Before I can allay Nick’s suspicions and hit Brian, Ali walks back in with a bright smile.
“Ok, let’s go kick ass!”
“Yay!” Nick kisses her and then pulls her outside. “Nearest court?”
“On the corner,” Ali points out the direction. “Only a short walk.”
“Race ya!” Nick yells, and sets off at a run. Ali groans and follows him.
“I’m not running any place,” Brian yells after them and reaches for my hand. We walk along slowly.
“Did you sort things out with Ali?”
“Yup. I apologised and we talked a little more.”
I smile and squeeze his hand gently. “Thanks.”
He smiles and kisses me. “Anything for you.”
A few minutes later we join the other two on the basketball court. Nick puts an arm around Ali and gestures towards Brian.
“Ya notice this guy don’t like to do ANYTHING fast?”
Ali giggles. “I noticed. Like your dance routines… He’s all dance, dance, walk away, dance some more, wave…”
Brian pouts. “Hey, I’m just takin’ my time. Enjoyin’ myself. Livin’ life.”
“Chillin’. Havin’ a Bud,” Nick teases.
“True,” Ali finishes.
I laugh and put my arms around Brian’s neck. “Aw, you leave my man alone. He’s just perfect as he is!” I kiss him and he picks me up.
“Me and my girl are leavin’ if you give me no respect,” Brian carries me over to the fence laughing.
“Big respect!” Nick races after us. “You da man!”
“Who da man?!” yells Ali.
“B-Rok!” yells Nick.
Brian looks at me. “Hmm, what do you think?”
“Hmm…” I pretend to think for a while. “Stay.”
“Ok,” he kisses me and puts me down. “C’mon Jade, let’s show ‘em how it should be played.”
I laugh as Ali slips her hand through my arm so that we’re facing the two guys. “Sorry, but it’s US against YOU guys.”
Ali nods. “And we’re gonna whup yo asses!”
Brian and Nick lean against each other laughing. “Bring it on!”
Ali turns to me. “Let’s huddle!” I giggle and join hands with her over our heads. She yells, “What we gonna do?”
I yell back, “Beat them!”
“When we gonna do it?”
“Now!”
“How we gonna do it?”
“Easily!”
We jump up and high five each other yelling “GIRL POWER!”
We turn at look at Brian and Nick who are killing themselves with laughter. When they recover, Nick grabs Brian’s arms.
“Who got the power?”
“Backstreet got the power!” Brian yells.
“Who got the moves?”
“Backstreet got the moves!”
“Who got the score?”
“Backstreet got the score!”
They jump up and yell “BACKSTREET!”
Ali and me have to sit down for laughing too much. When we recover, we jump up and head down the court – grabbing the ball off Nick on the way.
“I think we should make a wager,” Ali suggests.
“What are the consequences?” Brian asks, intrigued.
“Okay, we each get to pick our own. Which means each guy or girl will have to do one thing. Mine is…okay, if we win you guys have to give us massages whenever and for however long we want.”
“Ohh! I like that!” Brian rubs his hands together with a chuckle. He eyes me up and down. “Ok, mine is…” he pulls me close and whispers in my ear.
I blush and start giggling before pushing him away. “Brian! But I guess…that does sound good so…ditto!”
Nick gives us a look. “So?”
Brian shrugs. “All I can say is… CENSORED!”
Nick grins dirtily. “Ok, Ali… You gotta be my love slave for 24 hours. Non-stop. No clothes.”
Ali shrugs breezily. “That all?” She winks at him and heads down the court with the basketball. She shoots and scores.
I jump up and down clapping, “Yay!”
“No fair!” Nick pouts.
“Foul play!” yells Brian.
Ali shrugs innocently and throws the ball at Nick. “Your play.”
“I guess I should’ve warned you. Let’s just say I spent a LOT of time with my high school basketball team!” Brian and Jade laugh, but Nick just kinda stands there.
“I don’t get it,” Nick says, confused. He quickly recovers and steals the ball from me, running to the basket and shooting a lay-up.
“Travelling!” I yell. “He wasn’t dribbling the ball!”
“Yeah! That doesn’t count. Don’t we get like a penalty thing or something?” Jade asks.
“Yup, you wanna shoot it?” I ask, throwing her the ball.
“Sure,” she gets into position and shoots. “Nothing but net!” she giggles, as we five each other again.
“Check,” Nick yells, passing the ball to Brian.
He runs around us and shoots the ball. “Ha ha, two for us!”
“You’re still losing, don’t get too excited,” I mutter, grabbing the ball. I get on rebound and pass to Jade. Brian comes up and hugs her, and as she holds the ball over her head Nick easily steals it. “Damn I hate tall people!” I yell, hands on hips.
“That was a foul!” Jade exclaims as Brian puts her down.
“So?” he asks.
“So?” I repeat. “So that means I can do this?” I run up and tackle Nick, who has been standing there watching the whole thing. The ball rolls away from him to the middle of the court. “Jade! Get it!”
She escapes Brian and picks up the ball. Dodging him again, she backs up and shoots a three-pointer.
“Yeah! You rock!” I yell, giving her a hug. Nick and Brian grumble to themselves.
“Excuse me? What to you say?” Jade asks, as I spin the ball on my finger.
“Nothing…” answers Nick.
“Really? ‘Cause it sounded like you called us cheaters? Now, you wouldn’t do a thing like that would you?”
“Nuh uh,” they both answer, their heads bowed to the ground. Jade and I laugh until our sides hurt.
“This is too easy!” I say, dribbling around Nick and shooting another three-pointer.
As I pass back to Jade, Brian intercepts and shoots but misses. Nick gets the rebound and does a fancy backward slam-dunk.
“Show off,” Jade mutters.
“You wanna see show-off?” Brian grabs the ball and dribbles it underneath his legs. He gets directly in front of the net and turns toward us. Closing his eyes, he shoots the ball backward. Much to our surprise it goes in.
“Okay, I thought we were playin’ a game here?” I ask, rebounding the ball and spinning it again on my finger.
“Then what are you waiting for?” Nick asks, as he gets on my defence trying to steal the ball. His body completely blocks mine and I wait for Jade to get behind me to hand the ball off. She spins around and shoots but misses.
“Dammit!”
I run through Nick and Brian and grab the ball. Shooting it, it bounces off the backboard. Jade jumps up behind me making a perfect assist. Brian comes up rebounding but I block him as he tries to shoot to Nick. Barely touching the ball I swat it up into the air and it lands in the basket.
“Luck!” Brian yells, outraged. Nick laughs at his enthusiasm, and Jade laughs at Nick.
“Pure SKILL! Sorry, you don’t know what that word means. It means we,” I point to Jade then myself, “have talent, you guys...don’t.”
We play for about another hour and the final score is 67-58, our game.
“Yes!! We bad!” I shout, as Jade and I jump up and down happily.
“We rock, girl!” Jade yells, and we break into song. “We are the champions, my friends! And we’ll keep on…”
“Okay, y’all are really sucky winners!” Brian replies, as he and Nick sit on the stands to sulk.
“No, y’all are just bad losers!” Jade says, and we start giggling again.
“I can’t believe they won, Rok!” Nick exclaims. “I REALLY wanted Ali to do my dare, too,” he smirks, rubbing his hands together.
“You perv!” Brian laughs.
“Like you didn’t want Jade to do yours!”
“Well…” Brian licks his lips and they stand up and walk on over to us. They laugh at our singing.
“You interrupted our song! We were at the good part too!” I shriek, in my highest pitched voice.
“Damn girl! Keep your voice down!” Brian says, plugging up his ears as the rest of us laugh.
“Can we go home now? I feel like celebrating,” Jade says, throwing her hair over one shoulder.