about him.