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Sports Practice
The time was 5:30 AM. Unfortunately even though my idea with spider web-concrete mix was excellent! I had already promised the coach I would be here for practice. I gave him my word and I meant to keep it..just like how Uncle Ben taught me.
Speaking about my uncle, when I told him of the whole basketball team thing he was so happy and proud of me!
‘Dammit I shouldn’t have told him that! Now I have to be part of the team for some time at least. Can’t break the old man’s heart now!’
Maybe I’ll continue this for maybe a week more before I quit. The idea with the strengthened concrete is the efficient route to saving Uncle Ben. There is no way I could convince anyone to fork me money under the table that easily.
I walked up to Coach Sharpe in my gym shorts and old running shoes! It was Uncle Ben's.
There wasn’t anyone in the gym yet, it was just the coach and his son again.
Will was practicing his free throws undisturbed.
“You’re here early.”
He looked at his watch and said,
“5:31…Not bad. I like punctuality. Punctual means more playing time. Remember that uh….”
“It’s Peter, sir! Peter Parker.”
‘If only Mr White shared that sentiment regarding my punctuality.’
“Yeah Peter. Now give me 100 pushups and 100 situps.”
I dropped where I stood and started doing push ups. It was an unconscious muscle movement you develop when you spend all of your adult years in the military. When someone of higher rank asked you to do push ups, you did them without asking any questions.
I did the push ups with incredible speed and within 5 minutes I was done.
“Hey kid slow down…I just…don’t hurt yourself, okay.”
“Sure thing sir.”
As my body was doing the push ups my mind was quickly formulating the spider web-Cement hybrid. Everything related to its chemical formula to the logistics of that business.
‘Just have to get the ratio right!’
Within minutes I finished the 100 push ups with ease.
I got up and started doing sit ups. This was even easier than the push ups as my core strength was my strongest attribute.
Within another 2.5 minutes I was done with the 100 sit ups.
The coach was staring at me with his mouth open,
“Kid…are you okay?”
“Never been better sir!”
‘It's been some time since I worked my body out other than when I was fighting. So this felt really nice.’
“Do you want me to do anything else sir? Suicides or squats? Or perhaps some running?”
“Son, If only everyone had your enthusiasm….uh.”
“It’s Peter, sir! Peter Parker.”
“Right Peter. Start shooting free throws then! A hundred of them. Before you do though, those shoes aren’t the right type. There are some spares in the sports room. Use it for today but I expect you to buy a brand new pair by next week.”
‘Oh that’s. I forgot about the basketball shoes ever since yesterday! Too many things happening at once.’
“Right away sir.”
I quickly ran to the sports room and thankfully there were shoes my size.
The gym clock showed it was 5:41AM.
I picked up the basketball from the ball rack. My extraordinary grip made dribbling the ball mind-blowingly easy. Within minutes I was doing crossovers and complicated dribbles. My mind-muscle intelligence was beyond the charts. My body would move exactly how my mind commanded it.
‘Okay enough playing around! Let’s start shooting!
I picked up the ball, bounced it twice and held it by my hip. Looked at the board, took a deep breath and shot the ball without thinking twice.
[SWISH]
“Woah, that was easier than I thought!” I said out loud.
I ran up to the bouncing ball and I repeated the free throw motion again.
[SWISH]
And then again.
[SWISH]
Then again.
[SWISH]
Again.
[SWISH]
I made ten straight free throws without missing. Wait a minute did I have a hot hand!
Was this luck or skill?
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
[SWISH]
‘That’s not simple luck. That’s my superpowers acclimating to the task.’
It makes sense that I had perfect aim and body control. Comic Book Peter could swing from building to building without breaking a sweat. This required superhuman hand eye coordination. Superhuman hand eye coordination I had now!
This was light work.
‘Maybe I should hold on before I quit this team. I’m pretty sure I could milk something outta this!’
I could feel Will Sharpe’s gaze fix on me, so I intentionally messed up the next five free throws.
“Guess it was beginner's luck!” I rubbed my head and said out loud.
‘Better to hide my surefire shot for later! I guess I’ll make 50 of them and miss the remaining.’
[SWISH]
I could hear the sounds of the players coming to the gym as I kept shooting the ball.
[BRICK]
One by one the gym was filling up.
[BRICK]
I could hear some whispers talking about me!
[BRICK]
Many players started stretching and warming up.
[SWISH]
Some went straight to dribbling.
‘Guess they were the first stringers! The guys I need to beat before I get to play in the game.’
There were some familiar faces but the jersey numbers were all mixed. Guess they don’t use the same jersey numbers for practice.
[SWISH]
Pierre wore #9 instead of #95 and the short player who played against him, was wearing #2 instead of #10.
[WHISTLEEEEEE]
My hyper hearing made the coach’s whistling hurt.
I put buying earplugs along with brand new shoes into my shopping list.
“Listen here everyone huddle up, quick!” The coach Will yelled out.
The players lazily ran up to form the huddle. I should have been the last by judging by distance but I reached first and it wasn’t because of my superpower either.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
They were just lazy.
The Coach put his hand on my shoulder and introduced me to the team!
“This is Peter Parker. He’ll be joining the team from today onwards! Make sure to treat him right!”
He gestured for me to speak,
“Hello everyone, my name is Peter Parker. I hope to have a great time playing with you. Pleasure to play for this team.”
‘A bit too formal? Maybe but I didn’t want to risk alienation by appearing too friendly for their taste.’
“Great another scrub.” It was the short player who said that while looking at me.
I almost challenged him to a one on one game but I resisted the temptation to do so.
‘Now’s the time to make friends..not enemies. Let this one go.’
“Yeah..great another waterboy.” It was the tall Pierre who spoke. Though this time instead of getting pissed at him, I noticed his apparent french accent.
“Just don’t slow us down!” Another tall player said out loud.
There was a murmur of agreements to that, a lot more snobby remarks from the second stringers.
“Well…either way he’s playing for us now and I don’t need your approval. Now start running laps.” The coach shut down any dissent.
We all lined up near the entrance and started running.
Well running wasn’t really what we were doing…more like jogging!
‘Damn my opinion of this team was plummeting by the second.’
One of the third stringers came up to and said,
“You think you’re hot shit! We’ll see how long your skinny ass is gonna last.”
I turned back to see who they were talking to.
“I’m talking to you punk! Don’t think just cause the coach likes you we’ll go easy on you.”
‘The coach? likes me? What the hell was this dude talking about? He hated me more than all of you combined. I almost humiliated his son!”
“We’re gonna take our time welcoming you!” another one squeaked.
“Oh really!” I said with exaggerated arrogance.
“Yeah that’s rig-”
I didn’t let him finish instead…
“That’s a lot of smack for a waterboy!” I mocked.
As soon as his face began to register the insult I picked up the pace and began overtaking everybody. One by one, I raced ahead of them all.
“On your right shorty!” I said to the short player who insulted me before.
“What the-” he let out a surprised yell.
“Give me some space, skeleton!” I say to Pierre,
“What did you say to me you..” I couldn’t hear him finish as I overtook him quite easily.
William Sharpe Jr was ahead of them all.
When I first met him, I thought he was a benchwarmer with a clipboard but now I realize; Never mistake the book for its cover.
He was the pinnacle of this team, the fact that he gave me any trouble at all is a huge accomplishment. No one in this team could match his Perspicacity or determination, let alone skill and talent.
Even with all that.
I overtook him quite easily.
‘If I can’t get their respect here then I’ll take their fear. It worked in the military, it should work here.’
I ran full steam ahead. I could easily catch up to them after running an entire lap but I wanted to hold off on showing too much of my abilities. I wanted to keep them guessing on my stamina and basketball skills.
‘I wanted them to simply not underestimate me. I did not want to crush their hopes and dreams.’
I led the entire pack and was still holding off significantly, ‘Man this was getting boring!’
I could hear the tired breaths, the whispers and the curses.
‘By the end of today! I’m gonna make sure everyone understands where I was on the totem pole.’
More than twenty minutes later more than 90% of the team dropped out of the laps.
‘Pathetic! This was nothing compared to the grueling training I had to undergo to make Special forces. To think these young athletic men couldn’t even last this much! What a pathetic showing!’
They were all chugging water like it was their first time seeing it,
I tried not to let their stares faze me and focused on finishing another lap.
After another five minutes and it was only me and Will. He was struggling to catch his breath but he still willed his body to move.
No matter what I acknowledged Will and his effort.
I acknowledged his determination to win against me.
I acknowledged him as my rival even if he would never win against me!
I slowed down and acted like the exhaustion was catching up to me, pretending to take deep long breaths. He took this opportunity to almost catch up to me. I didn't let him overtake me though.
I could feel the eyes of the entire gym on me and Will.
I almost wanted to throw it away. Almost.
In the end he dropped out making a painful face and I proceeded to do two more laps. The hardest part of it all was acting like I was tired.
Let’s just say I was never a natural actor.
The short guy whose name I hadn’t learnt nor was interested in at this point, came up to me.
He spoke in between breaths and barely could form a sentence because of the exhaustion,
“Hey…how did you…do…that?”
I give him a cold reply,
“Who knows?”
I could even sense Pierre looking at me. Before I was non-existent but now I might as well be the center of his galaxy.
I was going to go to the only person I had any respect,
“Good showing Will, you’re quite the runner! You know that!”
I tried to fistbump him but he refused. His competitive spirit and pride did not let him do that.
Instead he took a long breath and said,
“I’ll get you next time!”
‘Oh he’s the ultra competitive type eh? You’re on brother’
I gave him a thumbs up and said,
“Bring it on!”
[WHISTLEEEEEE]
‘Ah geez! I’m gonna have to buy those ear plugs as soon as possible!’
“Alright, good job all of you.” the Coach Will Sr announced.
“Especially you Peter, good job!”
I gave the coach a thumbs up to show him I appreciated it.
After another round of stretching up, we finally began basketball practice at 6:30 AM.
I was grouped in with the last string of players, the third stringers.
We were asked to play first, I was in the orange team vs the opposite blue team.
The game point was ten points and it clocked for ten minutes. In other words, the first team to get to ten points under ten minutes wins. If neither team wins then they run another 10 laps while the second stringers play.
We would have won this easily had my teammates trusted me with the ball.
“Hey….you. Yeah you! Pass me the ball…not to him you..”
I ran back on defense and anticipated a lazy pass and BOOM.
I stole the ball away and ran jet speed and did a gentle layup to score us our first two points.
NOTE : In an actual game unlike a one on one game. Each basket scored is counted as two unless it’s a long range three pointer which is counted as…….three points. Once scored you don’t get the ball back like you do in a one on one game instead the possession goes back to your opponent. End of Exposition.
The opposition this time brought the ball back to the court. They moved while avoiding bad passes and stuck to slow careful dribbling.
“Hey you! What’s with that shoddy defense, play harder!
‘Damn it really felt like I was playing one versus five here. Do I have to do everything?’
I picked up an overzealous player to defend, he was looking to score on me to make a statement to the entire team. Unfortunately for him, I was going to make him look really stupid!
He did a fancy crossover, he left himself wide open to my patented spider-ball grab. Hey I never said I was good with naming my moves!
“Wai..” He shouted looking for the ref to call a foul but the referee who was a first stringer didn’t blow the whistle.
This time though I pulled up from the three point line and SWISH.
`Like taking candy from a baby.’
They started playing rough after that, it was my turn to look at the ref but he didn’t say anything to me either.
Thankfully, one of my teammates played good defense on the opposing player whose shot as a result missed and hit the rim. It bounced back to me.
I could see one of my own teammates rushing towards me to take the rebound.
‘Wait I got the rebound you idiot, why are you coming here..’
Then it hit me.
My teammates were playing to lose!
The morons were actually trying to lose so I could look bad or maybe they wanted to see me run another 10 laps.
I jumped up higher than I’ve ever jumped in my life. I took the rebound and landed with grace, my teammate was too slow to disrupt me.
I zig zagged around the players and used my small frame to maneuver around their positions. Once on the opposite side of the court two defenders tried stopping me but I hit a fadeaway shot.
‘Damn a fadeaway huh..It feels good doing that again.’ I looked at my palm.
Slowly walking back to my side of the court, I talked to the one who always inbounds the ball and said to him quietly,
“If you don’t give me the ball every single time from now on then I'll knock your teeth out. Do I look like I want to run another 10 laps?”
Even though threatening people wasn’t generally good, it felt warranted here. He tried losing this game on purpose for what? To humiliate me? To make me run some more?
It pissed me off, there was nothing slimier than teammates who played dirty like that!
From there on it was a short affair. I single handedly ended the game with an offensive onslaught. The other team couldn’t even score a single basket.
Some of my teammates tried to shake my hands but I ignored them, I blame my SF Training for it all. I survived harsh training where I had to trust my fellow trainees with my life…just the thought of them betraying me…made me sick to my stomach. Even if it was a basketball game, those were teammates that I trusted..
“Woah what’s this the rookie is being unsportsmanlike…seems like we need to whip in shape.” It was the short player who made those threes. He was a second stringer, him and Pierre? They were standing together.
‘Wait they were second stringers? I thought Pierre was the captain of this-’
“Ask your captain he’s the one who selects the second stringers!” The coach was looking at a clipboard, everyone was looking at Will.
“Well captain?”
Will looked in my direction and assessed me.
“Can you still play Peter? If you’re tired just say so.”
I smiled and answered back,
“I can play Captain! I’m still-”
This pierre was the one interrupting me,
“Alright then me and kendrick on one team, while you get to pick any second stringers you like!” His French accent made his intimidating presence less intense.
The short player, Kendrick said “I’m fine with that.”
There were another bout of whispers and murmuring, they were apparently really good.
“Alright I’ll play with the same team I played this game with.”
“Are you insane, they're third stringers! We’ll destroy you!” Pierre shouted,
“We'll have to see about that won’t we?”
The gym burst out into small whispers as Pierre kept giving me glares.
“Alright. You heard him! Now start the game, don’t hold up practice by jawing at each other.”
“Rookie I don’t know who you are but I’m gonna teach you a valuable lesson today!” Kendrick responded with venom.