Hoop Crazy (2 page)

My first phone call had been to Kia. After I finally convinced her that I wasn't joking around about Jordan leaving she came straight over to my house and we started to make phone calls.

The phone started to ring. One … two … three …

“Hello.”

“Hi, this is Nick, can I speak to Tyler?”

“Sorry, he's not here,” said a woman. I was pretty sure it was his mother. “He's away at camp.”

“Will he be home soon?”

“Two weeks tomorrow.”

That was no good. “Okay, thanks … goodbye,” I said as I hung up the phone.

“Any luck?” Kia asked.

“Lots. All bad.”

We'd already made more then a dozen phone calls. Most of the people I'd talked to, but with three I left messages on their answering machines. Maybe one of those people would call back. That was our only hope.

“Any other ideas who I should call?”

“We've tried everybody I can think of,” Kia said. “People are all either out, away on vacation, already committed to something or just not interested.”

“Maybe somebody will return one of the messages we left,” I said hopefully.

“That would be nice.” She paused. “I'd at least like to hear from Mark.”

Mark was the third member of our team. I'd called him just after I called Kia. He wasn't home, so I'd left a message on his machine.

“Well, somebody has to call us, and they have to call us soon.”

It did have to be soon. The application for the tournament had to be completed and handed in by six o'clock today. All our names and information had been filled in. I'd used White Out to cover Jordan's part of the application. All I needed now was a new name to take his place.

“I was thinking,” Kia said. “The rules do say we have to have four people, right?”

“Yep. It's clear. Each three-on-three team must
be composed of four players.”

“But does it say anything about how much each player has to play?”

“I don't think so,” I said. I'd gone over those rules pretty closely.

“So, technically you could leave the same three players on the court the whole game and the other player could stay on the bench.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Three players could play the whole game.”

“Which means that you and me and Mark could play all the time,” Kia said.

“We can't even enter without a fourth name,” I said. “That's the rules.”

“I know that, but if we had a fourth person he wouldn't even need to play … right?”

“Yeah, but that wouldn't be very much fun for the fourth guy, and not particularly fair.”

“Okay, then maybe we could let him play a little bit, or when we're really, really ahead,” Kia suggested.

“That would be better,” I agreed.

“And because of that we don't necessarily need a good fourth player,” she said.

“You're right. All we really need is a body.”

“
Any
body,” she said.

“Like Kevin,” I said. Kevin lived three doors down. He wasn't the best basketball player — actually he was terrible — but he was a good guy
and played with us all the time on the driveway. He never complained even when he was getting hammered.

“Do you want to call or should I?” I asked.

“Um … you should.”

I picked up the phone and dialed his number. It started to ring.

“Hello.”

“Hi, Kev, it's Nick. How are you doing?”

“Good. And you?”

“Not so good. We've lost Jordan and we're looking for a fourth player for our three-on-three team.”

There was a pause. I guess he couldn't believe I was asking him.

“And you want me?”

“Yeah. Do you think you want to play?”

There was another long pause. “No thank you,” he said coolly.

“But why not?” I asked.

“Ask Kia. Talk to you later,” he said as he hung up.

I put the phone down and turned to Kia.

“Did he say no?” Kia asked.

I nodded my head. “And he said that you'd know why he said no.”

“Me? How would I know?” Kia said, looking away.

“You are the worst liar I've ever met!” I exclaimed.

“Well you're not much better,” she said.

“Fine, good, so neither one of us can lie very well. Now tell me why Kevin won't play with us?”

“I told him he couldn't,” she said quietly.

“When did you do that?” I asked.

“A couple of months ago. You know, when we started talking about forming a team and Kevin asked if he could maybe be on our team.”

“So you told him he couldn't?”

She nodded her head, but still wasn't looking at me.

“What else did you say to him, Kia?”

“I sort of told him he could be on our team … if he was the last player left in the entire city.”

“Nice. Very nice. And now that we need him we —”

The phone rang. Maybe it was somebody calling us back! I grabbed the phone.

“Hello!”

“Hello, is this Nicholas?” a woman asked.

“Yes, this is Nick.”

“It's so good to talk to you. Do you know who this is?”

“No,” I admitted, although I knew who it wasn't — somebody calling back to say they would be on our team.

“This is Debbie … your mother's cousin Debbie.”

“Oh, hi.”

“Is your mother there? I have some great news to share!” she chirped cheerfully.

“I'll go and get her.”

I put down the phone and went to look for her.

“Mom! Telephone!” I screamed.

“There's no need to yell. I'm right here,” she said.

“Sorry. Telephone for you.”

“Do you know who it is?” she asked.

“Your cousin Debbie.”

“My cousin?”

“That's what she said.”

“Oh my goodness!” she gasped as she started to run out of the room toward the phone.

I trailed after her, catching up just as she picked up the phone.

“Mom,” I called out. “Do you think you could keep it short? We're waiting for some calls about basketball.”

Her mouth dropped open and then her eyes came to life, burning a hole right through me, and I knew I really, really shouldn't have said that.

“That's okay,” I stammered. “Take as long as you want.”

“We're going to go now … to the kitchen … to eat … and leave you alone,” I stammered as I grabbed Kia and pulled her to her feet and dragged her out the door.

“What was that all about?” Kia asked.

“I thought we should let my mother have some privacy on the phone. Are you hungry?”

“I'm always hungry. Got any cookies?”

“Lots. You know where they are,” I said.

Kia went to the cupboard and pulled out a big bag of cookies. She knew her way around my house as well as I did … maybe better. She was my best friend and we practically lived at each other's houses. I went to the fridge and pulled out the milk, grabbed two glasses and poured us both a drink.

“These are good,” Kia mumbled through a mouthful of cookies.

I stuffed in a couple of cookies, chewed and washed them down with a gulp of milk.

“Is your mother off the phone yet?” Kia asked. Almost on cue my mother came into the kitchen.

“I have wonderful news!” she said.

I almost asked if she'd found somebody to be on our team, but thought better of it.

“What news?” Kia asked.

“My cousin Debbie and her son Ned are coming to visit! They'll be arriving on Monday and they're going to be in town for a whole week! Isn't that wonderful!”

“Yeah, great,” I said, unable to even fake enthusiasm.

“Her husband has a conference to attend. And
while he's at the conference, they'll be staying with us!”

“Here? In our house?”

“Of course here. Debbie will use the guest room and Ned will share your room.”

“Who's Ned?” Kia asked.

“Debbie's son. He's exactly the same age as you and Nick,” my mother answered.

“Our age?”

“He was actually born on the same day as Nick. April twenty-third. His mother and I were always the closest cousins and then we had our sons on the same day. Isn't that amazing!”

“Yeah, amazing,” Kia agreed. “Imagine that, somebody the same age as us is going to be staying here for a week.”

Instantly I knew what Kia was getting at — Ned could be our fourth player. She didn't know Ned or she'd know that idea was crazy.

“By the way, does Ned play basketball?” Kia asked.

“I don't know if —”

“No, he doesn't play,” I said, cutting off my mother.

“And how would you know that?” my mother asked.

“Because he's Ned the Nerd. He doesn't play basketball, or soccer, or hockey, or any sports. He doesn't do
anything
normal.”

“You can't say that,” my mother said. “You haven't seen him for years.”

“And those have been good years.”

“Don't be that way, Nick,” my mother said. She turned to Kia. “When Nick and Ned were little, our two families used to spend time together every summer on vacation. They were wonderful vacations!”

“Wonderful for you maybe. You didn't have to play with Nerd.”

“Please don't call him that.”

“Fine. You didn't have to spend time with Ned. He's strange.”

“Like how?” Kia asked.

“Like he's always using these big words and he has really thick glasses —”

“That's not his fault,” my mother said. “And it isn't nice to make fun of people for things like that.”

“Fine. And he's crazy about bugs. Just crazy. He wants to be some sort of bug guy when he grows up.”

“You mean like Spiderman?” Kia asked.

“No, not like that. Like a guy who knows all about bugs. There's a name for it.”

“An entomologist.”

“Whatever.”

“And you don't know if that's what he still wants to be. It's been over three years since we've seen
them. He could be different.”

“He was always
different
.”

“I mean he could have changed.”

“Not from what you read to me from the letters your cousin sends,” I said. “He still sounds weird.”

“How come you stopped going on vacation with them?” Kia asked.

“Debbie's husband is a forest ranger.”

“You mean like in Yogi the Bear cartoons?” Kia questioned.

“Like a real forest ranger and they were transferred across the country to a very remote forest in a national park,” my mother explained. “And since summer is the busiest time of the year for forest rangers, they can't readily take time off when we have usually take our vacation.”

“So why are they coming now?” I asked.

“Debbie's husband is presenting at some sort of conference just north of here. And since he's going to be so busy there, I suggested that Debbie and Ned spend the time here with us.”

“Lucky us.”

“And while I spend time catching up with Debbie, you'll have lots of time to spend with Ned.”

“Great … just great.”

“You just have to play with him.”

“I don't have time to play. We have the threeon-three tournament during that time and we have to practice and we still have to find a fourth
player and —”

“You still haven't found anybody?” my mother asked.

“Not yet. We have a few possibilities.”

“What about Ned?” my mother asked. “That would be perfect.”

“That would be perfectly awful. I'm telling you he can't play basketball!” I protested. “There's no way I want him on my —”

“Yes, we do!” Kia said, cutting me off.

“No, we don't!”

“Yes, we do,” Kia said, staring at me. “Look at the time, Nick.”

I knew what she was getting at. We really didn't have much time left.

Kia turned to my mother. “Could you please call your cousin back and see if her son wants to be on our team.”

“Nick?” my mother asked. “Is that okay?”

“Sure, whatever,” I mumbled.

My mother burst into a smile. “I'll call Debbie back right now and ask her about Ned being on your team.”

“Great!” Kia said and my mother rushed out of the room to make the phone call.

“That was a mistake,” I said.

“At least this way we have a team.”