Gavin's Short Story

The week before his big showcase, Gavin was at the park working hard to fine tune his game. He’d been dreaming about this moment for years, the day when he was leaving to play in the NBA’s annual rookie showcase game in New York. This park had become his home away from home, the clean air, without all the New York pollution bringing peace to his calculating mind. He loved the smell of the trees which reminded him of the pine smell of the forest near his house in New Jersey where he took long walks when he was feeling stressed out. The jangling of the ball swishing through the chain net was his favorite sound in the whole world. The thudding of the ball whenever he dribbled reminded him of the way his older brother used to thunder down the stairs before he left to join the army.
So when he went there to hone his skills before the big break, the person he hated the most showed up to play, basketball rival Jackson Ellis. Gavin had been disgusted to learn that Jackson Ellis had also been invited to the Rookie Showcase. The whole city knew of their big rivalry which lasted through countless AAU seasons. When Gavin had his biggest game scoring 47 points, everyone had been talking about it until Ellis topped him by scoring 54 points. Suddenly, nobody remembered the kid who scored 47, now it was all about the kid that scored 54. Multiple coaches kept telling him this was his biggest flaw, his need to have people talking about him and congratulating him about some big achievement he had accomplished. He got lost thinking about all this and when Ellis suddenly came up to him on the court, Gavin braced himself for a barrage of