This book is dedicated to...

Mrs. Anderson and my Mom. Both of them went far and beyond to help me with this story.

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Swish! Went the net at Rockville Middle School in Wringwalle, Washington. 14 year old Alex Billings had been practicing his three pointers since last month when he missed the wide open, game winning shot. Alex, the star point guard on his traveling team, the Raptors, had always been interested in basketball and had always been very good at it. Ever since his dad, Brock, died last month, he was motivated to put all his effort into winning for his dad. His dad, a star in college basketball, had loved the game ever since he was little and had given Alex his first basketball. But right now all Alex cared about was helping his mom, doing good in school, and getting his team to the state championship.

The next day he and his best friend Zach Walker were walking to school.

¨Hey, you trying out for the basketball team tomorrow?¨ asked Alex.

¨What do you think, duh, why wouldn't I!"

¨But I thought your mom said no sports till you get better grades.¨

¨I know. I got a B- in math and an A in science and social studies.¨

¨You’re doing great! You will so be our starting center. I mean how can you not put somebody that is 6 feet at center.¨ It was true, Zach was the tallest kid in their school.

¨But that's not important right now Alex, what is important is that I get an A on that math test. We can worry about tryouts tomorrow.¨

That night while Alex was finishing his homework his mom came in and asked him if he was excited for tryouts.

“Well yeah! But first we have to get through a day of school.”

“Well that shouldn't be too hard. Oh yeah, how did you do on that math test?”

“I got a an A-. Did you hear Zach aced it and put his math grade up to an A-?”

“No I didn’t hear that, good for him. That means he can go to tryouts, right?”

“Right. We sure are going to need him if we want to make it to the State Championship.”

“You’re thinking that far again?" She laughed. Boy am I ever thinking of going that far again Alex thought.

The next day everybody trying out for the team was warming up. Coach Dell came over and started talking to Alex.

“We’re all glad that you decided to come back this year,” Coach said.

"You think we can get to the state championship this year?”

“With this team we’ve got no doubts.” Said Alex. Coach laughed and blew his whistle and told everyone to huddle up. He started to talk

“Right now you should all be trying your best because some of you are going to be staying here and some of you are going to go home. But right now I want point guards over there with Coach Rick and everybody else over here with me.”

“Alright boys who thinks they are good enough to be a point guard on this team.” Said Coach Rick. Everybody raised their hand obviously.

"Now let’s see how you guys can handle some KC drills.” KC drills are the hardest drills a point guard can do.

"Look at those girls over there doing some layups.” yelled the backup point guard Stephen.

"We’ll see about that in the scrimmage Stevie boy!” yelled Coach Dell. While they were doing the drills the two coaches were talking about something. Coach blew his whistle and said to huddle up.

“Now coach Rick and I have decided to do a scrimmage, but before you go anywhere the teams are 8th grade vs 7th grade. Now 7th grade starts with the ball. Let’s see what you got this year 8th graders!” The 7th grade led by the new point guard, Kade Jocker, took the ball down. Alex had enough experience to not play too close to your guy when your guy has the ball. Kade started dribbling to his left then crossed over to his right and passed it to his wing. The wing, David Bourn, immediately drove to the hoop and got a wide open layup but stumbled on his last step and the ball bounced out of bounds.

“8th grade ball!” yelled coach Dell. Zach passed the ball into Alex and whispered in his ear.

“I’ll post up crossover to your left. Pass it to me and they will come down to help then I can pass it back to you for the three, they’ll never see it coming.”

“Fine but if I’m not open pass it to one of the wings, ok?”

“Ok.” said Zach. Zach went down and posted up but Alex’s guy didn’t go down and help so Zach passed it to their wing, Mark Green. Mark had a wide open three but couldn't put it in.

“Ok 7th graders, last time with the ball, better make it count!” Yelled Coach Dell. They sure did. Kade passed it to their wide open wing, Jason Varge, because Mark got screened and Jason nailed the shot. 3-0 7th graders. Zach passed the ball into Alex and said

“Same thing only this time I am passing you the ball no matter what.” Alex nodded and Zach went down and posted up Alex passed him the ball only this time Zach passed it back to Alex right away because Kade went down and helped. Alex caught the pass went into his shooting form and shot. Alex fell on Kade's foot. That’s when it hit him. The pain that felt like a knife sticking through his leg. When he fell down he stayed down holding his leg.

“Are you ok, Alex?” asked Coach Dell.

“My leg, it hurts super bad. I don’t think I can walk.”

“Ok don’t move. I will go and get the nurse, just don’t move, ok?”

“Ok.” The pain! It hurt so bad he didn’t even want to touch or bend his leg or in this case move it. Zach came over and asked

“What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know but whatever happened I don’t think I will be playing for a while.” The nurse and Coach Dell came walking over. The nurse asked me some questions.

“What does it feel like? Which way did it bend? It feels like a knife sticking into my leg and it bent way far out. Do you have a way of contacting your mom?”

“No.”

“Well I can go and tell the office that we're going to need an ambulance to bring you to the hospital and that you hurt your leg.”

“Ok, thank you Mrs. Patty.”

“You're welcome buddy. I hope it’s not too bad.” The most painful part was trying to stand up. The ambulance came and on the way they went on a huge bump and his whole body went numb. When they got to the hospital Alex’s mom was waiting for them.

“How are you doing buddy? What happened? Is he going to be ok?”

“We don’t know yet ma’am but from the looks of it it doesn’t look too good.” said the Doctor.

“We’re going to have to bring him into the X-Ray room immediately.”

“Ok, Alex whatever happens I will be here waiting for you.”

“Ok mom, love you.”

“I love you, too. You are going to be ok.”

“Ok, we’ve got to bring him into the room right now or that leg is not going to last another minute!” Yelled the Doctor. After the surgery his mom was waiting for him outside the door.

“The doctor said I tore my ACL and my MCL and I won’t be playing basketball for at least 4 months."

“That’s too bad, honey."

The next day was a painful day for Alex. His teacher dropped all of his homework off at his house. He had to sit on his bed all day and his leg itched like crazy.

Alex's mom came to check on him. “I just got a call from Coach Dell wondering how you're doing. He said that their first game is in two weeks.”

“That’s great.” Alex said in a low tone.

“Hey, cheer up you will be out there in no time as long as you do your exercises.”

Three months later

The Raptors were sitting at second place with a record of 7-1. The team that was ahead of them was the Wolves. They were 8-0. The Raptors lost to them in double overtime by one point. The Raptors were doing so much better than they thought they were going to do without Alex.

With one more game to go, it looked like Alex had a slim shot of playing in the game. They would have to play against the Wolves for the division title.

Alex was in school with a big brace on his leg. Everybody was asking him if he would be playing in the game.

“I will play if I feel good enough. I am doing my best with the exercises.” Zach asked him if he wanted to come to his house after school and play the XBox.

“Sure but my mom said I have to finish my homework before anything after school.”

“Ok.”

That night after Alex beat Zach 114-89 in NBA2k, his mom came in and asked him if he wanted to play in the game.

“Well of course I want to play in the game, but I don’t know if my leg wants to play in the game.”

“Well if you want to play in the game then we're going to have to go to the doctor to get a smaller brace.”

“That’s fine with me. Does that mean I can tell everyone that I am going to be playing in the game on Wednesday?"

“Yes, but make sure you tell them that you are not going to be playing as much as you normally do and you won’t be playing as good as you normally do.”

“Ok.”

“Oh also, you should tell your Coach first.”

“Yep, I was going to do that anyway.”

The next morning Zach and Alex were walking to school and Alex whispered “If you promise not to tell anybody I will tell you a secret that I was not supposed to tell anybody until I told Coach Dell."

“Ok, tell me! I promise not to tell anybody if you tell me.” Zach said.

“Ok. Tomorrow I will be playing in the basketball game.”

“Really? Really? You are not! Quit joking around! You couldn’t possibly play with your leg still like that.”

“Oh, you think I'm not? Come to my house after school and I will prove it.”

"Sorry but me and my family are going out to see a movie. I would but it’s our one night of the week that all my family is together.”

“Well that’s too bad. I guess I will just have to show up at the game tomorrow and lead us to a win to prove it.

”Yeah, yeah you're just going to walk in tomorrow and play like you’ve been playing all season.”

“Yeah that’s right I am going to walk in there tomorrow and put the lights out.” As the boys were laughing they got to school and said goodbye and walked to their classes.

At the end of the day Alex was walking home having just told all his friends the big news. He was thinking what if he got hurt again or just played like dope. This all made him want to curl into a ball and hide. But little did he know he was going to make the whole other team look like dopes.

The next day after school in the locker room, everybody was telling Alex that it was good to have him back. But Alex was worried as ever about the same things he thought about yesterday, how he could get hurt again or how he could play like a complete dope. Zach came over and started talking to him as if he knew he was feeling this way.

“You know you are the best point guard out there, now you just have to play like it, ok?”

“Ok."

"Now put your game face on because you're going to lead us out there and you, you are going to demolish their whole team.”

“Now let’s gooooo!” Alex lead them out there and got the warm up balls and started warming up. When it was time to play, Coach came over to Alex and asked him if he wanted to start in the game.

“Oh yeah I want to start in the game!”

“Ok but if that leg ever starts to hurt I want you on the bench right away, ok?”

“Ok." When the game started the Raptors won the jump. Alex took the ball down. Zach was posting up because the guy guarding him was three inches shorter than him and he was the tallest on their team. It was an easy bucket. That was one assist for Alex already. At least he didn’t mess up, yet.

The whole Wolves team knew that Alex was hurt. So they were doing a good job on screening Alex. But Alex got so frustrated that on the next screen he ran right through the screener and got called for a charging foul. On the next play the Wolves ran a play called box and they got an easy lay-up out of it. Alex took the ball down and Zach posted up again only this time the Wolves saw it coming and they were all over it. It was all of a sudden three on one fast break. Alex remembered how they practiced defending fast breaks in practice. The guy coming down with the ball was coming down the court really fast so instead of dropping down and fouling the person with the ball he planted his feet and took the hit. It was called a charge on the offense and the Raptors got the ball. It was a good play but Coach was furious and said if he did that again he was going to take him out of the game.

Alex was dribbling down the court and Coach yelled for him to switch with Mark. Everybody looked shocked even Mark because even though Mark was a good ball handler he never took the ball down the court. Then Coach told them to run the play Spark. That meant that Zach would come and screen for Alex then if Mark did it right pass it to Alex for an easy lay-up. When it was supposed to be a easy lay-up it was not. He had to jump super high then his arm got hit but he still managed to get the ball into the basket and it was an and one. The crowd was crazy now with that play. Even though Alex was a good free throw shooter, he missed it.

Now the Wolves were coming down the court down by two. The point guard put a move on Alex but Alex wasn’t fooled but he still managed to get by him. Thankfully Zach was right there to help him and he sure did. He swatted the ball so hard it started rolling down the court. Alex went to get it and ended up with an easy lay-up. 6-2 Raptors. The Raptors bench was so hyped now that the Wolves had to call a time-out. Coming out of the time-out there was 1:05 remaining in the quarter. The Wolves had possession of the ball and had to score if they didn’t want to be down by 4 going into the second quarter.

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