At first glance, he seems to have made it out, rose from the dirt like they say. How he did it? Well he'd probably lie and say he worked really hard to get where he is now. You'd have to believe him because we'll there's no way a man of his complexion could make it, not where he was from at least. The bags under his eyes are still visible past his dark skin and he didn't seem to care. He just seemed to glide through the campus with his long strides without a care or a worry in the world. At this point in his life, he's earned a scholarship at the university he always wanted to get into. No, the university his parents wanted him to get into. His future was bright and potential for greatness was written all over him depending on whose lens you looked through.
Who wouldn't want to be 6'6, smart, naturally athletic with the attention of scouts from all types of sports. Bol Sanajike was the name his real parents gave him and it happened to be just about the only thing they gave him. He was taken in by so many different families all around Japan, when he finally turned 15 and his current caretakers realized that he was going to be pretty tall and decided to make an investment.
They ran everything in his life and this Bol didn't object, in fact he barely spoke with his foster parents. He was completely disinterested with everything the world had to offer. He had already seen this bleak world for what it really was and didn't care to open up to it again. He didn't work too hard at anything. Well he didn't need to. The bare minimum was enough for him to be successful in Japan.
When his parents got news that he was being recruited abroad for basketball as well as American Football they didn't think twice and put him on a flight. Bol wasn't surprised by his parents. Nothing at home surprised him but what he met in America did. He met a lot of people with his skin tone but more surprisingly they were friendly. He avoided unnecessary contact with most people and only occasionally spoke to his roommates. He was a complete stranger to social norms and purposefully rejected attempts at teaching him from his roommates. One was particularly annoying with her approach, Faye, the typical trying too hard weeb type who Bol guessed was only after his background story. He sarcastically thinks that she believes she is Luffy or Naruto and has to make everyone she comes across her best friend. "I'm not anybody's side character," he thinks to himself as he opens the door and tries to sneakily walk past her as she watches anime on her laptop.
Well, mission failed. She easily spots him and wakes up to start her pestering. To anyone else it would seem like she's trying to make friends but to Bol she's just a pain in the butt. He ignores her approach and marches to a room and settles on his bed and instantly sees Ted his closest and the most chill roommate of the bunch. They gesture each other slight nods and go back to their business. Ted and Kasey were the couple in our group. Ted being on the basketball team with me. Slightly shorter than Bol with messy brown hair and dark eyes while Kasey was an extremely short, blonde, blue eyed girl. He could tell his roommates were placed to help him out because his other roommate was Japanese, she wanted them to call her Rei.
Ted suddenly stops writing and looks at Bol, "dude we need to go to practice like right now," the two rush to the field for football practice. Out of the 2 sports he was supposed to play in college he preferred basketball, for obvious reasons, and only needed a place on one of the teams to stay at the school with his athletic scholarship. Bol runs into the coach for his first practice. The coach is shorter than him but somehow intimidated Bol. There was something about that glare of discontent in his eyes that Bol didn't like. Coach Harvey instantly gets to details about practice and positioning. Bol isn't into it and when he's thrown into the practice session he flops on every play. Nothing ever seemed this hard to him. Maybe it was because he was indifferent about football but something didn't click in his head.
At the end of the day he had made up his mind, it was definitely basketball. This was when he started losing all his options and the path was straight to him, I mean he'd played basketball before and destroyed the competition in high school so what could go wrong? He wanted this right? Ted made fun of his play on the way home but Bol knew it was just the adrenaline talking. It would be complicated with Bol dropping out but Ted was chill and nothing would go wrong. Right? Why did he question himself so much? Bol didn't know what he wanted. What he should want was a complete mystery to him and this is the the story of his career.
*Enter Bol Sanajike*