story of a basketball
written: 8:03 p.m. on Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2003

Damn. I'm screwed. Very, very screwed.

Anyway. I've been going to the nearby community centre to play basketball for the past few days; today marks the third day in a row that I've been... exercising. But it's not really much of a work-out as I don't really run after the ball or anything after missing most of my shots. I just kinda walk after it, or wait for it to roll back towards me after it hits that tiny slope of grass adjacent to the court.

Today was bad though. Corners that I could easily make during the past two days felt like they were miles and miles away from the hoop. I shot perfect shots from the free-throw line yesterday but it took me about five attempts before the stupid ball would even bother to hit the rim. And both my wrists are hurting like hell right now. I'm just not used to um, exercising so much.

Embarrassingly, I got the ball stuck up there when I attempted one from under the basket. There was this boy there, he was kinda of watching, and when I tossed the ball and it didn't come down and I went, "Oh JEEZ", he laughed.

I don't hold it against him for laughing at me though. He helped me get it down by prodding it with an umbrella. I've seen him around during the times that I was there; in fact, he asked me to play two-on-two on Monday (but I turned him down), calling me 'oi' and everything.

He's kind of cute, in a very Jay Chou-ish manner... I suppose it's the hair. And the physique. But my point is, I knew that he was younger than me, like maybe 15 or 16, but I asked him for his age today.

He's actually thirteen.

I was so surprised that I could've fainted right there and then.

Okay, maybe not, but it was a major surprise to me. He's taller than me and he looks so mature. And the ultimate bit of info? He's still in primary school.

A while later his friends came along and I joined them for a full-court game, although I stayed at my scoring end and basically backcourt violated, but nobody cared so yeah. Anyway, I was playing, if you could call it that, and he was really nice to me. Kept passing me the ball and everything (I embarrassingly shot a lot of airballs; can't blame me, there was this group of guys playing there and I couldn't aim properly and the stupid ball was WET), and he actually treated me like a human being. The other boys, mostly kids half my size, kept calling me 'na ge nu de' (that female one) or 'char bor' (Hokkien for girl), which annoyed the living bejesus out of me. The kids there are just so damn cocky that I wanted to throw my heavy, synthetic-leather, 69-dollars NBA basketball at them and laugh while they cry and wail and whine in pain.

And after the game, which is boring, broke they were all hogging my ball. I didn't even get a chance to touch it until I took it back when I was going home.

That 13-year-old-who-looks-like-15 kid was really sweet though. I dunno, he's different from the other kids. For one, he spoke to me in English, after I made it clear that I'm more comfortable with that language by speaking like shit in Mandarin.

For another... well, there isn't a 'for another'.

It just is.

**

Went to school for some AQ GP workshop. It was three hours long and I was late, so I sat right in front of the lecturer for the first half. After the break I shifted right to the back with Mel and I slacked off with her back there.

Needless to say, it was a waste of time. They gave us sample answers for the question that we were supposed to do over the "holidays" (I only dug it out yesterday and it's still not done). It's last year's promo paper. The answers were funny. And the ones that got an A? Oh my god. I couldn't believe it. I would've given those a B at best. I'm serious, the quality of English just isn't there. I mean, I can do so much better, and what would they give me? 9 out of 8? Probably.

Am going to do my Chinese homework tonight. Ha, ha, ha.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010