Mickey rushed back into the school to room C-4, which was on the second level of the building. Even though class ended, he hoped that Rain and Jiang did not leave yet. Being careless, he almost ran into a few students, before making his way to the door. Once he got to the classroom, Rain was packing up, about to leave. While Jiang was sleeping on his desk in the far corner.

            Mickey hurried towards his cousin and slammed his hands on her desk, “Rainie! I need your help, please!”

            Caught off guard, Rain was startled and slapped his arm in reaction, “Goodness! Don’t scare me like that Mickey! Lectures are already done, why are you over here?”

“I need your help!” He repeated.

“For?” She asked.

Mickey took in a deep breath to calm his nerves before speaking again, “Remember I was missing something the other day? Turns out Jungha took it and will only give it back if I win him in basketball. But the thing is it’s 3v3, you and Jiang are my only choices. Will you play?”

“I see,” Rain nodded her head, “You did seem pretty upset yesterday. I guess I can help you, free of charge.” She said somewhat sarcastically.

Overjoyed, Mickey bowed, burying his face in her bag that laid on the desk, “Thank you!”

“No need to thank me, it feels nice to help the less fortunate” Rain teased, “But…how are you going to convince THAT one to join us?” Pointing at Jiang.

The two saw a dark frightening aura surrounding their uncle, as he was still out cold on his desk. Mickey did not plan this far on how he would persuade Jiang. Suddenly he grew afraid, so he did the next best thing he could do. During desperate times, Mickey resorted to anything. He turned his gaze towards Rain, and she turned to look at him. His eyes were teary like, with a hopeless expression on his innocent face. It was a look of plea, asking his cousin to do it instead of him.

Astonished, Rain knew exactly what Mickey was doing. She did not think Mickey was the manipulative type. Rain should have not been surprised though, this only reassured her that being conniving ran in their family’s blood.

She miserably scoffed, “Fine, I’ll do it, but don’t assume I will submit to you all the time. This is a special occasion!”

Rain walked up to Jiang and kicked the metal legs of his chair, “Hey, wake up.”

Unbothered, Jiang was sound asleep. As Mickey watched, the whole situation felt like they were defusing a ticking time bomb. One wrong move or step would result in devastation. The first attempt did not work, so Rain kicked the chair again with slightly more force.

            “Jiang get up, school’s over! Mickey and I need you to do something!” Rain demanded, raising her voice.

            “Ngh…” Jiang grunted, struggling to open one eye.

            Rain casually crossed her arms, “Good, you’re awake, we need you to play basketball with us and WIN.”

            “Huh? I’m not playing basketball with you guys. Go find someone else.” He coldly stated.

            “Listen! Jungha stole something very important from Mickey and we need to get it back. Beating Jungha and his gang is the only way. Now stop being useless and help us for once!” Rain explained with frustration.

            “Not my problem.” He simply answered.

            Instead of arguing back, Rain took a different approach, “Hmph! I guess you’re not man enough for the challenge. I bet you’re scared of losing to Jungha, so you rather save your pride by not playing. Or maybe you just suck at sports.”

            Rainie what are you doing. You’re suppose to convince him to join, not piss him off. Mickey hopelessly thought to himself.

               Jiang smirked, “Do I look like an idiot to you? You really think I’m going to fall for that? I don’t need to prove my skills to you or anyone.”

            “Ugh, fine! It was worth a shot though…” Rain stared at Mickey, then back at Jiang, “Okay, how about a deal. You help us this one time, Mickey and I will do your homework for the rest of the semester.”

            “Wait what?!” Mickey was caught off guard.

            A devious grin emerged from Jiang’s sharp face, “Alright, deal.”

            Surprised by Jiang accepting the offer, Mickey quickly thanked him, “Thank you Jiang!”

The three left the classroom and headed to the courts. Mickey and Rain walk side by side while Jiang followed them from a far.

            Feeling uneasy about Rain’s little bargain with Jiang, Mickey whispered to her, “Rainie…do you think we can handle doing Jiang’s assignments on top of ours? We’re going to have to pull an all-nighter if that’s the case.”

            Rain barely whispered back, “What do you mean we? I’m not going to do his homework for him. You wanted me to ask Jiang and I got him to help you. I just said what he wanted to hear. So, stop overthinking things, do you want your precious belonging back or not? You can worry about his homework later.”

            “Alright…” Mickey said.

            Rain, Jiang and Mickey finally made it to their destination. Jungha and his two friends were standing by the pole, as if they have not moved the moment Mickey first left. Jungha saw the two players Mickey brought with him and chuckled with amusement. Mickey’s team comprised of a spoiled girl who could barely dribble a ball. While the other guy looked like he didn’t care whether they win or lose.

            “So, this is your team?” He made fun of.

            Mickey answered confidently, “It is. What of it?”

            Rain jumped in, “Go easy on me okay boys?” Winking at the other two friends.

            “I guess family will always have your back huh?” Jungha remarked.

            “Are we going to talk or play? Get ready to lose Jungha!” A sense of competitiveness was filled in Mickey’s voice.

            Jungha smirked, looking into Mickey’s dark orbs, “We’ll play half court, and the team to score five shots into the basket wins. Guests have the honors of getting the ball first.”

            Jungha tossed the ball to Mickey. He caught it with both hands, slightly pushed back by the force of Jungha’s throw. A sense of doubt entered Mickey’s mind, wondering if they could really beat a couple of skilled players. Since they had the ball first, Mickey’s team was on offense.  Everyone was in position now, Mickey passed the ball to Jungha and he passed it back, to start off the game.

            Once Mickey had the ball in his hands, Jungha swiftly blocked him from any openings. Mickey dashed to the left to get away. Jiang was open, and Mickey passed the ball to him. Mickey thought he threw it quite fast, but it was intercepted by one of Jungha’s teammates. It was a tall and lanky boy who made a clean shot into the basket, scoring their team the first point.

            Rain uttered, “Hey, that’s not fair! You can’t steal the ball from us. Right?”

            The other friend laughed, he had short hair with bushy eyebrows, “Rain, do you even know how to play basketball?”

            “Of course, I do! I just need a refresher that’s all.” She spoke proudly, but insecurity lingered within her sentence.

At that moment, all three family members, Mickey, Jiang and Rain thought in their head simultaneously, “We’re going to lose…”

The next round, it was Jungha’s team to start off while Mickey’s group played defense. The tall lanky boy had the ball, Jiang tried to steal it but got juked. Heading closer to the hoop to dunk, Rain jumped to block the boy, causing him to flinch due to how close she was. Rain snatched the ball but did not know what to do next. She saw the three boys after her, terrified, her natural instincts caused her to run away with the ball in her hand.

 “NO TRAVELING! Out!” The bushy browed boy yelled.

“What do you mean?” She protested, unable to understand her mistake.

Jiang scolded, “You idiot, you have to keep dribbling the ball if you want to move. If you want to hold it, you have to stay in place and pass it to me or Mickey.”

Everyone got back into their formation and played again. After a couple rounds, it was no surprise that team Jungha had scored the most points, with only one point away from winning. Team Mickey on the other hand was struggling, only scoring two points. All three of them were starting to run out of breath and grew tired. It did not help that they were losing as well.

“Let’s take a five-minute break!” Jungha hollered, seeing how exhausted they looked.

 “Y-Yeah, sounds good.” Mickey panted.

Jungha then spoke again, “Since this is game point for us, I’ll make a deal. If you score next round, you guys win the game. How about it?”

Puzzled, but secretly grateful, Mickey agreed, “Deal.”

Mickey brought Rain and Jiang into a huddle, to discuss about their game plan. Even though they all felt hopeless, it was no lie that they were having fun. Mickey and Rain never seen Jiang so dedicated on anything before, playing very serious in the game. While Rain slowly got the hang of the rules after each round, she believed herself as an expert at the sport. Mickey was not bad or good at basketball, but he enjoyed the competition and the camaraderie with everyone.

“This is the final round so we can’t mess it up. We need to come up with of a strategy to win the last point.” Mickey crucially elaborated.

Surprisingly, Jiang had something to say, “Alright, I got a plan.”

Amazed, Rain widened her eyes, “This is the first time I seen you used your brain, good job.”

Jiang glared at her and continued his thought, “I’ll take care of the dirty kid with the big brows, since I have a reach over him. Rain, when we’re on defense, you guard the skinny guy. He gets uncomfortable when you’re near him, so it’s the perfect chance for you to take the ball to bypass him.”

“Got it!” She replied.

Jiang faced his nephew, “Mickey, that leaves you with Jungha. It’s no doubt he’s the best player on their team, but he has a weakness and I know what it is.”

Both Mickey and Rain became even more intrigued, speaking in unison, “What is it?”

The corner of his lips curved mischievously while he rose his finger, “Jungha has a past injury on his left leg, so it’s harder for him to stabilize his footing on the left side. Also, he only seems to be interested in Mickey.”

Again, Rain and Mickey spoke in unison, “What?!”

“What I mean is, Jungha probably thinks Mickey’s our best player. That’s why he’s fixated on never letting Mickey score. Plus, the whole time we’ve been playing, it’s only been Mickey and I who have been carrying the games.”

“Wow…” Rain commented.

Ignoring her remark, Jiang resumed, “We have to mess with their minds, they only expect us guys to make the score. Rain you need to act as if you’ll be making the shot, but in the end, you’ll pass it to one of us. Most likely me, while Mickey keeps Jungha at bay.”

“You’re putting a lot of faith in me, you know that?” Rain said hesitantly.

Mickey quickly reassured, “You can do it, Rainie! I believe in you.”

“Everyone got it? Now let’s get back. We’ll win if we follow my plan.” Jiang encouraged.

Everyone was ready to start the final round, and Mickey’s team had the ball this time. Just as Jiang expected, Jungha came to block Mickey and only him. Mickey’s back was facing Jungha, while dribbling the ball in place. Mickey stepped his right foot out and immediately outmaneuvered Jungha by turning to the left. Rain was open, so Mickey shot the ball over to her. She caught the ball and headed to the pole where the lanky boy was. Instead of dodging the boy, she ran straight to him, invading his personal space by barely grazing her chest against his arms.

The boy became extremely flustered and lost the will to take the ball. Right before Rain was about to make a shot, she tossed the ball straight at the bushy browed guy on the other end of the court. In a flash, Jiang ran in front of him and caught the ball. Jungha was too far away with Mickey to intercept. Jiang then went for a lay-up, leaping at the right moment to score the winning point.

A loud roar of excitement came from the three, celebrating their victory. Winning the final match when all odds were against them, was one of the best feelings. After, Mickey cleared his throat and calmly walked towards Jungha.

He held his hands out, “We won fair and square. Now where is it?”

Jungha did not say a word, and only smiled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bracelet. Jungha placed it on Mickey’s palm, leaving his hand above Mickey’s for a second longer than it should have been. Once Jungha pulled his hand away, Mickey examined the ornament and walked away.

Mickey, Rain and Jiang went off home with their egos held high. Proud that an unexpected squad like them, would be able to defeat a well-trained group of basketball players.

Rain bent over to peak at what Mickey held, “A bracelet?! We had to go through all that trouble for that. Sigh…”

Their rambunctious chatter could be heard from afar by Jungha and his friends.

The bushy browed student turned to Jungha with a puzzled look, “Jungha, why did you go so easy on them? There were so many times you were able to take ball and made the make the final score, but you let them win.”