Aaron was in total concentration, trying not to fail in the slightest, knowing the consequences he could face if he missed.
"A little to the right," Melissa's voice was heard, causing Aaron to move his hand in the indicated direction accordingly.
"Now a little that way," Paola replied, moving her hand in the opposite direction, causing Aaron to move his hand back in that direction.
"No, no," it was Melissa's turn to contradict her while she and Paola engaged in a discussion, leaving Aaron standing there with his hand extended upward.
"Could you please agree?" Aaron said, seeing that if he didn't say anything, they would probably keep arguing, leaving him standing there for nothing.
At that, both women stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds, as if they were having a quick mental discussion between them, finally saying at the same time:
"To the right," they said with certainty, causing Aaron to let out a sigh of relief and finally release the star he had in his hands, finally finishing decorating the Christmas tree in a corner of the living room.
With a smile on his face, Aaron stepped back, admiring the tree while both of his hands instinctively rested on the shoulders of both women next to him.
"It turned out well," Paola said, sharing the same smile as her niece, admiring their masterpiece which they had been engrossed in for the last hour.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Melissa responded, unable to look away from the tree, admiring the details of the ornaments and the star at the top.
"Yeah..." Aaron continued, then quickly changed the subject. "When will dinner be ready?" he asked casually, breaking the moment the three of them were having.
"Pfft," Paola couldn't help but snort, rolling her eyes at her nephew. "Can't you think of anything other than eating?" she interrogated, tilting her head toward her nephew.
"I can't help it, I'm growing," Aaron mentioned while his hand rested on his shoulder, demonstrating how far Paola reached him currently, even with heels on.
And the fact is that in the last few months, Aaron managed to grow an extra 2 inches, finally surpassing the 2-meter barrier (6'7").
"I still can't believe my baby is so big," Melissa added, still remembering the moments when Aaron barely reached her waist.
But now he was taller than everyone in the building.
"You should stop growing once and for all," Paola exclaimed, standing on her tiptoes to reach and ruffle Aaron's hair, who simply stood taller, making it almost impossible for Paola to reach his head.
"Never." With a smirk of satisfaction, Aaron stepped away and headed directly to the sofa to take a well-deserved rest after decorating the tree.
A vibration in his phone let him know he had received a message, so taking it out of his pocket and unlocking it, as soon as his eyes landed on the sender's name, a smile appeared on his face while he quickly began to type on his phone.
"Who are you talking to?" Startled, Aaron unconsciously turned off his phone screen and turned his head toward the voice, seeing his mother, who at some point had sat down next to him on the sofa.
"With Drew," Aaron said, trying to look as serious as possible without revealing anything under his mother's questioning gaze, who narrowed her eyes even more, not entirely believing his answer.
"Uhum," was the sound that came from Melissa's mouth, giving her son the benefit of the doubt without knowing if he was telling the truth or not.
"How was the game against Cardozo?" Decided to change the subject, Melissa asked about her son's game five days ago.
"Umm," this time it was Aaron's turn to be unsure of what to say as he remembered that game.
FlashbackCardozo Judges vs. Christ the King Royals4th Quarter48-47 score
The game was in its final quarter, and with 3 minutes left on the clock, the situation was critical for both teams since each was only one point away from the other—something that is very easy to overcome in basketball.
"Reed!" shouted Coach Arbitello toward the boy sitting with the team jacket on, who raised his head as soon as he heard his name.
"I'll give you 3 minutes," the coach said quickly without giving him a second look, focusing his attention completely on the game happening on the court.
Without a word, Aaron stood up, took off his jacket and long pants, and quickly set about warming up to enter the court as fast as possible.
"You're going in for Milka," Coach Arbitello began as soon as he felt Aaron's presence next to him. "I want you to make passes and distribute the ball to Barrows and Calhoun," he said with his clipboard in hand, pointing to two X's on the edges of the perimeter.
At this, Aaron nodded quickly, understanding the coach's intentions; despite not playing a single minute in this game, he had been attentive to the match, following every play and seeing the weakness in Cardozo's perimeter defense.
"One last thing," the coach decided to warn, drawing attention to Aaron. "While their perimeter defense is weak, their zone defense is one of the best in the league, so try to avoid collisions as much as you can," he said, this time in a worried tone, praying that Aaron wouldn't suffer any injury.
As soon as the ball went out of bounds, Aaron immediately headed to the officials' table to report the substitution while Dominykas also approached the bench, having received instructions from the coach.
Once he was at Aaron's side, he said, "Be careful with number 31, he plays hard," he finished saying while his hand rested lightly on his ribs, but not before warning Aaron.
Without saying anything else, Aaron simply gave him a nod of gratitude while quickly entering the court.
Meanwhile, on Cardozo's side:
"Look, Dwayne, fresh meat," said Joshua, the team's point guard, toward the player with number 31 on his back.
"And I was already having fun with Dom," Dwayne said, seeing the new player entering the court.
He was tall, yes, maybe even taller than him, but he looked like a thin stick that would fall to the ground at the slightest contact.
"Looks like I'll be able to rest for the final minutes of the game," he finished saying with a smirk of satisfaction on his face, already dismissing the new player as if he were no threat.
Approaching him until he was at his side, he decided to mess with him. "Hey, rookie," he began, trying to get his attention, but got no response. "I'm talking to you!" he kept insisting, getting the same result. "Are you deaf?" he asked with venom in his voice, met by the same silence as always.
"Bastard," he couldn't help but think, already imagining the ways he would get under his skin.
Once the game restarted, Omar instinctively passed the ball to Aaron, who received it but found himself smothered by the player who had been talking to him seconds before.
"Don't move," he said this time, extending his hands and blocking the possible turn Aaron planned to make while staying back to him as the ball gave slight bounces against the floor.
But unfazed, Aaron quickly took advantage of the fact that he could see over him, since Dwayne was slightly hunched over in a defensive stance.
First, he approached to seek contact to try to advance, but as soon as he collided with him, he felt like he couldn't even move him.
"Heh, you call that contact? I didn't even feel it," with mockery and venom in his voice, Dwayne sought to get into Aaron's head in an attempt to make him commit an error, but seeing how he still didn't respond to his provocations, a look of annoyance returned to his face.
Seeing that the contact didn't work, Aaron quickly looked up again while an idea formed rapidly in his head.
Quickly, and before Dwayne could react, Aaron—with his back to the hoop—threw a behind-the-back pass, causing the ball to be followed quickly by the eyes of all the players until they saw it heading toward a player who was open on the left perimeter.
Seeing the ball heading quickly toward him, Maurice wasted no time, and as soon as his fingers felt the leather of the ball in his hands, he jumped and shot the ball under the desperate gaze of Joshua, who moved quickly to mark him.
But as soon as he saw the ball leave Maurice's hands, he jumped as high as he could in a desperate attempt to touch it and deflect the ball from its course, but unfortunately, his jump fell short and his fingers didn't even graze the ball.
"SWISH!" The sound of the scoreboard was heard, indicating that the Royals had scored.
48-49, Royals up by one.
After that shot, Maurice quickly headed toward the corner of the Royals' crowd, followed quickly by Roland, who didn't miss the opportunity to boost his ego.
"That's how you do it, Maurice," Roland began to say with his sycophant speech, or that was what he was going to do until he heard the cheers of the crowd more closely.
"That pass was amazing!" said one of the boys in the stands. "That's the way, Reed!" followed another, and so on, completely forgetting that it was Maurice who made the basket that turned the score around and put them back in the lead.
As soon as those comments reached Maurice's ears, a look of deep anger replaced his previous smile upon noticing how the crowd that once acclaimed him as a king was gradually stopping their praise for him.
"This is all his fault," he thought, fixing his gaze on the back of number 15, who quickly retreated to position himself in the low post.
At the referee's insistence, the game restarted without delay, this time with the Cardozo team in possession of the ball.
"Pass it to me," Dwayne said to Joshua, who didn't waste a second and passed him the ball so he could immediately begin moving toward the opposite hoop, being quickly intercepted by Roland, who was the closest player to him.
But without wasting time, Dwayne quickly set a screen with his teammate to pass Roland and stay under the post, facing number 15 again.
"That pass surprised me," he began with a compliment, never imagining someone passing the ball that way. "But a center must be stronger," he said, quickly colliding with Aaron, causing him to retreat just enough to allow him to furiously dunk the ball into the hoop.
50-49 score.
The roars of the Cardozo crowd were immediate upon seeing the team take the lead with less than 1 minute left.
Rubbing his chest, sore from the shove, Aaron wasted no time and advanced quickly toward the other court, asking for the ball from Omar, who, upon seeing him, passed it quickly, causing Aaron to rapidly see he was being double-teamed.
"Don't try the same thing," said Dwayne, who, along with his teammate, double-marked him without ever losing sight of the ball.
Thinking fast, Aaron looked frantically at all sides of the court, searching for any possible passing lane as time kept running out.
"Aaron!!" a voice shouted quickly at his side; it was Omar, who quickly moved next to Aaron to receive the pass, at which Aaron wasted no time before running and breaking free toward the opposing team's hoop.
Once the ball was in Omar's hands, they executed an intelligent pick and roll, which allowed Aaron to face the hoop without problems, jumping almost at the same time as Dwayne.
But what Dwayne didn't count on was that as soon as Aaron reached the maximum height of his vertical, instead of shooting, he passed it to Corey, who was the closest player to him, leaving an easy layup.
50-51 final score.
End of Flashback
"It was good," was all Aaron could say, remembering how the whole game went.
"I'm glad," Melissa said with a smile. "By the way, since I'll have a few days off, I thought Paola and I could go to your next game on the 28th," she finished, looking for Aaron's reaction.
"Great," Aaron said happily, knowing that this time he could start the game without problems and would have extra motivation on the court knowing his mother and aunt would be there.
After that, they continued talking about everything happening in each other's lives, spending the time that way until it was finally time to celebrate Christmas.
Authors thought's
What did you think of today's chapter?
I'm back from my trip with my batteries recharged and ready to continue this fic! I also want to take this moment to thank you for the 300k views—you have no idea how much that motivates me to keep writing.
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