A/N: Thanks @YashThorat for suggesting this chapter!
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Axel’ POV
“You nervous?”
I look over at Jay who’s eyes were focused on the road.
I sigh, “Yeah, it’s my first game on the starting lineup. I can’t mess this up” I say, clenching my fists. Jay takes his hand off of the console to grab my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
“You’ll be fine, babe. Just like you always are” Jay says and I smile.
“But you’re not worried about messing up so that you won’t get to play again, are you? It’s about those seniors of yours” Jay adds.
I sigh, “I really can’t hide anything from you”
“They still don’t agree with me getting to be a starter after only joining the team a year” I chuckle, “It reminds me of what happened in high school. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to be successful without people complaining” I sigh and Jay chuckles as well.
“Whatever you do, there will always be people who oppose you and will whine about it. But you destroyed them in high school so they listened to you” Jay states, and I nod.
“But this team doesn’t. I’ve beat them every single time yet they continuously challenge me, and they play roughly when they do. I get so many bruises whenever we play, and they always challenge me when Coach is away” I say, rubbing my shoulder.
“They’re probably salty that ever single basketball magazine has been talking about you since you’ve had your NBA debut” Jay says and I snort.
“Obviously, that’s a given. Yet they still challenge the ‘rookie of the century’, as they’ve been calling me” I chuckle.
“You could just refuse” Jay answers and I shake my head.
“I’m not going to refuse a challenge in basketball. I could always learn something new, and it’s good practice to play against some opponents. Though, the injuries really hurt” I sigh. The older guys on my team didn’t like me ever since I joined, since Coach Kim has shown very obvious favouritism towards me”
I know that I made it into the starting lineup through my own skills and not because Coach Kim liked me, since Coach Kim is not the type of man to put players on because he’s biased. He just showers me with compliments and buys me food, something he never does for anyone else. Plus, he’s not the only one who makes the decision of putting players on the starting lineup.
He is a great Coach though, and helped me evolve even more. I have been acknowledged by a lot of big shots in the basketball society, and that’s due to my skills. I guess it also has to do with me playing so well against tall players with my 5’6 frame. Yeah, I grew like two inches. But those two inches doesn’t do much against the other 7′ players. Fortunately, I can hold my own against players who are a full foot taller than me, and I guess that’s why my teammates dislike me so much. They’re all way above 6’6 yet I’ve beaten them every single time with ease.
Especially the guy whose starting position I took. He challenged me the most, which was a stupid idea honestly. If I was Coach, I would’ve swapped him out as well. He’s lost at least 50 times to me, so obviously they would put me on the starting lineup this season instead of him.
We arrive at the court, Jay dropping me off at the entrance and then going to park the car. I head to the change room, seeing almost everyone on the team already there and changing.
They all stop when they see me heading to my locker, Terry -the guy who’s starting position I took- and Vin -who follows Terry around like a puppy- come up to me.
“Hey midget” I roll my eyes at the unoriginal name.
The guys on this team are not the brightest. They were probably the stereotypical brainless jocks in high school, and I’m the only one here who has any brains. Thankfully, because of that, they’ll listen to me in a game when I have a strategy since they can’t think for themselves.
Before I joined, this team could barely even make it to the playoffs, so they also don’t try sabotaging me on the court due to their huge conviction to win now that they’ve gotten a taste of consecutive victories. I know that the guys know that I’m the reason they haven’t been losing, but they’ll drown themselves in nitric acid before they’d admit that. There are even some players who have come up to me to tell me that they respect me and my skills, but they’re too scared to say anything around the senior guys, so they just follow whatever the senior guys do.
“Hey Terry” I respond, not bothering to look at them. Terry grabs my shoulder, turning me around to make me look up at him.
“I’m talking to you, you better show some respect” he snarls, and I sigh.
“I sincerely apologize for my lack of respect towards my respectable elders” I say monotonously, but apparently Terry is too dumb to notice my lack of sincerity and my sarcasm.
He smirks, “That’s better, you better watch yourself. The second you make a mistake, we’re getting Coach to bench you”
I sigh, knowing full well that he wasn’t bluffing. Coach values his player’s opinions, so if the whole team comes up to him and demands for me to be taken off the court, even his favouritism won’t save me. I don’t doubt that I would lose my position as starter as well.
That’s why I’m so worried about today’s game. Will I ever catch a break?
I think about my days as number 8, remembering for those few months before I disappeared how people would never disrespect me. Though, even when I revealed myself in high school, I was still always looked down on.
“Well, you’ll be back on your losing streak if Coach takes Axel off the bench”
I look over at the source of the voice and sigh in relief. I think I forgot to mention earlier, but Tom’s on this team too, which is a huge relief. He joined at the same time I did, and he’s the only guy who sticks by me and stands up for me.
Tom grabs Terry’s hand that was on my shoulder and glares at him, causing Terry to retract his hand quickly. Tom is one of the only guys that all the seniors are afraid of since he’s really tall and always has a serious look on his face.
Terry and Vin walk away, and I sigh.
I look at him gratefully, “Thank’s Tom”
Tom shrugs, “No problem, Axe. Can’t have our star player getting injured before this game”
I slap my hand on his mouth, looking around the change room to see if anyone heard.
“Don’t call me the star player, they’ll all kill me if they hear you say that!” I whisper-yell, retracting my hand when I noticed that no one was listening.
He chuckles, “Alright”
We finish changing and head out onto the court, finding Coach Kim. Coach smiles when he sees us.
“Axel, my boy!” Coach says, and slaps my back. I wince in pain, but just laugh it off.
“Hey Coach” I greet and he grins.
“Are you ready for your first game on the starting lineup?” he asks excitedly and I shrug. I was never a starter, but I’ve played in every single match so it wasn’t all that new for me. It’s just the pressure from my teammates…
“A little nervous, but overall I’m pretty excited” I say, scanning the crowd and smiling when my eyes land on Jay and his family, as well as Jack and the guys.
My eyes flicker over to someone waving on the opposite side of the crowd, and my eyes widen. Amy -my creator- has been coming to every single one of my games since the first article about me has been released, which led to all the others. The first article was posted by one of the most influential sport journalists, and his articles are always read by everyone. Since everyone reads them, obviously her rich friends -most of them are sport fans- read them so she’s been trying to get on my good side again. She probably just wants me to introduce her to some famous, rich guys as well as show me off to the ones she already knows. Gold digging whore.
But this time, what surprised me was George -my other creator- was sitting a few seats away from Amy. He hasn’t come to a single one of my games, nor has he tried to contact me, so it’s a shock to see him here.
“Axel?”
I look over at Tom, who has a concerned look on his face.
“You okay? You zoned out but you looked really stressed” Tom asks, and I nod with a smile.
“Yeah, I’m fine”
I take a deep breath, pushing my thoughts about them out of my mind. I can’t have them mentally messing with me right now. Not when I already have a whole team who attempts to mentally mess with me.
I manage to play without the distraction of Amy and George in my mind, and we easily sweep the floor with the other team.
Terry and the others seething when they saw my faultless playing, knowing they had nothing to complain about but secretly happy to win again. We normally only win about 5 points since I only start playing during the second half, and most of the time we’re losing pretty badly when I set foot on the court. But since I played the entirety of the game with only a few breaks, we manage to win by a good 50.
“Axel, that was amazing! I knew it was the right choice to put you as a starter” Coach Kim beams, and I smile back.
“Thanks, I’m just glad I didn’t mess up and get benched” I say, glancing over at my teammates who were glaring at me whereas the ones who respect my skills were smiling.
“Axel”
I freeze, turning around to look at the owner of the voice.
“Hey Coach, I’ll be right back” I tell him, turning around and nudging my head in the direction of the door.
We walk to the corner of the court, and I make sure no one’s listening before I start talking.
“What do you want?” I ask, not wanting to spend a minute longer with the man in front of me.
He rubs his neck awkwardly, “How’ve you been, son?”
I glare at him, “George, as far as I’m aware, I’ve been alone since birth. My parents are dead”
He gulps, “Come on, don’t be so cold. I’m still your father! It’s been so long, you’ve grown up to be very handsome”
I roll my eyes, “And you’ve grown to be quite a codger”
“Language, young man” he scolds and I scoff.
“You think you can scold me?” I ask, baffled.
He clears his throat, “Sorry, it’s the inner parent in me”
“Didn’t know you had one” I snap, and he chuckles awkwardly.
“I’ll ask again, what do you want?” I ask sternly, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.
“Well, um. You see-“
“Axel, honey!”
I turn around and groan, seeing Amy walk towards me with a group of woman around her age behind her.
“Now what do you want?” I ask again, this time to the other person I never wanted to see.
Amy giggles, “Oh, you! I thought I told you to drop that rebellious attitude” she turns to her friends, “My son’s always been quite the jokester”
“Again, as I told George over here, I’ve been alone since birth. My parents are both dead” I state, the woman behind Amy looking at me, shocked.
Amy laughs awkwardly, “What are you talking about, honey? Oh, are you mad that I haven’t visited lately? I’m really sorry, I’ve been hanging out with these fine ladies” Amy gestures towards the woman behind her.
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Stop acting like you know me”
“What are you saying, honey?” Amy asks innocently.
“STOP CALLING ME THAT” I yell, attracting attention from the people around the court. I lock eyes with Jay, and he looks at the people around me before he runs from his spot in the crowd.
“W-What’s wrong, hon-Axel? Why are you yelling all of a sudden?” she asks, glancing from me to her friends that are eyeing her with suspicion.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m yelling since I’m frustrated from dealing with the two of you pretending to be a parent at the same time, when God knows you didn’t act like this when I could barely even walk” I say, gesturing between her and George.
“I understand that I’m an amazing basketball player and that I’ve beat a lot of people even when they played dirty” I say, glancing at George who coughs awkwardly.
“I also understand that you have seen how recognized I am, and that you’re trying to impress your little rich friends by showing me off” I say, glancing at Amy.
“Now” I turn to George, “What is it that you want?”
George coughs, “You see, I’m married to a woman and we have a daughter” he says.
I don’t respond so he continues, “And recently, my company’s become bankrupt”
I sigh, “You want money” I state, and he nods awkwardly.
I look up at him, “How shameless can you be?!” I yell, angry.
“L-Listen, Axel. I have a family to support-“
“And you didn’t when you just decided to leave me alone in that house when Mom left?!” I shout, not realizing I accidentally called her ‘Mom’ instead of ‘Amy’.
He looks down, not knowing what to say. “I still gave you money”
“That I’ve already paid back when I started to earn money. I even gave you twice the amount so that you’d have no complaints” I say, and he nods.
“How could you just ask him for money when you never took care of him? Or cared to come to his games?” Amy yells and I look at her, baffled. Is this woman sane?
“Oh like you even did anything after you just left! At least I gave him money!” George yells back.
They both look at me, “We’re family, right, Axe?” they say in unison.
“STOP” I yell, and they both stop talking.
“I don’t know what you have inhaled before coming here, but what makes you think that you can come acting like you care and I’ll smile and accept it. You didn’t want to act like a parent then, don’t start acting like one now that I’m way more successful than you thought I’d be. Not when you guys tried to stop me from pursuing something that I was good at and is now the reason for my success”
I snicker, “I wanted for so long to become successful so that you guys would acknowledge me and maybe ask for my forgiveness. But I see that I’m only a source of money” I look at George. “And an object to show off” I look at Amy.
“I’ve had enough, and for the past 10 years of my life, I have finally been able to be happy with the man who treats me well.”
I turn around and see Jay, Jack, Franco, Peter, Tyler, May, Dan and Mace standing at the entrance.
I look at Amy and George who look embarrassed, and point at my family. “Those people, they are my family. They have supported me through everything, especially when my biological family broke me. I am proud to have them call me their family. I never want to see you two again, so don’t come looking for me for money” I turn around again and begin to walk towards them when I bump into Jay’s chest.
Jay pulls me into a hug and kisses my forehead. He looks up at Amy and George, “His career’s just getting started” he says, “He’ll make you grovel at his feet from his success, and I’ll be there to support him. You guys will be the ones begging for his acknowledgment”
“Look, this is the son who you’ve called worthless and useless. Look at yourselves, asking said son for money and trying to show him off to impress people. Look at the son you’re asking for help from. Well guess what, he doesn’t need you two, and he sure as hell will not allow himself to be of any use to you guys. His annual salary at this moment is more than both of your annual salaries combined, and it will only continue increasing. He is more successful than you two can hope to be, yet all you’ve done was put him down when he was in your care and now you want to use him” Jay says.
“But it’s too late now. As you have left him behind before, Axel is the one who is leaving you guys behind now” Jay finishes, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.
He squeezes my arm, “See, this is what you’ve abandoned. An absolutely flawless man with inhumane basketball talents that you tried to suppress. That’s right, be ashamed of yourselves”
We walk away, and Jay looks down at me in concern. “Are you okay?”
I sigh, “First time they’ve spoken to me in years and it’s only to use me for their own benefits”
“Assholes” Jay says, narrowing his eyes.
I chuckle, “Yeah, I’m mentally exhausted after dealing with them. Thanks for coming in to save me, I would’ve broken down in angry tears if I had to utter another word to them”
“Yeah, I noticed you shaking. Well, let’s go then. Your family’s been waiting to congratulate you” Jay says, pointing at everyone who has a smile on their face. We walk over to them and they all hug me, Jack and Mace hugging me for a little longer than the others. I sigh in content, this is where I belong. With the people who have supported me. With the people who have always been there for me.
With the people who I’m proud to call my family.
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A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this extra! If you guys have any suggestions on anything you want me to write, comment it and I’ll do my best to write it! The second chapter of my new book is out now, and I’d really appreciate if you’d give it a read and vote!
Please vote for this chapter, and have a great week! Stay healthy!
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