Chapter 103 A Difficult Beginning 2
Jake was being honest with Joseph, although after his accident he had closed the doors of his heart to the novel, Jake came from a time when women sought the same rights as men.
So those conventions that were once more commonplace that Joseph thought was right did not exist anymore if women liked someone they would go and take the initiative.
Jake found this very cool, perhaps because he was raised by Eve alone, he was someone who recognized the strengths of women in society and supported women to have the same rights as men.
Although this was a normal conversation about 2020 in the 1990s was something people were not accustomed to openly talk about.
After Jake stopped talking because the cla.s.s was about to start and he did not want to bring a bad first impression to his teachers, looking around at his cla.s.smates, Jake realized he had almost no students he studied at Middle School.
That was a good thing, his colleagues tended to ignore him because of the issues with the teachers and he wanted to start over again.
So after a while the first teacher came in and started giving the cla.s.s normally, sometimes asked questions for the students and even for Jake, it was a normal att.i.tude not like it was last year.
And all the teachers of the day were like that, Jake still read his books sometimes and paid attention to the teacher when he came up with an issue that he did not know, so there was a good atmosphere in the cla.s.sroom as he wanted last year.
As the teachers already knew how Jake was and also knew that he did not do it to disrupt the cla.s.s and even had the best grades, the teachers did not care much, and without prejudice, they realized that everything was fine with Jake being so in the room cla.s.s.
So Jake was in a good mood for the school to take the test to join the basketball team, this time he was not the first, but neither was the last one, he greeted his old teammates last year.
Everyone seemed to be in pretty good moods and more mature than last year, they were all pretty embarra.s.sed and grateful Jake and Coach Mike never said anything about the fiasco that was their game in the final of the national champions.h.i.+p.
Jake from last year was keeping a low profile, he knew that this year"s high school basketball team was the same as last season"s champion, and Jake also knew that in addition to his ability to shoot 2 and 3 and in Free Throw he was inferior to the elders.
The players who were on the team before also looked at the new players strangely, they knew that this team just as they won the national champions.h.i.+p only in Middle School, it was normal that they wanted a chance to play in high school as well.
Even though they were not that worried, it was impossible for the coach to put someone from the first year to replace the champions of last year, so that year at least their starting position was theirs.
Even knowing that it was impossible for everyone to become friends and just talk as if nothing had happened and they were not playing the same places in the starting team.
Jake and his colleagues who entered now for the high school team were really looking at the starters who were last year"s champions with challenging looks, they had a lot of respect but also had a lot of confidence that could be the starters too, after all, they are the best of their age in basketball.
After a few minutes a girl appeared, it was someone no one in that block knew, Jake saw this and was curious, if not even the players last year knew this girl means that she was new as well as they, in addition, Jake saw that this girl must be her age or be only 1 year older than him.
This girl had some towels in her hand and stood in the middle of the court, after a few minutes the coach entered, all the older players had a look of respect when they looked at him.
Jake now knew who was the coach of the high school basketball team that made him so curious before he was called coach Philips and second Jake knew the coach Philips trained for a few years a team that reached the finals of the national basketball champions.h.i.+p at university.
So Jake had to admit that this trainer was more qualified than the trained Mike to train the high school team, it was that same coach who chose all the players who formed the team that was champion last year, so it was normal that the players more old people respected him.
Jake also thought that coach Philips deserved his position and intended to respect him as he did with the others.
"Welcome to everyone for the high school basketball team, this is the first team training of the year, the older ones already know me, but for the youngest, I am the Philips coach who will coach this team in the next few years."
"I would like to make it clear that who has the command of this team is just me, so I do not want to see any kind of disobedience if someone does not like my rules can leave the team."
"I"d like to introduce this girl here by my side, her name is Elizabeth and she"s going to be the general affairs manager for our team, she"s in her first year and has volunteered to help get towels, water, and player maintenance I want everyone to respect her."
"Hi guys, I knew this team won the national champions.h.i.+p in the past and since I am a basketball fan I decided to help you as much as I can so that you can win again, you can call me Liza as well."
"Okay, Liza can go to the side and hope the training will start soon."
"Very well people, as last year I was the one who chose the players and it was my first year I took it lightly, but now we are a champion team, so new rules have to be decided."
"As everyone knows, the club is a sport where height is very important, so I decided that we will have a minimum height so that a player can be in the starting team, this height will be 1.76 in height, although it is a bit low if it"s someone with good skills like our PG who has that height can play."
After that coach Philips continued to say several rules that he had invented to cover what he really wanted, it was clear that Jake and the players of last year"s team were quite upset with this rule that practically took away the chances that some of them could play this year.
But as the coach had already said he would not accept complaints they could only accept, in addition, even Jake who was quite sad because he knew that if it was like his past life this year he would hardly grow up and only after turning 15 would through a growth spurt.
Jake thought that this would not change, in fact, the system had already helped a lot in its growth, in his past life he was only a little bigger than 1.60 at that age, if it had not been his growth spurt in his 15 years he would never think of playing basketball.
So the excitement he felt was gone, Jake knew he could not play this year in the starting lineup and this Philips coach did not seem to like him very much, so Jake knew there would be no exception for him.
David and the other teammates last year were still excited despite this rule after all they did not know whether or not they could grow up that year, after the day"s training started normally, Jake was on the reserve team playing against the other reserves, coach Philips seemed to want to separate the team from last year even in training.
Even though Jake"s team still won in the end and many endorsed Jake"s skills as well, coach Philips was also eyeing the match and personally saw that Jake was really a great player, it seemed that with a few more months of training he could be at the level of the holders of the champion team last year.
Even though coach Philips did not change his mind as he did not need new players this year, it was good to slow down his champions" mood last year, after training Jake went home.
"Mom, I do not think I"ll be able to play in the starting lineup this year."
At dinner as he talked about his day with his mother Jake had to talk about it, Jake did not want to lie or hide anything for Eve that would happen day by day, just as playing basketball was like Jake"s job now it was important to talk about that.
"But because my son, you play so well and you love basketball so much, I thought it was impossible for you to be out of the team this year."
"I also thought that, I must have gotten a bit arrogant after winning the MVP of the national champions.h.i.+p, but this year is different from the others, the team that is the starter now is the team that was champion last year now that they are even better and more experienced it is impossible that they are not the holders."