“Me,” they all said sweetly.
None of them had the eye of the tiger. “Which five of you usually start a game?”
Eight of the ten kids raised their hands.Great.“Of those of you who have your hand raised, who plays guard?”
Three kept their hands in the air. “Okay. You and you will be our starting guards. You and you will play forward, and you will play center. Everybody clear on their roles?”
One kid made an “Mm-mm” sound. The starters nodded vaguely. The non-starters looked disappointed and resigned.
“Has Coach Theo taught you some plays?”
“We got three plays,” a dark-haired kid said. “Lion, cobra, and...” He screwed up his face.
“Shark,” another kid supplied. He jerked his bony hips from side to side and sang, “Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo.”
A few of the other kids joined in the singing and dancing and Eli had to work to recapture their attention. “Do you have hand signals for the plays?” Eli asked the guards.
“Yeah.”
“Whichever of you brings down the ball, make sure you signal the play to the rest of the team.” He continued to give instructions, but only one freckle-faced boy seemed to be paying close attention. A few were more interested in the light fixtures above. Some were studying the girls’ game that had just started on the next court over. One was fascinated with a loose thread on his waistband.
Eli extended his hand to the middle of the circle and the kids jostled forward to stack their hands on top of his. “Sharpshooters on three,” Eli said. “One, two...”
“Sharpshooters!”
Play began. It looked more like a frantic wrestling match than the sport of basketball. None of his players secured a rebound. The one kid who attempted a rebound whiffed the ball, which clunked off his forehead. He came out crying. Most of the time the guards forgot to signal the play and, when they did remember, none of their teammates was paying attention.
At halftime, Eli looked around for his assistant coach. Creighton again raised his finger and pointed at his phone. So Eli took it upon himself to give the boys an inspiring speech about basketball strategy. They listened with blank boredom. He finished with, “Let’s play hard, play clean, and give it our all.”
“Can I use the bathroom?” one of them asked.
“I think I broke my ankle,” another stated.
Creighton wandered over, clapped three times, and said, “Hustle out there, guys.Hustle!”
It was a massacre. So much so that a wave of relief washed through Eli when the final buzzer sounded.
“What’s the team’s win–loss record this season?” Eli asked Creighton, who was gathering the basketballs into a large bag.
“No wins. Just losses.”
Theo was having a terrible week. The least Eli could do for his friend was knock the substitute coaching role Theo had given him out of the park. Today he’d been, at best, a mediocre coach.
He could do better.
The boys’ parents brought their sons over one by one to tell him thank you. As he shook small hands, gave out fist bumps, and returned high fives, Eli made up his mind.
He was going to do whatever he could to ensure that the not-so-Sharpshooters brought home a win.
Chapter Three
Widely accepted truth: When your family members are going through a health crisis, it’s important to be as stoic and dependable as the Rock of Gibraltar.
This was an axiom Penelope wholeheartedly subscribed to. Yet when she entered Aubrey’s hospital room after work on Saturday, she burst into tears at the sight of Aubrey in her hospital bed.
“Pen,” Theo murmured kindly, standing to hug her. Gray circles smudged the skin beneath his eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine!” Penelope’s voice wobbled like a brand-new ice skater. Tears gushed over her lashes. “Just fine!” Also, potentially mentally unstable.
