Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 101 : High School Experience

*** As we reached the stadium, we could see that it was packed to the hilt with the village residents. The excitement and expectations emanating from the audience spiked our anxiety. Mom, Dad, Nishi Sir, Sagar sir, and the Brigadier were already waiting for us. 

Jessica’s team of Bikers was also there to witness us play. I caught Master Daa and Tribeni Dadu sitting among the crowd. There was Vikram who was chatting with the village chieftain.

Nishi sir instructed all the players to gather together so that when Vikash and Joy reaches the stadium, the match could be started without delay. After about 5 minutes of waiting, I saw both of them entering the stadium with a heap of T-shirts in their hands. Joy walked towards Nishi sir and the Brigadier and handed 2 of the t-shirts to them which they wore over their existing shirts. It had the players' names printed on the back. The rest of the team members were handed T-shirts in team colors. Abhinu’s team was dressed in red while my band donned the blue hues. ***

Nishi sir walked to the center of the field and gestured us to gather there. Once all were assembled, he started to dictate the rules and terms of the match, In his polite and yet commanding voice.

"Today each team will be playing with 5 members. No extras. Your objective would be to shoot the ball through the basket hoop.

A team can score a single point by shooting the ball through the basket while being defended by the opposition team during play. A field goal scores three points for the shooting team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line or as professionals call it the charity stripe and two points if shot within the front of the line.

A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point after the other team is assessed with certain fouls. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. 

The ball can be advanced on the court by throwing it to a teammate, or by bouncing it while walking or running or as you call it dribbling. It is a violation to lift, or drag, one's foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling.

You are allowed to shoot, pass, dribble, and rebound. No pushing or hurting players from the other team.”

Everyone presents on the field nodded their heads to indicate that we understood the rules well. Nishi Sir continued:

“There will be 2 referees today. I will be the lead referee and Mr. Shahi will be the lead Umpire who will also be tasked at keeping a check at the monitors in case anyone does a foul. Mr. Sanjay will be the commentator during the match.”

He looked at everyone and spoke again “Any questions on the rules?"

As nobody responded to his query, he continued, “If nobody has any questions, let the game begin.”

“PLAYERS TO THEIR POSITION…” Nishi sir gave a shout, and everyone went to their respective places.

I heard Sanjay starting his commentary…

“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for taking your time to come and cheer the players for the match. I hope you will have a wonderful time today.”

“Coming to the match, I could see here that in Joe’s team, Uncle Christopher will be playing the forward position while our very own Sagar and J.P. is stationed at the guard position… looks like Joe and Vikash are positioned to cover the Center. While in the other team, It seems like Aunty Christopher is positioned as forward, with our sweethearts Abhinu and Monika giving her company. Jessica and Miss. Banerjee who is dressed up like a cheerleader will be playing defense.”

“Guess what, I think I should take back my word... the match seems pretty onesided, so I wish to apologize to you all in advance, I guess Nishi Sir should stop the match to avoid any embarrassment to the red band and declare the Blue team the winners, as there is no way the team in Red has a chance of winning… they might win your heart with its beautiful cheerleader…”

“I guess the team had forgotten that this is basketball and not fashion show…”

*** Everyone started to laugh at the taunts by Sanjay to Aamaya. A few of them were also Booing Abhinu’s team. It felt like Aamaya was in a tight spot being the butt of a joke that was making her uncomfortable. It didn’t feel good and for once I was having the strange feeling that Sanjay was doing this on purpose… taunting at Aamaya might also be Jessica’s doing considering most of the things said by Sanjay was the same Darika told Abhinu that day or the time Aamaya instigated her friends to molest Abhinu.

It felt like Jessica almost had her way, even though back at the car we asked her not to do it.

I turned to look towards Jessica and saw that she was looking at someone and shaking her head from the left to the right repeatedly. I turned to look at whom she was looking at and understood it was Sanjay. She was indicating him to stop mocking Aamaya or probably he is mocking her too much. I guess he understood her and stopped using the term cheerleader and continued with the commentary ***

“We have our very own N.N. sir throwing the ball into the air and Aunty and Uncle Christopher jumping into the air to get the ball. Uncle pushes the ball in the air, and it bounced off towards Joe…"

“He caught the ball and started to dribble it towards the hoop… I can see Monika charge at Joe and without a beat, he passed the ball toward Sagar, however… I don’t believe it Aamaya came out of nowhere and caught the ball before Sagar can touch it and without taking a step passed it over to Jessica, who stopped the ball by her left hand, dribbled it, took two steps, and passed it over to Aunty before Sagar could snatch it from her.”

“Aunty throws the ball in the air and it hit the square of the board, rolled through the hoop, and fell through the basket.”

“I don’t believe it… it’s a score… and our referee had indicated that it has been scored through the 3-point Arc indicating 3 points. The ladies have proved it they are better than the men folks. I guess I will have to apologize to the ladies for making fun of them.”

“Vikash has started dribbling the ball and is trying to break through the red team’s defense, Jessica is trying to block him from moving forward by raising her hands.”

“He is taking a step back and it seems like he is trying to pass it over to Joe but then… Oh… my god I don’t believe it… Our little miss sunshine appeared out of nowhere and took possession of the ball…”

“It seems Abhinu is covering her from the right to support her and then from the opening she saw no one was covering the hoop, she threw the ball directly in the air… and that’s another score…”

“Our referee blew the whistle and indicated that it’s a 2 pointer… I don’t believe it… it’s passed 25 minutes now and Joe’s team of professional players are yet to score their first basket…”

“I bet the Men folks are truly ashamed of their performance or the fact that the rookies are giving them a real tough time. Come on boys do something… stop embarrassing us in front of all the rookies...”

*** The match continued and by the time it was half time, Abhinu’s team was leading by 20 points. Mom and Jessica were actually playing effectively and for some reason, my team of players who had experience in playing for the national team is not even able to dribble the ball near the opposition hoop, or for that matter, they are unable to even cross the 2-pointer arc. Aamaya has been defending the hoop like Diana Taurasi. Mom had scored 10 points while Jessica scored 6 points. I couldn’t believe Jessica and Mom played flawless basketball. Every time Dad or J.P. sir tried to charge at the duo, they actually ended up letting them score. Even Aamaya was able to score a point. I was ashamed of myself for performing that badly.

This was only the first half of the match, who knows what does the second half of the match has in store for me. What was surprising was the basketball skills by Aamaya. I mean, that day when she played, it felt like she has never played basketball in her life, but after what I saw just now, it seemed as if she had played basketball before and she is quite skilled at it too. I wonder why did she under-performed that day   ***

                                            TO BE CONTINUED...

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