It was a cool, cloudy day and Ji-hun and Timothy were walking to school. When they got to school they saw that there was only one spot left on the basketball sign up sheet. They looked at each other surprised. “So what are we going to do now?” Ji-hun said. “I have a brilliant idea!” Timothy said excitedly. Timothy told Ji-hun that he was going to challenge him to a 1 v.s 1 game. “So whoever wins this game, they can grab that last spot on the team!” said Timothy. So at lunch time they went outside to the basketball court and started playing. “Rock, paper, scissors to see who gets the ball first?” asked Ji-hun. Ji-hun won and the game begins. He makes the first move and scores a basket. “Nice shot Ji-hun!” said Timothy. They kept playing and were tied at 5 when Ji-Hun said “next shot wins.” Ji-hun had the ball at this point and the game was getting intense. Both were exhausted and nervous. Ji-hun dribbled the ball up the court with Timothy defending him pretty good. Ji-hun explodes with the ball left and quickly wraps the ball behind his back to the right. At that moment Timothy was lying on the ground because he rolled his ankle. Ji-hun starts laughing at Timothy. Timothy has had enough of Ji-hun always winning and thinks that he’s crossed the line this time. He gets up quickly and throws a punch at Ji-hun and as he falls down, Timothy trips over his legs. Both laying on the ground injured, the basketball coach walks onto the court and says “good news, Adam quit the team due to bad grades so I’m sure you two will be capable of filling in the last spots.” Timothy tries to get up when he realizes, he can’t because his ankle was broken. He looked to Ji-hun who was holding his head and crying from the pain. The coach looked at them and decided to take them to the hospital. Once they got there, the doctor told the coach that they wouldn’t be able to participate in physical activities for 4-6 weeks. “Can’t we still play after our injuries are healed?” asked Timothy with much hope in his voice. “I’m afraid not. The team is small and we’re in need of players who can play all season.” replied the coach. Ji-hun gets up still holding his head and asks Timothy “so, who made the team?” Timothy turns his head around to face Ji-hun and tells him that they both didn’t make the team because they were injured but they both could’ve played because someone had to quit the team. Ji-hun sighs and says “wow man, I can’t believe we let competition get in our heads and between our friendship.” They realized that it was true that their competitive personality interfered with their friendship. Timothy finally said, “Hey man, there is always next year!”
By Nason, Lauren, Adam, Juan and Emmanuel
