The bell rang, and he quickly ran into recess. A bunch of kids asked if he wanted to play a basketball game with them.
“Hell, yes,” he said.
“What’s your name?” some kid asked.
“My name is Alex,” he replied.
“Okay, you’re on the other team and by the way my name is Matthew,” he said.
They quickly started the game. Alex was running down the court and he got a long pass to him and quickly caught it. He took 2 steps and threw the ball up, and airballed it. Everybody laughed at him. He was embarrassed, and ran off the court crying. Matthew came up to Alex.
“You’re trash! Don’t ever come back and try to play on our court again,” Matthew warned, and then walked away.
When Alex got home, he asked to speak to his mom.
“What happened baby?” his mom asked.
He looked at his mom with a sad puppy face, “Can you buy a basketball hoop and put it on the driveway, so I can practice and get better?” Alex asked.
His mom took out her phone and went straight to Amazon Prime. “I’ll order it and have your father put it up on the driveway by the time you get home from school tomorrow,” she said.

He woke up the next morning and went straight to the bus stop. The bus finally came after waiting 10 minutes. Alex got on the bus and couldn’t stop thinking about how he was getting a basketball hoop to play on, but once he stepped on that bus everyone burst into tears laughing at him, saying he airballed a layup. Alex’s mood changed real quick.

He started running from class to class with his hood over his head, hoping people wouldn’t notice him. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, RINGGGGGGG, the bell finally rang for last period. Alex quickly ran out of the building with excitement. He ran past the bus stop and all the way home to a nice, new basketball hoop.

“Yeah! It’s here!” Alex yelled. He quickly ran to his room and got his basketball and started playing. He practiced day and night for a week. Hee started waking up two hours earlier, thinking about all the comments being said about how bad he was at playing basketball: it just made him work harder and harder. He became a fast and skilled dribbler as the weeks went by, then he started working on improving his shot. As he kept practicing his shooting, he became a great shot creator and a sharpshooter.

Finally, he woke up one morning and went to school. He walked straight up to Matthew and challenged him to a 1 on 1.
“If I win, I get to play here again and if you win, then I’ll never show my face here again.” Alex said.
“Okay. Game on, loser. Game up to 5. Let’s make this quick,” Mathew said.
“Okay, I will. Shoot for ball, miss off me,” Alex answered.

Alex shot for the ball at the 3 point line: swish. It went in, all net. Matthew checked the ball, but Alex grabbed it and shot it: swish. It went in again. Everyone was surprised they noticed how good Alex has gotten, they all starting laughing at Matthew. Everyone was so impressed they didn’t think Alex would have gotten this good,they was so interested in how good he was and forgot all about how he missed his layup everyone wanted to start playing with him, and be on his team. As Matthew checked it again and again and again, all you heard in the gym was the sound of the ball sliding through the net.

It was 4-0. Matthew had no points and still hadn’t gotten the ball.

“Game point,” Alex said. Matthew checked the ball. Quickly Alex grabbed the ball and started driving towards the hoop as Matthew ran with him. Alex did a snatch back behind the back and in slow motion Matthew fell on the ground.
“Ooh, HE GOT DROPPED!” Everyone in the gym was screaming.
Alex shot the ball. Swishhhh.
That was the end of the game.
“Since when did he get this good?!?!” everyone said. Now it was Matthew’s turn to be embarrassed, Alex went over to him.
“It’s okay. Don’t be embarrassed, but just know how you feel right now, is how I felt before.”