As a result of us being inseparable for years, Jordan and my mom have grown so close that Mumma considers her another daughter. I’m pretty close with Mrs Gutierrez-Hawkins, but nothing like Jordan and Mumma. It was one of those cases where you make a friend that your parents love so much that they adopt said friend. Jordan is now a regular at family gatherings, church, and gurdwara road trips alike.

‘My mom,’ I grumble, ‘thinks I’ve been given a “second chance”. Says this is “the family I chose”. She thinks I’ll come back harder than ever this season.’ I shrug, feigning indifference that clearly comes out not so indifferent. I think my mother needs to be pickier about how she thinks second chances are dealt, but in her eyes, I’m totally off-base. ‘I told her the road back from binning an entire season and missing more shots than you score isn’t an easy one.’

‘Lord, no,’ quips Jordan. ‘Of course it’s not easy. But neither was all the shit you guys went through last year.’

The mere mention of last year makes my throat feel as dry and ragged, as if I’ve just swallowed a whole saltine cracker. ‘Guess that’s fair.’

‘You know it’s fair.’ Jordan waves knowingly as she opens the door to her car. ‘As long as you lock in this season!’

I snort and wiggle my fingers in a goodbye before flinging myself into the driver’s seat of my truck. Maybe I’ll give optimism a go. But the way I move through life, it wouldn’t last me longer than a week before the truth catches up with me. Rarely in my life do things come up roses.

I was born in the aftermath of an EF-4 tornado that ripped the roof off a house in Saint Albert and dropped it on a frat at the University of Oklahoma City – almost twenty miles away. Mumma’s water broke mid-tornado. She had no idea she was in labour till the adrenaline of the disaster had come to pass. It was the shittiest birth story a person could ask for. But if you asked my mom what she thought about it, she’d call it a blessing. Lilavati Velasco, all silver linings and second chances, would tell you that – as much havoc as the storm wreaked – it spared us for the most part. Other than five of our cattle and a fence on the far end of the ranch, our entire house, property included, was intact. My grandmother called me a lucky charm. You could tell where Mumma got her painful positivity from, not to mention why she loves Jordan and her optimism so much.

Then there’s Adan Velasco, her polar opposite. My lovely papa, who is currently trying to form words about what Mumma deems a ‘second chance’.

‘Well … last season wasn’t great.’