Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Back in the living room of Jason's apartment all of them were laughing and smiling as they watched the show.

Once it came to an end everyone was all smiles. Udonis chuckled "Looks like Jeff still ain't a believer huh Jason?"

Jason replied "I almost feel bad for him. I can't believe he agreed to drinking a homemade smoothie made by Tucker.

Just by the evil smile and the look in his eyes I can tell that Tucker is not going to pull any punches."

Jason grabbed another slice of pizza from one of the boxes. Just as he was about to bite into it he heard the door to his apartment slam open "Jaya!"

Tory walked into the apartment in her usual gray sweats and white tee shirt. She had an annoyed expression on her face "You're always ordering pizza without telling your noona!"

"Huh? You guys are here? Sup." She threw up a peace sign as a greeting after seeing that everyone was there.

Her sight stopped at Kyle. She walked over and ruffled his hair as she smiled "Kiki you should have told your noona if you were going to hang out with Jaya."

After hearing Tory call Kyle Kiki Jason and the rest of the guys started to laugh. Kyle's face started to get hot with embarrassment

"T-Tory I told you not to do that. Especially not in front of the guys." Tory chuckled "What? Ruffling your hair or calling you Kiki?"

Kyle groaned as he pulled away from her "Both." Tory playfully punched him on the shoulder "Oh come on. I see you guys ruffling each others hair all the time. And Kiki is such a cute nickname."

Kyle corrected her "When we do it to each other its a bro thing. You are not a bro, you're a Tory. And Kiki is a cute nickname for girls not for guys."

Tory grabbed a slice of pizza and bit into it "Well too bad. Jaya is Jaya and now you're Kiki. It's a tradition that I give a nickname to all of my little brothers.

As soon as your mom and my dad make a new one I'll give him a nickname too." Kyle didn't know how to react to that.

He sat back and thought in his head 'Wow Tory already thinks of me as family huh? It actually feels kinda nice to have another person like that.'

Tory took Kyle's silence as a form of acceptance to his situation. She smugly smiled as she nodded her head.

Seeing how well two of the most important people in his life were getting along Jason couldn't help but smile.

He looked at Tory as she inhaled the pizza slice she had in her hands and reached out for another one.

"So I'm guessing you don't have any tournaments or meets coming up any time soon since you're breathing in the pizza like its air."

Tory wiped off the grease in the corner of her lips with the top of her wrist "Yeah pretty much. I can relax for a whole month. Oh and check this out."

She pulled out a gold medal that was hiding under her shirt "Got first place at my Judo meet. The tournament organizers were super impressed.

I just wished that my old man could have been there to watch me kick ass. I heard that the whole company is pulling a all nighter today?"

Jason nodded his head "Probably. My mom said that she would be staying late so it's probably true."

Jason looked at Tory and then at Kyle "So things between Uncle Jin and Aunty V are getting serious huh? What's the news on the whole living together thing?"

Kyle took a sip of soda from his plastic cup before answering "My mom wants to move into the apartment with Uncle Jin and just rent out the house that she bought."

Tory nodded her head "Yeah. My dad just renewed he lease for the apartment so he can't move out for another 2 years."

Jason asked curiously "Are you guys going to fit?" Tory answered "Yeah well the apartment is just like yours. It has three bedrooms and two baths.

My dad was using one of the rooms as an office but he said that he can clear it out for Kyle." Jason nodded his head after hearing that.

His mom was using the extra room in their apartment as an office as well. He looked at Kyle "And how do you feel about that?"

Kyle shrugged his shoulders "Too be honest I don't really mind. We only lived in the house for a few months so I don't really have any special attachment to it.

And if it makes my mom happy than I'm all for it. Besides, if we move into the apartment complex then that means that it'll be super easy to come over at hang out at each other's places."

Jason smiled at the idea of being able to hang out with Kyle outside of basketball more easily.

Tory asked "So I heard that you won your first game at the state tournament. When's your next game and who are you playing against?"

Jason sighed as he answered "We don't get any time to rest. Our next game is tomorrow and we'll be playing against Mt. Shasta Middle School. 

Just like Hill Crest they're from a smaller county. But small county or not you can never underestimate a team that became the representative of their county.

I heard that they had to fly over because their county is ten hours away by driving. It sucks that all the teams from far away counties have to stay in hotels for the tournament."

Udonis butted in "Ay bro don't feel too bad for em. The committee paying for their hotels for the whole duration of the tournament.

They get to spend they winter break in LA even if they get booted out early. Shit I'm actually kinda jealous. Riverside cool and all but LA just hit different."

Tory laughed at Udonis "You're a big kid UD but you're still a kid. There's nothing for kids your guys' age to do in LA.

You need to be an adult to enjoy most of the cool things in LA. So why are you jealous." Tory's words seemed to have struck a major blow to Udonis.

He shrank back into the couch and grumbled to himself "Who's just a kid? I ain't no kid I-I'm..."

And just like that Tory added to the good mood that was already present in the apartment. The night would be filled with smiles, laughter, and plenty of good food.

- - -

That same night. In the garage of a house the lights were on as multiple folding tables were set up with folding chairs to match.

The temperature inside was warm even at night. A common occurrence for anyone from California.

There were 10 guys sitting at the tables as they watched a video on a large TV that was hanging on the wall.

It was a video of Jefferson's first game in the state tournament as they played against Hill Crest.

The guys cheered as Jason got the clutch block to end the game. Marcus took a sip of some kind of light brown liquid that was inside his glass.

"Man, I swear I've seen the kid play tons of times but he still manages to surprise me. Ain't no tellin how far this kid can go."

All of the guys nodded their heads in agreement. Just then the room started to make some noise as the gate of the garage started to go up.

Seeing a familiar face behind the wheel of the Van. The van parked to the side of the tables as the gate of the garage began to close.

A man wearing a mask hopped out of the back of the van with a black unmarked duffel bag. Marcus raised his glass to him "How was the fishing?"

The man took off his clown mask. It was Amare. He smiled back at Marcus "You was right bro.

The fish were exactly where you said they'd be. We hit it pretty big tonight. We gon be eating good for a while."

Amare unzipped the bag just a tiny bit and showed it to Marcus. Inside were tens of factory sealed cellphones of the newest model.

Marcus smiled "Good job. You made sure to keep em in the bag the whole time right?" Amare nodded his head.

"We followed your instructions to the letter boss. Put em in the bag as soon as we caught em and they been chillin there ever since.

If you don't mind me askin why is it so important to keep em in the bag?" Marcus took another sip before answering.

"The bags are specially designed to keep flies and other pests away. You wouldn't want your catch to get spoiled before you got a chance to feast right?"

Amare nodded his head "Makes sense." Amare helped four other people as they unloaded fifteen more bags from the van.

As Marcus was counting the bags and making some calculations in his mind one of the guys that was watching the game with him walked up to him "Yo bro I think you might wanna take a look at this."

The guy had his phone out. On it was a video that had just been posted on some random person's social media account about ten minutes ago.

It was a video of four guys waiting in a car with a big crowd outside. After the crowd was gone they rolled down their windows.

"Fuck you chink!" As the two in the passengers seats threw eggs out of their windows Marcus frowned after seeing their target.

Marcus watched as Jason got pelted with the raw eggs and the car drove away. Marcus didn't know about it but the guys had cut the video to not include the part where there back windshield was shattered by Trell.

After the video was finished the guy put his phone back in his pocket "So what we gon do boss? This was in LA so its kinda outside of our turf."

Marcus sighed as he thought in his head 'The kid probably stayed quiet because he didn't want to cause any trouble for us.'

Marcus took a big gulp from his glass before smiling "The kid is good at basketball but he too nice sometimes.

It might be a ways out of our scope of influence but that don't mean that we just gon be silent about this. 

I think I need to get back in touch with some of my friends down in the city of angels. I should probably hit up Jason too."