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Basketball Wing
墨書 Inktalez
Today, we are going to compete in the finals of the city-wide high school basketball league against City No. 2 High School. Our whole team is sitting on the bus, and I am sitting next to the window, gazing into the distance, lost in thought. "Captain, we've arrived," Xu Linkang said. "Yeah, let's go!" After getting off the bus, I took out the silver Eagle pendant hanging around my neck and said, "A Fei, I will definitely help you win the championship!"
On a stormy night, a young boy walked in the rain with an umbrella. Suddenly, a flash of lightning illuminated a shadow in front of him. The boy was taken aback and then asked, "Who are you? I'm just a student; I don't have any money..." The shadow replied, "My name is Gaara. Come and fight me to the death." With that, he raised his fist and charged at the boy.
"Ah!" I rolled off my bed, realizing that the comic book "Naruto" was still beside my pillow. "What a relief, it was just a dream," I sighed as I wiped the sweat from my forehead, still feeling shaken. My name is Xiang Jie, and I am a newly promoted high school student. I usually enjoy reading comics, playing games, and playing basketball. I often stay up late reading comics and struggle to get out of bed in the morning, which has affected my studies negatively. I've been scolded many times for being too playful. Just as I was getting up from the floor to crawl back into bed, a voice called out: "Jie, get up for breakfast! You'll be late for school!" "I know! Coming right now!" I hurriedly got up and washed up. A thin middle-aged woman was serving porridge on the table. "Hurry up and eat! Today is the first day of school; you can't be late! You need to make a good impression on your teachers and classmates..."
That's right; this person is my mom. Growing up with her endless nagging has been quite a struggle. Sigh... What can I do? After all, I'm an only child.
As I sat down to eat breakfast, halfway through my meal, a tall and thin boy walked in. "Hello, Auntie!" he politely greeted my mom. "Jie, we're going to be late! Let's go!" With that, he pulled me outside. This boy is my best buddy Yu Chengfei, nicknamed A Fei. He is an excellent basketball player; I've given him the nickname "Ai II." He is also my best partner on the court, standing at 180 cm—just slightly taller than me (I'm 181 cm). Back in junior high school, he even received an award at the city-wide junior high basketball tournament, which made me quite envious for a while. After finishing our high school entrance exams, we both resolutely chose the same high school to continue being teammates.
When we rode our bikes at full speed to school, there were many students entering through the school gate—it was quite a sight! Upon entering the school gate, a large stone caught my eye with our school's name "Yulin Senior High School" inscribed on it. Wow, this looks impressive! We followed our homeroom teacher into our new classroom. The teacher stood at the podium and spoke: "Hello everyone! My name is Zhang Xia; I am your Chinese teacher and also your homeroom teacher. I'm very happy to be with you all..." I secretly glanced around: many unfamiliar faces; counting them revealed that there were twenty-four boys and twenty-two girls in our class—a pretty balanced ratio. I decided that I needed to establish good relationships first.
As it turned out, my social skills were quite good; by noon of that day, I had already become familiar with most of my classmates. Two boys stood out for their talkativeness: Yu Qiuhai—short-haired and chubby—who always smiled and seemed like an optimistic and kind-hearted student; and Shi Zhidong—who had longer hair and loved to show off—whom we could call Shuai Dong. He also liked anime and games; his idols were Inuyasha and Kyo Kusanagi because they looked cool. When noon came and classes ended for lunch break, our homeroom teacher called A Fei into her office; I followed him inside. The teacher asked A Fei: "Are you Yu Chengfei?" "Yes, teacher; I'm Yu Chengfei." "The city basketball association has noticed your skills; they want to train you further. Report to the sports department this afternoon." "Teacher! I want to go too! A Fei and I are teammates; I'm also good at basketball! My name is Xiang Jie," I interrupted excitedly. The teacher thought for a moment: "Alright then; you don't seem short either; you both can go together." "Thank you, teacher! Hehe."
After we left the office, Qiuhai and Shuai Dong were waiting at the door. When they saw us come out, they rushed over to ask: "So? Why did the teacher call you?" "...It's good news; she wants us both to be class officers," I joked. "Really?! You just got here half a day ago!" Shuai Dong exclaimed with his mouth wide open in surprise. "Don't listen to him; he's just joking with you guys," A Fei said while punching me lightly on the chest. "Wow! That's cool! You're like a real-life Sakuragi Hanamichi! Pang Hao—we should go too! Let's report to the sports department for basketball!" Shuai Dong grinned excitedly at Qiuhai. "Forget it; with your height of 173 cm and my build going there would be pointless," Qiuhai laughed at Shuai Dong's enthusiasm. Shuai Dong scoffed dismissively: "Come on Pang Hao; that's not fair! Did you know there's an NBA star named Nate Robinson? He's about my height but still makes it big in professional basketball among giants!" He continued passionately about other players...
"Alright alright! Just stop already! You can't compare yourself to Robinson or anyone else; how about comparing yourself to Avatar instead? Be realistic!" Qiuhai interrupted Shuai Dong's rant with a rebuttal. “Pang Hao—what’s unrealistic about wanting to play basketball? How do you know I'm not good enough?” They started arguing again.
"Enough already! What's so big about it? Let’s all go together," I quickly intervened between them before things escalated further. After finishing lunch at the cafeteria together as four friends, we headed over to the sports department where our PE teacher was having lunch.
"Hello teacher! We are from Year One; Zhang Xia is our homeroom teacher who sent us here for registration," A Fei introduced himself first.
"I'm Xiang Jie."
"I'm Shi Zhidong."
"I'm Yu Qiuhai."
"Oh," said Teacher Qiu as he put down his chopsticks and closed his lunch box before standing up: “You must be Yu Chengfei; Teacher Zhang has informed me about you being one of our key trainees from the city basketball association.” Teacher Qiu was approachable and very talkative. From him, we learned that Yulin High School is known as one of the strongest athletic schools among all high schools in the city—especially strong in volleyball and basketball—with last year's volleyball championship title under its belt for both boys' and girls' teams.
As for basketball, we've been strong contenders for over twenty years but have only won city championships once back in 1996 (later on I found out that Teacher Qiu was actually our team's second-highest scorer back then). Although our team has consistently reached quarter-finals each year since then (with sixteen schools participating), our best result since 1997 has only been reaching semi-finals in 2004 before hovering between fifth to seventh place ever since.
To address this issue effectively without interfering with students' academic studies, our school developed a training program specifically for basketball players: training sessions during self-study periods every morning and afternoon during fourth period while adding extra practice every Friday after school for one hour along with two sessions on Saturday mornings/afternoons—with Sundays off.
"We will frequently hold competitions to assess your training progress—generally one every month starting next Monday this semester—so prepare yourselves accordingly,” Teacher Qiu instructed us before adding: “Shi Zhidong and Yu Qiuhai—you two need more foundational training—work hard!”
“Okay! Thank you Teacher Qiu!” We four left the sports department walking across campus discussing characters from One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, or Saint Seiya while A Fei remained deep in thought until we reached center court where he suddenly stopped: “Since we still have time before class starts—how about we play a two-on-two match?”
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