The half-court game had ended in a rather convincing fashion. It was quick too, seeing as they barely missed any shots.
"My bad." (Headband)
Headband had approached Leonz to apologise. It was a lighthearted game, so Leonz didn't really care about the results anyways. Leonz smiled in response and shrugged.
"I mean, it was fun." (Leonz)
Sleeve walked up to Leonz and shook his hand.
"Good game." (Sleeve)
"Thanks." (Leonz)
"Man, your shots are scary. If you developed a more aggressive play style, you could be one of the best of your batch." (Sleeve)
"I'll work on it." (Leonz)
Sleeve walked away to drink some water, leaving Piercings and Headband behind. Headband went to sit down somewhere else. Leonz was sweating despite having not moved as much as some of the guys there.
"You shot well, but I'm guessing you ain't used to stopping on a dime?" (Piercings)
"Huh?" (Leonz)
"That third shot, the one ya airballed. You were running before the shot, so your foot slipped, didn't it?" (Piercings)
"I guess?" (Leonz)
Piercings nodded and glanced around before extending a hand towards Leonz for a handshake.
"You got promise if you continue working on ya game." (Piercings)
"I would like to learn from you. Your shots were smooth." (Leonz)
Leonz respected Piercings. He felt that if Piercings wanted to, he could have easily went and scored enough points for them to win. However, Piercings had decided to pass, even during the important moments.
"Do you have a cellphone?" (Piercings)
"Yes?" (Leonz)
"Mind sharing it with me? If we do this kinda thing again, we could call ya to play another game. I could teach ya some stuff too if I'm free." (Piercings)
From what Sleeve said, Piercings was a professional basketball player, so having lessons from a pro would definitely benefit Leonz.
"Sure!" (Leonz)
Leonz and Piercings took some time to exchange phone numbers before the group of guys had to leave.
Leonz stood on the court, staring at the rim without a ball. He sighed and walked towards Kent, who had been watching the entire time.
"Yo, I caught the air ball on video." (Kent)
"Delete it." (Leonz)
"I recorded the whole match, actually. Was pretty sick." (Kent)
"Send it to me then." (Leonz)
Leonz sat down beside Kent, feeling exhausted for some reason.
"You got sauced up by the shortest dude. And you call yourself a good defender." (Kent)
It was all in good fun, so Leonz didn't get offended. He simply slumped into the seat more.
"Don't remind me man."
Leonz's uniform was wet with sweat as both he and Kent walked in the general direction of their houses. On the way, Kent decided to make small talk.
"Do you have any offers from any high school?" (Kent)
"Offers? What for?" (Leonz)
"For the basketball club, of course. Most people in the top fifty would have gotten at least one offer." (Kent)
"Near, where would I check that anyway?" (Leonz)
"Your mail?" (Kent)
Leonz paused to think, wondering about the last time he had checked his mail.
"Well, you don't have to worry about that now. The offer can be accepted even after the results of the Examinations are out." (Kent)
"Oh right, exams…" (Leonz)
Leonz let out a sigh, not having any good feelings about the examination he had just taken. It was the last examination they had in middle school, afterwards, they would have graduated from Tilt middle school and officially into high school.
"I don't think there'll be a problem with my results, but I'm worried for yours." (Kent)
"Some sport nerd don't get to look down on my knowledge." (Leonz)
Kent cracked a smile as he pulled out his phone.
"Who knows? Maybe you wanna check your mail right now?" (Kent)
"Sure. I'm sure I got tons of offers!" (Leonz)
At Leonz's house, Leonz opened the mailbox before even stepping into the house. He looked inside, where a bunch of letters were. Excited, Leonz pulled the letters out and brought them into the house.
"See? What did I tell ya? Tons of offers!" (Leonz)
"Sure, sure." (Kent)
Leonz plopped the letters down on his coffee table and pulled one of the letters out. On it, it read 'notice on graduation'.
"Must be a mistake." (Leonz)
Leonz placed the letter he had just picked up aside. He picked up another one that had the title 'Congratulation to your graduation!'.
Kent, catching what was going on, felt somewhat bad for Leonz.
Most of the letters were from relatives Leonz had. They had sent letters congratulating his graduation. Leonz picked through the pile until he eventually found what he was looking for.
"Got it!" (Leonz)
Leonz held a single letter high, smiling widely.
"You actually got one?" (Kent)
Out of about a dozen letters, only one had what Leonz was looking for. On it, there was the title 'Invitation for Sport programme'.
"Which school is it from?" (Kent)
Leonz fumbled with the letter, carefully tearing the letter open to see which school had sent it. He managed to pull out the piece of paper inside, looking at the name of the school which sent the letter.
"It's… Zodiac Academy? Da hell is that?" (Leonz)
"Zodiac Academy? Never heard of them." (Kent)
Kent pulled his phone out and started searching the internet on Zodiac Academy. Curious, Leonz looked over his friend's shoulder.
"Oh, it's actually a pretty good school." (Kent)
"Really? In terms of basketball?" (Leonz)
"In terms of their Performing Arts, actually. Their academic standard is slightly above average. Their sports programmes, however, is absolute garbage." (Kent)
"Don't care, what's up with their basketball?" (Leonz)
"Well, I'm the fifth or so years which the school has been running, the Basketball Club in Zodiac Academy has been around for about as long. In terms of the playoffs… they've never even made the playoffs." (Kent)
"Never before?" (Leonz)
"Yeah, never came close, actually. They've been one of the worst teams of every high school." (Kent)
Kent scrolled through the webpage.
"Yeah, the Zodiac Beasts, their basketball team, never made it to the playoffs. In fact, the best they managed to do was attain a single Rookie Award, but still missed the playoffs." (Kent)
"They're trash." (Leonz)
"That trash school's the only school offering your a spot in their Basketball Club." (Kent)
Leonz leaned back into his couch, thinking about it.
"How did they do this year?" (Leonz)
Kent scrolled through the webpage again, trying to find what Leonz wanted to find.
"Well, in high school, every team plays a total of thirty games over a period of a few months. This year, the Zodiac Beasts ended with a record of 6-24*." (Kent)
* 6 wins, 24 losses
"Goddamn they're trash." (Leonz)
"So, you planning to play for them?" (Kent)
"Not in the slightest. I want to make it to the top, but I need at least somewhat decent teammates to do that." (Leonz)
In honesty, Leonz was afraid. In his middle school, his team was so bad that they were barely able to defeat other teams' bench players. Leonz did not want to repeat the feeling of losing without even having a chance to begin with.
"But if ya go to a good school, wouldn't you be carried? Then it wouldn't exactly be 'your' journey to da top, would it?" (Kent)
Leonz scratched his chin and let out a long sigh. He extended his index finger in front of him.
"One. I just want one good teammate. Someone that can score by himself, do everything and help me get open shots. Just one guy would do, I don't need a superteam." (Leonz)
"That's a tough requirement. Surely the top guys have all gone to the best teams, right? I doubt you would be able to team up with anyone above rank twenty looking at your brainpower." (Kent)
"Are you insulting me?" (Leonz)
"Yes." (Kent)
"That was the firmest 'yes' I've ever heard from you." (Leonz)
Kent put his phone away.
"Leonz, you know you've been like a brother to me." (Kent)
"What? About to confess your feelings to me?" (Leonz)
"What? Hell no! I just wanted to tell you that I'll just go to any school you end up in." (Kent)
Leonz nodded.
"Could've guessed." (Leonz)
"So? Where do you want to end up, if your grades keep up?" (Kent)
Leonz stared at his ceiling, thinking it through. He would have been lying if he said he never thought about it before. Leonz had thought about it, a lot, actually.
"Probably the Spartans. Oh, maybe the Devils, or maybe the Knights. They're all top schools, so I think there'll be a good chance of winning there." (Leonz)
"You do realise those are elite schools, right? For normal people like us, we can't get in without an offer from the school." (Kent)
"Trust me, my results will blown everyone's minds." (Leonz)
The results were released. Leonz stared at the piece of paper in his hands, showing the grades he had received.
Kent, who happened to be nearby, took a look at his results.
"Oh wow, a 110/200 total score, very impressive." (Kent)
Kent was being sarcastic, Leonz knew that. Meanwhile, Kent had gotten himself a 143/200, enough to go to most school.
A 110/200 was not a good enough score to enter most schools, let alone the elite schools. Leonz needed to consider his options carefully.