Crossroads, Page 2

“Where in the world could she be? What could be wrong?” Lara wondered as she sat in class not really listening to the teacher. She pondered over the whereabouts of her friend and classmate, Nike. Her mind wondered off in many directions on what could have happened while it rained heavily outside. It really wasn’t like Nike to miss classes. Nike was Lara’s best friend at Ben Louise College and they both shared a lot in common. Although, Nike could be a bit spontaneous at times, this made her somewhat unpredictable.

  It wasn’t until much later in the day that Lara learnt that Nike was down with the fever. So Lara spent her afternoon break in the library. She really did enjoy reading and to her, novel writing was magic. The ability to see extraordinary things in seemingly natural things was the key. A book entitled, “Imaginations and Talents” caught her attention and almost made her forget the game they were to play against the Tigresses, who were their long-time opponents. When she noticed it was almost four o’clock, she rushed into the changing room and dashed to the school bus which was conveying members of the Shining Stars, Ben Louise’s Basketball team, to the stadium for their match.

  As they made the journey, Lara remembered her first class and how she had joined the basketball team. She had always enjoyed sporting activities and, being able to play basketball, she was glad to be recruited when she signed up. Try-outs were exhausting but she played so well. She became an instant favorite with everybody – including the hard-to-please coach/instructor. Pulling out of her reverie, Lara smiled to herself and enjoyed listening to her team mates psyching themselves up for the game. She stared at the almost familiar scenery of the roadside and the many different people going by or doing one thing or the other, as their bus made its way to the stadium.

  They arrived at the indoor gymnasium and their bus was directed to where they could be as close to their locker rooms as possible. As they alighted from the bus, it was plain to see that this game was highly anticipated as the crowd moving towards the basketball court and the noise coming from there was intense. With last minute strategies and some advice, the Shining Stars left the locker rooms and came out to the court. The noise that assailed them upon their entrance was enough to make one deaf. Almost instantly, Lara felt weak at the knees and only managed to get their side of the court. The lights, the crowd, the setting were all so wonderful. It felt like one of the real pro on the NBA games she watched on the TV.

  “Girl, this is it. This is not the time to become scared or faint-hearted”, Lara thought to herself, “You’ve got to put yourself together, we must win this game!”

  And so with a blast of the whistle from the umpire, the game started with the Tigresses being the first to get the ball. Their play was smooth and fast but the Shining Stars defence was rigid and they blocked off a two-point shot from one of the Tigresses. This was well picked up by Tayo, a beautiful, light-skinned girl who ran well with the ball, ducked away from an opponent, threw it to Ngozi, who was closer to the rim and BAM! The ball was through the hoop. The crowd cheered and whistled and the game continued. There were a couple of fouls, free-throws and time-outs from both sides. With only a few minutes left of the game, both sides were doing all they could to stay on top. But the Shining Stars were unstoppable.

  Ms. Percy, the coach for the Shining Stars called a time-out and the girls came running to her. She laid out a final strategy to seal their victory and they got back on court. Lara looked up at the big screen display and saw the time left – 2minutes, 10 seconds. With the clock ticking continuously and tension rising, everybody on and out of court seemed to be on the edge. Just then, a Tigress player pushed into a Shining Star girl and the umpire called a foul. They were given free throw and Ngozi took it. She was able to dunk the balls and this gave them an upper arm above their opponents but they knew they could not rest on their oars just yet. Not with 40 seconds to go.

  As the ball made it way from one Tigress to another, it was intercepted by Tayo, who passed to Lara that was open to take a shot. Suddenly, in that instant that the ball reached her, it seemed that time slowed to a crawl. Lara could see the Coach and other players from the bench urging her on to throw the ball. She could see at least three Tigresses coming at her to tackle her; she could hear the crowd cheering, shouting,

  “Go, Sweetie! Go Sweetie!”

  They were cheering for her! Amazed and instantly spurred by the cheers of the spectators, Lara took aim and threw a long 3 – point shot from the edge of the arc. She held her breath and it seemed the whole auditorium went quiet as the ball sailed through the air. It missed the hand of would-be deflectors and bounced one, two, three times on the hoop before settling into the basket. The final whistle went.

  The crowd was instantly in an uproar cheering for the Shining Stars and celebrating. The teammates were jubilating and hugging one another. It was a beautiful victory and Lara had sealed it for them. It was such a happy and wonderful moment for her yet there was a little pain in her heart – Nike was not here to witness this day.