Peak Tigers

CHAPTER 1 - Meet The Tigers

ASTON

I came out of my imaginations as Mr. Boluwatife walked in the office, all smiles and grins on his face.

“Ah! Mr. Ezeonu, nice to see you again after so many years” he said as he shook my dad's hands, “How is my boy Aslan? He really made us proud you know.”

“Aslan is doing great! He’s making good progress in NorthWestern, Chicago” dad replied.

Just then, the principal walked in with the school’s basketball coach, I recognized him as Coach Uche.

“Aston Ezeonu, right?” the Principal asked me

“Yes ma, good morning ma” I answered her, she's Mrs. Laura Knight, a half caste woman whose father is Canadian.

Alexander C. Ezeonu, my father had finally given in to my mom's request to bring me from my boarding school in Lagos, back to Warri and now he was here to get me enrolled in the school Aslan had graduated from three years back.

“Well, welcome to Peak International College Aston, I hope you enjoy your stay. If you have any issue, your parents and I are good friends, so always come to me ok?” Principal Laura said.

“Yes ma’am.” I answered.

Dressed in a white long sleeve shirt, black trousers, a navy blue sleeveless sweater and a pair of black sneakers, I looked sharp and smart, but somewhat nervous since it was my first day in a new school.

The school looked good to me, really good actually,

"PIC is amazing!" I thought to myself.

Here, the classes are divided into Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Pluto, (Venusians being Art students, Jupiterians the Commercial students; Martians and Plutonians the science students); I was placed in SS2 Pluto.

Walking down the corridors from Principal Laura’s office, I could see the students in the posh classrooms, and the distant charter on smiling faces, making it seem like school is fun.

We passed the basketball court on the way to my class, it was in some kind of depression in the ground, quite awesome. I noted how cool it looked, the court had been painted recently and the nets looked new. I remembered my first experience with the Peak Tigers; it was at the High-School Basketball Championships last year, Swish 2015. My former school team, the Starfall Knights battled Peak Tigers during

the semi-finals, but lost 79-81. Then I was just a Squire to the team.

“Here we are” Mr. Boluwatife said, standing by the Physics Laboratory door.

He had a small talk with the physics teacher, Mr. Lodje before leaving.

“Welcome Aston, join the class,” the teacher said, “You can seat with Nwachukwu there by the window.”

While Mr. Lodje was going through the principles of floatation, my mind was elsewhere. I had to be really good in school because somehow I felt I was living in Aslan’s shadow. Aslan had always been daddy’s pride; that is, other than my sister Alesha. He’s an A-student and a great basketball player. Now he’s off in College at Northwestern, Chicago on a Comets Foundation – A2S Joint Scholarship. I’ve always felt the need to prove myself because of him, now, I’m in his Alma Mata.

“Hi! I’m Oma”, my seatmate seemed cheerful at me.

“Hey Oma, I thought he called you Nwachukwu?” I asked.

“Oh! Nwachukwu is my last name. I’m Oma Nwachukwu” she giggled.

“Nice to meet you Oma, you can call me Aston. I’m Aston Ezeonu.”

“You’re Aslan’s brother?” she asked with glowing eyes and I nodded.

“Wow! Aslan and my brother Nezer were friends and they played for Delta State in the 2015 National Sports Festival Juniors Category!” she continued.

At least, I was happy I was getting along well with someone on my first day. Being in SS2 I loved that the uniform separated the seniors from the juniors and I was really enjoying my day until it came to the Economics period.

“What is the meaning of a market supply curve?” Mrs. Igho asked the general class.

Seeing no hands up after a while, she decided to pick me, the new student.

“You, new student, tell us.”

I have to admit, I have always hated Economics, I just don’t like that subject at all, but I’ve always struggled to get D’s since SS1, even though I got an F in second term.

“I don’t know ma’am” I said quietly.

Some students laughed and I felt bad, I guess you know how well the rest of the day went. During the break time Oma came to me outside the class.

“Sorry about what happened during Economics period”.

“Oh that! Big deal, I’m sure I can handle it” I said.

Then one of the guys in my class came up to us,

“Uh, clearly you don’t know Mrs. Igho. Listen new guy, she’ll just keeping calling you to answer her questions in class until she knows you can answer her.”

“Huh?” I exclaimed

“Aston this is Tekena…”

“TK” he cut in.

“I mean TK. He’s always raw but he’s my friend and he’s right”’ Oma said.

Tekena was called TK in class, he was always blunt with his words, and he’s the kind of person to tell you the truth whether it hurts or not. As if my day wasn’t going bad enough;

“Whoop! That reminds me, Mr. Uche wants to see you in his office.” TK announced.

“The Tigers’ Coach? Why? Where’s his office?” I asked

“It’s at the school gym.” Oma answered.

***

“Yes, afternoon Aston, I’m sure you know you’re joining the basketball team. Practice starts today for everyone else but you’ll start

tomorrow. Training is at 2:10 sharp, better not be late a second!” he slammed at me.

As surprised and shocked as I was, I tried to excuse myself by saying;

“Um, sir, I wasn’t told about this before. I left my all my sports gears in Lagos.”

Which wasn’t really an excuse because my dad was saying just yesterday that he's going to replace my basketball gear. Nevertheless,

the coach hammered on,

“That’s no excuse Aston”, he said and shoved a duffle bag at me. “Here, keep it! You’re a Peak Tiger now, that’s your PIC package and I’ll see you after school to introduce you to the rest of the team.”

He left me feeling dumbfounded! Mom must have told Principal Laura that I balled when I was in the Starfall Knights and she definitely put Coachie on my neck. But what i didn't know at the time, was that me enrolled in PIC was actually a sports transfer!

“Oh now! Another Aslan Shadow”, I moaned aloud just outside my class.

“What shadow?” Oma asked

“Oh hey Oma, didn’t see you before.”

“Cool, you’re joining the Peak Tigers huh! Just like your brother.”

“Oh dear!” I said as I rolled my eyes and walked into the class.

Later after school I had to go to the gym to see my teammates and TK came along with me and Oma. We sat at the bleachers and watched the eleven of them in practice.

“The beasts of the HBCs, Peak Tigers!” TK said feeling really supportive of them.

“Well, not really, we only won the boys category for two years, not since MHS came into the picture.” Oma corrected

"What?” I asked

"MHS, the McEvans Thunders of McEvans High School, that’s what.” She continued.

“Oh really now!” I said.

“Yeah but I think we can win this year!” TK said still feeling enthusiastic.

“I don’t know TK, MHS has two exchange students, one from the U.S. and a Japanese; they’re really good.” Oma said again

“Never mind those tall freaks, we’ve got our own power. See…”

And then TK began to analyze each player in the team I was to join.

“Abdul Lukman in SS3, he’s 18 and he’s 6’4, huge too. He’s on a Sport’s Scholarship; he’s #7, the Centre Strong and powerful in defense. He’s not that fast, but he’s not slow either and he always keeps his eyes on the ball and his man….oooh, he’s the captain!

Taiwo Adeoye, SS3; #8 on the team and one of the best shooters we

have. He’s a quick player and he’s able to think fast on the court. He’s a Shooting Guard.

Dike Iruabuchi, SS2; quite good at blocking shots and making steals in games. He’s #20 and he plays SF but doubles as Centre occasionally.

Lysander Olisede, our classmate; one of the best players I think I’ve ever seen! He was in Comets High School All Star team last year. He’s very decisive and can be tricky in his plays, plus he does phantom passes. People

call him the Ice PG because he’s very chill; he wears #9.

Darlington Edohor, SS3; a proud senior best in his defensive screens, and his shooting forms and the power behind those shots can be

terrifying, yet he makes them look so easy! He was PIC’s MVP last year; he’s a Shooting Guard and wears #11.

There’s Ovo Abrozieno, SS3; a complete showoff like your brother, I think…”

“He’s nothing like my brother!” I said cutting in.

“Hellooo? Let me finish. He’s creative in his plays, does a good dribble and really has a handle on the ball. He’s a Point Guard and proudly #0!”

“Number Zero? What!?” I asked

“Yeah, that’s his actual number dude” Oma said.

“Okay, Temi Oyelowo, SS1; Dude’s the fastest player on the team, he’s known as the court speedster and his passes are very quick and subtle too. He’s a Small Forward and he wears #14.

Tega Mukorho, also SS1; he’s an awesome Point Guard and he’s got good coordination. I think he’s the youngest on the team. He can shoot the ball from anywhere on the court and has an all-range accuracy of about 72%. He really loves to dunk the ball and man he jumps high too even though he’s not that tall. He’s #21.

Our #17 is Alvin Odianose, the only junior student on the team. He’s a good center and he’s good at all range shots, though his accuracy is the lowest on the team; he makes pretty good blocks and defends well.

Chrysler Philips, also in our class and Coach Kristina’s son is the only Power Forward on the team, our ace…”

“Not for long he’s not!” I cut in again

“What are you talking about now?” TK asked

“I play that too, the power forward and I’m pretty good at it too!” I said feeling confident.

“Well, you might be okay, but Chrysler’s got hawk vision. He’s able to see the game like a chess board, 3D even. Having that he zips through the court unhindered and he makes incredible steals that have saved us in countless games; they just don’t see him coming! He’s our #25.

Last but definitely not least, we have Muna, Muna Efeduma” he announced.

“Hey Efeduma, that name sounds familiar.” I said.

“Yeah? How come?” Oma asked

“Now that you mention it, I had a friend when I was a kid whose name was Muna…hold on, that’s him isn’t it?”

“Wow, nice. He’s awesome, totally our best shooter, he dunks and he’s an all-rounder. He’s already been drafted as the Shooting Guard for Team Delta State next year cos he really is that good. He wears #35.”

“Cool!” I said.

It had been like five years or so, Muna just lived next door to us when we were in Elementary school and we both played for our school then, Harvesters Junior 9ers. Seeing him here now made me feel weird!

“Hey Aston, come and meet the team! What are you doing up there anyway?” Coach Uche shouted

“Coming Coach!”

“Right, your teammates; Abdul, Taiwo, Ovo, Lysander, Chrysler, Muna, Dike, Temi, Tega, Darlington and Alvin!” said the coach, “Team, this is Aston!”