Chapter 255 The University 5
After another day of cla.s.ses and training with the basketball team, Jake returned to the dorm again, after Jake started training for the basketball team no one asked him what he was doing and they always expected him to come back for dinner together.
The good part of the universities was that you could set up your daily schedule, Jake wanted a full training and so did a lot more cla.s.ses and fit perfectly into the training time and coincided with having the same schedules as William.
As cla.s.ses were easy for Jake he intended in the future maybe the graduate and maybe more in the future, so he would make his mother more proud, that day when they went out to dinner Zack started talking what he was thinking a few days ago.
"I think we"re already friends after spending so much time together before I decided we wouldn"t talk about personal matters to make you more comfortable but to be true friends we have to get to know each other better."
"Of course one can choose what to say and what to keep to oneself, as I suggested it I"ll talk about myself first."
"I was born in this very state of North Carolina, my family lived in a city not far from here, so I could come to university and that city first to know the best places to eat and where to go."
"I have a living father and mother and they live in the city where I lived since it"s near here, I have a brother who is a year older than me and studies at this university since last year."
"I"m doing this university just because my parents want it, I like to run sometimes, but just for fun."
Zack was very honest and talked about almost everything in his life, so he left Jake and William in a situation that they had better say as much as they could to share so they wouldn"t look bad, it was William who spoke later.
"I came from New York and wanted to study here because I"m a fan of Michael Jordan, I have a living father and mother and I have a little sister named Lili, I came to study here because I want to be a great businessman one day and make millions on the stock market. of values when I get back home."
William talked less about him, but said things necessary for Jake and Zack to know a little more about his life, after the two of them it was Jake"s turn to talk more about his life, Jake was probably the one who had more to talk about and decided to talk only about things that people already knew.
"I"m from Miami, I just have my mom with me named Eva, I"m on the basketball team here at school and I also run marathons professionally."
"I came to this university to fulfill my mother"s dream to see me graduate from a university and also from the basketball team she has at that university and also to gain more knowledge about business and economics."
The two just looked at Jake and said nothing, Jake knew they didn"t believe him, but it was the truth so he was calm about it, in time they would know everything anyway.
"So you were going to basketball training after school every day, I confess I didn"t expect it, it"s normal for some people to come to that college for basketball."
"Me and William here are also basketball fans and with your height, you can really get a spot, but what do you mean by running marathons professionally? I ran some marathons too, I didn"t finish, but I ran."
"I say I"m a pro because I won a major marathon in Chicago last year, I came second in the New York marathon and got the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics that year."
Zack was trying to make Jake"s statement more real by slightly diminis.h.i.+ng what he said he was doing, but after what Jake said about his achievements as a pro he couldn"t say anything anymore.
"Actually, I didn"t expect it to be so hard for you to believe that, didn"t you watch the Olympics this year?"
In fact, neither of them had attended the Olympics this year, William was busy organizing things to come to college and never really enjoyed watching sports compet.i.tions like basketball and football and baseball.
Zack hadn"t attended for the same reason as William, he sometimes came to the university to get to know the campus and the city and not feel lost when cla.s.ses started, so he didn"t have time for that.
Even though Jake was famous on television, it was only when he was in a compet.i.tion or on a television show that no one watched the marathons or knew about Jake.
Maybe some with better memories might recognize Jake because of the television commercials or the Olympic broadcast, but usually, people didn"t expect to see someone on television right in front and think it"s just like.
Zack and William then had to believe that Jake was telling the truth, even if they didn"t quite believe that being on the basketball team was easier to believe and confirm.
"If you"re a professional marathon compet.i.tor, why did you decide to join our university"s basketball team?"
"I got a sports scholars.h.i.+p for being a two-time national basketball and high school MVP champion, and as I intend to become a pro in the NBA I chose a school with one of the best teams to win."
That was another surprise for Zack and William, they thought Jake had signed up for the basketball team after entering college and because of the height and some basketball skills he had joined the team.
They thought Jake wouldn"t even play on the basketball team and were just saying that because it was cool to be on the UNC basketball team even without playing any games, but it looked like Jake was chosen by the university for the team and would definitely play in the games.
After a while they recover, it was better to believe him first and then if they found out it was a lie they would walk away from him, in fact, the most shocked was William who had come to university because of Michael Jordan and for being a basketball fan.
They both thought Zack was very clever in deciding not to talk about his personal life when they first met, otherwise it would be hard for them to talk to Jake normally after learning that he was famous.
Seeing how they reacted Jake thought it best not to comment that he had a few million dollars in investments and that he was being sponsored, otherwise it would be harder for them to believe him, the fact that he was an actor would also be discovered when the movie was released at the end of the year.
After that, they really got a lot more comfortable talking about some more personal matters, Zack was always the one who led the conversation telling funny stories about his family and his brother.
He seemed to be very close to his brother and very fond of him and was upset because his brother said it was better that they didn"t talk much inside the university, because his brother was tired of Zack always being the center of attention and stealing your friends.
Jake might understand a little how Zack"s brother felt, but as Zack"s friend, Jake found Zack"s personality very pleasant, they always avoided talking about Aaron in the back, even though William didn"t like to be ignored he didn"t comment either about this.
Jake thought it was cool that his friends had this att.i.tude of not talking behind Aaron"s back, about his brothers they talked a lot, so Jake listened more than talked about how he had no brothers or many friends before.
Jake sometimes observed his roommate, he had realized before that his roommate seemed to be having some kind of problem, not having too much proximity between them Jake decided not to intrude.
After a few days, Jake realized that Aaron seemed to have solved some of his problems and was more relaxed in the dorm, so Jake thought about telling Zack that soon so they would try again to be friends with Aaron.
The other day Jake also realized that his teammates were gradually accepting him, they no longer ignored Jake and did not exclude him from conversations, everyone was training harder because Jake began to show enthusiasm in training.
Only after a few days when they realized that Jake never got tired of all the heavy training and they got exhausted at the end of the day, did they remember that Jake was someone who had a marathon gold medal in the Olympics.
It was obvious that Jake had a lot more energy and stamina than all the players on the court, but they couldn"t talk to the coach who wanted the training to be lighter so they wouldn"t be embarra.s.sed.
So they decided to send Charlie McNairy who was the senior of the team and didn"t have so much trouble with Jake being the only one with sponsors.h.i.+p, so Charlie accepted that and went to talk to Jake after training because he didn"t want to have to train harder.
Hi Jake, I"m Charlie McNairy, I"m a senior in college, do you mind if we talk a little bit about a diner near here?"
"OK let"s go."
Jake was very happy to finally have someone from the basketball team to talk to him, he needed to get in touch and befriend his teammates quickly to have a better chance to play and also have a better time at university.
After they changed everyone left and Jake and Charlie went to the diner, the other players knew Charlie well and knew that he could settle the matter quietly, then they came to a diner that Jake didn"t know and Charlie as senior made the orders and paid to himself that Jake didn"t have to.
"So Jake, what do you think about university so far?"
"I"m really enjoying this place, I always thought about this university very well because I"m a big fan of Michael Jordan after I came here I really liked the university environment, I also made a lot of friends in my dorm."
"Glad to hear it, you"ll like the university even more in the next few years, what did you think of the basketball team?"