The Path Taken — Story of Jannis Canterfield

[BraedenG33]

Quote: Originally Posted by beast10

Thanks for checking in and yeah I'm really excited with this one! More updates may be bound for tomorrow!

Can't wait for it.

[beast10]

September 3rd, 2013


“What’s your name by the way?” Geno asked as we all resided in the gym.



“Jannis.”



“Alright so Jannis picks his whole team first and I take leftovers, deal?”



“Alright.”



I gave it a lot of thought to surround my selections with talent but it was hard considering that I never saw any of the guys play.



“Ok I want Alex, uhhh you, you, and you.” I didn’t know any of their names so I used the pointing method and selected my team based on the tallest players I saw.



“Alright so I’m Matt.” The second selection I made said. “This is Yussef and I guess you already know Alex.”



We gathered into a straight horizontal line lining up with our matchups from Geno’s team and then got into court position. I tried to reduce my nervous ways and basically just do my thing. That was just one of the many quotes my way always lectured to me.


“You guys get ball first, we’re going to 14.” Geno said as he took an air shot. “Check up.”



I stepped up to the top of the key and received the ball; everybody knew that we had to pass the ball to a teammate before you could make your move so I gave the ball up to Alex and quickly made a ‘V Cut’ into the paint in an attempt to fight off Geno’s defense; after the moves completion the ball was passed back my way and I immediately took the quick shot off the dribble which hit the back iron of the rim and raddled in.



“Good shot.” Matt said as we hustled back to the other end.



Quickly in the act Geno forced his way right past me and dished the ball into the paint to Yuseef’s matchup for an easy bucket.



“Watch out for his speed, Jannis.” Alex informed.



I nodded and caught the inbounds pass from Matt and quickly pushed the ball up the court but before any actual progress was made the ball was swiped from me behind.



“F*ck . . .” I mumbled under my breath as I watched Geno race to the other end for another easy layup attempt for his team.



“Score 2-1, we lead.” He said while getting back to defense.



----Later In The Game----



We were eventually down by 5 points; score being 11-7. It was obvious that despite having the first picks I had the weaker team as we suffered from Geno’s team raining three pointers the whole time. And after my opening shot I had when we started I was completely shut down by Geno’s timid defense. I was only relieved to see that Alex was able to put the ball into the basket as he had all our point besides the single two I had.



“That’s 12-7.” A player from the opposing team announced after draining another three.



I took a deep breath and jogged to the offensive end and patently waited as Alex brought the ball up the court while easily fighting off the double teams that came him way. I got the ball from the top of the wing and dished it to Yuseef who battled for position in the post and got a nice jump hook to fall. But things were all bad as I fell for Geno’s pump fake on the other end and watched him finish at the rim with an aerobatic layup maneuvering through both Yuseef and Alex’s block effort.



I signaled hand motions to Alex to cut to rim as I stand-still dribbled at the halfcourt setting. He swiped his defender’s shoulder and moved towards the rim and I gave him a nice bounce pass that landed right into his hands and he got the easy unguarded layup to push us to 9-13.



“Game point, guys.”



I focused onto Geno’s waist to see what direction he was planning on going while he slowly dribbled the ball up the court. He started left but made a swift crossover near the free throw line that froze me up for a second but I was able to recover yet he still nailed a stepback jumper near the baseline.



“That’s game; 14-9.” Geno said as he took a seat on the bleachers.



I did the same, somewhat despondent about how terrible I played. It reminded back when I was in 6th grade and considered quitting basketball after I had such a bad game. Just luckily I had my dad to talk some sense to me . . . I took a seat near where Geno and everybody else sat.



“Hey man.” Geno slapped my back. “You’ve got skill, I can see it, but you gotta shoot more. You have a nice form and everything but you just need to be more aggressive or it’ll go to waste.”



“Yeah, I hear that a lot.”



“Yeah, I used to be like that but I realized nobody would be watching me if I didn’t try to get the ball into the basket.”



I nodded at Geno. I figured I’d stick around and try to make friends with these guys, I scanned the gym to see any sight from Connor but he was nowhere to be found which gave me a little relief knowing I wouldn’t have to hear another word from him at the moment.



“Oh yeah, what’s all you guys names?” I asked to gain familiarity with everybody.



“I’m Cody.”



“I’m Koby, the point guard for the team.”



“I’m Christian; I don’t play on the team though.”



“Chase.”



“Cool.” I said once everybody in the section stated their name.



Right away I knew that Koby, Geno, and Cody made up a big three for the team. They could put up points in a hurry. I only wandered and hoped that they wouldn’t reflect to coach Morgan on how they felt about my poor performance.



----Later After Dinning Hall----



Leaving the Dining Hall I couldn’t have been more upset as I was stuck at the table with Connor and a bunch of guys I didn’t know from the dorm. But afterwards we were all due back in our dorms by 8:00 and it was around 7:20 at the moment so I tried to find Alex and some of the other basketball guys; that is until I laid eyes upon a short, dark haired female who had the face that was nearly flawless. I was shy and all but I couldn’t resist striking up a conversation with her.



“Hey I know I don’t know you and all but you look really pretty today.”



“Thank you!” She said with a glowing smile. “I know you, you’re Jannis, right?”



“Uhmm, yeah. How’d you know?”



“Because everybody is talking about you!”



“Good or bad?”



“Good, really good.” She laughed. “You’re like the hot topic right now, are you from here?”



“Nah, I came from Ogden, my dad is in the Air Force and they re-stationed him to Panama City so he sent me here so I wouldn’t have to move again.”



“What about your mom?”



“Well, she died in a car accident when I was only 3. I don’t really have too much family besides my dad and now I’m pretty much here in Utah by myself.”



“Aww, I’m so sorry.”



“It’s not your fault.” I gave a small chuckle. “But anyways what about you?”



“I’ve been living here all my life. I was going to start here last year as an 8th grader but I really didn’t want too so now here I am!”



“Cool, cool. So what do you do in your spare time?”



“Cheerleading and I’m an equestrian. And you play basketball, huh.”



“Ha, yeah. And how’d you know that?”



“I already told you . . . You’re the hot topic, we know all about you!”



“Like?”



“Welp, that you’re cute, great at sports, and really nice!”



“Hey Alexis you want to go to the Hall?” I turned around to see the approaching figure of Christian, the dude who was at the courts earlier.



“Sure!” She replied to Christian. “By the way, Jannis this is my boyfriend Chris, and Chris this is Jannis.”



The frustration mounted as I realized the only good outcome of that whole conversation was that I was the ‘Hot Topic’ here but she was the only girl that stood out to me based on what I saw so far so I was still highly upset to see she wasn’t single after all.



“Yeah I know we met.”



“Yeah what’s up Jannis.”



“Nothing, just going back to my dorm, I guess.”



“Wanna come with us? A lot of people are in there.”



“Nah I gotta get some rest for tomorrow.”



----Later In the Dormitory----



I returned back to my dorm un-surprised to see that I was one of the only ones to be in there besides about 10 of us and our dorm parent. I figured that I should give my dad a phone call so I went into my room and dialed his number and waited for him to answer.



And waited.



And waited.



Finally he picked up after a few rings.



“Hey Jannis how’s it going?”



“It’s better than I thought. We got a game going with a few of the basketball players today.”



“How are they?”



“They’re really good. You told me about that dude Geno and he was there, he’s a lock down defender.”



“Yeah, how do you think you compare with them?”



“Well . . . Uh, well . . . G-Good I think I played well against them.”



“Well that’s good. I’m almost done packing this stuff up from the house.” He said on the other line. “It’s gonna be really different without you around. But listen, I gotta finish this up so I can get some sleep and be ready for my flight tomorrow.”



“Alright dad; I’ll talk to you later.”

[beast10]

Update should be coming later today. And if you can tell, things are going to start off slowly in this just so you can get familiar with all the characters but then I'll progress faster

[turty11]

i feel like this is an RPG that needs stats for communcation, leadership, discipline etc and then us readers vote you +/- stat points for categories based off your story interactions...great job

(no really, i was reading your first interaction with "the bully" and i was like, that dude needs a +1 discipline)

[beast10]

September 4th, 2013



I glanced up at the game clock, there was 8 seconds remaining in the Utah state championship and we were trailing 57-59.

I received the ball from the inbounds pass and quickly dribbled up the court and maneuvered around the pick set by our center to free myself up for some shooting space. I took my last look at the scoreboard and fired up a three point shot . . .

• • •

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!



"Everybody up!" Mr. Winston, our dorm parent said while marching down the dormitory hall. "First day of the new school year."



I was still shaken up from my last night's long sleep. I was having a dream but I forgot just about everything about it once that loud obnoxious alarm ended it all. I sat on the center of my bed trying to locate my correct mindset.



"FIRST DAY OF BOARDING SCHOOL! LET'S GO!" Bursted out Tyler Huber, just at the right volume to increase my already developing migraine.



I stood up from the bed and browsed throughout my drawer space to try to find out what I'd be wearing today. Luckily, the academy didn't require uniforms but they still did have a somewhat strict dress code so I was having trouble finding something in my urban based wardrobe. I eventually settled on dressing in my school sweatshirt dad had bought me during the orientation and some khaki pants topped off with my favorite Jordans, the Cool Grey 9's. Dad was an avid sneakerhead himself so I usually always had a nice sneaker collection.



"What have you got first period?" Connor asked as I stepped out of my room.



"Uh, algebra."



"Ah man you're in the minor leagues, I've got Calculus." He said with ecstatic confidence. "Mrs. Beem, she's nice and all but is a horrible teacher. I've taught myself all the way up."



"That sucks. I've always been bad at math so that doesn't sound too great . . ."



"Yeah but anyways I've got to get my medicine."



"Ok."



I continued my stroll towards the dining hall to start my day off hopefully with a good breakfast. Yesterday's dinner was pretty good so I hope the breakfast could match the performance.



----Last Period Ceramics----



“Ok class so here in a minute I’ll be passing out a blank hand out sheet that I want you all to fill out about what you’d like to do in this class because while I’ve got some of our upcoming projects planned, I’m still constructing my future plans and I'd like to allow you guys to announce your own interest in the class."



I received my paper and it took a good minute before I could jot down something down. I honestly hated yet liked art at the same time. I guess only the outcome of all the work was what I liked it for. The bell rang as I finished the last words of my interests of sculpting a fighter jet which I thought would be a good gift I could give my dad when I visited him again. That had concluded my official first day in class as a freshman and I glided back outside to the courtyard.



I wasn’t really sure what was next after I left the class . . . No homework, no studying, no nothing since it was the only the first day. But the bad thing was was that I didn't really have many people to hang out with either it made me began to think about my old friends back in Ogden. TJ, Aaron, Max, Darius, Eric, Jamie . . . Now I was here starting back at the basics and worst of all back to being the shy kid.



“Hey Michael, what’s up man?” I looked forward and saw Matt coming out from the Math and Science building.



“Not much just got out of ceramics.”



“Cool man, so you coming to the open gym this Saturday.”



“Yeah I’m going to try to go to all of them leading up to tryouts." I said. "My dad told me that I should try to utilize every opportunity to hear whatever coach had to say before tryouts came around."



“Yeah that's really true. But I'm not trying to put you down or anything but I have to warn you that the teams are pretty much all made up even before tryouts.”



"Wait what?" I asked, slightly confused.



"Yeah, I personally kinda think of this school as a university because coach Morgan's source of getting his players is recruiting them from pretty much all around the world. Players who make the team during tryouts are usually thought of as walk-ons. But like I said, I'm not trying to discourage you but if you really want to make that team you're really going to have to put in work and both mentally and physically prepare yourself well."



"Oh wow so how many players are on there now?"



"There's like 9 of us now. Garrett, Momo, and Insa graduated. They were all the seniors from last year. From what I know, this year coach Morgan recruited this guard named Bryson Langdon from Chicago."



"Well I don't know if it's easy to answer but what would you say my chances are of making the team?" I asked, regretfully because I was scared to hear if his answer consisted on failure.



"Well I don't really know, that's all coach's decisions. If you don't make it though, there's always JV."



"Oh alright."



"Yeah but anyways I've got to go, if you ever need any help with your game I'm usually in the gym."



"Alright thanks, Matt."



With that, I slid on my headphones and roamed the path of Wasatch just thinking about how the basketball tryouts would wind up like. It was really starting to stress me . . .

[beast10]

Quote: Originally Posted by turty11

i feel like this is an RPG that needs stats for communcation, leadership, discipline etc and then us readers vote you +/- stat points for categories based off your story interactions...great job (no really, i was reading your first interaction with "the bully" and i was like, that dude needs a +1 discipline)

Oh ok now I understand this lol. I like the idea, it would be a good tool for me to better write this stuff out.

[beast10]

September 7th, 2013



“ARE YOU AAAAAALIVE?”



I was knocked out after a long sleep until the voice interrupted it all. I slowly wiped off my eyes to get a clear vision of my surroundings and realized that it was Connor talking. I furthermore scanned the dorm and saw that there were barely any other people.



“W-Where is everyone?” I said while stammering.



“Dude it’s almost one in the afternoon.” He exclaimed. “Everybody is out and about.”



“Then what the hell are you doing here?” I asked growing paranoid as I began developing another morning headache.



“I’m camping out here so none of those teachers force me to go to one of those weekend clinics. By the way, I thought you were going to the open gym?”



“Ahhh, COME ON!” I yelled as I jumped out of the bed and onto my feet.



I hadn't forgotten about the event but I was too overwhelmed about not having to wake up so early since it was the weekend. Now my first impression was probably wrecked in coach's perspective. I only wondered why none of these guys tried to wake me up.



“Yeah man. I mean it’s probably like 10 minutes left in it but you might as well just pass up on it.”



“No way, I’ve gotta get over there.”



With that I quickly rushed through my wardrobe throwing out the first basketball attire I saw and replacing it with my current basketball shorts I wore to bed and flew out of the dorm towards the gym without listening to any of Connor’s rumbling.



Once I was at gazing distance from the gym floor I saw nothing but a batch of players all scrimmaging on both sides of the court. I gave myself a disappointed face palm as I stood there feeling like an idiot then realizing that coach’s attention was turned to me.



“GET OVER HERE, CANTERFIELD.” He yelled from across the court.



I ran over there as quick as possible negatively anticipating a lecture from coach. I had never done something as stupid as this . . .



“What is the meaning of this?” He asked, noticeable being upset.



“Sorry, coach. I guess I fell back asleep while everybody was leaving.”



“Excuses . . . You’re supposed to be a freshman with starting potential and you can’t even get to an OPEN GYM? All you had to do is get to sleep early and this wouldn't have happened. That just shows an uncommitted individual.”



I exhaled my breath and looked down. I didn’t know what to say but I knew coach was right and I was getting the earful about his ‘first impression’.



“Sorry coach it won’t happen it again. I promise.”



“Yeah I know it won't and I’m going to hold you on that statement. But for today, get out.”



“Y-you mean out of the gym?”



“Yes, out of my gym.”



I said nothing after his statement as I walked out of the gym ashamed. Connor was right; I should have just not gone . . . I checked my phone and saw that I had a missed message from my dad.

Quote:

Hey Jannis good luck with the open gym today. I know that coach Morgan will be watching you so make sure you impress him and also have a good attitude.

Well it was going to suck when I have to tell him that I overslept and missed the entire thing . . . I shoved the phone back in my pocket and just walked around the courtyard for a few more minutes unaware of what to do; for it was ghost town on the campus until the guys from the gym stormed out while laughing and pointing at me.



“Ha! Jannis what happened?” Cody asked.



“Nothing.” I said frustrated. “I overslept and he kicked me out.”



“How do you oversleep with those alarms are stupid loud. But anyways we're all about to get off campus and go somewhere, you in?”



“Where to?”



“Wal-Mart and some other places, dunno.”



“Alright sure.”



----Later At Wal-Mart----



We had all took the bus to the local shopping centers of Mt. Pleasant. It seemed like I had adapted so quickly to the boarding school that anything beyond the school perimeter felt so weird. I isolated myself away from the group as I walked along the gaming isle hoping to pick up the newest edition of Fifa only to realize I had no money since I was not prepared for this outing. But suddenly I saw the familiar dorm face of Elijah and a couple of other of his friends.



“Hey it’s one of the freshmen!” He said as he pointed at me. “Hey steal this Xbox Live card for me, mines about to expire.”



“Why don’t you do it then?”



“Don’t question it just do it.”



“Alright . . .” I slipped the card into my pocket while watching if any of the employees where in sight.



“Alright cool, you better than I thought. Let’s get out of here then.”



We then proceeded towards the door exit and as much as I wanted to return back with my original crowd and toss the card, I stayed with these guys. We reached the exit and Elijah gave me a quick explanation on how not to detect the sensors and I did what he said and it actually worked until the worst thing happened.



“What do you think you young men are doing?” A saleswoman barked.



**** . . . I thought as I came to a stop, thinking about taking off before she could see me.



To Be Continued

[TheBusinessHarp]

What a good cliff hanger, Janis is not doing so hot so far.

Kinda off topic, I slept through my alarm and was late to Football practice once my Junior year, it's one of the worst feelings ever!