Chapter 20 - Cuba

After the game, we all went out to Chipotle to celebrate(yes, we upgraded from BK). The coach was talking about how well we did and that there was still room for improvement, and Rasta was on the side telling me about how some of the moves I did weren't very All-Star like causing the whole team to laugh.I quickly replied by asking him to look at the way Momba played, Momba just shook his head, saying that he would get better. Sandra was on the other side of me, just chuckling at everybody while she had her hands in my pants, slowly massaging my balls. I was working hard to have a straight face while interacting with everybody else on the team. After that, we all left, we dropped Sandra home before going home ourselves, and we went and passed out.The next day was the weekend; we didn't have anything to do, so we just went out to the mall to hang out and do a few shopping. Opal had acting classes, so we had dropped her off at her class and went over to the mall. After we were done shopping, we left and picked Opal up and grabbed something to eat, and went to see a movie. It was a relaxing day just having some family bonding time. After the movie, there still wasn't anything else that we could do, so we just went back home to relax. The next day we went to church for the first time in a long time everybody was surprised to see us. Sometimes I just hated the way they looked at us like they were looking at us with pity in their eyes because we lost our mother, even though we were sad about it, we had to live on for her, and we knew that she wouldn't want us to be sad and dwelling in the past.The pastor was preaching while I started to fall asleep, Rasta kept nudging me to get up. Finally, our youth teacher came to call us all to come to class; it was my first time going into the youth class. I remembered a couple of people from my past life that I didn't associate with anymore. I even saw one of my ex-girlfriends, but I knew I wouldn't want to be associated with any of them since I had Sandra now.We just all chatted happily and talked about random things that teenagers talk about at that time. We were a large group, and we heard many stories from our youth teachers and each other. They were planning to have a youth camp in Atlanta, which quickly excited me because then I could look for any tournaments that are around there while I'm there catching a free ride to that area.They were promoting it at the church that they're having a youth conference or camp that it will be the best one ever or so they say, but I didn't care and signed up for it it was to happen in 2 weeks so I couldn't wait, I texted Rasta, telling him to look into tournaments out there for me. After the class was done, we headed out to the back where there was a basketball court. We started playing, and the girls around were just looking at us guys playing while just laughing because some of the guys were very terrible at playing. Still, I was dominating and didn't miss a single shot during the game, which the other team thought it was cheating and called me out for it, saying that it wasn't fair. I quickly agreed, and I stepped off the court saying that you guys can play among yourselves because if I play, then I will always win.Some of them thought of this as an arrogant and cocky remark, but others knew that it was true because some of them went to my school and knew I was the captain of the team. Some of the girls had stars in their eyes wishing that they could have a boyfriend like me, but I already had Sandra, so I ignored them. After the church was over, we all went back home, and before I got home, we too went to pick up some Chinese food to eat.They had this one Chinese spot in the corner where everybody went to get their food; it was banging and delicious we always go there not. Still, once in a while, so we had some of that for dinner, and after that headed back home, where I did some training and after some homework and went to bed to prepare for the following week, as I was about to go to bed, I got a phone call from Sandra saying that this holiday was coming up they'll be traveling to Cuba and that her family wanted to invite me to come with them.I was surprised by this because I've never met her family before, and I thought this was a good opportunity to finally meet them and even go to their country to see how they rock out there. I tell her that I'd have to run this by my family and see what they think, but honestly, I would say yes but let's just see just in case she gets excited and says okay I'll wait for your answer then and says goodnight and hangs up the phone.I shake my head and say o boy this should be interesting, I guess I have to brush up on my Spanish before leaving. I went to bed and dreamed of dunking on Shaq and Kobe.The next day at school, I went to the library to get anything that deals with Cuba and Spanish just to learn about what and where I will be going. I was able to find a couple of good books to read. I also asked Sandra to give me Spanish lessons during practice; that way, I could be training while learning at the same time, which stimulates the brain even more. I got through all my classes and after school had training.The coach was surprised to see Sandra there and ask what she was doing there, and I quickly told him about everything with the trip to Cuba. He was surprised by this but then says, "this would be an opportunity to see how they ball out there." I shook my head, saying, "I doubt they even play basketball over there; maybe they play soccer but basketball. I don't think so,".Coach just shrugged and said, "you never know," so I just let it go and continued with the training until it was time to go. Rasta came and picked me up, and we dropped off Sandra and headed home. While we were going, I finally broke the news to him, saying that during the Christmas holidays, I'll be going to Cuba with Sandra's family to get to know them better. He stopped and shook his head and said okay, but make sure you tell Flo first I'm sure she won't be okay with this.I laughed, agreeing to what he said because it sounds like her. After her mother had passed away, she became the motherly figure to all of us, and she was very strict. I doubt she would let her little brother go to a different country with people that she's never met before, so I had to set up a meet and greet with Sandra's parents. My family before this all happened, so I quickly called Sandra to see whether she couldn't set that up for us and told her that " you know nobody has to cook, we can just go to some fancy restaurant, and I'll take care of everything. "She got excited and thanked me and said okay that's the best way so she quickly went to her parents and they agreed to meet at a restaurant. Her parents weren't well-off, so they quickly agreed that I should be paying the bill after Sandra had told me. I just chuckled, and now I had to inform Flo of the setup we just made.So, later on, I gave her a call, but she didn't pick up, so I just did my homework and went to bed. The next day when I woke up, I saw that Flo had called me. I called him back to let him know everything that was going on, and he liked the idea of meeting them first before going on the trip. so we officially would meet and greet them at a restaurant down in DC this Saturday.After hanging up, I went and got ready for school when I got to school; I notified Sandra. Flo agrees to meet this Saturday, which excited her because everything was falling into place; she kissed me. She whispered in my ear that she needs her daily medicine today, so she'll be coming over after school, which causes my pants to bulge up a little bit, but I quickly tried to control myself, causing her to chuckle and runoff. When school was finally over, I went to training.Iso called me out and asked for a one-on-one match. I agreed, and we shot for the ball, which of course, I was able to receive at first, but it didn't become a shootout because nobody was missing until like the 11th shot, which I finally missed. I got the ball, and I checked it up to him. I started dribbling the ball, and he also stepped up. But while we were playing, I didn't know why he was stepping up, so I quickly jumped up and shot the ball before he could even set his feet to jump up. He didn't even turn around to see if the ball went in. He quickly backed up and asked to recheck the ball, causing me to laugh because he didn't even go for the rebound or anything. So one of the guys on the side passed the ball to me and asked him when we were playing to end. He told me only seven I said okay; I have two points so far, so we are still going to play.This time he was all over me and didn't give me any breathing room, so I quickly drove it in with him fouling me. Still, I hit the brakes on him with a man crossover and he fell on the floor the whole game erupted he was very embarrassed I couldn't even get back up, so I made my way to the 3-point line and shot the ball. I felt bad for him, so I said come on buddy you can't give up that easily you must get back up right away and defend if you had gotten back up and defended right away I would have got those three points I would have just settled for two points right then and there he shook his head and said thank you so at this point it was already game point for me because even though it was a 2 or 3, I'll still win it, so I decided to do a drive on him. I drove in, but his defense was pretty nice. He wouldn't give me many chances.This time when I hit the brakes, he was still right there with me. This time he was on me, and I couldn't get a shot in, so I quickly did a step back and tried to shoot it, but he blocked it. But unfortunately, I got the rebound back and took another shot. He jumped up in the air with me, but this time I did a rainbow shot, and it went straight up in the air, which caused him to say no way. Right after that, he heard the net make a sound like a water splash, causing the other teammates to say oooooohhhhhh.