Extraordinary Losers 2 (4 page)

The sun stung our skins. Its rays spilled through the basketball hoop making it hard to see. On the court, four of us took our positions, like we had practised.

WHEEEEETT! went Miss Teo's whistle. It was time for the jump ball between Clandestino and Adam.

Clandestino sprang up high into the air, caught the ball, and then somersaulted in mid-air. Before any of us realised, he had slam-dunked the ball into the hoop! When he landed on the ground again, he whizzed past me so quickly that all I saw was a blur of tall and thin!

Because he was too fast, no one really appreciated his stunts; he was simply too quick for their eyes!

“Yay! Two points for the Losers!” the referee, who was also the head prefect and known for her strong sense of justice, announced. It was a magical start.

“Yay! Yay! Yay!” Janice jumped.

The three of us couldn't believe it. We knew Clandestino was good but we didn't know he was brilliant! The crowd, looking like a rowdy mob, booed.

Clandestino's smile fizzled into a frown, as he saw that no one was on his side. Why would anyone be? They were here for the Pros, not us.

Leonard, however, realised Clandestino's incredible skill and decided to modify the rules.

“Wait! Wait!

Wait! Only Clandestino seems to be having the ball, the rest of you are standing there like dummies. It's not fair. From now on, he must pass the ball to at least one of you before he can shoot. If not, all of you will be disqualified.”

“Hey!” I protested. “Who made you King of Everything?”

“I made myself the King,” said Leonard, thumping his chest like an ape.

Justin quickly butted in. “This match is not only about him, it is about all of you against all of us. Get it?” He sounded like an animal too.

“Alright,” Clandestino agreed, shielding me from our opponents. Then he dribbled the ball a few times, before propping it on my chest and arms.

“Good luck,” he said with a wink. Mundi was visibly shivering. He pursed his lips so tightly that sweat droplets collected above his lips. “I-I-I d-d-don't think I-I-I can do this, n-no?”

“Everyone ready?” Miss Teo squeaked.

“YESSS!!” I said. My other team members didn't echo my sentiment. By then, a few teachers had come to witness the match. It was after school and the teachers didn't mind us sweating like pigs. As long as we weren't in their class. It was alright if they arrived in class in a cloud of heavy, overpowering perfume and cologne that smelt like air freshener, but it wasn't okay for us to, well, smell like kids.

WHEEEEEET! The whistle blew again! At that moment, Justin tore towards me and snatched the ball away before I could even figure out where my teammates were. Janice was hiding behind Adam. Mundi had run to take shelter under a tree.

“Hey, guys, what are the two of you doing?” I asked.

“It's too rough out here, Darryl. I just got knocked and whammed into,” Janice groused.

“Come on, the opposing team is winning, Janice!” Clandestino pleaded.

“But I'm hungry!” she said.

“Yeah, I am s-s-so afraid, th-th-they'll run over me. No?” Mundi added.

While we were discussing our strategy, Adam had scored a three-pointer! The spectators were thrilled! They roared in jubilation for the school team basketballers.

“Hey, I can't do anything without you guys. You need to at least hold the ball before I can do anything,” Clandestino said.

It was our turn, and the only person in the court was me. Clandestino signalled for me to be ready. My hands and feet were positioned in an I'm-so-ready-for-the-ball stance. I clapped twice. Before I knew it, the ball was spinning towards me like an asteroid about to hit Earth. Except that Earth totally dodged and the asteroid missed. I was on the ground, curled up like a baby.

“Ha! LOSER!” Adam snubbed. He was beside me and had grabbed the ball. We were nowhere near the hoop. Without warning, Adam took a deep breath and hurled the ball so high, we almost lost sight of it. Four seconds later, it came spinning back down again, right straight into the hoop!

“Yay! Go go, Team Pros!” the mob cried out in elation. Did they bet money on this game?

“Bummer!” Clandestino muttered, disappointment in his eyes.

“How did Adam do that?” Mundi emerged from behind the tree and scratched his head. The Pros continued to reign on the court. Damien was in his zone too. He was dancing with the basketball. He wriggled free from my tackle, turned away from Mundi's outstretched hands, dodged Janice's dive and soared to score a two-pointer.

When the spectators saw that, they were ecstatic! Clandestino wanted to show off too, but he was constrained because the ball NEVER got to us. Damien, Leonard, Adam and Justin were just too good for any of us. How were we ever going to win? Three more rounds passed, and Team Pros were on a roll! They scored and scored and scored and scored while we stood there like fish out of water.

Think! Think, Darryl.
I stooped down to pick at some grass in agitation.

While waiting for the light bulb moment, however, I could make out a strange noise from a distance. Amid the cheers and boos, I could hear splish, splash, splish, splash. It was coming from the Venus block. It was very odd. It sounded like someone was throwing water onto a wall. I couldn't be sure. It was too far away and the sound was too faint.

“Darryl! Darryl! Snap out of it!” Janice snapped her fingers. “Look at the score board!”

“Darryl … we-we-we ar-ar-are-lo-losing, no?” Mundi said. “Lo-losing bad.”

The score was 12 : 2. We being the 2.

We scanned the sea of Brightstars. Time seemed to stop. Sickening smirks were plastered on their faces.

“Go home, Losers. Don't waste your time!” some jeered. Others simply booed. From the crowd, someone was aiming popcorn at us.

“Losers! Losers! Losers!” they chanted.

“We are never going to make it,” Janice said, her face turning red with embarrassment.

Then she suddenly ran and shouted, “It's time for this!”

She skittered to a nearby tree and hid. We couldn't hear her but all of a sudden we heard a distinctive WHEEEEEEET and Miss Teo's voice saying, “Half time!”

Janice came back running towards us. The four of us huddled together. Clandestino was getting anxious so he took out two pens to spin. Those were his thinking pens. Suddenly, he had a massive brainwave. The type that you hope you would get in exams but never comes.

“Let's see, Janice, you can copycat, right?”

“I can mimic, that's my power, I mean skill, I mean some people call it tal…”

“Okay, okay, Janice. Can you mimic Leonard, Justin, Adam and Damien's voices?”

“SURE!” she exclaimed and did a weird dance.

“That's excellent.” Clandestino nodded. “You do that. Confuse them with your fake voices. Call them to pass the ball to you.”

“Huh?” Janice asked.

“Yes, Janice, they will be c-c-confused, and in th-th th-their confusion they are b-b-bound to pass the ball wrongly,” Mundi finished.

“Wait, wait guys,” I said as I struggled to clean out the wax in my ears. “Let me try to eavesdrop on the Pros' strategy.” I closed my eyes, like a blind man whose hearing is heightened.

“I can hear them right now,” I said. I strained my ears to hear Leonard.

“Adam, you are going to do all the three-pointers from now on, okay?” Leonard directed. “We want them to lose and lose bad! So we will just mess around on the court, but ultimately, we will pass the ball to you and you shoot!”

I opened my eyes. “Guys, they want us to lose bad, and Adam is their man.”

After repeating what I had overheard, Mundi straightened up, walked to the three-point circle, stared up at the hoop, blinked a few times and walked back to us.

“Hey, I think I know the angle at which to block Adam. He is about let's see… 150cm. The angle at which he is going to shoot is 52.2 degrees… and he needs to throw the ball at a speed of eight metres per second.”

“So? What do we need to do?” Clandestino wasn't into Math, and he believed basketball was about rhythm, feeling and speed, not a set of numbers.

Mundi turned to me and said, “Darryl, you think you can jump as high as you can? When you see Adam shoot, the moment the ball leaves his hands, you jump to intercept the ball. Most people stand right in front of the shooter to block. But that is not clever. Not clever at all. Because the ball will travel at eight metres per second, you have to stand … ”

He blinked profusely, calculating and combining all the physical laws of the universe in seconds. Brainwaves were definitely swishing around in his head. Then five seconds later, he yelled, “There! Right there!” He pointed at the exact position I needed to stand in the court.

“Ssshhhh,” Janice whispered. “We don't want them to hear our strategy.”

“Okay!” I whispered back. “But what if the ball comes spinning towards my face, like it did just now?”

“Do not dodge at all costs, Darryl!” Clandestino urged. “Just take it!”

“That's easy for you to say, Clan,” I retorted.

He turned to me, firmly gripped my shoulder and said, “Hey, which do you think is heavier, the ball or your head?”

“My head, of course!”

“Yes, so a wham from a basketball won't and will never hurt you, okay? No pain, no gain.”

“Okay. No pain, no gain. No pain, no gain.” I psyched myself. “Anything else?”

Mundi thought hard for a few seconds before saying, “Nope! Not really.”

“Right!” Janice felt it was her duty to sum everything up. “Darryl, stand right there and jump like crazy! I will mimic their voices to cause confusion. And Clandestino?”

“Yes?!” He sniffed.

“FLY!” Janice exclaimed.

“Got it!” he said. Before we took our positions, we gave each other a handshake that we made up ourselves. First we had to tickle our palms then flap our fingers, then rub our knuckles against each other's and finally extend our fingers as wide as possible, like a blooming flower. Not exactly manly but Janice was a girl and we did some stuff to suit her. Nevertheless, it was our secret code. It wasn't exactly the coolest, well-timed handshake. But it worked. It gave us courage.

WHEEEEET!!! Janice went. Miss Teo had gone for a toilet break and we couldn't wait. We were emboldened. The match had to go on.

The ball was in Adam's hands. As he was looking for his teammate, Janice said in Leonard's voice, “Adam, here! Pass the ball to me!”

Adam's hands worked faster than his eyes and he threw the ball in Janice's direction. Loose ball! Leonard was right at the opposite end of the court. It worked and the Pros lost possession of the ball!

“What did you do? I'm here!” Leonard yelled and scratched his head in bewilderment. He knew someone had imitated his voice but he couldn't tell who. There were 300 children screaming from all different directions!

Janice did her trick again. When Leonard regained possession of the ball, she yelled in Damien's voice, “Over here, Leonard, pass me the ball!”

Leonard threw the ball in the opposite direction to where Damien was!

“I'm here, you fool!” Damien yelled. But it was too late, the ball was already in Clandestino's hand.

“This is getting better, no?” Mundi beamed.

Our opponents were utterly confused. They were throwing the ball in every direction. After a long while, it reached Adam. I took my position where Mundi told me to. I could see Adam aiming purposefully for the three-point shot. “No pain, no gain. No pain, no gain,” I repeated to myself.

I watched for the defining moment when the ball left his hands, and at that moment, jumped as high as I had ever jumped.

Things seemed to move in slow motion as I felt my feet leave the ground. I could feel my hair dancing in the wind. I couldn't see faces anymore. All I saw were trees and a blur of orange! True enough, the ball came spinning towards me like an asteroid. AGAIN! I curled my fingers and brought my hands close to my face, ready to clasp. Then I shut my eyes tight. The next thing I knew I was down on the ground, without a bloody nose. An orange rubber ball was in my hand!