"You tore your ACL!?" Nancy's sharp voice resounded in the sitting room.
"Why are you yelling?" Lake defended.
Nancy's eyes narrowed, her frustration boiling over. "Why wouldn't I yell? How can you tear your leg? It's not paper!"
"That's not how it works," Lake mumbled and sighed, bracing for the inevitable lecture.
"Lakesy, you doofus! Other people just break their legs, but you had to go and tear yours. Who the hell tears their legs?"
Lake rubbed his temple, trying to remain patient. "No. That's the medical term for it," he slowly explained. "I didn't literally tear it. It's just my ACL, I shattered it."
Nancy's eyes widened in shock. "You shattere— How is that any better?!"
"I never said it was better!" Lake's hand flung up in exasperation.
Infuriated, Nancy's eyes swept the room with the authority of someone who knew she was in charge. There, at the other two sofas, she found Lake's two best friends sitting with legs crossed above their knees, quietly observing their exchange.
Her eyebrows raised. They looked bigger than when she last saw them.
"Hello Nancy," they both greeted in unison.
"Alex. Charles." After greeting them, her hands came down from her hips and she balled them into fists, glaring at her brother.
"Let me see it," she demanded.
"Huh?" Lake frowned. "Why?"
"Just let me see it, Lake!"
"No," he refused, hiding his injured leg.
Nancy instantly dove at him on the couch, trying to get a look at his leg while Lake used his shoulder to hold her back.
"Let me see it! Let me!" Nancy insisted, her voice growing more insistent.
Lake gritted his teeth, holding her at bay. "No! You're only going to make it worse!"
"How am I going to make it worse? You're the one who shattered it!"
"Yeah! But only because I couldn't stand you anymore!"
"What!? You take that back!"
"Leave my leg alone!!"
Alex and Chums gave each other a comedic glance. "Those two ever gonna realize that they're not kids anymore?" Chums asked.
Alex shrugged.
"Fine!" Nancy eventually gave up, getting up to her feet and brushing herself off. "But what does this mean for basketball? Horiike told me that you're not going to be able to play basketball again."
Lake's face grew solemn as he adjusted on the sofa.
"Is that true?" Nancy probed, folding her arms.
With reluctance, Lake answered. "That's what the doctor said."
"What does that mean? You can't play basketball with a torn leg."
"It's not going to be torn forever, Nancy. I'm working on it."
Nancy gazed at her little brother, feeling a pang of pity that showed on her face. This was what she had always been scared of; him getting hurt chasing this dream of his.
Nancy was a woman of statistics, and according to the statistics, approximately 98% to 99% of young basketball players who aspired to play professionally don't make it to the UBF or other professional leagues.
This highlighted what Nancy had always told him, the journey to become a professional basketball player is super difficult. Being tall wasn't the only thing that mattered.
"You might love the sport, but you shouldn't literally put all your eggs in one basket. Studying to be a doctor is safer, even if you don't land the doctorate, there are many other similar jobs that you can fall into."
That was the advice she had given him before she left for the Delburn University to study Political Science.
Now she was back, and the first thing that welcomed her was her stubborn brother and his stupid torn leg!
"I know what you're thinking," Lake said, gazing at her face. "You told me so."
Nancy looked away, not wanting to acknowledge the truth of his words. "That's not what I'm thinking. But yeah, now that you brought it up, I did tell you so, didn't I?"
She sighed. "Thankfully, to be a doctor you need your hands not legs."
Alex and Chums shared a quiet glance, followed by Lake who eyed them. This didn't go unnoticed by Nancy.
"Wait. You are going to go to medical school, right?" she questioned Lake.
Lake looked up at her but hesitated, his mind racing. "Nancy—"
"Oh, Dad is going to be so mad."
Lake winced at the mention of his father. "Come on."
"You made a deal with him. You know Dad? The same guy who makes deals with some of the most powerful people in the world? He gave you one condition, Lake. Basketball's over. Dad isn't going to listen."
"He will if you talk to him," Lake said, a plea in his desperate eyes.
"What?!" A refusal was already on Nancy's surprised face.
"Come on! You still owe me for when I took the fall for the broken flower vase."
Nancy gasped, flabbergasted. "That was ten years ago!"
"This is my dream, Nancy!" Lake cried, his face and his voice filled with emotion. "Not a phase or an experiment. It's my dream. It's what I want for myself, it's all I ever wanted! Tell me you've never wanted something so bad that it became an obsession! That is what basketball is for me. It's my obsession, and I can not lose it! Not even a shattered ACL can stop me."
Nancy gazed at her brother with gentle eyes, her emotions hidden in her frown. It was rare to see a 'rich boy' like Lake care so much about achieving something, and something so random as basketball.
Most of the ones she'd met only cared about traveling in yachts, coasting through life and squandering and their father's money. Why bother working? They're going to inherit all of it anyway.
But seeing that light in Lake's eyes, that spark of ambition, it resonated within her. He was a doofus, yes, but he was still her brother, and she didn't want to be the turn off that spark. She let out a resigned sigh.
"You're a doofus, you know that?" she said to him.
Lake brought his face low.
"I'll talk to Dad," she agreed, "but don't you ever bring up Mom's flower vase ever again."
Lake's face brightened with joy and hope, and he broke into a wide smile. "You will?! You really will?! Oh Nancy, you're the fucking best— ah, ow! Ouch!"
He realized he had jumped to his feet to hug her, and his leg stung him with an incredible pain causing him to collapse back to the couch.
Nancy shook her head, a small smile on her lips.
"Don't get too excited. I can't assure you that he's going to say yes. Besides, you still have a long way to go before you're well again to even attempt returning to court."
Lake gave her a thumbs up, grinning. "This means a lot to me, Nancy."
"Yeah. Remember this could be your actual last chance, Lakesy. Don't fail again, or it's the Medical University for you."
The three friends waited until Nancy had disappeared up the stairs before they exploded into "Hell yeahs" and "Come ons!"
They dabbed each other up in celebration knowing that Nancy had her father's ears. If she spoke to Senator Everett, there was a 99% chance that he was going to listen.
When the excitement simmered down, Chums and Alex said their goodbyes to Lake as they needed to head home to get ready for training the next day. They walked out of the illustrious building and into the fancy streets of the Kanji Estate.
"Dang! We should have hooped at Lake's court," Alex said, looking back at the building in the distance.
"Seriously, Alex?" Chums shot him a disapproving look, hands in his pockets. "Don't you see how insensitive that could have been? Playing while Lake just watches us?"
Alex's face fell in realization. "Oh, you're right."
They walked for a few more moments before Alex spoke again, "Hey, did you hear that Vanessa is now dating Hilton?"
Chums glanced at him with his sharp, silent eyes. "Yeah."
"You didn't tell Lake. Let me guess, would have been insensitive?"
"Yeah. It's too early for him to think about things like that. Now, Lake needs to be focused on getting better. Vanessa's a parasitic slut, she sucked the life out of him before. He doesn't need it now. Pfft... she even tried hitting on me before she stuck with Hilton."
"Really?" Alex raised a surprise brow. "She tried hitting on me as well."
Chums nodded his head. "Like I said, a parasitic slut."