Hoop Crazy by Eric Walters Page A

these guys.
    The ref took the ball and tossed it to me. I walked up to the top of the court.
    â€œCheck,” I said as I bounced the ball out to my man.
    â€œCheck this!” he said as he fired it back in to me, hard. If I hadn’t got my hands up in time it would have hit me in the face.
    â€œThere’s more where that came from, sucker!” he snarled.
    I was thrown. What was with this guy? “Play ball!” the ref yelled. He sounded angry and I wasn’t sure if it was with me.
    â€œBuzz!” I called out.
    That was a play for Kia to shoot after Ned set a screen to free her up.
    Kia broke toward the top of the key as Ned moved down and took up position. Kia slid by Ned and her man crashed into him. I threw the ball to Kia. She turned and threw up a shot before the other man could get to her. The ball went up, well wide of the mark and hit the backboard. The ball dropped almost straight down. Ned leaped up and grabbed the ball and came down, knocking one of their players off to the side and landing heavily on the second as the two of them tumbled over backwards.
    â€œTime!” the ref yelled. He reached down and tried to help one of their players to get up, but he refused his hand and scrambled to his feet.
    â€œThat guy nearly killed me!” he screamed. “The big doofus!”
    â€œIt was an accident!” I protested.
    â€œYou shut up!” a second member of their team yelled at me. He came right up into my face and pushed me and I tumbled over backwards and —
    â€œThat’s it!” the ref yelled. “Disqualification for the red team!”
    I picked myself up as my father and Ned’s mother and lots of other people crowded onto the court. It seemed like everybody was yelling and screaming and angry.
    â€œLeave it to the ref,” my father said as he grabbedme by the hand. “All of you come over here.”
    We moved off the court and to the side. We watched from a safe distance as a bunch of adults — that one kid’s father and maybe some other parents — continued to yell and scream at the ref. He seemed to be holding his own in the yelling department.
    â€œIt was an accident,” Ned said. “I fall down a lot.”
    â€œI noticed,” Mark said quietly.
    â€œI’m so sorry about that and —”
    â€œI’m just joking around, Ned,” Mark said.
    â€œWe all know you wouldn’t try to deliberately hurt somebody,” my father said. “You just tripped.”
    â€œWhy don’t they believe that?” Ned asked.
    â€œBecause they’re jerks!” Kia yelled out.
    They were too far away and there was too much yelling going on for them to possibly hear her comment. I was grateful for that.
    â€œDon’t worry about them,” I said. “There’s always some people like that everywhere.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œOf course,” I said. “Haven’t you ever run into jerks like that before … people looking for a fight?”
    â€œNot really.”
    â€œCome on,” Kia said. “Not at school … oh, that’s right you don’t go to school.”
    â€œHow about in town?” I asked.
    He shook his head.
    â€œWe don’t go to town that often,” Debbie said. “And when we do we already know everybody.”
    â€œYou’re friends with everybody in the whole town?” Kia questioned.
    â€œOh, no,” Debbie said. “There are some people I wouldn’t even
want
to be friends with, but even people who don’t even like each other still wouldn’t act like that,” she said, pointing at the throng of people surrounding the ref.
    A second ref had came over. He was accompanied by two men who were wearing shirts that said ‘Official.’ They joined in the discussion. Soon I couldn’t hear the words being yelled anymore, although the faces still looked angry. Maybe they were going to come to some sort