Pancakes | (Bxb) Âœ”ϸ Chapter 8

Axel’s POV

“Listen up!” Coach yells, successfully gaining all of our attention.

“Today we’re starting basketball, so I’m going to split everyone up into two teams. You guys are going to play a game, a serious one” Coach says, and I smirk. Basketball is the only thing – besides cooking and baking- that I can confidently say that I’m decent at. 

“Now I’ll read off the list and when you hear your name, go to your respective colour. Red on the right, and blue on the left. On the red team, Valerie, Franco, Jayden, Gilbert, Bella, Tyler and Axel” I walk to my respective side when I hear my name. 

I see Jayden walking over and he smiles at me, in which I return.

“Everyone who was not called, you’re on the blue team. Now, decide who’s gonna be playing first. I’ll give you guys five minutes before we start” Coach says as he walks off.

I look around the team and see two other jocks besides Jayden. One of them has dirty blond hair with green eyes and a stubbled jaw, and the other has spiky black hair with brown eyes.

“Okay, so obviously me, Tyler and Jayden are gonna be starting. But we’re gonna need two more people” the jock with dirty blond hair says, and I resist the urge to roll my eyes. I hate how jocks think that just because they’re good at one sport, they’re automatically good at everything. Sure, that may be the case for some, but their cocky attitude just makes it unbearable.

“I think Axel should start with us” I hear Jayden say and I sigh in relief. I appreciate Jayden speaking up for me, because lord knows I wouldn’t have offered myself. 

We decide on our starting lineup as Coach yells, “Okay everyone who’s starting, get on the court!”

Me, Jayden, the blondie, hedgehog -the guy with black spiky hair- and… that guy – I didn’t bother learning their names – walk onto the court as the other team’s starting lineup walks onto the court as well. 

Hedgie – short for hedgehog -  goes up to do the jump-off, in which he loses. The other team passes the ball to a guy with a bowl cut. I spring into action as I swiftly steal the ball from the guy and dunk it into the net. 

Everybody, even the coach, looks at me with shocked expressions. I casually walk back to my side of the court, and notice from the corner of my eye that the score hasn’t been changed.

I turn to the score keeper, “You going to change the score or are you gonna keep gawking at me?” I say, and his cheeks turn a light shade of pink as he changes the score to 2-0.

“Yo, bowl cut. It’s you guys’ ball” I say, trying to get the game to start back up. He blinks a couple times and goes to grab the ball.

“Dude.. that was amazing! How’d you dunk that with such a small body?” blondie says, and I shrug.

“Beginner’s luck?” I say with a smirk, as the Coach blows the whistle to continue the game.

Pfft, beginner’s luck my ass. I wasn’t the top player on my old team for nothing. Wow, I’m awfully cocky today. I wonder what they would think if they heard me say that. I should step it down a couple notches with the self-praise. 

The game continues, as bowl cut passes the ball to another guy on his team. He dribbles and Jayden goes to defend. I quickly run behind Jayden as the guy gets past him, and I steal the ball again since he probably couldn’t see me thanks to Jayden’s huge body covering me. I run with the ball to the net, but another guy stops me.

His defence was better than Jayden’s, but it wasn’t impossible to get around. I still decided against it and decided to just take the shot. I smirk at the guy who gives me a confused look, as I jump and shoot the ball. It goes in with a SWISH sound, it was a three-pointer too. I smirk at the guy who looks at me, bewildered. I turn and walk back to my side of the court again.

“Axel, you’re amazing! I knew you were good, but I didn’t know you’d be this good!” Jayden says and gives me a high-five.

I smile, “I guess I’m just lucky. Plus, I only got 2 shots, the game just started” 

Coach blows his whistle, and the game continues. I score the next 3 shots by myself, before the other team started to team up on me. It wasn’t double-teaming, no. Their whole team came to defend me. One person. 

I look around to see if there was an opening, and I notice that one of the guy’s legs are wider than they’re supposed to be.

I smirk. Perfect.

“Yo Hedgie” I say, looking at the guy with spiky hair. He looks around before pointing at himself in confusion.

“Yeah you. Come over here and stand to my right” I say, as he jogs over and stands behind the guy. 

“Get ready” I say, as I bounce the ball through the guy’s legs and it lands perfectly in Hedgie’s hands.

“What are you waiting for? Shoot!” I say and point to the net. Hedgie runs to the net and scores a lay-up.

“See? It was all beginner’s luck for me. You guys probably shouldn’t team up on me like this, you’ll lose a lot faster” I say to the blue team with a smirk plastered on my face.

Jayden’s POV

Beginner’s luck? Yeah right. 

The coach blew the whistle, signifying the end of the game. We won 52-13, a whooping victory. Axel carried the team, scoring 46 points of those 52.

“Yo Axel, there’s no way that was beginner’s luck. How are you so good man?” Franco asks, and I turn to face them. I want to know too. I know that Axel was on a varsity team, but that was insane.

He shrugs, “I played on a varsity team for a while”

“Wait, I did too. Which one? We might’ve played each other before” Tyler asks, joining the conversation. 

“I played in a team called the Blue Koyas” he says, and my eyes go wide.

The Blue Koyas?! That’s the best varsity team in the country! It was said that the team a year ago was the best team they had, and was basically the best junior’s basketball team in the world. Well, that was before their best player, number 8 left.

“The Blue Koyas? Wait, you said you played on one, not play. When did you stop playing?” Franco asks, and we all nod for him to continue.

“I stopped playing a year ago” Axel says, and all our eyes grew wider, if that was possible. 

“Wait, so you played on the best junior’s basketball team in the country?! Dude, that’s so cool!” I say and the other two nod in agreement.

“What number were you?” Franco asks and I see Axel tense a bit. He looks like he’s contemplating whether or not to tell, before giving in.

He rubs the back of his neck, “I was, um, number 8..” Axel said shyly, as we all screamed in unison.

“WHAT?! You’re the number 8 of the Blue Koyas?! The one who all of a sudden disappeared right after the championship?” Franco yelled, and Axel nodded shyly.

“Yeah, that’s me. I was hoping you guys wouldn’t know” Axel responds quietly. 

“Not to be rude or anything, but I thought you were a nerd? Like, I asked you for your notes once and I got an easy 95, when I always got 60s” Tyler said in confusion.

Axel shrugs, “It was a hobby of mine that I just so happened to be good at. Being labelled as a nerd doesn’t surprise me though. I kind of am one”

“Dude, you need to join the basketball team. We’ll win all the tournaments with you on the team! Number 8 of the Blue Koyas, remaking an appearance at a highschool tournament. Wouldn’t that be so cool? We could finally win a championship!” Franco said excitedly, with a sport’s announcer tone.

Axel chuckled at his tone. He frowns a little, but quickly covers it up. But not quick enough for me. “I don’t know guys, I’ll think about it. The team probably wouldn’t let an honour student – er, well, ex-honour student onto the team. Or as some like to call me, a nerd” Axel says, with a weak smile.

“Well as you said, you’re an ex-honour student. Even if you’re a nerd, it still wouldn’t matter since you have the skills!” Tyler said excitedly as Franco nodded feverishly beside him.

“I plan to bring up my grades again, so I don’t know if I’ll have time. But I’ll think about it” Axel says, as the other two nod in understanding.

“Second period starts soon, we’re gonna head out before we’re late. Hope to see you soon Axel” Tyler says as he and Franco walk out of the gym.

Axel sighs a little and looks at his hands. 

“Hey, you okay? You were great out there today, I’d love to see you in a game on the basketball team” I say with a smile. Axel looks up at me and smiles back.

“I really love basketball. I said it’s a hobby, but really it’s my passion. Though, I know I can’t make it big and become an NBA player or anything. They said so” he said and looks down, playing with the hem of his shirt.

They? Who are they?

I bring my hands up and cup Axel’s cheeks, “It doesn’t matter if people tell you you can’t do it, as long as you believe you can. Once you believe you’re not good enough, or that you can’t do something, it’s over” I say as I hold Axel’s face in my hands. 

“Don’t ever think you’re not good enough, okay? No matter what anyone says, you’re amazing at basketball. You’re amazing at cooking. You’re amazing at academics. You are amazing” I say with a smile that he returns. He slips his arms around my neck and hugs me tightly, as I wrap my arms around his waist. We stay like that until the warning bell rings.

I reluctantly pull away, “Let’s get to class before we get yelled at. I’ll see you at lunch?”

He nods, as we leave the gym. We part ways as we head to our respective classes. 

I want to kill whoever told Axel he’s not good enough.

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A/N: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please vote for this chapter. Have a nice week, and if you’re on winter break then have a nice break as well!

Thanks for 200 reads!