The four of us marched up to Mrs Priya’s office to volunteer as cleaners. Janice was our spokesperson since she had the best reputation. She had never once forgotten her homework, unlike me. She had never broken any school rules like Clandestino, and she had never peed in her pants like Mundi did once.
We were expecting three responses from Mrs Priya:
“It’s no big deal. The old cleaner can do it. The school pays him money to do stuff like that.”
“I will get the Art Club students to paint over it. It’s about time they do something useful, other than draw apples and bananas.” “It’s no big deal. The old cleaner can do it. The school pays him money to do stuff like that.”
“Please touch up the image! Make me prettier. Do I really look like that?”
But we received none of the above responses.
Instead, Mrs Priya replied, “Clean? Okay, go ahead! I will give you CCA points for that. The only thing is that you have to try and finish it by today. I don’t want any children taking pictures of the wall and posting it on Facebook. Bad reputation! Really bad reputation.”
CHAPTER 3: THE MATCH THAT NEVER ENDED
After the order from Mrs Priya, we were as nervous as long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. Clean up the graffiti in a SINGLE day? Moreover the basketball match was fast approaching and we had done nothing to prepare for it.
“Look what you have gotten us into, Darryl!” Clandestino grumbled.
“Yeah, Darryl!” Janice parroted.
“Darryl, is-is-is she serious … no?” Mundi panicked.
It was a daunting task, to clean up the graffiti in a day. We tried to think of the quickest way. It wasn’t easy to clean spray paint off a wall. Scraping would take forever, wiping would take an eternity. Before we knew it, BBRRRIIIIIIIIINGG! Twenty minutes of our precious recess had come to an end. There wasn’t enough time to think of a solution!
The four of us got back to class just in time to see Leonard, Justin, Adam and Damien stampede in with their scruffy shoes and untied shoelaces. They had been playing basketball during recess under the hot sun. They came back to class looking and smelling like they had just taken a shower with mud and sweat.
Because of kids like them, playing ball during recess had been officially banned for a few months. But that all changed when Leonard’s dad, a rich businessman who had contributed $10,000 to the school, called to complain.
According to Leonard, he had told Mrs Priya, “I don’t care if they come back sweating like pigs. Anyway, what’s wrong with sweaty pigs? Pigs are supposed to sweat and boys are supposed to play. What else do you expect them to do during recess? Chit chat like little girls?”
Of course, he got his way and Leonard proclaimed his dad a hero. The rest of us felt his father didn’t make any sense, but we were happy with the outcome nonetheless. (I wished Mom would call for stuff like that instead of calling to ask for more worksheets. Argh!)
“Remember, it’s between us and you tomorrow!” Leonard said.
“Yeah, are you ready to lose?” Justin jeered, as he brushed past me with his sweaty arm.
The reality of tomorrow’s match was beginning to set in.
After calling our parents and informing them about our special project in school, we all met at the vandalised wall at 1 pm.
“Here!” Janice threw an old rag on the floor.
“Here! I got this from the school toilet.” Clandestino took out a bottle of hand soap that was only a quarter full.
“Here, a bucket, no?” Mundi had a tiny bucket that was hanging on his elbow like a lady’s handbag. How were we ever going to accomplish this enormous task?
When we reached the wall, we finally got the chance to have a good look at it. It was a masterpiece, in my opinion.
Janice brushed the painting with her fingers and said, “This looks so professionally done.”
“Yes, do we know of any student who is good in art?” Mundi wondered aloud. Mundi seemed to stammer a lot less these days, especially when no one else was around.
What was the vandal trying to say? Why did the vandal hate the school so much? Maybe he was a student who got punished and wanted to take revenge?
Clandestino was the tallest so he searched the top parts of the graffiti. Mundi, who was the shortest, was in charge of the lowest portions. Janice started from left, and me, from the right.
“This vandal actually left a fingerprint,” Janice mumbled.
“You see a fingerprint, no?” Mundi asked.
Excitedly, I whipped out my handphone and went over to Janice’s side. “See, I told you we would find something!”
Click, Click! I went with my phone’s camera. I was just about to take a few close-up shots when Madam Siti walked by.
“Children, what are the four of you doing here?” she barked. There was displeasure in her face. The layer of powder on her face was all cracked up.
“We have been tasked to clean the school wall!” we replied.
Madam Siti shook her head. Her dark purple eye shadow glittered menacingly. “You think some hand soap and an old rag can clean this wall? I don’t want you anywhere near that wall, you hear!”
“But Mrs Priya told us to … ”
“I will talk to Mrs Priya. She has been too distressed to think straight. But for now, no one goes near that wall, clear?” Madam Siti thundered.
Why was she so insistent? we wondered.
That night, I couldn’t sleep a wink. My mind raced just thinking about the match the next day. We needed this win to prove ourselves. Janice, Mundi, Clandestino and I. We were the losers and no one had ever taken us seriously.
It wasn’t an official match but that was precisely why Brightstar students loved it. The more unofficial, the better! They loved it when there were no teachers telling them what to do. They could stand anywhere they wanted, shout as loud as they wanted and eat as much potato chips and popcorn as they could. Everything was on their terms.
The next day after school, at least a quarter of Brightstar’s students gathered around the basketball court. Some teachers, including Mr Grosse and Madam Siti, paced up and down. They had noticed the commotion even before the match had started and they wanted to make sure they were in the vicinity just in case a fight broke out.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…” Mundi counted, anxiety coursing through his veins.
Janice squalled, “Darryl De… you have to pay for this! If I sprain my ankle or fall because of this match I’ll…”
Suddenly, she stopped. Her eyes followed the four boys as they came striding onto the basketball court. We stared at the opposing team, our legs suddenly becoming weak. The team consisted of PROS. Pros whose only meaning in life was to play basketball. Pros who ate, slept and talked basketball.
Leonard, Justin, Damien and Adam. They were the school team basketballers. The ones who could skip classes because of a match. The ones who were ferried to and from inter-school competitions in air-conditioned coaches. The ones who contributed shiny cheap metal trophies to Brightstar Primary School. The ones whom girls worshipped. The ones who determined the hairstyle trends in school. If they went bald, the Brightstar children would willingly go bald too.
“Okay, are you ready, everyone?” Miss Teo was surrounded by 300 Brightstars. We could hardly hear her. But she had something very important – a whistle.
Miss Teo had agreed to blow her whistle and start the game for us. She was the most obliging adult in school. Second to Miss Jacobs of course.
One minute to jump ball. The air was as still as death. The crowd that flanked both sides of the court were made up of all kinds of students from Primary 1 to 6. All of them crunched on their potato chips, ready to see us get thrashed by the Pros.
The sun stung our skins. Its rays spilled through the basketball hoop making it hard to see. On the court, four of us took our positions, like we had practised.
WHEEEEETT! went Miss Teo’s whistle. It was time for the jump ball between
Clandestino and Adam.
Clandestino sprang up high into the air, caught the ball, and then somersaulted in mid-air. Before any of us realised, he had slam-dunked the ball into the hoop! When he landed on the ground again, he whizzed past me so quickly that all I saw was a blur of tall and thin!
Because he was too fast, no one really appreciated his stunts; he was simply too quick for their eyes!
“Yay! Two points for the Losers!” the referee, who was also the head prefect and known for her strong sense of justice, announced. It was a magical start.
“Yay! Yay! Yay!” Janice jumped.
The three of us couldn’t believe it. We knew Clandestino was good but we didn’t know he was brilliant! The crowd, looking like a rowdy mob, booed.
Clandestino’s smile fizzled into a frown, as he saw that no one was on his side. Why would anyone be? They were here for the Pros, not us.
Leonard, however, realised Clandestino’s incredible skill and decided to modify the rules.
“Wait! Wait!
Wait! Only Clandestino seems to be having the ball, the rest of you are standing there like dummies. It’s not fair. From now on, he must pass the ball to at least one of you before he can shoot. If not, all of you will be disqualified.”
“Hey!” I protested. “Who made you King of Everything?”
“I made myself the King,” said Leonard, thumping his chest like an ape.
Justin quickly butted in. “This match is not only about him, it is about all of you against all of us. Get it?” He sounded like an animal too.
“Alright,” Clandestino agreed, shielding me from our opponents. Then he dribbled the ball a few times, before propping it on my chest and arms.
“Good luck,” he said with a wink. Mundi was visibly shivering. He pursed his lips so tightly that sweat droplets collected above his lips. “I-I-I d-d-don’t think I-I-I can do this, n-no?”
“Everyone ready?” Miss Teo squeaked.
“YESSS!!” I said. My other team members didn’t echo my sentiment. By then, a few teachers had come to witness the match. It was after school and the teachers didn’t mind us sweating like pigs. As long as we weren’t in their class. It was alright if they arrived in class in a cloud of heavy, overpowering perfume and cologne that smelt like air freshener, but it wasn’t okay for us to, well, smell like kids.
WHEEEEEET! The whistle blew again! At that moment, Justin tore towards me and snatched the ball away before I could even figure out where my teammates were. Janice was hiding behind Adam. Mundi had run to take shelter under a tree.
“Hey, guys, what are the two of you doing?” I asked.
“It’s too rough out here, Darryl. I just got knocked and whammed into,” Janice groused.
“Come on, the opposing team is winning, Janice!” Clandestino pleaded.
“But I’m hungry!” she said.
“Yeah, I am s-s-so afraid, th-th-they’ll run over me. No?” Mundi added.
While we were discussing our strategy, Adam had scored a three-pointer! The spectators were thrilled! They roared in jubilation for the school team basketballers.
“Hey, I can’t do anything without you guys. You need to at least hold the ball before I can do anything,” Clandestino said.
It was our turn, and the only person in the court was me. Clandestino signalled for me to be ready. My hands and feet were positioned in an I’m-so-ready-for-the-ball stance. I clapped twice. Before I knew it, the ball was spinning towards me like an asteroid about to hit Earth. Except that Earth totally dodged and the asteroid missed. I was on the ground, curled up like a baby.
“Ha! LOSER!” Adam snubbed. He was beside me and had grabbed the ball. We were nowhere near the hoop. Without warning, Adam took a deep breath and hurled the ball so high, we almost lost sight of it. Four seconds later, it came spinning back down again, right straight into the hoop!
“Yay! Go go, Team Pros!” the mob cried out in elation. Did they bet money on this game?
“Bummer!” Clandestino muttered, disappointment in his eyes.
“How did Adam do that?” Mundi emerged from behind the tree and scratched his head. The Pros continued to reign on the court. Damien was in his zone too. He was dancing with the basketball. He wriggled free from my tackle, turned away from Mundi’s outstretched hands, dodged Janice’s dive and soared to score a two-pointer.
When the spectators saw that, they were ecstatic! Clandestino wanted to show off too, but he was constrained because the ball NEVER got to us. Damien, Leonard, Adam and Justin were just too good for any of us. How were we ever going to win? Three more rounds passed, and Team Pros were on a roll! They scored and scored and scored and scored while we stood there like fish out of water.
Think! Think, Darryl. I stooped down to pick at some grass in agitation.
While waiting for the light bulb moment, however, I could make out a strange noise from a distance. Amid the cheers and boos, I could hear splish, splash, splish, splash. It was coming from the Venus block. It was very odd. It sounded like someone was throwing water onto a wall. I couldn’t be sure. It was too far away and the sound was too faint.
“Darryl! Darryl! Snap out of it!” Janice snapped her fingers. “Look at the score board!”
“Darryl … we-we-we ar-ar-are-lo-losing, no?” Mundi said. “Lo-losing bad.”
The score was 12 : 2. We being the 2.
We scanned the sea of Brightstars. Time seemed to stop. Sickening smirks were plastered on their faces.
“Go home, Losers. Don’t waste your time!” some jeered. Others simply booed. From the crowd, someone was aiming popcorn at us.
“Losers! Losers! Losers!” they chanted.
“We are never going to make it,” Janice said, her face turning red with embarrassment.
Then she suddenly ran and shouted, “It’s time for this!”
She skittered to a nearby tree and hid. We couldn’t hear her but all of a sudden we heard a distinctive WHEEEEEEET and Miss Teo’s voice saying, “Half time!”
Janice came back running towards us. The four of us huddled together. Clandestino was getting anxious so he took out two pens to spin. Those were his thinking pens. Suddenly, he had a massive brainwave. The type that you hope you would get in exams but never comes.
“Let’s see, Janice, you can copycat, right?”
“I can mimic, that’s my power, I mean skill, I mean some people call it tal…”
“Okay, okay, Janice. Can you mimic Leonard, Justin, Adam and Damien’s voices?”
“SURE!” she exclaimed and did a weird dance.
“That’s excellent.” Clandestino nodded. “You do that. Confuse them with your fake voices. Call them to pass the ball to you.”
“Huh?” Janice asked.
“Yes, Janice, they will be c-c-confused, and in th-th th-their confusion they are b-b-bound to pass the ball wrongly,” Mundi finished.
“Wait, wait guys,” I said as I struggled to clean out the wax in my ears. “Let me try to eavesdrop on the Pros’ strategy.” I closed my eyes, like a blind man whose hearing is heightened.
“I can hear them right now,” I said. I strained my ears to hear Leonard.
“Adam, you are going to do all the three-pointers from now on, okay?” Leonard directed. “We want them to lose and lose bad! So we will just mess around on the court, but ultimately, we will pass the ball to you and you shoot!”
I opened my eyes. “Guys, they want us to lose bad, and Adam is their man.”
After repeating what I had overheard, Mundi straightened up, walked to the three-point circle, stared up at the hoop, blinked a few times and walked back to us.
“Hey, I think I know the angle at which to block Adam. He is about let’s see… 150cm. The angle at which he is going to shoot is 52.2 degrees… and he needs to throw the ball at a speed of eight metres per second.”
“So? What do we need to do?” Clandestino wasn’t into Math, and he believed basketball was about rhythm, feeling and speed, not a set of numbers.
Mundi turned to me and said, “Darryl, you think you can jump as high as you can? When you see Adam shoot, the moment the ball leaves his hands, you jump to intercept the ball. Most people stand right in front of the shooter to block. But that is not clever. Not clever at all. Because the ball will travel at eight metres per second, you have to stand … ”
He blinked profusely, calculating and combining all the physical laws of the universe in seconds. Brainwaves were definitely swishing around in his head. Then five seconds later, he yelled, “There! Right there!” He pointed at the exact position I needed to stand in the court.
“Ssshhhh,” Janice whispered. “We don’t want them to hear our strategy.”
“Okay!” I whispered back. “But what if the ball comes spinning towards my face, like it did just now?”
“Do not dodge at all costs, Darryl!” Clandestino urged. “Just take it!”
“That’s easy for you to say, Clan,” I retorted.
He turned to me, firmly gripped my shoulder and said, “Hey, which do you think is heavier, the ball or your head?”
“My head, of course!”
“Yes, so a wham from a basketball won’t and will never hurt you, okay? No pain, no gain.”
“Okay. No pain, no gain. No pain, no gain.” I psyched myself. “Anything else?”
Mundi thought hard for a few seconds before saying, “Nope! Not really.”
“Right!” Janice felt it was her duty to sum everything up. “Darryl, stand right there and jump like crazy! I will mimic their voices to cause confusion. And Clandestino?”
“Yes?!” He sniffed.
“FLY!” Janice exclaimed.
“Got it!” he said. Before we took our positions, we gave each other a handshake that we made up ourselves. First we had to tickle our palms then flap our fingers, then rub our knuckles against each other’s and finally extend our fingers as wide as possible, like a blooming flower. Not exactly manly but Janice was a girl and we did some stuff to suit her. Nevertheless, it was our secret code. It wasn’t exactly the coolest, well-timed handshake. But it worked. It gave us courage.
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