This takes place three days after the last scene (when Nathaniel and Rosemary met).
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Orion loved basketball. It wasn't so much the game itself, as it was the activity of playing. The testing of the combination of skill and instinct in an individual against others. Which in basketball is heightened due to the fast pace of the game, and made things all the more exciting in Orion's opinion. And then of course there was the winning. Orion always won at sports. Which, while he quite enjoyed bettering others, was part of the reason his love for sports lay more in the playing of them. Football, soccer, hockey, really any sport that pitted people against each other. He especially liked hockey, because hockey had the highest threshold for violence. Not that Orion thought he was violent, but he was always aggressive when he played something. After all, why bother playing if you're not going to do your best? But apparently most people considered him too rough when it came to contact sports. Which was why Orion had been banned from every basketball game in town. Even pick-up and street players knew him and his style of game and refused to let him play anymore.
So now Orion practiced on his own. It wasn't the same as playing a game, but it kept his skills from fading. He did shooting and dribbling drills. He'd work on passing to himself off of walls. The most fun lay in pretending he was facing off against his favorite NBA players and figuring out how to win against them. Sometimes he would even narrate aloud to himself as he practiced, simulating game conditions as best he could.
Today he was on the court practicing fancy moves. He could dribble between his legs without thinking about it anymore, while he was moving. But he still had to pay attention to his own motions when standing in one spot trying to keep the ball away from a grabby opponent. That just wasn't acceptable to him. He needed to be able to look around the court and judge what was going on without having to worry about the ball in his hands against a good ball stealer. The best way to do that was to constantly keep in motion. Right foot forward, bounce from left hand to right between the legs. Switch feet so the left is forward, bounce from right hand to left between the legs. Keep the feet and body moving, but the ball in the same place and protected. In theory it was easy enough, but in reality it was more art than science. Plus, any good player would be able to recognize a repetitive set of motions and adjust to them. He had to be able to throw in a stutter step every once in a while, or move the ball around the outside of his leg as he switched feet position. He had to be able to keep changing it up, without concentrating. That last bit was what kept tripping him up.
He caught the ball from its last bounce, and stood up straight for a quick stretch. Then he walked over to the sideline where he had left his bag to get a drink before starting up again. He didn't have much time before others would come and kick him off the court. It was a public city court, no way to reserve it for anything, and street rules were the group with the most people got to play. Unless there was a game in progress, in which case the group got to play next. As one person he wasn't actually playing a game, therefore any group could come take the court from him. So he had skipped class today to get some serious practice time in. Most everyone else was still in school, making the competition for courts quite small for the time being. Still, there had been enough kids out that the best court he could find was this old one. The baskets had chain nets that weren't fully connected, and the backboards were cracked. The one concrete wall the court had was covered with graffiti, though the building behind the wall was stable enough. And the ground was still even and smooth, which made the court decent despite its appearance. The other three sides were standard chain link fences, with a door sized hole in one of them.
As he turned back from his bag to face the court again, he saw a girl standing behind the fence wall with one hand rested in a chain hole. She was a blonde bombshell, and she was obviously watching him. He grinned at her. She smiled back. He put down his water, and picked up the basketball. With four long strides towards the basket to get up to speed, he pushed himself off the ground, stretched his arms as long as they would go, and slammed the ball through the rim. Before he could fall back to the ground, he grabbed the rim and swung from it. He looked back towards the girl and winked, then let go and landed on his feet. She blushed slightly and giggled.
Orion quickly retrieved the ball, and showed off a little more with some fancy dribbling and foot work. The girl laughed and clapped. He finished with a fast-break towards the basket that ended in a 360 turn followed by a hook-shot instead of the simple standard lay up. The girl cheered and clapped some more. Orion took a quick bow, then trotted over to her.
"Hi there, I'm Orion," he introduced himself, then grinned.
"Rosemary," she happily replied. "Can I play?"
The question surprised Orion, but after a second he recovered. "Uh, sure," he answered with a shrug. It wouldn't be real playing, but he didn't mind if it meant he got to run around a bit with her.
She grinned and walked around into the court.
"Do you know how?" Orion ventured, wondering if he'd have to teach her the basics.
She walked right up to him, took the ball out of his hands, turned and shot the ball at the closest basket. And it went in. "Nothing but net," she commented with a sly smile.
Orion nodded slowly. Her form had been perfect. Shooting form that was. "Alright then," was all he could think of to say. "Let's play."
Rosemary ran over to the ball and picked it up. While she did, Orion noticed a man walk to the doorway to the court and look at Rosemary. When she reached down and starting taking off her heels, the man crossed his arms and frowned. Orion started to move towards Rosemary, just in case.
"Miss Delacourt," the man called to her with a displeased edge to his voice.
"Oh Jacob!" she responded, looking up at him with a smile, "There you are." On finding they knew each other, and Rosemary not sounding at all threatened by the man, Orion relaxed. Rosemary walked over to Jacob and held out her shoes to him. "Don't look at me like that. I'll only play for a couple minutes, then we can go."
Jacob clearly wasn't happy with the deal, but he took the shoes. Rosemary then handed over her purse to him. He accepted that as well and moved to lean against the fence wall to wait.
Rosemary headed to the center of the court and passed the ball to Orion. "Half court?"
"Sure. First to three shots, since you have to leave soon?" Orion asked, tipping his head towards Jacob.
"Oh don't worry about him," she said with a wave of her hand. With her other hand she hiked the skirt part of her dress up to her knee and held it there so she'd be able to do more than only walk. "Besides, three shots wouldn't be much of a game. How about seven?"
Orion grinned. "No, it wouldn't be much of a game," he agreed, mentally adding to himself,
Since I can do that in a minute.
They took up positions, and Orion passed the ball back to her. "You start."
Should give her a chance to shoot before I win, he reasoned with himself.
She shrugged, and started dribbling with her free hand. Orion crouched slightly to a defensive stance, and moved along side her. When she faked to her right, he didn't fall for it, and slid right up next to her as she moved to the left. Much to his surprise, she had faked left as well. Instead of moving into his block, she stepped around his left leg with her left leg and with her next step was past him on her way to the basket. He tried to turn to keep up with her, but as he moved his left leg to step backwards he hit it against hers and tumbled backwards to the ground. Rosemary stumbled slightly, but caught herself before she fell, and proceeded for an easy lay up.
She caught the ball on its way back down from the net, turned and smiled at Orion. "That's one."
Orion set his jaw, and snorted.
I'll never underestimate someone based on looks again, he admonished himself. As he pulled himself off the ground, Rosemary jogged back to the starting position. "Okay, okay," he said, in an attempt to regain some dignity. "I see we're playing for real."
"Of course!" she replied.
He fell into a full defensive stance. No more showing off, no more messing around. She was no longer a pretty girl, she was his opponent. "Then you better fix your skirt in place, 'cause you're going to need both hands."
She nodded and fetched a few pins out of her purse. After her dress was in place she returned to the court.
They played hard for several minutes. Full contact, hip checking, foot stepping, elbowing basketball. Orion was only careful enough to not use his full strength unless both his hands were firmly on the ball and not her. Each one of them hit the ground more than once. Rosemary's strength was her quickness. Once Orion realized she had a hard time shooting from the outside, he was able pull ahead in the game. But he couldn't shut her down because every few times she managed to slip by him.
When the score was six to four in favor of Orion, he was so anxious to finish the game he stopped focusing on anything else. Rosemary passed him the ball to start the play. He judged the distance to the basket, her stance, and the distance between him and her. He started dribbling and heading for the basket. When she moved to block him, he stepped into her and charged on through. A few steps, and he found himself free at the basket. A quick lay up won him the game.
Orion turned around with a triumphant smile. "Seven!" he proclaimed. But his victory didn't last beyond that.
Rosemary was sitting on the ground looking slightly disoriented. Jacob was by her side holding her arm as if he wanted to help her up. He flashed Orion a nasty look, then turned a concerned one back to Rosemary.
"Oh man," Orion said and hurry over. "Are you alright? I'm sorry. I just-"
Rosemary waved her free hand at him. "No no, it's okay. He's just mad 'cause I tore my dress and Daddy likely won't believe the story."
Orion looked quickly from the tear to Jacob to Rosemary. "That's it?" he asked dubiously.
Jacob shook his head. "No, it's not. You hit your head Miss Delacourt. Come on, I'm taking you to a doctor."
"Jacob, please!" she protested. "I'm fine. It's only a little bump. Just... take me to the hotel."
Jacob frowned, but nodded. It was clear to Orion this man didn't actually have any control over Rosemary, no matter how much he tried to assert some.
"Hey, I'm sorry," Orion said again.
Rosemary looked at him, and smiled. "No worries. It was just part of the game. Congratulations by the way."
He smiled slightly, feeling a little better that she truly seemed alright, and that she understood. "Thanks. Any time you want a rematch," he shrugged. "Well, I'm around."
"That'd be fun," she replied.
Orion and Jacob helped her to her feet. She flashed another smile at Orion. "Don't worry! I'm fine. Thanks for the great game! I haven't gotten to play like that since... well I don't remember but I bet it's been a while!"
He smiled back, more assured this time. "Okay. Thank you, Rosemary."
"And you!"
With one last smile from her to Orion, Jacob escorted Rosemary off the court and away.
Labels: Story, The Lost Song
