It all began with a simple phone call one night after dinner. “Joe,” my father hollered up the stairs, “it’s for you. It’s Jackie, and she sounds upset. ” As I came downstairs to pick up the phone, I was not happy. I was tired and had looked forward to a nice and quiet evening at home, not another stupid adventure with Jackie. Thirty minutes later, however, Jackie’s silver Mustang convertible swung into our driveway, and Jackie was leaning on the horn before the car came to a full stop. Grabbing my coat from the couch, I walked out my front door with all the enthusiasm of a man going to stand before a firing squad.
Oh man was Jackie’s mustang awesome, it had everything. It was black and silver, with a racing stripe right down the center, it was sweet. It smelt like cherries, like I walked into a cherry orchard. I could feel the smooth leather seats as I ran my hands across them. I could hear the engine even from the inside of my house, like a motorcycle was in my driveway but it wasn’t. It was my dream car and she already had it by the age of 17, I am admitting I was so jealous but I never told her that, I couldn’t let her think for a minute I was jealous of her.
As I got into the car she already was smiling ear to ear, I could tell I wasn’t going to like what came out of her mouth. She starts off by saying, “Let’s go to the mall! ” I tried to get out, I really did but she tempted me with ice cream so I had to go. As we pulled out of my driveway she told me that we were going to meet her cousins and shop with them as well. After a long 30 minutes we finally got there, as we pulled into the parking space we saw Jackie’s cousins walking into the mall, “Hey guys, wait up! ” Jackie yelled as we ran out of the car.
As we walked up to her cousins they were pretty cool off the bat, their names were Bob and Kathy. The very first store we went to was Forever 21, a store for mostly girls. We were there for literally two hours while Kathy and Jackie picked out clothes. It was the worst waiting, I could feel my hands sweating like I was anxious, which I was to get out of there. I could hear the voices of other girls asking their boyfriends if they liked the item they picked out, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard, I hated it. All I could smell as the overwhelming stench of perfume, like I walked into a, well a girl clothing store. The worst part about that was is that I could taste it too, in the worst way like the smell was right on my tongue and wouldn’t let go, “OMG I can’t decide if I like the black or green dress more, Joe, which do you like? ” I shook my head, trying to show my disinterest, but she wasn’t catching on to my clue. After those painful hours, it was finally time to go to a store of my choosing. As I raced out of Forever 21, I immediately started walking to the game store, where I was looking forward to going this whole trip.
When I walked into the store I headed right to the sports section and picked up NBA 2K16, I had been waiting to get this game for weeks, I was hype! Once we concluded our terrible shopping trip I was finally home, and the first thing I did was run up to my room and put 2K into my Xbox One. Once I opened the case however, I felt a strong force pull me down, like a seatbelt in a car. When I opened my eyes I was standing face to face with NBA superstar Kevin Durant, my favorite NBA player, he dominated the NBA with his ability to score with amazing ease.
Don’t just stand there man, shoot it! ” Kevin exclaimed to me as he passed me the ball. I threw up an easy corner jump shot and it went in with a nice sound as the ball glazed through the net. “Ok I see you” Kevin said to me as I got my rebound and passed him the rock. He went back towards the half court line with the ball and started sprinting towards the rim, I opened my mouth in awe and I watched him soar into the air and 360 dunk! “Not bad, didn’t mean to dunk it so hard though” KD said as my eyes were as big as golf balls in straight amazement.
We ended up playing a game of 21, which he obviously kicked my butt in, but I had a great time. Once we finished our game we were shooting around when all of a sudden more players showed up, Dante Exum and his teammate Trey Burke. “What are you guys doing here? ” I asked them and they just stared at KD and me. The stares started to get awkward and we were just standing there so KD passed the ball and told them to check it up. I was guarding Trey burke, point guard for the Utah Jazz and a former Michigan Wolverine so you already know I had to ball up on a fellow Michigan fan.
I started off guarding him, but it was so hard! As soon as he got passed the ball he drove to the basket pushing me out of the way with ease and scored an easy bucket. “Can I get a foul? ” I asked in disbelieve. They just rechecked the ball and we played on. The next play KD was defending Exum and got a steal off a pass that he tried to throw to Trey, he sprinted to the rim and drew both of them in so he kicked it out to me and I was wide open for a jump shot, I pulled up and knocked it down from downtown!
The score was 3-2 with KD and I in the lead, I checked the ball and called for a screen, KD came up and set a nice screen that got my defender completely stuck, I took the opportunity and drove in for quick layup. The score was 5-2 with us in the lead still. After a few plays the score was 8-8, a tie game, I checked the ball and dribbled to the corner, “Screen, screen! ” I yelled as KD came up for one, I went the other way tricking Trey and I headed for the basket but Exum wasn’t having it this time, he came over for the help defense but I saw him coming and whipped the ball to KD in the air for a lop and he threw it down!
I tried to keep my smile not noticeable but I couldn’t help it, we were balling. 10-8, we only needed one more point to score, I checked the ball and did a few cross overs on my man and managed to speed by him, it was just me and the rim and I headed towards it, as I was going to put in the winning layup for the game I got hit by Exum on the arm, an intentional foul so I had to go to the foul line for 2 shots. I stepped on to the line, my body covered in sweat, I was nervous I wouldn’t even be able to shoot the ball because of how scared I was.
When I got passed the ball it felt like everything went into slow motion, I swallowed hard, I could hear my heart beating it was so loud like drums being banged on and I swear everyone else could hear it too. I did my dribble routine with two bounces and a slow spin of the ball, I could taste a sour taste in my mouth from the sweat dripping off from my face, it tasted so bad. The sweat on my hands was the worst, I couldn’t even feel the ball in my hands because there was so much liquid on my hands.
I shot the ball and I could feel the ball go off more of my left hand than the right and I messed up, it bounced off off the rim twice before clanging off. I could see the smirk run across Exum’s face as I missed, like he was happy to see me fail. When I got the ball passed back to me could smell the rubber on the ball, like a strong odor you can’t ignore, it was amplified by 10 because of all the sweat that was collected on it. Number 2 was on the way, I did my outine and shot the ball, this time the ball went straight in! I looked and Exum and gave a quick wink as KD came up to me and dapped me up. “You guys can get out of here. ”
I said with a lot of confidence being that I just beat two NBA players, I felt awesome. Just as I was feeling good about myself I felt that pull again, I closed my eyes and found myself back on my bed sitting in front of my screen, “No way that just happened. I kept saying to myself. I raced downstairs and ran over to Jackie’s house, I didn’t even knock I just ran in and her mom gave me a weird look as I ran past the kitchen. I told her the story and she would not believe me for anything, “I swear I was playing a pick up game with Kevin Durant! ” I kept trying to plead my case but there was no chance of her believing me. “Ok then, believe what you want but I am not lying, I
