Page 19 of Playing for Keeps

Jacob huffed out a laugh, bending down to pull on his shoes.

“So what’s up next on Coach Clark’s torture agenda?” I asked, reaching for my T-shirt.

“I think we’re playing basketball.”

“He does know that we’re a rugby team, right?”

Jacob quirked an eyebrow. “Maybe you should remind him of that.”

“Nah, I value my balls being attached to my body too much.”

Sure enough, out on the concrete pad where the guys were assembling, Coach was holding a basketball and explaining how we were going to adapt the netball court markings.

I tried to tamp down my grin of anticipation, but it was difficult.

Unlike most of the guys in the team who’d gone to the larger boys’ schools that specialized in rugby, I’d gone to a smaller high school in a rural town, where if you were good at sport you got roped into playing everything. I was willing to bet most of the guys weren’t as familiar with basketball as I was.

Although there was someone else here who’d grown up in the same rural town as me. Luke and I had both played basketball for the top team in high school.

After that shit on the mud run, I was looking forward to going up against Luke again and having an excuse to slam my body into his.

“Right. All guys on this side of the line, you’re playing on that court with Wilkie. Guys on this side, you’re here with me. Jan to June birthdays on one team, the rest on another,” Coach Clark barked.

I blinked.

Luke and I were on the same team.

For some reason, I hadn’t considered that possibility.

And shit, as the game started, playing on the same team with Luke felt all too familiar.

First possession, I had the ball outside the three-point line and knew instinctively the angle Luke was running in the paint, so I threw the ball high, finding him for an alley-oop.

Next possession, I had the ball again near the top of the key. I dribbled a few times then looked up to find Luke, flicking my eyebrows at him. He immediately got my meaning, cutting in past Reuban so I could do a bounce pass under the hoop. Luke did a neat layup. Another two points for us.

“What the fuck?” Reuban said. “Have you two got some kind of psychic link?”

His words pulled me up short.

A few people had accused Luke and me of that over the years. I guess it’s what happens when you’re incredibly close to someone and spend so much time together—you become good at predicting what the other person will do.

Weird that we could still do that after all this time.

“I reckon it’ll be more like a psycho link if Ethan’s involved,” Ali said.

“Yeah, I put mind chips into all of you guys on the bus, didn’t you realize?” I deliberately didn’t look at Luke as I spoke.

In the next play, I passed the ball to Niko instead, who butchered a pull-up jumper and so we were running back down the court on defense.

Maybe Ali was right, maybe there was something slightly psycho about the fact I always knew where Luke was on the court.

He slotted in to defend Reuban, so I immediately went back to cover Jacob, swatting the ball away when Zach threw it to him and gathering up the loose ball.

When we got back to the other end of the court, I followed my instincts and passed to Luke. He dribbled it a few times then gave me a head nod, so I ran around Jacob to catch his pass under the basket for a tidy layup.

Another bucket to us.

It was no surprise we ended up annihilating the other team, twenty points to six.