Bad-Luck Basketball (2 page)

CHAPTER 3

Brandon's day didn't get any better as it went on. A cloud of bad luck seemed to hover over him. He'd forgotten his lunch at home, he managed to lose his homework, and his shirt got snagged on his seat in math class and ripped. Worst of all, everyone looked at him like he was a walking curse.

By the end of the day, practicing for the Clovers' final game was the last thing Brandon wanted to do. In the locker room, he plopped down on a bench and put his head in his hands.

“Having a bad day?” Jeff asked, taking a seat next to him.

“The worst,” Brandon said. “Either Kevin's bad luck stuff is really getting to me or it's true.”

Jeff bounced a basketball on the locker room floor. “I keep telling you it's not about luck, man,” he said. “But now that Kevin has managed to get in your head, you'll think everything bad that happens is because of the whole ladder thing.”

Brandon thought about it. Maybe Jeff was right. Things went wrong all the time, with or without some goofy superstition.

“Okay,” Brandon said, forcing himself to smile. “I'll try not to let it get to me.”

“That's the spirit,” Jeff said. As he headed to the gym, Jeff called back over his shoulder, “Brandon! Watch out for that black cat!”

“Dude, not funny,” Brandon said following after his friend. But he couldn't help but smile. He knew Jeff was just trying to cheer him up.

“Yeah, it kind of was,” Jeff said as he ran out onto the court. “Let's do this, Clovers!”

* * *

At first, practice wasn't that bad. Kevin didn't say anything about Brandon being bad luck, and even though Brandon wanted to demand an apology, he decided to drop it. Maybe if they had a decent practice, everyone would let it go.

The Clovers started off running drills. Coach Hanson had mapped out the defense they could expect the Edison Wildcats to run in the next game and set up a few offensive plays to work around it.

At one point, Jeff drove down the court into what was supposed to be the Wildcats' zone and passed the ball off to Drew, one of the forwards. Without missing a beat, Drew dribbled, pivoted, and faked to the basket.

When an opposing player jumped up to block the shot, Drew fired a bounce pass to the other side of the key. Brandon quickly scooped it up and dropped the ball through the net for a quick two points.

“Nice!” Coach Hanson shouted. “Good work, guys! This sure isn't the same team I saw the other day! Let's do it again!”

Brandon high fived Drew and Jeff.

“See?” Jeff said. “It's not bad luck, it's just better basketball.”

Even Kevin seemed to be in a better mood. Probably because everyone was so totally focused on the upcoming game. If they won, it would be the Clovers' first chance to compete in the play-offs in years.

“Watch your guy, Tony!” Coach Hanson yelled. “When he moves, you stay with him. Never mind the ball!”

The Clovers spread out, playing man-to-man defense. Brandon watched as Kevin got into position for the opposing team's offensive drive down court, and the ball started moving.

Stephen, one of the opposing forwards, tried to pass the ball to his teammate, Charlie. Brandon stepped forward to intercept the pass and ended up throwing a shoulder into Tony. Tony reached out to steady himself and ended up knocking them both to the ground. They stood up just in time to watch Charlie drive the ball through their broken defense and into the net for an easy lay-up.

“You okay?” Brandon asked. He watched Tony limp off on his already tweaked ankle. They sent Pete in to replace Tony. As soon as Pete got to the court, he started in.

“Do me a favor, Brandon,” Pete said, “stay away from me, okay? I heard ­—”

“Don't even start,” Brandon interrupted. “We ran into each other. It was an accident.”

“Seems like accidents happen to you more than anybody,” Pete muttered.

Once the clock started again, Drew threw the ball in to Jeff, who dribbled down court and slowed near the top of the key. He fired a pass to Kevin, who drove along the left side, looking for an opening. Brandon juked and faked out his defender to open himself up for a pass. Even though Kevin saw him open, he turned and bounced the ball back to Jeff.

Fantastic
, Brandon thought.
One slip-up and now he thinks I'm cursed again.

Jeff turned as an opposing player lunged for a steal. He managed to keep the ball and moved toward the basket. Two more defenders moved in, forcing Jeff to pass the ball back to Brandon.

With a clear shot at the basket, Brandon jumped and let the ball fly. It hit the rim and bounced back, letting Charlie pick up the rebound. Suddenly, all of the lights in the gym went out, blanketing the whole court in darkness.

“Seriously?” Brandon said. All around him, he could hear his teammates bumping into each other in the darkness. Shoes squeaked as they tripped, and someone let out a loud yelp as he hit the ground.

Coach Hanson opened one of the side doors that lead out to the soccer field. It cast a bright rectangle of light into the gym. “Let your eyes adjust, guys,” Coach shouted. “Don't move until you can see. We don't need anyone else knocked around.”

As Brandon headed toward the light, he saw Kevin walking toward to him. Drew was close behind, rubbing his head. Tony limped after them.

“Just a coincidence, right, Brandon?” Kevin asked. “The lights just happened to shut off after you blew that shot.”

Brandon didn't say anything.
Maybe Kevin's right
, he thought.
Maybe I really am bad luck. And if that's true, I have a decision to make.

CHAPTER 4

Most of the time, Brandon hated lying. He knew it wasn't the right thing to do. But there were times when bending the truth a little bit was best for everyone.

Not that that makes doing it any easier
, Brandon thought as he stood outside Coach Hanson's office the next day, trying to work up the nerve to go inside. He knew he needed to tell the coach he couldn't play in Friday's game. It was as simple as that.

It wasn't like he didn't have a good reason for deciding to skip the game. After what had happened at practice the day before, Brandon was pretty sure that his bad-luck curse was real. And since the Clovers only had one chance at getting into the play-offs, they needed all the good luck they could get.

On top of that, no one else seemed to have noticed the date of Friday's game — Friday the thirteenth.

That settled it. Brandon knew he had to skip the game. He wouldn't even be able to go watch his teammates play. He had to stay as far away as possible. Taking a deep breath, Brandon knocked on Coach Hanson's door.

“Come in!” Coach hollered from the other side of the door.

Brandon pushed the door open and stepped into Coach Hanson's office. The space was small, as if it had once been a custodian's closet, but Coach kept it neat and organized. Team photos from past seasons decorated the small desk, and a thin shelf overhead held a few well-worn coaching books.

Coach Hanson looked up as Brandon entered the office. “Brandon,” he said with a smile. He glanced up at the clock on the wall. “You're a little early. Practice doesn't start for another twenty minutes.”

“I know, Coach,” Brandon said. He stood for a moment, twisting the strap of his backpack nervously. “I just need to talk to you about something.”

Coach Hanson set down the clipboard he was holding and looked at Brandon. “What can I do for you?” Coach asked.

I should just tell him I'm bad luck
, Brandon thought.
And that I'm afraid of losing the big game for the Clovers. If we don't make the play-offs, it'll be all my fault.

Instead, he pushed ahead with his plan. “I won't be able to play in the game on Friday,” Brandon said quickly. He had to get the words out before he could change his mind. “Some family stuff came up.”

Coach Hanson sat back in his chair, making it squeak slightly. He rubbed his temples with his fingers and shook his head. He clearly wasn't happy about the news.

“This is terrible, Brandon,” Coach said. “We really need you.”

“I know. I'm sorry,” Brandon replied. He did feel bad. But not bad enough to risk cursing the rest of the team with his bad luck.

“I'm sorry if that sounded rude,” Coach said, shaking his head. “I apologize. I do hope everything is okay. Family matters always come first, of course.”

“Of course,” Brandon said. He felt his stomach turn. He already regretted his decision to lie to the coach.
It's for the good of the team
, he reminded himself.

“We'll have to switch our lineup around quite a bit,” Coach Hanson said, mostly to himself. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, then grabbed his binder and flipped it open. As Brandon watched, Coach put a slash through Brandon's name on the roster.

“I'm sure the team will be fine without me,” Brandon said, trying to make himself feel better about his decision.

With everything that had happened since he'd walked under that stupid ladder, it wasn't hard to believe that statement to be true. At least with him out of the way, no one would twist any more ankles, get hit in the head with the ball, or who knew what else.

“Well, we'll manage,” Coach said, “but it's hard to be a team when a big part of it is missing. I know we've had kind of a rough season, but seeing you guys work together on the court always made me think this was the year we'd finally get to the play-offs.”

Brandon's stomach flipped again. He needed to get out of the coach's office before he felt any worse about his lie. Or broke down and came clean. He knew Coach would try to convince him to play.

“Well, I need to head home,” Brandon said quickly. “Sorry again, Coach.”

“Take care, Brandon,” Coach said. “I hope everything is okay. Make sure to wish us luck on Friday, would you?”

Brandon nodded. “Yeah,” he said, taking another deep breath. “Of course. Well, good luck.” With that, he closed the office door behind him, leaving the coach alone to figure out what to do with the team.

As he walked home, Brandon told himself he'd made the right choice. All that mattered was that the Clovers won their game on Friday. And in order for that to happen, Brandon knew he couldn't be there.

CHAPTER 5

Brandon didn't bother going to practice that night. If he wasn't going to play on Friday, there really wasn't any point. Instead, while the Clovers were back at school preparing for the big game, Brandon shot some hoops at the public park near his home.

The rest of the park was empty, so Brandon had the court all to himself. He drove the ball back and forth between the hoops, mixing up his shots. He did layups on both sides of the hoop, jump shots from the edge of the key, free throws from the line, and even sank several three-pointers in a row. He definitely didn't play like someone cursed with bad luck.

Maybe it's just when I'm around the others
, Brandon thought as he shot the ball up toward the basket. It bounced off the rim, hit a curb, and flew out into the street. Two seconds later, a car drove past, knocking the ball down the road and out of sight.

“Nope,” Brandon said with an unhappy groan. “Still got it.”

He went after the ball and found it two blocks away, flattened and limp in the gutter. So much for one-on-none practice.

* * *

Later that night, Brandon ate dinner with his parents. Nobody asked how practice had gone, so he didn't tell them he'd skipped out. He still wasn't sure what he was going to tell them when they wanted to go to the game on Friday.

When he was almost done eating, the phone rang. Brandon recognized Jeff's number and excused himself to take the call.

“Hey, Jeff,” Brandon answered.

“What're you doing?” Jeff asked.

“Just finishing dinner, what —” Brandon started to say.

“No,” Jeff interrupted. “I mean why are you skipping out on the big game tomorrow night?”

Brandon paused, not sure what to say. He doubted his friend was going to buy his excuse as easily as Coach had.

When Brandon didn't speak up quickly enough, Jeff jumped back in. “It's this bad luck garbage again, isn't it?” he asked. “You believe in that stuff now?”

“How can I not?” Brandon snapped. “You saw what happened the other day! The lights went out, and people were smacking into each other in the dark. How does that happen?”

Jeff laughed like he couldn't believe how ridiculous he sounded. “Dude, there was a power surge! It had nothing to do with you!”

Brandon wasn't so sure. It seemed like bad luck followed him no matter where he went lately. To prove his point he asked, “So how did practice go? Anything bad happen without me there?”

Jeff was quiet for a few seconds. “Well, not really . . .” he began.

“See?” Brandon cried. “You guys had a normal practice without me and my bad luck there to mess things up.”

Jeff groaned. “So any time something bad happens, you're going to blame yourself? That's stupid!”

Brandon didn't think so. “I can't be the reason the Clovers lose tomorrow,” he insisted. “Do you know how awful I'd feel?”

Jeff groaned again. “So what? You're done playing basketball now?” he asked. “You walk under a ladder and that's the end of it?” He laughed, making Brandon feel a little foolish.

“No,” Brandon admitted. “I'll play again. Maybe once this dumb curse finally wears off. Whenever that is.”

“So how will you know?” Jeff demanded. “When strange things stop happening?”

Brandon thought about the basketball he'd managed to destroy after school. “I'll know,” he said, deciding to keep the poor basketball's fate to himself. “Trust me.”