“Yo, Shaw,” Benny calls to me from the sideline where he chats with Lawson. “I heard you and Sydney finally hooked up.”

Chuckling, I fire a shot at the basket. Benny rebounds and holds it, waiting for an answer. I glance over at Datson who smirks.

“They’d have found out eventually,” he says by way of an excuse.

“We didn’t hook up. We’re together. She’s my girlfriend.”

“Congrats, man,” Lawson says. He’s one of the few guys on the team who has a steady girlfriend—the same one since our freshmen year.

“Thanks.” It feels weird to finally call her my girlfriend. Amazing but weird.

We shoot hoops and get to know Cameron. He’s a bit of a mystery, not because he’s quiet or shy—he isn’t, but because he transferred from one of the best college basketball programs in the country after only one year. He played as a freshman and even helped take his team to the final four. They were a young team, and everyone was already speculating that they’d make it back to the championship again this coming year.

Our Valley record is nothing to laugh at. We won the national championship my freshman year and the past two years we’ve done all right, but not so well that I can understand why he’d transfer.

We’re lucky to have him, though, and he seems like a decent guy. We’re finishing up when Wes, one of our assistant coaches, walks onto the court and juts his chin to me with a tilt of his head. “Shaw, can I talk to you?”

“Uh-oh,” Datson whispers. Or his version of a whisper, but it’s loud enough I’m sure Wes heard it.

I hand Datson the ball and walk off to meet Wes who hovers on the sideline.

“How was your summer?” he asks, though I can tell it isn’t why he called me over. Wes is a great coach, but small talk is not his thing.

“Good. Yours?”

“Good. Yeah, really good.” He shifts uncomfortably. “Listen, I heard you talked with Coach Wiles, and you’re planning to keep playing baseball this year.”

Shit, news travels fast. I thought I had at least through the weekend before everyone found out. It isn’t that I wanted to hide it, hardly anyone even knew I was seriously considering quitting baseball, but I wanted to give it a little more time to adjust to the decision myself.

“Yeah, that’s right. I know you hate that I’m doing both, but I promise when I’m here, I’m here.”

“I don’t hate it,” he starts. “Well, okay, I totally hate it, but you’ve proven you can manage both. It can’t have been easy to juggle everything. I admire your dedication to both.”