September 13, 2013
"Beep beep," the sound of an alarm was heard through the small room in which two young men found themselves completely asleep until a long arm emerged from between one of the beds and with a few quick taps turned off the alarm.
After the alarm was turned off, the room returned to staying in silence until a sigh was heard from one of the beds while he left the bed. "It's time," Aaron murmured, finishing stretching to then change into a set of sportswear from the Wildcats team and slowly leave the room without waking Julius, who found himself snoring in a corner of the room.
Once outside the room, Aaron began to stretch on one of the benches that were located near the residence before putting the headphones over his ears and starting to run around the campus.
Since he had arrived at the university, Aaron had begun to run every morning as a way to get to know the campus with more attention and incidentally be able to relax from everything he had lived these weeks.
The training sessions with the teams had gone well until now, focusing more than anything on the physical conditioning of the players for the upcoming season that would start in November.
Since they met Willie, they had not seen him again, nor the rest of the team's players, assuming that he would meet them soon since Coach Calipari had already informed that now indeed the true training sessions would begin with the entire team gathered.
That could only mean one thing, and that is that based on the results they would obtain in these training sessions, Coach Calipari along with Orlando and John would put together the 5-man starting lineup for the season.
That single thought caused Aaron to exert himself even more in the last training sessions, seeking to arrive with the best possible physical condition to be able to demonstrate to the coach that he had not come here to be part of the bench, but that he had come to be an indisputable starter from the first game of the season.
With that thought, he unconsciously began to accelerate the pace of his run until it turned into a high-speed sprint in the final stretch before his route ended.
"Whew, whew," was the sound of his steady breathing once his run came to an end, while his hands were placed on his knees and he recovered his breath quickly to then walk back to his dorm.
Once he opened the door, he encountered Julius, who seemed like he had just come out of the shower since he had wet hair and had a towel tied around his waist. "How was the run?" Julius asked as soon as he saw Aaron enter through the door.
"The usual," Aaron told him while he immediately headed toward the minibar that was in the room and pulled out a bottle of ice-cold water to take a deep gulp of ice-cold water.
"You know, it still surprises me that you can go out to run every morning despite the fact that yesterday we had a session in the gym," Julius told him with some respect in his voice upon seeing the dedication Aaron had in training.
"It's all in the willpower," Aaron told him once he finished drinking the bottle of water.
And he was right; the first weeks after the physical training, Aaron, just like the rest of his teammates who arrived this year, felt his body destroyed the next morning, but even so, despite that, grinding his teeth, he stood up and went out to jog with great difficulty despite his body telling him to take a break.
Now, if he did not go out to run in the mornings, he felt weird and anxious since his body had adapted to that routine, which in a certain way helped Aaron with the matter itself.
"Do you think I could accompany you next time?" Julius asked Aaron, being with his back to the latter so that he could not see the slight trace of embarrassment that was on his face upon asking Aaron.
Without Aaron knowing it, Julius had always noticed Aaron's consistency in training and his almost sickly discipline with habits and basketball in general, reason for which Julius finally came to understand why Aaron was the best player of the class of 2013 above him and Wiggins.
Therefore, Julius thought that if he wanted to improve, he should start taking training more seriously, reason for which joining Aaron would not be a bad idea since of everyone, he was the one who took the training sessions in the most serious manner.
"Sure, I wouldn't mind a training partner," Aaron told him with a cordial smile on his face, knowing that having a partner would be something beneficial. "We could let the Harrison twins know too," he finished saying to then grab his bathroom things and enter the shower.
Once Julius heard the water flowing from the shower, he immediately grabbed his phone and began to send a quick message to Andrew. "I accept," was the only word he wrote while he finished getting ready to go to breakfast at the cafeteria of the place.
15 minutes later, Aaron came completely out of the shower more relaxed, while he began to dress and arrange his things for the classes he would have today, while Julius, who had already been ready, waited for him to be able to go eat together.
"I spoke with the twins; they will save us a spot in the cafeteria," Julius told him while Aaron finished putting a shirt on over himself and nodded, to then take his things and leave along with Julius toward the cafeteria of the Joe Craft sports complex.
"Let's go before it gets late for us," Aaron told him, already opening the door and leaving with his partner next to him.
Upon arriving at the doors of the cafeteria, Aaron passed his university identification through the card reader so that then with a beep, the door made a click, indicating that it had been unlocked.
Entering inside, both with naturalness began to move around the corridors of the complex, which they already seemed to know like the palms of their hands, in the direction toward the cafeteria.
Arriving, they realized that they were not alone like other times; instead, there were already people seated at the cafeteria tables talking and discussing among themselves, but the conversations stopped once both arrived at the place.
Feeling the gazes, Aaron scanned his gaze around all the players who were in the room without lowering or giving signs of pulling his gaze away.
Then, little by little, the players stopped looking at both and returned to concentrating on their matters and conversing among the groups inside the cafeteria.
"Guys, over here!" shouted a voice while raising a hand among the sea of tables, it being the Harrison twins, who had arrived and had saved spots for them so that the 4 could sit together.
Seeing the boys who were making signs to them, Aaron and Julius did not delay in going to grab their trays, while the chefs behind the cafeteria began to put portions of food on them in accordance with the training plan of each one of them.
"Man, oatmeal again, seriously?" Julius said, giving a pitiful look in the direction toward the cook behind the counter, who with an impassive look told him, "Orders from the nutritionist, take it or leave it." Without any other option, Julius took his tray while heading downcast in the direction toward the table.
When it was Aaron's turn, the chef served him a variety of food which included, among other things, a large portion of scrambled eggs along with fruit and half an avocado in a corner of the plate. "I guess I still haven't reached the optimal weight," Aaron said ironically toward the chef, who simply laughed low while making a gesture for him to go sit down.
With tray in hand, Aaron sat next to the rest of his group, leaving the tray on the table while seeing how the faces of the other 3 people seated at the table changed completely upon seeing all the food that was on his friend's tray. "Come on, man, it's not fair that you are the only one who has a merely decent breakfast," Aaron Harrison complained while he saw the plate of scrambled eggs on Aaron's tray.
"If you have complaints, tell it to the Doc," Aaron joked while he saw the expression of the 3 upon hearing talk of that person in question.
The person whom Aaron called Doc was the team nutritionist, a straight person who did not hesitate to scold any of them if they weighed even a gram more than expected or ate something that was not found within their nutritional plan for the season.
"Forget it, I don't want to hear his talk about macros again and about how I still haven't reached my optimal weight," Andrew said, voicing the thoughts of the other 2, who simply nodded, being in agreement with the words of the latter.
Shrugging his shoulders, Aaron simply concentrated on devouring the entire plate of food that he had in front of him, which was focused on him being able to gain more muscle and increase his confrontation to be able to face the centers of the league once the competition begins.
His diet was focused mainly on proteins and carbohydrates; combined with strength exercise sessions, Aaron had been gaining weight the last weeks while his muscles began to define themselves even more in comparison to when he had stepped for the first time into the sports complex.
Of course they also focused on his mobility, not wanting Aaron to lose the flexibility that allowed him to move with ease and agility under the post.
"So the season is already less than 2 months from starting, do you think we can be starters?" Andrew murmured in a low voice, not wanting the people around them to hear anything of their conversation.
"I don't know, truth be told," said Julius, who still had his doubts and reservations about whether he could be a starting player of the team from day 1 or would spend the first games of the season coming off the bench as a sixth man until he adapted to the pace of play.
"I think the 4 of us have a lot of opportunities to be it," Aaron suddenly said, who until the moment had kept silence and took another spoonful of his eggs to his mouth, while he felt 3 pairs of looks toward him belonging to the other 3 people at the table.
"Think about it this way: for what reason would Coach Calipari and the Wildcats team take the trouble to invite and sign 4 players from the top 10 recruits of this class?" Aaron asked toward his companions, who began to rack their brains in search of the answer.
Seeing how none of them could manage to understand Aaron's thoughts, the latter decided to begin to explain the reason in detail.
"It's because the coach trusts that we have the talent to be able to become starters, and also if you look well at his gaze in training, you can realize how much he esteems us," Aaron finished saying while he let the words he had just said settle in the group.
Aaron was not entirely lying; after all, he knew that in the original timeline exactly what he had spoken had happened, that Calipari had lined up a bunch of rookies on the team, and despite all the ups and downs managed to reach the March Madness final, which he lost against UConn, but by the minimum.
"You're right," Julius said, who also let himself be infected by Aaron's words, while afterward he began to tell the Harrison twins, who upon hearing the plan accepted.
After that, everyone went their own way to take their classes until the afternoon training sessions, and the next morning they gathered to be able to start running every morning until the day so expected by everyone arrived.
The start of the basketball season.
Authors thought's
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