One On One

by Don Aker

  One On One

  Don Aker

  For my wife, who sees it all and shares it with me.

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Title Page

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright

  About the Publihser

  CHAPTER 1

  “Yes!” Jared’s fist pumped the air as the basketball swished through the old hoop over the garage door. He caught the ball on its first bounce, faked left, pivoted, and launched it into the crisp October air once more. The ball traced another perfect arc from his fingertips, up over the driveway, and down through the hoop again.

  Arms raised in mock victory, Jared whistled and danced about, enacting the NBA championship moment he’d envisioned in his head a hundred times before. Fans leaped to their feet, their deafening cheers like trains roaring through the stadium. Sports commentators shouted into microphones as they played and then replayed the final seconds of the game, describing the precision of the winning shot and the phenomenon that was Jared St. George.

  A blur of golden fur brought the eleven year old back to reality as Cal, Jared’s yellow Lab, joined in the dance, his tail wagging fiercely as he barked and bounced along with the boy. Flushed from the exertion, Jared ran the back of his arm across his forehead to catch the droplets of sweat, then stooped to scruffle Cal’s ears. The crinkle of paper in his jeans pocket wiped the mile-wide grin from his face.

  “Aww, jeez,” he said. He straightened, his adrenalin rush evaporating as he recalled what was written on the paper. He’d tried all afternoon not to think about it, focusing instead on the basketball tryouts that his best friend, Steve Lewis, had told him were being held next week. That news and shooting baskets had helped—at least for a little while. He checked his watch and saw he still had a couple of hours before his mother got home and he’d have to show her the letter. He shrugged. No sense wasting a perfectly good Friday afternoon worrying about how she was going to react. He pretty much knew, anyway.

  Retrieving the ball, he spun it a few times on his index finger, then dribbled it back and forth between his legs, conjuring up the roar of the crowds once more. “He fakes a pass to the wing,” he murmured, “then drives toward the basket.” Jared took two hard steps forward and leaped into the air.

  But before he could complete the shot, two sets of fingers raked his sides, tickling him.

  “Hey!” Jared yelped as he stumbled away from the ball. “No fair!”

  “Yes, fair!” his mother cried. Laughing, she deked around him and sprang toward the basket, but he’d managed to regain his footing and easily blocked her shot. The ball bounced harmlessly off the rim and disappeared into the hedge beside the garage.

  “And the crowd goes wild!” Jared shouted as he strutted around his mother, his arms raised in triumph once more. Cal barked and pranced along beside him.

  Terri St. George laughed. “Okay, Sure-Shot, enough already with the cheering. You win. Height advantage.”

  She shook her head and, like so many times in the past few months, Jared knew his mother was marvelling at how much he had grown. As he turned toward the hedge to retrieve the ball, he was a little surprised himself that the tops of the shrubs were now at eye level. He’d undergone a dramatic growth spurt since the beginning of summer, which had resulted in more than one trip to Value Village to find clothes that fit him. Besides filling out, he was now a couple of centimetres taller than his mother, something he delighted in reminding her whenever he got the chance.

  “How come you’re home already?” Jared asked as he emerged from the hedge with the basketball under his arm. “I thought your shift didn’t end till seven.” He paced off the foul-shot distance from the hoop and raised the ball, readying himself for the throw.

  His mother stepped in front of him and put her hands on the basketball. Reluctantly, he allowed her to take it. “I got Jerry to come in early for me,” she said. “Thought it might be nice to eat supper together.” She tossed the ball onto the lawn and put her arm around her son’s shoulders, leading him and Cal toward the back door of their blue bungalow. “I was beginning to forget what you looked like.”

  He shot furtive glances toward the street. “Aww, Mom,” he said, pulling away from her, “someone might see.

  “See what? Me hugging my only kid? Is that a crime?” She sighed and pulled away from him, but not before running her hand over his head. “I still miss your hair,” she said.

  Jared grinned at her. He and Steve had decided in July to shave their heads, and their mothers had nearly burst blood vessels when they saw what the boys had done. It was Steve’s dad who had put everything into perspective. “It’s just hair,” he’d said, grinning at their naked white scalps. “It’ll grow back.” But it was a slow process. Even now, three months later, his curly blond hair was barely long enough to muss.

  Not that less hair had reduced the attention Jared got from girls he saw on the street or at the mall. During those rare times when his mother wasn’t working and could coax him into helping her with the grocery shopping, she often teased him about the appreciative looks he got from girls his age and even older. Strangers smiled shyly, while girls from Cornwallis Middle School, where Jared was in grade six, greeted him by name. He always smiled back, but he’d keep walking, uncomfortable with all the attention.

  Steve, in grade seven and much more worldly, kidded him about it and told Jared he’d gladly give up his favourite food—tacos—for even half that attention. Although he was shorter than Jared, Steve’s square features and broadening shoulders attracted quite a few glances of their own, but he joked, “Most of them are just ricochets. Their eyes bounce off you and hit me.”

  People often remarked that Jared got his good looks from his mother. Long, auburn hair framed a face pretty enough for billboards or shampoo bottles, and her slim figure gave no hint of the Pepsi and chocolate bars she snacked on regularly. A fast metabolism, nervous energy, and her work as a nurse at the city’s largest hospital kept her from putting on weight. Jared had his own share of fun teasing his mother about the men who turned and stared at her in checkout lines or at bus stops, but she’d elbow him in the ribs and tell him again how one guy in her life was more than enough, thank you very much. Jared’s dad had left them both seven years ago, and she just didn’t have much use for men at this point in her life.

  There was one girl from Cornwallis Middle School who seemed to feel the same way about Jared. One time when he and his mom were at the mall, Jared bumped into a girl coming out the exit, her eyes focused on a book in her hand. When she glanced up at Jared, recognition reflected in her face, but she hurried by without saying a word. “That’s Ellie,” Jared had told his mother when she’d asked who the girl was. “She’s in my class. Doesn’t like me much.” But Jared wasn’t concerned one way or the other with the attention he got from his female classmates. His first love was basketball.

  Which was why he was so anxious to share Steve’s news now. “Guess what?” he said, opening the door and following his mother and Cal inside the bungalow. “Try-outs start next week
!”

  “Tryouts for what?”

  “For the Cougars!” he exclaimed incredulously, then noticed his mother’s teasing smile. He had talked of little else for the last three weeks. “Steve told me Coach Jamieson posted the notice today. Tryouts start next Thursday.”

  “Think you’re ready?” she asked, hanging her sweater on the hook behind the door, then taking down a package of angel hair pasta from the cupboard above the stove. She pulled a pot from a drawer and handed it to him, and he began filling it with water while she took green and red peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms from the crisper of their old Kenmore refrigerator and laid them on the cutting board.

  “I dunno. I think so, but Jamieson don’t like to—”

  “Doesn’t like to,” she corrected as she began slicing the vegetables.

  Jared scowled. “He doesn’t like to take on grade sixes. Only grade eights and maybe a few sevens make his team. Hardly ever grade sixes.” He turned off the tap and put the pot of water on the stove to heat.

  “I think I remember you telling me something like that,” his mother said elaborately, and Jared knew she was teasing him again. He had announced that sad truth nearly every day since school had started seven weeks ago.

  Cornwallis Middle School had a policy that all students take part in at least one extracurricular activity each year. Jared was already playing on the school’s soccer team—which was finishing up an excellent season, thanks largely to his and Steve’s offensive skills—so he had already fulfilled his extracurricular requirement for the year. A natural athlete, Jared would have tried out for soccer even without the school’s policy. Yet, as much as he enjoyed soccer, it was Jamieson’s Cougars that he most wanted to play for.

  Coach Jamieson did not train losing teams. In fact, he had coached the Cornwallis Cougars to division championship status six years in a row. Jamieson was an okay grade eight science teacher, but his reputation as a basketball coach was almost legendary in the city. Kids who dreamed of becoming Cougars began training long before they walked through the doors of Cornwallis Middle School. Most, like Jared and Steve, played at the Y and joined community leagues. A few who had the money, like Jared’s classmate Rafe Wells, paid for private coaching and spent summers at expensive basketball camps in the States. Everyone, however, was equal in Jamieson’s eyes—he didn’t give two hoots about your background. What counted was what you could do on the court during tryouts. Above all else, Coach Jamieson wanted to win.

  And above all else, Jared St. George wanted to play.

  Which was why he’d decided he wasn’t going to show his mother the letter folded neatly out of sight in his pocket.

  CHAPTER 2

  Cal lay in the middle of the kitchen floor, splayed in the Saturday morning sunshine that filtered through the window over the sink. Suddenly, the dog’s ears flicked forward and he huffed twice, and Jared waited for the back door to burst open. Sure enough, two seconds later it did.

  “What’d she say?” Steve demanded as he entered the kitchen, letting the door slam shut behind him. He never knocked. He’d barged into the St. Georges’ house almost daily since Jared and his mother had moved next door three years earlier. Jared’s mother had once playfully asked him if he knew how to knock, but her humour was wasted on him. Steve Lewis was one of those people who thought social graces were things you said on Sunday at the supper table.

  “Shhh!” Jared urged, glancing over his shoulder to see if his mother was within earshot. He pushed away his half-eaten bowl of Cheerios and got up from the table. Dumping the soggy remains into the compost container, he mumbled, “I didn’t give it to her.”

  “Whaddya mean?” Steve demanded, his voice now an exaggerated whisper. “How could you not give it to her?”

  Jared’s mother had eaten breakfast earlier and was now getting ready for work, so Jared put his dishes, along with his mother’s, into the sink, squirted the bargain-basement dish soap over them, and turned on the hot water. As he usually did while he waited for the sink to fill, he longed for a dishwasher like all his friends had. “I just didn’t,” he muttered.

  Steve whistled under his breath. “Keaton’s gonna call her if she don’t get back to him.”

  Jared grimaced. “I know that,” he said, quickly washing the dishes and leaving them on the dish rack to dry. “I’ll just hafta make sure I answer the phone before she does.” In fact, he’d watched his favourite program on the Discovery Channel last night with the cordless beside him on the sofa the whole time. Just in case.

  “Before she does what?” his mother asked as she entered the kitchen, gathering her hair into a neat pony-tail and tying it. She was wearing her nurse’s uniform.

  Jared gulped. “Um…uh…”

  “Lookin’ good, Mrs. S.,” Steve said.

  Jared knew his friend had made the remark to change the subject, but it wasn’t an empty compliment.

  “Why, thank you, Steve. And to what do we owe the pleasure of your company this morning?”

  “Just collectin’ the kid so we can go shoot some hoops,” Steve replied. Although a year older than Jared, he actually looked younger beside his taller friend, so he seized every opportunity to remind everyone of the difference in their ages.

  Jared’s mom sighed. “Somehow I didn’t think you two were heading to the library.” After making sure her keys were in her purse, she glanced at the clock on the wall and frowned. “I hope that bus isn’t early again.” She turned to Jared. “I know you’ll be in the park all morning, so I’ve left lunch money on your bureau.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  Jared’s mother grabbed her sweater from the hook behind the door and pulled it on. “Kathy’s baby has croup, so I’m covering part of her shift till her husband gets home. You’ll be on your own for supper, okay? There’s some pasta left over from last night—”

  “I’m okay,” Jared said.

  “I left the number on the counter in case you need me—”

  “I know the number.”

  “Steve’s mother said you can stay over there till I get home—”

  “Mom!”

  Jared’s mother sighed. “I know, I know—you can take care of yourself.” She looked at him and smiled. “When did you get to be so grown up?” she asked softly.

  Jared shrugged. “You’re gonna miss your bus,” he warned before she could get all mushy on him.

  His mother looked at the clock again. “Yikes, you’re right. Gotta go. You take care of my guy, okay, Steve?”

  “Will do, Mrs. S.,” Steve replied.

  She planted a quick kiss on her son’s forehead before dashing out the door. The two boys watched from the step as she hurried down the sidewalk toward the bus stop. Before she rounded the corner, she looked back and called something over her shoulder. Jared waved at her.

  “What’d she say?” Steve asked.

  “Math. Told me to spend some time on my math.”

  “Oh, man, you are so screwed,” Steve said, clapping his friend on the back.

  “I know,” Jared muttered. “I know.”

  “Jeez, Cal!” Steve exclaimed. “That was huge!”

  Jared looked up as he finished scooping the dog’s poop into the plastic bag, his face burning. “Don’t encourage him,” he said. In fact, the dog actually seemed to be grinning at them. “Just once I wish he’d wait till we got home.” Jared glanced around for a garbage can, saw one beside a park bench near the fountain, and jogged over to drop the bag into it. When he returned, his friend resumed his prepare-for-the-worst speech.

  “Look, Jared, I had Keaton last year. He ain’t one ‘a those teachers who lets things slide. If your mom don’t call him soon, he’ll just end up on your doorstep.”

  Jared took Cal’s leash from Steve and they headed out of the park. They had joined a basketball game in the park that morning and played hard till noon, Jared letting his worries drain away as he dribbled down the court and drove toward the basket again and again. Although the other players
were a year or two older than the two friends, Jared and Steve had more than held their own, high-fiving each other whenever they made a play that allowed their team to score. Cal watched intently from the sidelines, barking noisily at every shot.

  Both boys were trying out for the Cougars the following week, and they’d have lots of competition, since Cornwallis was one of the biggest middle schools in the city. Jared thought about some of the guys who were likely to try out for the team. Rafe Wells, for one. Although he was in the sixth grade with Jared, Rafe had an edge that Jared did not. Besides the fancy basketball camps he went to each summer and the private coaching he got all year round, his dad, Skylar Wells, was a city alderman who was running for mayor. More to the point, Wells owned The Digital Highway, an upscale computer store downtown, and he’d donated thirty-five computers to Cornwallis Middle School the previous week. As fair as everyone claimed Jamieson was, it would be tough, Jared thought, for the coach to overlook Rafe Wells when he showed up for tryouts.

  Steve, though, stood an excellent chance of making the team—because of his skill, not some dumb computers. Steve had tried out for the Cougars when he was in grade six and hadn’t made it, but he’d grown and improved a lot in the past year. Although still a little shorter than most guys his age, Steve was lightning-quick on powerful legs and could handle the ball better than some of the high school students they’d played against in past pick-up games. And he never gave up, even when the opposing team had double the points on the board. Give Steve the ball anywhere on the court, and he could get it to the hoop nearly every time.

  Which made the two of them such a good team. Besides having the extra height and seemingly endless stamina, Jared’s keen sense of distance and direction helped him sink almost every one of his shots, even from behind the three-point line. Together, the two of them were a force to be reckoned with.

  But there was one big reason why Jared knew he probably wouldn’t make the team. It wasn’t because he was in grade six—that wasn’t as big a problem as he sometimes imagined it to be. Although Jamieson rarely chose sixth-graders, there were two such students who had made the cut in the last four years, guys whose height and skill level were similar to Jared’s. No, the real reason he probably wouldn’t make it was his failing math mark. Mr. Keaton, Jared’s teacher, never let sports interfere with his students’ schoolwork, and Jamieson never accepted a player he might lose later because of academic probation. Athletes put on academic probation could not play sports until their marks improved. Jared had heard that the coach and Keaton had gone nose to nose over one player the year before last, and Jamieson had had to pull the kid off the team the week before the championships. He wouldn’t let that happen again.