by Mike Lupica
He was hungry again. It still felt weird being able to eat a snack any time he wanted to. Still felt weird that he didn’t go to sleep hungry every night.
They were in the kitchen, Zoe having gotten them Snapples and cookies, when they heard her mom calling out to her.
“I’m in here, Mom,” she said.
Mrs. Montgomery looked like a taller, older version of Zoe, and she was already talking to Zoe as she walked into the kitchen, carrying a couple of shopping bags.
She stopped when she saw that Zoe wasn’t alone.
“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t know we had a guest.”
Mrs. Montgomery was smiling, but Jayson had the idea that she didn’t mean it, and didn’t like being surprised this way.
“You didn’t tell me you were inviting somebody over, sweetheart.”
“I told you after the game, Mom,” Zoe said, looking a little embarrassed.
“I must not have been paying attention.”
“This is Jayson Barnes, from school.”
Mrs. Montgomery put the bags down on the counter in the middle of the kitchen, came around the counter, and put out her hand for Jayson to shake.
He knew enough about manners to get up out of his chair, look her in the eye, and try to match her firm handshake. Ms. Moretti always shook Jayson’s hand when she came over to the house, and she was the one who’d told him to stop looking down at the floor like shaking somebody’s hand was a chore, so people wouldn’t think he was rude.
“I’m Zoe’s mom,” she said.
“Very nice to meet you,” Jayson said.
“You’re the new boy, right?” she said. “Living with the Lawtons?”
“Yes, ma’am. Mrs. Lawton said she knew you.”
“Carol and I do know each other,” Mrs. Montgomery said.
She looked down at Zoe. “So what have you and your friend been up to?”
“Jayson was teaching me how to play basketball.”
Even after just a couple of minutes, Jayson could see that the Zoe he knew acted differently around her mom.
“We just came in to get a snack,” Zoe said.
Mrs. Montgomery made a big show of looking at her watch.
“Well,” she said, “Jayson can have a snack. But you’ve already had pizza and you know we’re having an early supper, young lady.”
“Mom,” Zoe said.
“Don’t Mom me,” she said. “I have a nice dinner planned and you are not going to spoil yours with cookies less than an hour before.”
She turned back to Jayson now. “So how are you enjoying life on this side of Moreland?”
“It’s been fine,” he said.
He was already wondering how much she knew about him.
“It must be quite an adjustment,” she said. “Zoe told me where you were living before the Lawtons took . . . before you came to live with Tom and Carol.”
“I’m figuring it out,” he said, adding, “with Zoe’s help.”
“The Lawtons are wonderful people,” she said. “I don’t know how they do it.”
“Me neither.”
There was an awkward pause, Jayson sure that Zoe felt it as much as he did.
“Well,” Mrs. Montgomery said to Zoe finally, “I’ll wait until later to show you the cute things I bought you.”
Jayson said, “I should call Mrs. Lawton and tell her it’s time to come get me.”
“You didn’t even eat any cookies,” Zoe said, looking upset again.
“It’s okay. I just remembered that Mrs. Lawton is cooking a big dinner tonight.”
“I’ll probably be upstairs when Carol comes,” Mrs. Montgomery said. “Please tell her I said hi. And Jayson,” she added with a fake smile, “it was a pleasure to meet you.”
She gathered up the two shopping bags and left the room.
Jayson whipped out his phone to call Mrs. Lawton.
Wishing he could run away from Zoe’s house and back to the other side of town, where he belonged.
20
THE SECOND HOME GAME FOR Belmont took place the following Saturday. But it wasn’t just any home game, at least not for Jayson. It almost felt more like an away game.
This one was Belmont against Moreland East.
New school vs. old school. New team vs. old team.
New life vs. his old one.
He’d been thinking about it for weeks, having dreams about matching up against Tyrese, Shabazz, and the rest of his boys, but it was no longer just a thought in his mind anymore. It was real life, and game day had come.
His old team was now just another team he had to beat, the best team in the league, even without him at point guard.
It didn’t mean Belmont wasn’t good enough to beat the Mavericks. It didn’t mean that by the end of the year, Belmont wouldn’t be the best team in the league. But that was a long way off, and if they were going to reach that point, they would need to improve a lot throughout the season.
He wasn’t sure in his heart—looking at the matchups, the only player who really knew the skills and weaknesses of both teams—how they could beat the Mavericks today.
He and Tyrese had been talking about the game all week. Constantly texting and emailing each other. Chirping every chance they got. Each of them telling the other how the game was going to play out. Each of them saying that the other’s team had no chance against his.
Most of the bragging was coming from Tyrese.
“Tell you what,” Tyrese said on the telephone the night before. “You’re gonna be so happy to see me and Shabazz that it won’t hurt so bad when we put a whuppin’ on you tomorrow.”
“We’ll see about that,” Jayson had said. “I hear you’re down a pretty big piece this season at point guard.”
“Should send you the stat sheets, dude. Lil’ Duane has been ripping it up the first couple of games.”
Duane Wright had taken over Jayson’s spot playing the point for Coach Rankin and the Mavericks.
“Kid is niiiiiiiiice,” Tyrese had said. “Can hardly even tell that you’re not around anymore.”
“Then I guess I’ll need to remind you tomorrow what it’s like when I am around.”
“Looking forward to it. And Snap, don’t worry. We’ll be nice to you when it’s over and only one of us is still unbeaten.”
“We’ll see.”
Jayson had tried to watch the Clippers–Warriors game on TV after he hung up, Chris Paul and Steph Curry getting after each other. But he couldn’t pay attention to the game. All he kept thinking about was his game against his old team.
As weird as it was going to feel, as much as he’d been trying to imagine what it was going to be like seeing them warming up at the other end of the court, then going toe-to-toe against Tyrese and Shabazz, one thing still mattered to him above all else: winning. He still hated losing as much as ever.
And this time, it was personal.
He thought about what Zoe had said about her championship game, what had pushed her most, and decided he didn’t want to see the smug look on Tyrese’s face if Moreland East won.
Jayson made sure Mrs. Lawton drove him to the gym early. He wanted to be there before Tyrese and the rest of the Mavericks showed up, wanted to be on the court when they came through the door. He still didn’t feel as if the Belmont court was really his. But he wanted to make his old teammates think he did.
The game was set to start at one. Tyrese came strutting through the door at 12:15. Jayson used to tell Tyrese that he could strut sitting down. There was a big smile on his face, his eyes immediately searching for Jayson, spotting him at the opposite end of the court.
Shabazz walked in behind Tyrese, and said something to him as he pointed toward Jayson, who was shooting around with the rest of the Bobcats.
Get this over with, Jayson told himself
.
He knew he was happy to see them, especially Ty, whom he hadn’t seen since he ran away from the Lawtons to the Pines. But this wasn’t a reunion. It was a competition both teams wanted to win. Badly.
“Those your boys?” Bryan Campbell asked.
“Not today,” Jayson said as he tossed Bryan the ball, then jogged toward the visitors’ bench. Like he was acting as the welcoming committee at Belmont.
Tyrese grabbed Jayson’s hand and pulled him in for a chest bump. “This place is so fancy I thought I might have to wipe my shoes off before they touched the court.”
“You mean before we wipe the floor with you?” Jayson said, grinning at him.
“Keep dreamin’, son,” Ty said.
Jason greeted the rest of the guys on his old team.
“Dude,” Shabazz said, “it’ll be weird playing against you today. But I know you’re gonna bring it.”
“Won’t be the first time,” Jayson replied. “It’ll be like we’re playing on different teams at the Jeff. And you know I’ve brought it in those games.”
Shabazz smiled, clearly thinking about the time that Jayson had gotten in his face in a heated matchup.
Jayson nodded at Duane Wright, the starting point guard who’d taken his place, the guy he’d be guarding today.
Then Coach Rankin came over and gave Jayson a hug. “How’s it going, kid?”
“It’s taken some getting used to. Been a little weird,” he said. “Gonna be even weirder playing against you.”
Coach said, “Gonna be weird for us, too. We still feel like you’re one of us.”
“Not today, Coach.”
Jayson turned away then, knowing his teammates on the Bobcats were all watching him, not wanting to linger too long. He walked back toward his new team.
When he was back with the rest of the Bobcats, Cameron Speeth came over and put out a fist and Jayson lightly touched it with his own.
“You must be feeling like a guy who got traded, playing against his old team for the first time,” Cameron said.
“Something like that.”
“I just want you to know we got your back today. You don’t have to do it all yourself.”
Jayson nodded. “Gonna need all the help I can get.”
“We have as good a shot as they do,” Cameron said. “And no matter how happy they look, I’m sure they’re wishing you were standing on their side of the court.”
Jayson looked over at his old team once more, and noticed Tyrese and Shabazz were staring at him.
When the Bobcats were in the huddle, right before the game was going to start, Coach Rooney said, “You boys know why I love this game?”
He didn’t wait for any of them to respond.
“Because it’s all about matchups. The team with the most heart, the team that wants it the most, is the team that comes out on top.” He looked around, taking them all in. “So I have a question for you: How badly do you want it?”
Jayson wanted it more than any player in the gym.
His teammates looked like they wanted it, too. Wanted to show they could run with the big dogs.
“You know where we are?” Bryan said. “Our house.”
“Our house,” Brandon Carr said, and then they were all jumping up and down and yelling, “Our house! Our house!”
As they walked out onto the court, Jayson looked up into the stands to where Mr. and Mrs. Lawton were sitting. They were both looking right at him. He put up his hand in a quick wave. Mrs. Lawton smiled and waved back.
Then Tyrese, Shabazz, and the rest of the Mavericks walked out too, smiles gone, no longer talking trash.
Looking like they wanted it, too.
21
JAYSON KEPT TELLING HIMSELF HE was back at the Jeff, playing against Tyrese and Shabazz like he had plenty of times in pickup games. He’d always gone at them hard, because if your team won, you got to stay on the court.
This was his court now, whether he’d chosen it or not.
The Mavericks came out hot, mostly because of Tyrese. Jayson had told Marty Samuels where Tyrese liked to shoot from, and warned him that the Mavericks would set screens for Tyrese all over the court. But warnings weren’t enough to make that matchup even. Jayson could see after the first couple of minutes that Marty didn’t have the quickness to keep up with Tyrese. If Jayson had been coaching, he would have subbed in Bryan first chance he got. But he wasn’t coaching. And that wasn’t Coach Rooney’s style, to give somebody a quick hook that way. He liked to show confidence in his players. So Ty just went off in the first quarter, making four of his team’s first five baskets, all from the outside, loving every minute of it.
There was a small group of parents behind the Moreland East bench, including Tyrese’s mom, but Jayson knew Tyrese wasn’t focused on her or anyone else in the crowd. He was focused on one person in the gym: Jayson.
“You guys can’t guard me,” he said to Jayson after his last outside shot, the longest one yet.
Tyrese wasn’t the only problem for the Bobcats. On defense, Shabazz was chasing Cameron all over the court, denying him the ball, blowing up screens, even blocking one of Cameron’s shots about ten rows up into the seats. Shutting him down.
It was 14–2, Moreland East, when Coach Rooney finally called a time-out and subbed in Bryan for Marty, who looked gassed already from trying to keep up with Tyrese Rice.
“Everybody take some deep breaths,” Coach said. “They’re making their shots, we’re missing ours. And guess what? If they keep making shots like this, we’re gonna lose. But they’re not going to. We’re going to get stops on D and make our plays on offense. Move the ball around and play our game. Sound like a plan?”
They nodded.
Coach focused in on Jayson. “Don’t force anything. Create space and find your opportunities.”
“One basket at a time,” Jayson said.
“That’s what I’m talking about.”
So far, it looked like the Mavericks didn’t miss Jayson at all. Duane Wright, their point guard, wasn’t outplaying Jayson—that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Jayson wasn’t outplaying him. Jayson left the huddle, telling himself that was about to change, that he was ready to show his boys on his old team just what they were missing.
“I told you how it was gonna go,” Tyrese said, just loud enough for Jayson to hear. “Been telling you all week. You should’ve listened.”
Jayson started walking away from him.
“What,” Tyrese said, trying to walk alongside Jayson, “you don’t want to talk to me?”
Jayson turned and said, “Got a game to win.”
First play out of the time-out, Jayson got into the lane, drew Tyrese toward him, sold the idea that he was going to shoot it himself, but kicked it to Bryan at the last second. Bryan made his first basket of the game, a wide-open fifteen footer.
One basket at a time.
At the other end of the court, Jayson snuck in on Tyrese’s blind side just as Tyrese was settling in to shoot at his sweet spot, stole the ball from him, and took it himself, beating everybody down the court for a layup.
Jayson hustled back to the other end of the court, starting to get back into rhythm. And so were the rest of the Bobcats. With Phil’s hand in his face, Ray Bretton missed. Cameron boxed out Shabazz for the rebound, passed it off to Jayson, who threw a football pass right back to Cameron, who was already under the basket, running his butt off, Shabazz trailing behind. Just like that, the lead was cut to 14–8.
With Bryan playing well against Tyrese and Cameron holding his own now against Shabazz, looking more confident, the Bobcats came all the way back to tie the game by the end of the first half.
Second half coming. New game starting.
• • •
The game was still tied at the end of the third quarter. Jayson had bee
n working Duane Wright and was clearly the stronger player of the two, finding his teammates on any open looks he could. There hadn’t been many, but the Mavericks hadn’t had many themselves, both teams D’ing up like they were playing in the county finals.
“We got this,” Coach Rooney said to them in the huddle before the start of the fourth. “As well as we’ve played since we got behind early, I still don’t believe we’ve played our best basketball. We’ve got the momentum now. So let’s do this, boys. Let’s forget about how this game started and finish off strong.”
Jayson always felt as if Coach was speaking directly to him, as if he trusted Jayson to take the game in his hands and make something happen.
As they walked back out on the court, he could see Tyrese, still smiling, heading straight for him while the refs toweled off a wet spot on the court.
Tyrese hadn’t been talking as much smack in the second half, considering how the game had been going. Jayson understood, because he’d seen it before, plenty of times. For all the strut and smiling and talk, Ty wanted this game as much as Jayson did.
“We let you stay in the game for a while there,” Ty said, “but now it’s time for the big boys to take over.”
“We’ll see,” Jayson said.
“Just hope you don’t wish that you were back with the Mavs when it’s all said and done.”
It was 35–35 at the start of the fourth quarter.
Brandon and Cameron were both in the game, Coach having decided to play his two bigs because he liked the matchups better. It turned out to be a good decision. Jayson knocked away Duane’s first pass of the quarter, beat everybody to the ball, and threw it to a streaking Brandon Carr for a layup.
But Marty Samuels was back in the game and back on Tyrese, as bad an idea now as it had been at the start. Coach wanted to keep showing confidence in Marty, but unfortunately, that confidence didn’t seem to be helping him very much.
Tyrese made three straight shots, beating Marty off the dribble twice for a couple layups. Mavericks by four.
Jayson came right back, dribbled up the court, crossed up Duane, and answered Tyrese with a rare three-pointer, Duane giving him way too much space, Jayson deciding to make him pay.