Short Story: Party of Five

Party of Five

Basketball.  I can remember the first team I played on, and I do not think I know who I am without the game.  Now I play on the court at the park down by the river and sometimes my friend Joy comes to watch.  Joy and I have been best friends since middle school, and now we are starting our sophomore year of high school.  Joy works at my mom’s cafe and we sometimes all have dinner there together.  Joy comes from a big family so her she always says her parents don’t really miss her when she is gone.  

“Well go on and give it to him,” Joy said.  “We found you something, I mean your mom got you something” she said.

 It was an old book of Shakespeare; I really enjoy reading older literature.  Mom said it was a present to start sophomore year off with.  I wonder what we look like to anyone passing by; my mom, Joy, and I having dinner together at a table in the café.  Joy is very pretty with dark hair and big brown eyes, but we have always just been the best of friends, we never had any romantic feelings.  It is almost as if I looked at her like a little sister.  After dinner we went up to the roof and made our annual predictions of how we thought this year would go.  We do this every year, we each write out our predictions or hopes and save them in this little tin box behind a lose brick in the wall. It is always so funny to look back and see how far we have come from the year before.  Mine have revolved around Hilarie for the past few years.  Maybe this year I will actually talk to her.  She is beautiful with green eyes and wild curly blonde hair and has an edgy style.  She also has a boyfriend, James.  That’s a whole other story.

        James.  I guess if I am being honest, he technically is my half-brother.  My mom got pregnant by her high school boyfriend with me but he left her and went off to college only to get another girl pregnant and move back to town with her to live like a happily little family.  My mom struggled for years to raise me on her own and be a small business owner.  James and that man are the reason I stopped playing basketball on a team.  I could not stand the look on my mom’s face when she had to see him.  He is Hilarie’s boyfriend and plays on the varsity basketball team.  I heard they break up and get back together all the time.  Last night the high school basketball coach asked me if I wanted to try out for the open spot on the team.  I guess my uncle old him I like to play ball out on the river court.

        Joy and I hang out at school together when she isn’t volunteering as a tutor at the tutor center.  Lockers are alphabetical so I try not to stop by locker all that much throughout the day to avoid James.  This is just that way I have been used to doing things, but when I think about it, it’s pretty frustrating.  In between classes she cornered me.

        “So are you going to tell me?” she asked.  “Are you going to join the team?”

        I didn’t know what to tell her because I still didn’t have then answer.  Is that really what I wanted?  Would it be best for me or for my mom?  One thing I did know was the other kids are school where talking about it.