Pancakes | (Bxb) Âœ”ϸ Chapter 27

Axel’s POV

I was worried that the upcoming games would be difficult on our team who were still adjusting to their new training regimen, but we surprisingly won all of our games quite easily. I didn’t have to really do anything, which helped my situation.

We’re now at the court for the finals and so far no one has figured out that I’m number 8 of the Blue Koyas, since I have yet to show my distinctive tricks from back then.

“Hey, did you know that number 8 is on one of the two teams in the finals?”

“Yeah, of course. You wouldn’t expect any less from him. But which team is he on? None of the players on the teams showed any of the moves that number 8 had”

“I don’t know dude, but the suspense is killing me!”

I stifle a laugh at the guys’ conversation as I walk by. It’s not like I was hiding my tricks, it’s just that I never had any chance to show them. 

Our team improved at an alarming rate after the training I put them through, so they didn’t need to rely on me to help them win. But it’ll be different with this team. The guys that my dad brought over that day were players from this team. I’ve heard a lot of rumours about the people from this school, and it turns out it wasn’t just those guys that were jerks. They all are, it’s almost like a gathering spot for the numbskulls of the town, who also happen to play basketball.

We entered the locker room and got changed. Before we head out, I decided to give them a little somewhat pep talk. Not really.

“Hey guys! Listen up!” they all turn and look at me as I stand on a bench. It’d be weird if I were trying to give a speech yet they had to look down to see me. It’s very difficult being short.

“I hope you guys see the rapid improvement in your abilities, and team plays. We didn’t win those last few games because of me, not at all. You guys played with your own abilities, and won together as a team. Now, I’m not going to lie and say that the next game will be a walk in the park as well, because I doubt it. I’ve actually played a few of their seniors that graduated a while ago, and I’ll just say they won’t be an easy team to deal with. They wouldn’t mind playing a little dirty to ensure their win. Be careful and just play to the best of your abilities, and have fun. I’ve got your back” I say and I see them all smile.

“We’ll follow your lead Capt” Yohan says while he salutes and I laugh.

“Let’s go out there and show them what we can do!” I say and they all smile.

“Yeah!!”

We go out onto the court and the crowd cheers. I look around and spot someone familiar. I furrow my eyebrows and squint my eyes. It can’t be.

“Guys, I’ll be right back”

I was so focused on the familiar man, that I didn’t notice they were doing an interview.

“So you were the Coach for the Blue Koyas while number 8 was there, correct?”

The man chuckles, “Yes, and I’ll just say he was an interesting young lad. He wasn’t tall or built, he was quite under average in height. But he had the skills to beat any NBA all-star player. That’s why I was very upset when he randomly disappeared, the boy had infinite potential”

I stop in my tracks, realizing that Coach was having an interview. Should I still go up to him? I shake my head, deciding to just go with it. By the sound of this interview, it would seem that my identity will be exposed anyways, so might as well. I continue walking towards them, them not noticing me.

“He sounds like quite the interesting one, could you point him out to us? If I were to make a guess, I’d say he’s number 10 on the Red Eagles over there” the interviewer says, pointing to a tall, built guy on the opposing team. Didn’t Coach literally just say that number 8 wasn’t tall or built? I’ve always wondered if interviewers pay attention to what the person they’re interviewing is saying since they always reply way too quick, almost cutting the person off. Now I’ve got my answer.

They clearly don’t.

“Actually-“

“Coach?” I call out, interrupting the interview. Coach turns around with his eyebrows furrowed, wondering who would call him Coach since he retired a while after I left. His eyes land on me, and his eyes widen in shock, his mouth ajar. Coach regains his composure, but blinks a few times as if to see if he’s hallucinating.

“A-Axel? Oh my god, it’s really you! How’ve you been, kid?” he asks with a huge smile on his face.

I smile back, my smile just as big. Coach Xander was always tough on me, but he had good intentions. If anything, the reason why I’m so good now is because he kept pushing me past my limits.

“I’ve been doing good Coach, thanks” I say and his smile widens.

“Which team are you playing on?” he asks, and I point to my team.

“That team over there, the Dancing Ponies” I say, cringing at the name. It was the Prancing Mangs at first -which I thought was pretty cool- but the principal left and the new one decided to change it.

“Oh, well I guess the winner for this game is already decided” he says and I chuckle. Ooos can be heard throughout the whole court and I notice that Coach said that into the mic. He seems to notice as well as his eyes widen. My team and the opposing team look at us, both with looks of confusion written on their faces.

“I guess we’ll see how the game goes” I say with an awkward laugh, trying to cover up for him but failing.

“And who might you be?” the interviewer asks and Coach looks to me for permission, and I nod. Might as well.

“This is Axel Miller. He’s the boy everyone should be on the look out for. The number 8 from the Blue Koyas that disappeared a year ago” Coach says and the crowd goes silent, and I catch a few people with their eyes wide and jaws dropped. I feel like a celebrity

“You-you’re number 8? But-”

“I’m tiny? Yes I know. I didn’t grow much since I left the Blue Koyas. I was never big to begin with though” I interrupt and the guy still looks at me with wide eyes.

“You can’t be” he says, and I sigh. God, if you don’t look the part, people won’t believe you unless you actually show them.

“It’s your choice what to believe” I reply. I give Coach a nod and head back over to my team. They’re all looking at me and they open and close their mouths like fishes, trying but not knowing what to say.

“Who was that?” Tom speaks up first and asks, and I look at him.

“He was my coach back when I was in the Blue Koyas. He’s the man that made me into who I am today” I say and they all look around in realization.

The whistle blows and I take off my hoodie, joining Tom, Yohan, William and Vincent on the court.

“You do the jump ball, Axel. We heard you’re good at them, so you show them what you’re made of” Tom says, and pushes me forward. I nod and go up to face the guy from the other team. He stands at around 6 foot, and he smirks down at me. He’s the guy that the interviewer thought was the missing number 8.

“So you’re number 8 huh? You’re smaller than I thought. You sure you’re not an imposter?” he says and his teammates snicker behind him.

I roll my eyes and sigh, “Yes, I’m an imposter who’s stupid enough to announce to the whole court that I’m number 8 when the real number 8 is, according to the rumours, playing on either teams today. Oh no, you’ve found me out”

The guy glares at me, clearly unamused at my sarcasm when the whistle blows and the ball is thrown. I jump as high as I can, catching the ball before the guy even has an opportunity to jump. I land, and before the other team can get over the shock of me getting the ball, I dribble past all of them. I jump, and dunk the ball.

I blow the hairs out of my face, smirking at them. “Still think I’m an imposter?” I say as I walk past them and back to my side of the court. The crowd recovers from their shock and erupts into cheers and applause.

My teammates look just as surprised as the other team, as they high five me. “That’s some impressive jump power” Will says and I shrug.

“How else do you think I can manage such a graceful dunk” I say, making a shooting motion with my hands.

The whistle is blown and a guy from the other team comes dribbling towards our side. I defend my person, as I count on the others. I have faith in their abilities. The other team shoots and misses, Vincent catching the rebound and passing it to me. I dribble the ball with a light jog as everyone runs to the opposite side of the court. I dribble to the mid-court line as someone comes to defend me.

He smirks, thinking that I can’t get past him since he’s so much bigger than me. I obviously can, but I think it’ll be funnier seeing their reactions to this. My teammates seem to know what I’m about to do from the smirk on my face, and start walking back to our side of the court. That confuses our opponents. When everyone is ready and back in position, Tom motions for me to shoot. I step back, jump and shoot the ball. The ball goes in with an astounding swish.

I smirk, turning around and walking back to my position. The buzzer sound rings through the air, signifying the end of this quarter.

“You’re doing great kid, keep doing that and we’ll win with no problems” Coach says and I smile.

“I see you still haven’t lost your touch” Coach Xander says as he approaches me.

“You haven’t even seen my full court shot and you’re already saying that?” I say, and Coach Xander chuckles.

“Oh yeah, Coach, this is Coach Xander. He was my coach back when I was in the Blue Koyas. Coach Xander, this is Coach Smith. He’s the coach for this team” I say and they shake hands.

“Thank you for taking care of this rascal” Coach Xander says as he ruffles my hair. I slap his hand away with a playful scowl.

“He’s quite the help. He actually trained all the players on this team” Coach says and Coach Xander lets out a chuckle as he turns to face me.

“You’ve grown up, you could barely handle being captain before. You were such a nervous wreck back then. It was a good thing you had Ethan helping you out before. Now look at you, being the captain AND coaching the players” he says and I smile. Ethan was my teammate back when I played for the Blue Koyas. We were basically co-captains, but I was the only one with the captain title since he didn’t want it. He was the only reason why the Blue Koyas were even working properly, I could barely control them. Ethan wasn’t nearly as good as me, but his hard work and motivation to improve made up for it.

I get back onto the court and the second quarter goes on much like the first, though the other team gets some shots in this time. The buzzer for half time goes and I sit on the bench, drinking some water.

The score is 36-25. They’re not too far behind, which is impressive. Sure, I haven’t done all that I can yet, but they’re keeping up really well.

“Hey baby” Jay says and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi, what are you doing here?” I ask and he shrugs.

“Just wanted to see you. You’re doing great out there” he says and I smile.

“I can’t mess up when you’re all sitting up there watching me, now can I?” I say and he laughs.

We talk for a bit until the buzzer goes again, signifying the end of the half time and I say goodbye to Jay as he goes back to his seat on the stands.

The third quarter was nothing interesting either, as we keep the lead but not too much. As the fourth quarter starts, one of the guys from the other team -that’s been sitting on the bench- comes up to me.

“Didn’t know you swing that way” he says with a smirk.

“Sorry, I’m not interested” I say with a bored tone.

His face scrunches up in disgust, “Watch it, we don’t like to have fairies on this court”

I shrug, “Well that’s too bad. We don’t always get what we want, like how you’ve been warming the bench for the past 3 quarters with a face that clearly shows how much you wanted to play” I say as I go to my side of the court. The guy scowls, going back to his spot on the bench. I scoff, he’s not even playing and he’s acting all high and mighty.

I acted like it didn’t bother me, but what he said kind of hurt. It was the first time someone said something negatively about my sexuality. I’m not feeling insecure or anything. I just feel angry that he was intimidated by my basketball skills, so he goes and insults my sexuality.

I look at the score, 53-48. Only a 5 points lead. I think it’s about time.

Will passes me the ball from the base line and starts running up, but stopping when he sees I don’t dribble the ball. I give him a nod, and he stays back. All the other guys seem to notice as well so they start walking back to our side of the court.

The other team snorts, “Giving up already, fairy?” one of the guys says -clearly overhearing my conversation with the other guy earlier- as the whole team erupts into laughter.

I grit my teeth, “Shut up” I say as I jump and shoot the ball. It goes in with a swish and their team immediately shuts up.

“Now the real game begins. I’ll show you what this fairy can really do” I glare at the other team as I turn around.

“Hey, you okay?” Tom asks me, looking concerned. I look around and seeing everyone from the team giving me concerned looks.

“Fine, just want to beat their asses” I say with a bitter tone and they nod.

I don’t let the other team get another point as I single-handedly destroy them all. My team seems to understand how angry I was, so they passed me the ball whenever they had the chance and I get the point. My teammates would try to help me get the ball, but it was me who mostly stole the ball from whoever had it and shoot from wherever I was on the court. The other team completely shut up as I got point after point, them knowing that even if they do get a point, I’d get it back easily with my full-court shot.

The game ends with our victory, the score being 98-48. We more than doubled their score, and my team crowds around me and hugs me. I laugh and hug them back.

“So this is the power of the legendary number 8! He singlehandedly stopped the other team from scoring a single point this whole quarter, whilst scoring 55 points!” I hear the interviewer from earlier say in the mic as everyone cheers.

I feel myself getting lift off the ground as I look behind me, smiling as I see Jay. He gives me a sweet peck on the lips and puts me down, snaking his arms around my waist and hugging me tightly.

“I’m so proud of you. I love you, I love you, I love you. God, I love you so much” he says and I giggle. A chorus of aws sound behind us and I look behind us to see the the team looking fondly at us. I blush, hiding my face in Jay’s chest.

“AXEL!” I hear May screech as Jay pulls away from me and lets May engulf me in a hug.

“You were amazing! I thought I saw how good you were last time, but this is a whole new level! You better not forget about us when you become an NBA all-star player!” she says and I laugh.

“How could I ever forget my mom and dad?” I say as I see Dan enter the gym from my peripheral vision. I know they’ve been wanting me to call them that for a while, as I see May let out a few happy tears. She hugs me again and I laugh, patting her back.

“Okay, are you sure you’re even human? How’d you even make those shots? Where do you hide all that muscle to make those shots? How do you have so much stamina to run from one side of the court to another? SPILL ALL YOUR SECRETS” Jason yells, shaking my shoulders as I giggle.

“Jay, what planet did you find him on? He’s absolutely flawless” Jason says -with an emphasis on the flawless- and I laugh along with Jay.

May engulfs me in another hug as she continues to exclaim how proud she is, Dan giving me a nod with a proud smile on his face.

I feel an arm snake around my waist as I’m pulled out of May’s grasp and bump into someone’s hard chest.

“Alright that’s too much hugging with my boyfriend, Mom” Jay says and I giggle.

“AXEL!” I hear Jack, Franco, Tyler and Pete scream and I embrace myself for more hugs.

“NO! He’s already gotten too many hugs from others, he’s mine” Jay says protectively, wrapping his arms around my chest to pull me closer. I blush but chuckle at how clingy he’s being. I think he heard what the guy said to me earlier, so he’s trying to make me feel better in his own way.

“Aw c’mon man, we didn’t get to congratulate him yet” Jack pouts and I laugh.

“Congratulate him with words then” Jay says as he moves to hug me from the back.

Jack frowns and I sigh, “Just one more hug from Jack?” I say with my infamous puppy dog eyes, knowing Jay can’t resist. He sighs, and reluctantly releases me.

Jack smiles and hugs me, “Congrats Axe, you were soooo amazing! I haven’t seen you play like that in so long that I got literal chills. Do you see these goosebumps?!” he blabbers and shows me the bumps on his skin. I laugh as I hug him back. We stay like that, until we get pulled away from each other by none other than our boyfriends.

“You keep yours away from mine and I’ll keep mine away from yours” Tyler says and Jay nods.

“Deal”

“Noooo, Jack! My love!” I say, making grabby hands at him as Jack laughs.

“I’m supposed to be your love” Jay says with a pout.

I laugh and kiss his pout, “Aw poor baby, don’t worry. I love you the most” I say and he smiles.

The sound of someone clearing their throat stops our celebration, and we turn our attention to a man in a suit standing behind Jay and I.

“Sorry to interrupt the moment, but may I please speak to Axel?” he asks politely, and I nod.

Jay releases me as I follow the man out of the gym. “You’re the Michigan representative that I met last time, right?” I ask and he nods.

“I’m here to offer you a full scholarship at the University of Michigan” he says and I resist the urge to squeal and show how excited I am. I keep my composure and smile, internally squealing.

“Thank you so much, I was aiming for Michigan” I reply and he smiles.

“Then I guess we both get what we want. You get to come to Michigan and we get an exceptionally talented player on our side” he says and I smile.

“I’ll contact you soon for the details, now go celebrate with your friends” he says and I smile gratefully at him.

“Thank you!” I say as I turn around and run back into the gym. I jump into Jay’s arms and kiss him, pulling away with a huge smile.

“I made it!” I say and he grins widely, kissing me.

“I knew you could do it” he says as he pulls away. I smile and turn to look at Jack, silently asking him with my eyes. Jack seems to have understood as he smiles, giving me two thumbs-ups.

“I did it too. He liked my business offer and gave me a business scholarship to Michigan!” he says and I squeal. I make grabby hands at Jack, wanting to go hug him but our boyfriends were stopping us by holding us by the waist. Jack laughs and just blows me a kiss.

“What about you guys?” I ask, worried. They haven’t mentioned anything so I’m worried whether or not if they got accepted, though I had no doubt in my mind they were.

Pete made a peace sign with his fingers, “We got in too! Tyler helped us make our applications look extremely impressive, so they accepted us”

“So that means..”

“We’re all going to the same university!” we all cheer and smile.

“Hey Capt, sorry to ruin the moment but.. award ceremony” Kyle says and my eyes widen. I completely forgot I was at a basketball tournament.

I run over to join my team on the stage as we accept our award and take our pictures.

We head home after we received our trophy, and I collapse onto my bed, not wanting to move. I took my shower in the locker room so I could just fall asleep if I wanted to.

“You need to change, love” Jay says, shaking me gently and I groan.

“Change for me” I say and flip over.

Jay chuckles, “As you wish, princess”

I slip into the covers after Jay helps me change and he joins me, spooning me.

“This is the first time we’ve slept in your bed” Jay chuckles and I shush him.

“Sleep” I mumble sleepily and he laughs, kissing my shoulder.

“I love you”

“I love you too”

————

A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Woah, this is the longest chapter I’ve ever written, almost 4000 words. Also, I’m not a professional on basketball so please correct me if I said anything wrong!

Have a great week, and stay healthy!

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