Chapter 4 - Playing with Jessica

The game ended.

The final result was:

Me - 22 kills

Mike - 10 kills

Jimmy - 9 kills

In total, we killed 41 players, almost 14 teams out of 50.

Anyway, it was time for me to go back home since it was 11 p.m. already.

Arriving home, my parents were asleep, so I went to my room and took a shower, falling asleep sometime later.

The next few days I spent normally. The team made some drills and Friday night we went to Timmot's. A fast-food restaurant, really big all over the country, and also spread across the world.

They have lots of food. One of my favorites is the pizza with 3 slices of cheese. It's a shaped form where they put 3 types of cheese inside, but the pasta around is crunchy beyond comparison. The taste is so heavenly, the crunchy pasta and the melty cheese are just different.

When you bite it, the melted cheese hangs from your mouth, and the two different consistency, brings the flavor to another level.

When Saturday arrived, I went to the mall. I had talked to Jessica and she said she would meet me there.

It didn't take long to find her.

Her blonde hair swaying as she walks, her tall body reaching close to 5'10, green eyes, and white smooth skin that you could see from far away and cause you the urge to touch it, just to feel the texture.

She was dressed in a white, long-sleeved peplum, jeans, and simple white shoes.

The simplicity of her clothes only makes her beauty more evident.

In reality, I didn't know it was Jessica, but I had definitely noticed her.

When she was close to me, she put her hands on her hair and pushed it behind her ear, making her face completely visible. Which also brought the attention of the people passing by. She is just too beautiful, and it attracted people.

"Hi, Jay. Have you waited too much?" She greeted.

Her beauty is really something else, but I didn't falter my answer.

"Hi, Jessica." I let a small chuckle. "Don't worry, I just got here." Looking at her with a hint of surprise, and an amusing smile on my face, she seems to notice something.

"What? Were you expecting someone different?" She said, showing a bright smile.

My surprised smile was understandable since I never met her. Jessica's profile picture is her face covered with her hand in a hoodie, which only showed her forehead and her green eyes. There wasn't much I could make out of it, and that's why I didn't know it was her, at first.

When we agreed to meet, she said I shouldn't worry because she would find me through my profile picture, which, different from hers, could show my appearance.

Looking at her face with a smile, I replied.

"Well, I wasn't exactly expecting someone. I was expecting you, and you surprised me. You are really beautiful, actually. I could be meeting a big fat old man instead." I said jokingly.

She replied with her tongue cutely sticking out of her mouth.

I laughed at her response.

"But it's true. I'm still expecting the same person I talked to online. If you were different, I wouldn't mind it. Of course, unless it was a big fat old man." I clarify as we had started walking around, I think mostly to disperse the looks from passersby.

As for Jessica, she didn't seem like she cared about my fat old man joke and instead, replied.

"But honestly, you can't really talk about being surprised about others' appearance. I was surprised when looking at your pictures, and I wouldn't have doubted if you told me that you are a model instead of a basketball player after I've just seen you in person. Haha," She said half-jokingly and calmly looking at me.

Well, for my appearance, I am 6'2, with faux pitch-black hair and clear blue eyes. I'm also wearing a creamy white long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, and black-red shoes.

"If we are both surprised, I guess we are even, right?" I smile.

After talking for a while, we decided to go to the movies first.

We watched a movie called "Coming from home, to home".

It's an action and comedy movie about basketball and also sort of portraiting three black guys who didn't have expectations from people around him. The film itself shows the confrontation between these guys and people who had it all when growing up. It's a way to say that 'it doesn't matter where I come from, I can still be great'.

We enjoyed it a lot. Jessica and I couldn't stop laughing and the movie even showed real scenes, where there was actually a real basketball play, so the appreciation was even better.

Soon we went out to grab some food while we talked to each other. After we ate, we started walking around the shopping, and even passing by a court where an announcer is trying to gather couples for Basketball 2v2's, which even offered a prize.

$100, two official basketballs, and a box of chocolates and candies.

"How about we play? It looks fun." Jessica said.

"Okay, let's see those skills you talked about earlier."

Earlier when we were talking, Jessica said she was playing for her school's female team, and that they were considered good in the division. So this was also a perfect opportunity to see how she plays, and if it's for real.

So we walked to the counter and asked to sign for the competition.

The announcer said we were playing against three other couples. Jessica wasn't bothered by the 'couple' title, and I was even less, there was nothing between us, and it would be stupid if we were complaining about it.

The announcer soon explained the rules. It's 11 points or 10 minutes for each game, 2's and 1's, and you don't retain the ball after scoring.

In just a few minutes the game began. We were matched with a very tall couple. The guy is about 2m(6'7 feet) and the girl was 1,83m(6 feet). It seemed this was going to be really interesting.

In a coin toss, our team received the ball, and after checking the ball, Jessica started dribbling as the other girl was guarding her.

Utilizing my speed advantage over the tall guy, I ran past Jessica's defender's right side and cutting to the rim. The tall guy who was left trailing behind me couldn't do much as I received a pinpoint pass from Jessica, finishing at the other side with a reverse layup after he tried to block me.

"Nice pass," I complimented her as we high-fived each other.

In response, she showed a smug grin and proudly raised her nose. I shook my head while chuckling a bit.

Now it was the other team's turn attack so we prepared for defense. The big guy was handling the ball, he dribbled to his right side, circling the three-point arc, which I only followed without trying to reach for the ball. Then he quickly switched hands with a crossover and put his shoulder on my chest, trying to body his way into the paint.

But surprisingly, to him, he couldn't. My body was composed of compact muscles, and to the outside, I could seem a little too slim. But my leg strength was no joke and, coupled with technique, he couldn't back me down not even a little bit.

The big guy should be around 260 lbs, and compared with me, he was way up there in weight so everybody in the crowd started murmuring. There weren't many people, but it was growing quickly.

Seeing no reaction from his attempts, the big guy then tried to shoot over me, but I jumped a little and tapped the ball just after he shot. It was so light and controlled, that the ball fell to my hands and I got back to the three-point line. My opponent was surprised and his mouth was almost forming an "O" shape.

As I got behind the arc, I set my left foot first and step both feet before rising for the shot. The spectators were cheering us already, and as the ball went through, the yells started to rise even more.

The next attack, it was their ball again as we just scored. The girl from the other team tried to go by Jessica but had her way blocked by Jessica's body as she slid her feet and closed the girl's path, she was keeping their matchup even as the girl was taller, so Jessica used physicality to harass the girl. Her hands poked at the ball, her upper body pushed against the shoves from the girl, and always kept her uncomfortable.

She did it so wisely, that the other girl couldn't reach the rim, even after 30 seconds. All I did was keep denying the passing lane for the big guy to get the ball.

The girl did the same thing as the big guy when they didn't get to the basket, she tried to shoot but after she backed out to the three-point line, but missed. And Jessica didn't even contest, she was just close to her, staring at her face.

That intimidation was so good... It was beautiful.

Just the pressure from your defense, and the opponent is already fumbling? That's like poetry.

Coming to the next possessions, Jessica scored easily against the other girl. She almost broke her ankles. I even thought I was dreaming, Jessica is just too good.

After the game was over, we had all the crowd cheering for us. In the beginning, there were over twenty people, but now, it was close to a hundred. And that's inside the mall. With only the people passing by that stayed to watch.

Soon, the announcer came to introduce the next match.

This next match seemed normal. The guy was average and the girl too, though I heard some spectators say the guy was pretty fast and the girl shot very well since they also watched the other match while we played against the other couple.

Another coin flip and we won the ball again.

I was getting a little eager to have some action on my own after watching Jessica. So after the check ball, I got the ball and started dribbling it in front of my defender. I took a step back while still dribbling and suddenly skip-dribbled to my right while changing the angles of my hips to show as if I was going right. It worked as my defender baited, changing his feet to contain the drive, so I pulled the ball back from right to left, creating a sudden angle to drive left but I took a side step to create even more separation.

The sidestep left the defender with wide eyes, as my feet were still behind the three-point line, I had the perfect window to shoot the ball wide open.

And so I did.

With a beautiful rhythm, bring the ball as I gathered my hands to initiate the shooting motion, I raised the ball in a straight line, passing by my eyes and extending my elbow with a perfect stroke release a high arching shot. The ball hitting nothing but the net.

The crowd was going insane. Everyone appreciates basketball, and the crossover was beyond enough to hype the crowd.

The guy who they thought was fast, was left planted in one place as he couldn't even recover to contest. It was definitely hyping.

The next possession, the opponent team's female tried to score on Jessica, but not surprisingly, failed. It seemed she didn't hear about Jessica's previous matchups.

As we got the ball, I set a screen for Jessica as she came around to find the guy in a drop coverage, almost behind the free-throw line, so she shot the ball from three.

It was all net again, baby.

Jessica is amazing. She can score, pass, and defend perfectly. She is way better than some boys from the first division.

The game proceeded with other three outside shots from Jessica, and two pick and pops from me.

The crowd applauded, as the announcer gave our prizes.

We thanked them before leaving to eat once again. As we decided to sit down a bit, I and Jessica started to talk to each other.

"Damn, I sure wasn't expecting you to be so good. Since when did you started to practice basketball?" I asked her.

"Well, about three years. I only started playing for my school this year, though." She replied.

"Hmm. Maybe one of the reasons you said they are just good? I mean, with you on the team, there's no way many teams could beat you guys." That's how impressed I was. Girls basketball wasn't as sought after as men's, so finding players that could guard her sure is pretty difficult.

"Haha... Yeah, thanks. But I don't know if I will stay here next year. My parents are opening some business in Europe. So I think I might go with them. Live sometime away sounds fun." Her looks when saying these words was mesmerising. Her green eyes shining as the white walls from the mall reflected light on her face.

'She is really beautiful.' I couldn't help but think.

"Well, that's sad. I won't see you often, I think." I said looking at her with a dramatic face.

"Haha, stop. We can keep in touch. Besides, I'm not going to live there forever. It's a different experience I would like to have." She said with a bright smile, while leaning on my shoulder.

"Okay, but can I visit you on vacation? I have thought about playing in Europe." I said, wondering how that would workout.

"Yeah, sure." She agreed with a smile.

After some time, we asked for a driver and went home.

The day was great, couldn't wait to go out with her sometime more.

As I arrived home, I went straight to my room. My parents seemed to be out, right now, so I didn't bother.

After opening the door, I received a message from Mike.

Mike [Yo, r u up for some ball rn?]

Me [Who else?]

Mike [Random. At the park.]

Me [Yeah, sure. Be at your house in a while.]

Dropping my phone on the bed, I went inside the bath to have a quick shower. Afterward, I changed clothes and walked to Mike's house.

As I got in front of his house, Mike was already in the front door all ready to go. His basketball bag on his shoulders, and phone on his hand as he scrolled the screen.

"Where were you at?" He said.

"I went out with Jessica. I think mentioned her before." I replied as we walked.

"Oh, the girl you have been talking to lately?"

"Yeah, her." I answered.

We arrived at the park shortly.

The scenery is pretty good, it has about 5 sports courts spread between the trees, giving a natural shade during daylight and refreshing air while inside. The leaves are a problem, but it has regular maintenance.

We stopped at one court with about a dozen guys messing around. I dropped my stuff at the sides and went to greet the guys.

"Yo, space for two more?" Mike asked.

"Look if ain't Jay and Mike. Yo, I have something for ya. I brought my guys today. How about we give you a lesson for last time?" Said a bald black guy with big muscles. He is famous around here for being a huge trash talker. Most people disliked him.

"Yeah, sure. Another beating coming up." Mike said, smirking as he joked.

"Who is your team?" I asked.

"We will have him and him." He said pointing towards two bystanders as 'his guys' were behind him.

"Okay," I said before I and Mike started to pick our teammates.