Chapter 12- Taunting Luck

[] L E O []

Today was the day.

All of Jamal's hard work he had done in the past month, will be put to the test today. It was his first game.

To say he was nervous was an understatement. He had been pacing in the living room all day, while Andre and I sat on the couch watching him. Now, he was at the point where he started jogging lightly.

Andre and I turned to each other and shared a look. Then we got up in sync and stood on either side of Jamal, preventing him from pacing. He faltered seeing us and sighed.

"Guys get out of the way. I'm warming up," he said.

"Really Jamal? Three hours before the game?" Andre asked, rolling his eyes.

Jamal sighed.

"Yes. Yes I am."

Now, Andre and I sighed.

Suddenly, Andre snapped his fingers together, signalling an oncoming what he thought is a brilliant plan. However, they usually never worked.

Jamal stared at him expectantly.

"Let's invite Amelia!" Andre exclaimed.

For once, his brilliant idea didn't seem so bad. But then I thought of her quiet and easily shaken up demeanor, and thought of how stupid this idea was. How would she feel in a court full of angry, rowdy, and some select drunk, students?

"That's a bad idea," Jamal said before I could.

"Why?" Andre asked with a pout.

"Are you kidding? She'll get crushed!" Jamal exclaimed.

Andre rolled his eyes.

"She's not a baby. Plus, Leo and I will be there. We can even invite Gemma if she wants to come?"

Jamal and I looked to each other and I shrugged.

"But how is this supposed to help me?" Jamal voiced out loud.

"She's a calming person," Andre said as a matter-of-factly.

Without wasting time, Andre called up Amelia and Gemma. After much persuasion from Gemma and Andre, Amelia finally agreed to come.

So that's how we ended up heading to Jamal's first game- in a squad.

* * *

Amelia and Gemma were waiting for us at the front entrance to the court. Andre complained the whole way that we kept them waiting, making Jamal even more jittery. I smacked Andre over the head when his nagging got too annoying. We finally made it to the stadium and Jamal fled to the locker room before we could say anything to him.

Andre and I continued to the front entrance of the court. Immediately, we spotted Amelia and Gemma waiting for us outside.

They were both dressed casually, and Amelia was wearing her signature hoodie. We made our way towards them and greeted one another when we met. My eyes met Amelia's and to my surprise, she gave me a small smile. I nodded back to her, and then we were on our way inside.

Since we came early with Jamal, we were also quite early to the game itself, meaning we could choose good spots. We easily made our way inside the gym and sat in the second row from the bottom of the bleachers. The four of us sat down, with me on the end, Amelia beside me, Gemma on the other side of her, and Andre off to the far left beside Gemma.

We sat quietly, Gemma and Andre doing most of the talking. Soon enough, the court started filling up and the crowd grew louder. It was a good crowd today, probably since it was the first game in the season, that too, with one of our rival colleges. I waited impatiently for the game to start, since we had been waiting for quite a while now.

A few rows behind us, I had heard a noisy group of boys come in. They were wearing our team colors and had started hooting loudly, even though nothing had happened yet. I sighed and continued to wait.

Beside me, I had noticed that Amelia shrunk a little in her seat and I turned to face her. She was in the midst of pulling her hood down lower when I caught her eye. Her eyes widened, seeing me watch her, and she shifted her gaze elsewhere to avoid looking at me.

In this moment, she reminded me of someone, and I couldn't help the feeling of wanting to protect her. Slowly, I found myself shifting closer to her.

Her eyes widened when she noticed this and she snapped her head to me. To make the situation less awkward, I leaned in closer to her ear, thinking of something to say to her that would make this more believable.

"The game is about to start," I simply said.

I pulled back slightly and her wide eyes slowly softened up. She nodded at what I told her and turned to face the front. I finally looked away from her and faced the front as well.

Just then, a buzzer rang throughout the court and the crowd went wild. Soon enough, both teams started making their way to the court and did their usual drills. We spotted Jamal, who was dressed in his number '17, dark blue jersey. Jamal looked over at the audience, probably trying to spot us, and when he did, he saluted our way with his forefingers. This obviously made the crowd go wild and Andre hooted loudly at him.

The rival team had almost the equal amount of people show up, which was a rare occurrence, making both sides of the gym equally as loud. It was the perfect atmosphere, however, my mind was to preoccupied with the jittery girl beside me to fully enjoy it.

Amelia had leaned forward in her seat now, her knees bouncing up and down. I watched her from time to time, wondering what it was that bothered her about being here. Before, I could think too much of it, the commentator finally came on, signalling the start of the game.

* * *

They lost.

Pretty badly at that too.

To say Jamal was devastated was an understatement. His shoulders were slumped the entire walk home, and his head was hung low, making him look much smaller than he actually was. Before the game, all five of us had planned on getting dinner to celebrate his first game.

However, no one predicted that it would end at 24-60.

Now, we were all heading to Andre and Jamal's dorm. We walked there silently, with Andre, Amelia, and Gemma walking ahead, while Jamal and I trailed behind. Andre did most of the talking, trying his best to lift the heavy atmosphere. However, it made no difference to Jamal what anyone said, since he was lost in his own world.

We all made it to the dorm and headed inside. It was the girls' first time here, and I bet they would be surprised to see how clean it was. The cleanliness was only because of Andre though, since he was quite the clean freak.

"Welcome to our pad, girls," Andre announced as we stepped through.

As I expected, Gemma and Amelia's' eyes widened in surprise when they stepped in. They shared a look and Gemma raised an impressed brow, to which Amelia just gave a light smile.

"Make yourselves comfortable guys, while I order pizza," Andre said, escaping to the kitchen.

"I'm going to go freshen up," Jamal excused, heading to his room, leaving the three of us alone.

I stuffed my hands into my pockets and looked over to the two of them.

"Movie?" I asked awkwardly.

Gemma nodded enthusiastically, and Amelia nodded once. We headed to the living room and after no objection from us, Gemma picked out a movie. As she did, Amelia and I headed to the couch.

I slumped back into the couch with a sigh, while Amelia sat next to me. She had her hands wrung together in her lap and she was biting her lip every once in a while. After a few minutes, she hesitantly turned to me. I rose a brow at her, silently telling her to say what was on her mind.

"Can I go see him?" she quietly asked.

"Who? Jamal?" I asked confused.

She nodded.

"Sure," I said, seeing as there was no reason for me to object.

She nodded again.

"Thanks," she said, getting up from the couch.

I frowned, watching her leave in the direction of his room. What could she possibly want from him?

* * *

[] A M E L I A []

I knocked on the door three times before finally taking a chance and hesitantly stepping inside.

"Jamal?" I asked out loud.

I got no response, so I headed further inside. The lights were off in the room, making it a bit hard to see, however, I couldn't find a light switch either so walking in the dark was the only option.

"Jamal?" I called out again.

To my surprise, I saw him on the other side of a glass door across the room. I assumed it lead to the balcony. I slowly headed over there and knocked on the door. Jamal whipped his head around and his eyes widened when he saw me.

"Amelia?" he asked, coming forward to open the door.

I nodded.

"Can I join you?" I asked meekly, pointing to the balcony.

He nodded and opened the door further for me. I stepped out and headed straight for the ledge, grabbing onto it for support.

I didn't know what made me come here, however, from one sportsperson to another, I understood what Jamal was feeling completely. That's why I wanted to check up on him and make sure he was doing okay. However, now that I was here, I was completely lost.

I bit my lip and slowly peered over to Jamal, who was beside me now, also looking over the balcony. He still looked as sad as before, and for some reason, I could only think of one way to help him out of this situation.

"I used to play," I admitted to him.

Jamal snapped his head up to me in surprise and stared at me open-mouthed.

"You- uh, huh?" he mumbled.

Despite myself, I chuckled a little.

"Yeah. Up until tenth grade, so I understand how you feel. We lost our first game too. I was devastated after that. So much that I actually didn't come out of my room for like 3 days."

I sighed, thinking of that time. The next part, was a little harder for me to admit. However, I had no choice. I looked away from Jamal and looked over to the landscape ahead of me instead. I took a deep breath, and finally said what I had been meaning to.

"But then... my best friend came to my house. She barged into my room and gave me the best advice I have ever received." I sighed, looking off to the road below.

"What was it?" Jamal asked after a moment.

"She told me to get off my ass and work harder, cause sulking about won't get me anywhere."

Jamal burst out laughing at this, and he laughed to a point where he had to brush a few tears away.

"You were right," he breathed out after calming down. "That is some good advice."

He was lost in thought for a bit, then he turned to me with a sigh.

"Did you guys win then?" he asked, almost nervously.

That, is when I smiled.

"Third in the province."

He beamed at me and nodded his head.

"Good advice indeed," he admitted.

"One loss isn't the end of the world, Jamal. Basketball is a sport where winning or losing has a lot to do with luck as well. However, what people remember most in the end, is the player's spirit. If you keep your spirit high, nothing can stop you from being the best."

He thought about what I said and nodded.

"You're right. Thanks Amelia," he said patting the top of my head.

I let out a small squeak, not expecting the contact and Jamal grinned at me.

"Thanks again. You can head inside Amelia, I'll join you in a bit," he said, nudging his head towards the balcony door.

I nodded and started heading back inside the dorm room. As I made my way through the door, I stole one last glance at him, and was happy to see the grin on his face. Feeling accomplished, I finally walked through the door, back into the house.

However, due to my focus being on Jamal, I hadn't noticed that another figure had entered the room. As I turned away from Jamal and took a step forward, I suddenly bumped into something hard.

I gasped and took a step back, rubbing my nose. I blinked a few time, trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness. Then I slowly looked up, curious to see who I had bumped into.

Suddenly, my eyes latched onto similar brown ones.

My eyes widened in surprise when I caught Leo's intense gaze on me.

"Sorry," I murmured, looking down.

I tried brushing past him, eager to get away from his penetrating gaze. Just as I was about to brush past him, Leo grabbed onto my wrist, stopping me dead in my tracks. I froze in my spot and slowly looked down at his hand that was latched onto mine. Then, I slowly looked up, wondering why he had stopped me.

What he said next made me completely stop and stare at him surprise.

"Thank you, Amelia. You did something none of us were capable of doing. Just for that, thank you."