Vijay smiled and headed back inside to the cafeteria. Derek lingered awhile, watching some older kids shooting hoops at the other end of the playground.

Derek had told his friend they were going to be great, and it had made Vijay a little happier. But inside he kept hearing Gary’s mocking words: “I want to get a good close-up view of you when everyone is laughing at you!”

The tiny seed of doubt Gary had planted in Derek’s brain was growing like a noxious weed.

Chapter Four HOOP DREAMS

“And he drops another 3! Jeter is on fire!”

Dave was playing announcer for Derek, and vice versa, as they practiced their shooting on Dave’s spectacular court.

Behind them was the small golf hole his mom and dad had put in, so that whenever he wanted to, Dave could practice the game that was his life’s true passion.

Of course Derek’s sport was baseball, not basketball. But that didn’t mean he didn’t love basketball, too. “From now on I’m going to bring a ball with me wherever I go and dribble my way down the street,” he told Dave. “Got to make it second nature, you know?”

“I hear you,” Dave said. “Here, let me have that.”

Derek handed him the ball, and Dave started taking a few shots. Most of them caromed off the rim or the backboard, and a few just caught air. “You need more arc on your shot,” Derek told him.

“More arc?”

“Yeah, you know—think of a rainbow.”

“Like this?”

He took another shot, and this time, swished it.

“There you go,” said Derek, giving his friend a fist bump. “Here, give me that ball.”

They kept on taking turns—shooting from all distances and angles, taking free throws and layups, playing pick-and-roll with invisible opponents, and going one-on-one.

“Okay, break time,” Dave said breathlessly at last. It was a hot, sunny September day, and they’d been at it for over an hour. Both boys were pouring sweat and breathing hard. “Let’s get in the shade and have a cold drink.”

There was a covered bench at the side of the court, and Derek and Dave sat down and took water bottles out of a cooler.

“Aaahhh,” said Dave. “Wow. That was a workout!”

“Tell me about it!”

“We’ve got to do this every day between now and next Saturday.”

“I wish I could,” Derek said. “But I’ve got too much going on most of the time.”

“Hey, I’ve got schoolwork too, man. But if we want to make this team, we need to be at the top of our game!”

“It’s not just schoolwork—Vijay and I have to work up our thing for the talent show.”