A week later, Saturday.
The mood hanging in the air inside the practice facility was sombre at best.
Both the men's and women's team players sat around the middle of the main hardwood court in a circle, in anticipation for the university's release of their midterm exam results.
It was almost eight in the morning, and the players were both keen and nervous to finally see the resolution to the hellish week that is the midterm exam season.
Some of them were playing it down like it's no big deal, some were strangely calm despite the gravity of the situation, while the most were distracting themselves by talking and doing something that improves their mood.
Once the clock struck eight, the online university portal had finally released the submitted midterm exam scores.
Tremaine instantly logged on to his university account and browsed his five exam scores with a strong belief that he would pass.
At first, he hesitated.
Because in his first life, he got dismissed due to his failing midterms and final exam scores.
First, a shining C in Algebra...
Holy shit. That was the hardest exam of them all for Tremaine's thirty-seven year old mind. He knew jack shit about Algebra but he managed to squeeze out a tough shot at those numbers— I mean letters.
Second, a C+ in English Literature…
"Yes!" Tremaine almost punched Deshaun on the face in his celebration. Luckily, his friend dodged.
Screw all those long ass excerpts I didn't understand!
Third, the dreaded Chemistry score...
It's a fucking C!
"Wooo fuck covalent bonds!" Tremaine absolutely could not believe it. He's passed three of the five courses already!
His emotions are at a high right now, all his belief earlier that he would pass were nothing but his foolish, flimsy hopes. He actually just said that to himself to make him feel less insecure.
Fourth, was another core course, called Composition Writing.
Tremane had no hopes for this one… he knows he shouldn't have bullshitted his way through whatever abomination he wrote and submitted… but he can't help it.
"Heck yeah, I still got a C!" Tremaine ran a fast, and furious lap around the court in glee. It might be an overreaction on his part, but he definitely burned the midnight oil just to be able to write coherent paragraphs.
Last but not the least, was his American History class…
"What did you get on History, man?" His two best friends Deshaun and Emily were his classmates and main tutors on this subject. Of course they'd love to find out the fruits of their unpaid labor.
Tre clicked American History, and a beautiful letter popped up.
B.
Tremaine knitted his brows and gave the score a second, long, hard look, to make sure he's not being fooled by his own two eyes.
It's still a B.
Tremaine was in disbelief, while Deshaun pumped his fists in gratitude.
"All the extra work paid off, my guy!" Deshaun offered Tre a hug for a job well done.
"Holy shit… fuckin' hell…" Tremaine was cursing indiscriminately. He got up, took the hug, and ran out of the facility with a spring in his step. "Founding… fucking… fathers…"
It was a Saturday, so there were a lot more students out early in the morning to enjoy the morning breeze. Tremaine saw a mix of agonized, and joyous faces within the people loitering outside.
He himself had his mind flying off to another place. He expected to fail at least one of those five, but he didn't fail anything!
As he ran freely on the sidewalk, he did not notice a group of female students were talking and walking from the direction he's going.
Crash!
Tremaine was whistling, and looking at the direction of the road, when his arm bumped into a shoulder, and he heard a small scream that followed it.
"I'm sorry!" Tremaine instantly lent a hand to the tall woman that fell down. It was an accident, but the fault is with him. He was pretty much spacing out for the last half a minute or so.
She was wearing a bright yellow sunday dress that reached well below her knees, and a surgical face mask covering her nose and mouth. Her eyes were dark hazel, sporting singular eyelids, and her long, curly hair was dyed the dark orange of autumn.
Tremaine noticed all those characteristics with barely a look, but did not linger on her face by more than what's necessary. He had a lot of happy emotions in his mind to care about other than her face.
"I'm really sorry for this, I just got out of basketball practice." Tremaine gave the lady a bright morning smile. "Are you hurt anywhere, miss? Should I take you to the infirmary?
"I'm fine." The lady dusted off her bright dress and nodded at Tre. "Please be more mindful while you're on the sidewalk next time."
"Will do!!" Tremaine then scurried off in another direction without a care in the world, not even waving goodbye to the woman he bumped into.
"That actually hurt, sheesh." The lady grabbed her right arm, and winced. She looked down and saw something else that fell out.
Her friends up ahead finally realized she trailed behind and came back to fetch her.
"Are you okay, Yuna?" One of her friends saw her clutching her shoulders.
"Just some student athlete running into me, I'm fine, thank you." After a few more moments of help, Yuna and her friends sped away.
***
Late dusk.
"We get fifty three point attempts, and we'll record this, huh!" Caleb Wilson was feeling the hot hand. He just scored a perfect A in one of his major subjects. "Ten each side, y'all hear me?"
The five other people with him were Tremaine, Sean, Lamont, Deshaun, and Kristian.
"Who won it last time out?" Tremaine wanted to know who's the man to beat.
"Oh, it's actually a tie between Legend and Miguel." The answer bamboozled the three rookies. "Those two buried forty three each."
"Damn! Cap is actually a hidden deadeye?" Deshaun was absolutely gobsmacked by the revelation.
"Yeah he won the last three times we did this." Lamont said it like it's not even worth mentioning.
"Old Legend's been working on that for more than a year and a half, because the coach, and many scouts believe that it was the only remaining flaw in his game." Sean was gushing, knowing his captain's success, he arrived to fix his wonky free throw shooting too. "Now, he just has to unleash it in college hoops!"
Tremaine's forgotten memories came flooding in, about the time Legend started shooting triples in game… but there is something wrong about these memories…
"Okay, I'll go first, to honor our legendary captain!" Sean ran over to the left corner. "This is for the Math majors like me that failed midterms!"
Swish!