8 Ch8: Basketball

"Alright hurry up, I want to get to the mall before all the best stores close." Brooke said as she stopped outside a gas station so that he could get himself something to drink. Nodding he went inside while asking if she wanted anything, which she didn't so he went ahead to go grab the drinks he wanted.

Walking inside he ignored the man behind the register before going to grab some Gatorade's, he took five different 64oz before leaving, he thought just in case they wanted some. After paying he got back in the car and Brooke drove him right to the river court, "Be careful on your way home, I will see you at school tomorrow." She said as she parked.

"Yeah catch you tomorrow." He said with a smile grabbing his backpack and getting out the car.

From the parking lot he could see that they were already playing a pick up game at the moment, it was Lucas and Fergie vs Skills and Junk, "And walking on to the court now standing at..... Well we don't have his stats yet but give it up for RYAN ATWOOD!" Mouth said as he walked over to sit next to him and Jimmy.

"Good to see you guys." He said with a smile while changing out his shoes, he already had a pair he was going to play in.

"You showed up at a good time Ryan, Lucas and Fergie are up by two and only need the next shot to win. Skills and Junk are really holding them off though, but Lucas is look great out there shooting a perfect 6 for 6 tonight." Mouth said to him telling him how the game was going so far.

Ryan nodded while watching Skills check the ball to Lucas who smiled, he passed off to Fergie who looked to have decent handles as he shook Junk. Skills moved to intercept when he saw that Junk went down, that left Lucas wide open though as the ball was passed over to him, he took the fade away while being alone.

Him and Fergie cheered as the ball went in the hoop, Mouth and Jimmy got all excited as if it was a real game, by this time the real basketball game was going on at the school. He also saw that Brooke messaged him, she sent him a couple of pictures of the dresses she wanted to buy, he didn't even have enough time to reply before she bought them all.

Shaking his head he went ahead and paid attention to the guys, "So whose team am I on?" he asked while looking at the four of them.

"How about this new kid, it will be you and Fergie vs me and Lucas here." Skills said with a smile.

Ryan could tell from that little playing he saw earlier that Skills and Lucas were the best on the court, he didn't really care because he was only here for fun. "That sounds good to me, we can go ahead after you all get some rest." He said while leaning back on the picnic table that they were all sitting on.

"Was that Brooke Davis who dropped you off earlier?" Skills asked with a raised brow looking at him as he was checking his phone.

He nodded his head, "Yeah, we have actually become friends, we are even hanging out this weekend."

They all nodded but it was Junk who spoke up, "Man what I wouldn't give for her to notice me, that girl is beautiful and not to mention friendly."

Everyone laughed a little, he didn't take that to seriously though because they were just making jokes, if it was more serious then another fight might have happened. He was trying his best to keep his temper in check, he didn't want to have another fight within two days, plus the joking manner he told it in let him know it wasn't insulting.

As they rested they talked some more about the people at school, Ryan got to know more about them since they were able to tell details on everyone at school. Everyone besides him looked over as a car was driving past them, from where he sat he could see that it was Peyton, she was most likely on her way to the school, late by the looks of it.

"You know I hear she is nude on the webcam of hers." Junk said as she drove past.

It didn't escape his notice that Lucas was staring at her hard, it seemed that someone had a crush on the girl, from how hard he was looking at her it was a serious crush too. Shaking his head he decided not to pay attention to it, Lucas knew what he was doing, well at least he hoped the guy didn't mess with her while she was still with Nathan.

That would just cause more problems between the two of them, he should just keep it all inside.

"Alright guys let's start the game." Lucas said as the car drifted away and they couldn't see the tail lights anymore.

Getting on to the court they flipped a coin for who would go first, Fergie and him ended up getting the ball first, it was the first to twenty-one and they had to win by two. Shaking himself off he went to check it up to Lucas who was guarding him, he passed to Fergie though since he wanted to see how the guy would start it off.

He moved around the court while staying open so he could be passed to, he noticed it was harder for Fergie to get around Skills then it was for him to get around Junk. Rushing over he got open catching the pass that was thrown to him, shooting from the three he watched it sail in as Lucas jumped to block.

Three's were turned into twos for the game so it was two nothing, setting it up again he checked it with Lucas while playing the guy with tight defense, he didn't want him to get past. He knew that Skills was really good too but Lucas looked to be the best out of all of them, so he had to make sure the guy didn't get hot.

Seeing that he wasn't getting around he passed under the rim to Skills who was there waiting for it, that was all that Ryan was going to allow. He honestly was just playing for fun, but he did enjoy having such good defense, it made him feel awesome that he could stop someone at Lucas level.

When just three days ago he couldn't play at all, so this was something that was just amazing.

After twenty minutes the score was twenty to fifteen, most of the points for Lucas and Skills were made by Skills, though there were some times that Ryan allowed Lucas to score. As for him an Fergie he set up a lot of shots for Fergie, they had double teamed him some especially when the score got closer to them winning.

"Game point." He said with a smile as he checked the ball up to Lucas who nodded his head.

"Dang man, I was not expecting you to be this hard to beat." Lucas said with a smile as he passed the ball back to Ryan.

Ryan didn't want to drag it out anymore and just took the shot that he wanted from the three point line, "Game." He said walking away as the ball sailed into the net with a swish.

Fergie ran up to him excited as the two shook hands, "Man it feels so good to finally beat the two of them, you don't know how hard it is to play them when they team up like that."

Ryan just smiled as Lucas and Skills agreed, all of them laughed as they played some more games, when it was getting to late that is when Ryan decided to take off. "Well it has been fun playing with you all but it is time for me to go, I have a long bike ride home."

Lucas nodded along with everyone else, "Yeah, it is time to get going I also have a long walk home."

They all talked for a little longer before they took off, Ryan sent a message to Brooke before taking off home on his bike, she asked him to send it before he did. The ride home was relaxing though he was almost hit by a school bus, no clue what one was doing speeding through town this late at night.

He didn't really pay attention to it as he made his way home, he was actually really tired from playing with them for hours, all he wanted to do was go home and relax.

As he finally made it home he texted Brooke who sent him a smiley face before he walked in the front door, his Granny Luna was already asleep for the night. She went out for dinner with her friends for the night, they had already talked earlier about her most likely being asleep by the time that he showed up, which turned out to be true.

Heading upstairs he took a shower before sitting at his laptop, he wanted to spend some time fixing coding work to make more money, all the money was going right to the card. He spent three hours doing that before going to sleep, he planned to meet Brooke in the morning, and he also still needed to wake up early so that he could make breakfast and lunch.

----

Ryan woke the next morning making breakfast and lunch before heading outside, he paused though when he saw Brooke's car sitting in the drive-way, "What are you doing here?" he asked as he walked over to her door.

She smiled brightly, "Well I have cheerleading practice early so I have to make my way to the school. Plus there is some juicy gossip this morning, so I figured I might as well come pick up my favorite boy."

Ryan looked at her for a moment before nodding, "Alright well let's go ahead and get going then. I only leave this early since I wake up to make breakfast and lunch each day, otherwise I would not have come out here, even if you called me."

"Oh don't worry I totally understand, if you were to call me to come out I would ignore you too." She said with a nod and a smile as she backed out.

"So, what is this juicy gossip you have?" He asked as he settled into the car.

"Well I got a call from Jessica who was there last night who told me that Nathan and some of the basketball team are going to be in big trouble today. Apparently they stole a bus last night and took it on a joy ride, of course Nathan and Tim got out of it though, but it seems that the team will be missing a lot of key players." She said with excitement in her voice.

He shook his head hearing that, "Well that is something, so I assume that they got grounded so no pool hang Saturday?"

She shook her head, "No, they got in trouble but everyone who is coming to the pool party is still coming since they didn't get into any trouble."

Ryan could only shake his head, he knew that Jocks and rich kids tended to get off light depending on what happens, well even sometimes they got out of big situations. It didn't really matter where you moved to, it was just a fact that certain groups never got into any trouble.

The car went quiet, she saw that he was thinking so she turned on the radio and just sat there, she was planning to talk to Jessica more about it when they got to school. They didn't talk about it that much last night since it was so late, now though it was the only thing going on in her head, she really wanted the full details.

Ryan though was lowly singing to the music on the radio, he was so lost in thought that it just happened, Brooke almost crashed hearing his singing voice. She didn't interrupt him though and let him keep singing, she was in a trance while listening to him sing along to the song.

He didn't even notice her reaction though, he was so lost in the song that he didn't really pay attention to what was going on around him, it just happened to be one of his favorite songs at the moment. When he finally noticed they were at the school and Brooke was just sitting there looking at him with a shocked face.

"Umm don't you need to get to practice?" He asked shyly seeing that she was just staring at him.

She grinned, "You might be getting out of this now, but we will be talking about this later, did you forget that we have every class together?"

He cursed under his breath forgetting that little fact, she only laughed as they got out of the car, he took his bike from the back before riding off, "See you later wanna be Gavin DeGraw!" She said as he biked away.

"It was a Michael Jackson song!" He shouted back as the two of them got looks from the early athletes that were there for morning practices and other school activities, he also ran into Haley.

"What was that all about, and did I just see you get out of Brooke Davis's car?" She asked with a playful smile on her face as he rode up next to her.

He sighed, "Nothing, she was talking about me singing in the car this morning. Yeah we have gotten a little close, she wanted to talk this morning and had cheerleading practice so she decided to give me a ride along with her as she came in today."

"Ahh, well is it anything more then that or are you just friends?" She asked while not looking at him she looked a little to the side.

He smirked while looking down at her, "Well, well, well, does Haley have a crush on little old me? I mean I get it I am handsome and everything, but we haven't really talked much outside that one lunch."

She blushed shaking her head, "No I was just curious about the two of you. Also it is your fault that we don't talk, texting and calling goes two ways you can always send me a message at any time."

He nodded, "That is true, I can do that more."

"Yup!" She said smiling cheerfully.

"Atwood!" They both heard someone call his name, looking to the side he could see coach Durham who was walking over to the two of them. Ryan only knew he was the coach since he was also the teacher for their study hall period.

"What's up coach?" He asked confused seeing the man stop in front of them.