Leonz sat on the bench, dribbling as he watched the practice. He had yet to dribble between the legs, and was working on his left hand.
Coach Dom was instructing them as they practiced. The boys and girls performed a few drills.
Defensive drills like when to switch, drop coverage, zone. Coach Dom seemed to place heavy emphasis on preventing cuts to the basket.
The girls trained slightly differently, likely because of their coach's different game plan.
Their game plan seem to prevent many shots under the basket, where the shot percentage was going to be the highest.
Eventually, the guys had to take a break.
Joseph walked up to him and sat down, sweating. Joseph drank some water before asking Leonz a question.
"How's your ankle?" (Joseph)
"Fine, I guess?" (Leonz)
Asher stood to the side, not talking to anyone. The guys were avoiding him too, letting Asher do whatever he wanted. The mood between him and the other guys were not the best.
"How long did the doctor say it's gonna take to heal?" (Joseph)
"About a week, but I'm not recommended to do any sports for two weeks." (Leonz)
Joseph nodded and took another sip of water.
He got up, patting Leonz on the shoulder.
"Just take your time to recover. The season's not here yet." (Joseph)
"Got it." (Leonz)
In the background, he saw the girls also taking a break. Madelyn had a ball in her hands, dribbling the ball behind her back casually as she chatted.
The guys hung around, some of them engaging in conversation with him, like Rodney and surprisingly Crox.
'BEEEEP' (whistle, Dom)
The guys walked towards Dom and just stood around waiting for his instruction.
"According to Coach Ceres, the girls have a practice game coming up next Wednesday." (Dom)
There was some chatter.
"No worries, Coach Ceres will be back by then. The date was confirmed quite recently, so apologies for the late notice. The Stars will be playing against…" (Dom)
Dom held out a piece of paper to read.
"The Hulu Amazons." (Dom)
Madelyn frowned.
"Um… coach, aren't the Hulu Amazons the conference champions last year?" (Girls Captain)
"Yeah. The Hulu Amazons made it to the Finals last year. Coach Ceres will brief you all more when she returns." (Dom)
Madelyn whispered to the Captain.
"They got No. 1." (Madelyn)
That started a whole different commotion.
Dom got everyone to run a few more defensive sets. Dom was particularly picky with defence, and he would rather have a defensive team than a team that played no defence.
Club practice ended.
Leonz tried to get up to speak to Asher about the practice game, but the guy had already left.
Leonz sat down instead, waiting for more people to leave before he did.
"Leonz, you mind if ya help me out with something?" (Joseph)
"Huh? What with?" (Leonz)
Joseph had a basketball in hand.
"Well, I know you're injured and all, but I want some advice on my shooting form." (Joseph)
Crox stood under the basket, presumably for the rebound.
"Are we allowed to do this?" (Leonz)
"No worries, the Coach likes it when his players put in extra hours. He's a real slave-driver." (Joseph)
"I heard you Quinn!" (Dom)
Dom was at the other side of the gym, locking up the girls's storage room.
Joseph shrugged.
"Anyways, just watch from where you are, and if there's something wrong with my jump shot, do tell." (Joseph)
"Weren't you shooting well during the friendly game?" (Leonz)
"Probably luck." (Joseph)
Joseph walked to the three point line and brought the ball to his hip as he bent his knees. He brought the ball above his head as he raised his body.
When he just about jumped for the shot, he let the ball fly.
The ball hit the back rim and bounced away.
Leonz was trying to find fault with the shot, but was not too sure about it. Leonz had a different form, and didn't know whether Joseph's form was natural or not.
Joseph shot the ball again, this time, Leonz noticed a slight hesitation before he jumped for the shot. That shot resulted in an air ball.
Joseph shot a third shot, shifting his feet before the shot. The ball bounced off the backboard, completely missing the rim.
Joseph shot the ball again, the ball was brought to above his head slightly ahead of his body, making it slightly awkward. The ball hit the front rim, missing.
Joseph turned around for Leonz's opinion.
"Um… your form is too inconsistent?" (Leonz)
"What do you mean by that?" (Joseph)
"Ummmmmm…" (Leonz)
"You don't have a set form." (Dom)
Leonz flinched, shocked that he did not notice Dom next to him.
"Shooters have a set form, and shooting is something that is a repetitive action. It's quite obvious. Meanwhile, you are inexperienced and keep making subtle changes with every shot, which ruins your shot as a whole most of the time." (Dom)
Joseph nodded and looked to the rim.
"So how should I go about learning to shoot?" (Joseph)
Dom walked up the court and stopped directly outside the restricted area, almost directly under the rim.
He pointed to the ground.
"Shoot from here, go get your form correct before you try shooting any threes." (Dom)
"Got it." (Joseph)
Joseph walked towards that spot.
"Well, I think I'll be good from here, thanks for the help, Leonz. Go home and get better soon." (Joseph)
Leonz struggled to get up, but before Joseph, Crox or Dom could get to him, Madelyn was there.
"Woah there." (Madelyn)
Madelyn helped him get onto his foot and his crutches under his arm. Leonz let out a sigh from the inconvenience of the whole thing.
He slung his bag over one shoulder and started walking, or hopping, whatever he was doing.
Madelyn walked by his side, deep in thought.
"You're thinking more than usual, what's up?" (Leonz)
Madelyn gave Leonz a look.
"What d'ya mean by I'm thinking more than usual? Are ya insulting me?" (Madelyn)
She pretended to kick his leg.
Leonz did not budge, knowing she was unlikely to actually hit his leg.
Madelyn sighed and rubbed her neck.
"I got to play against that fricking girl again. I'm going to go there and she'll be like 'oh, you stole my Finals MVP away from me'. What a pain." (Madelyn)
"How did you know she went to Hulu High anyways?" (Leonz)
"I checked her Instagram. Those higher ranked players tend to post something like 'my next page in life' or 'back to the grind'." (Madelyn)
She sighed and continued walking forward.
"Luckily though, No. 2 ain't playing with her this time. That girl went to some other school, I think." (Madelyn)
"That'll make this more fair then." (Leonz)
"Who knows?" (Madelyn)
They continued walking until the school gate where they split up.
"Don't get run over, you hear me?" (Madelyn)
"Like hell a car'll hit me on the sidewalk." (Leonz)
"You'd be surprised." (Madelyn)
Leonz staggered home, quite a bit on his mind.