“Adam passes the ball to Ray”, 3 seconds left on the clock, Ray behind the 3-point line, 3… 2… 1… Swish “Oh my god, the Dragons have just won the championship, and it looks like the crowd is shouting Ray’s name” The announcer blared through the microphone. “Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray!” The crowd yelled. “Ray Wake up it’s time to get ready for school!”  Ray’s mom said.  “Go wake your brother Adam up and tell him to get ready for school.”  “Okay mom” Ray said, with a sleepy look on his face.  “I just had the best dream I have ever had he said.”  “Okay, okay, calm down mom we got thirty minutes until school starts.”  Ray walked down stairs to wake Adam up.  “Adam, bro wake up, mom says it’s time to get ready for school.”  “Huh? Oh” Adam said.  “It was fun hanging out with our girlfriends last night, but we were up until like 1:00 A.M.” Adam said.  “Come on, we got to get ready, we have less than 30 minutes until school and I got to go pick up Jenny from her house in fifteen minutes.”   Ray said as he headed back up stairs.”  “You coming?” Ray said.  “Yeah.”  Adam said.  Ray headed upstairs with Adam following behind.  Ray headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face along with Adam.  After Ray was finished in the bathroom he went to his room and opened his closet.  In his closet he had rows and rows of shoes from Nike and Jordan.  He had many clothes to choose from.  “Oh, I can’t wait to wear my new shoes” Ray said.  Adam walked in the room.  “Those Lebron Lava’s?” Adam said.  “Yeah!” said Ray.  Ray looked at all the clothes he had in his closet.  He picked out a red plaid shirt and a pair of dark black jeans to go with his new Lebron Lava’s.  Adam went to his room and changed into a blue striped shirt, a pair of grey jeans, and a pair of black Nike sneakers.  
When Adam and Ray were done changing they got their school things and headed downstairs to eat breakfast that their mom was cooking.  “Mom, what are you making?”  Ray asked as he set his backpack down.  “Bacon and eggs.” She said.  “Mmm, my favorite.” Ray said as Adam and him walked over to the table to eat.  “Here you go boys, eat up!” she said as she brought their food to the table.  “Thanks mom!” the boys said before they started eating.  Ray and Adam ate their food quickly, making sure not to choke, so that he had time to pick up Jenny.  Adam and Ray finished their food in a few minutes.  “Thanks for the food Mom, but I gotta go now.” Ray said.  “Same for me too Mom.” Adam said.  Ray and Adam headed out the door.  Ray headed to his red Ferrari and Adam headed to his blue Mustang.  Ray arrived at Jenny’s house with just enough time to get to school.  He stepped up to the porch and rang the doorbell.  Jenny opened the door.  “Hey babe” she said, smiling.  “Hey” Ray replied.  Jenny was wearing a light blue dress.  “I like your dress.” Ray said.  “Thanks.”  Jenny said blushing.  “You ready to go?” Ray said.  “Yeah.” Jenny said.  They both walked over to the car and Ray opened the door for Jenny.  Jenny got in on the passenger side of the car and Ray went to the other side to drive.  When Jenny and Ray were both in the car and had their seatbelt’s on Ray began to drive.  
They arrived at the school and met up with Adam.  “Sup?” Adam said, his question directed at Jenny.  Jenny said, “Not much” and then turned to Ray and said, “I’ll see you after class babe” and gave him a hug before walking away.  
Adam and Ray had math class together 1st Hour.  The teacher announced that it would be a catch-up day.  Ray decided to catch-up on his algebra packet.  Adam decided to catch-up on sleep.  Ray elbowed Adam at the end of class as everyone started to pack up and leave.  Adam woke up, startled, and let out a little groan.  Adam ran out the door to go find his friend Sam and Ray went straight to 2nd hour.  The next few hours went by fast for Adam, but slow for Ray.  Ray was daydreaming about his old dog, Fritos, who had passed away one year ago from the upcoming Friday.  He kept looking at the clock and down at his desk and then back at the clock again.  By lunchtime, Ray’s foot had fallen asleep, along with Adam.  They always sat at the brown table to the far left of the cafeteria, in the far back.  “What’s up?”  Ray and Adam’s friend, Skyler, said.  “I’m so hungry.” Said Ray.  “Me too.” said Adam. “What about you?” Ray asked.  “Nothing really.  Boring day so far.” Skyler replied, and took a seat across from Ray.  Adam started to dig in to his spaghetti and meatballs, a tomato sauce blob on his sleeve.  Adam’s girlfriend had stayed home sick, so he sat with some other guys at a table nearby.  Jenny walked up to Ray and sat next to him.  “How you doin’, babe?”  Ray asked.  Jenny said, “Not so great.  I just got a text from my mom.  Our cat, Whiskers, is sick.”  “Aw, sorry about that.”  Ray said, not sure what else to say.  “Ay yo whassup!?! “ Dexter said slapping Ray with a high five and a short handshake following after. “Ha-ha haven’t seen you in a while!” said Ray. “Yeah, I know feels like it’s been forever.” Said Dex. “Imma go get some pizza.” said Dexter. “Alright text me later bro!” Ray replied, “See ya.” Dexter said.
Soon lunch was over, and everybody trampled over each other to get to their lockers and to get to class on time. They had two more classes before the end of the day. Adam had Language Arts 6th hour, which was his favorite subject. (He had an A+ as his grade). When the 7th hour bell rang,  it was like an immediate signal for every boy and girl to run out the door to the buses and start laughing, talking, screaming, yelling, jumping, and move all over the place.
The bus ride home was slow and boring. Usually, Adam and Ray didn’t ride the normal bus home, they would stay after school for basketball practice. Practice was canceled. No one knew why.  Adam and Ray got home and made themselves frozen pizza, and then got started on their homework.”What did you get for problem 4c?” Adam asked Ray. “I’m still on problem 4a” said Ray. “I’ll just come back to it later.” Adam said, and then it was silent. Other than they occasionally sneeze, coughs, or throat–clearing, they worked in complete silence for hours.
“Done!” Ray said, at the same second their mom walked in the door. “I’m home!” She called from the other room. Adam stood up. Ray followed. “Hey mom,” Ray said. “Hi honey. How was your day?” she asked. “Pretty good,” Ray said, “Alright” said Adam. “Ray, go to the store and get the ingredients for Japanese pan noodles.” “That sounds good.  “Jenny’s coming too.” Ray said. “That’s nice.” said Ray’s mom, smiling. “Adam finish your work, then meet us for dinner.”Dang I’m never going to finish!” 30 minutes later Adam finished his work, and Ray was already back with the Japanese pan noodles ingredients.
Ray ran upstairs to get some nice clothes on for dinner. As he was getting dressed, he heard the doorbell ring. “Oh shoot! That must be Jenny” He quickly finished changing, dashed down the steps and yanked the door open. “Hey babe, you didn’t have to rush to be ready for me! You’re so sweet.” Jennifer said smiling, as Ray brushed his hair messily with his hands. “Didn’t want to keep the perfect girl waiting.” Ray said, feeling smart to have come up with such a greeting to make Jenny happy. Adam burst through the room and out the door, yelling “I left my XBOX 360 controller at Sam’s house the other day, I’ll be back in 5!” his voice fading as he cut across the front lawn.
“I gotta surprise for you, up in my room, I think you’ll like it” said Ray. Ray took Jenny upstairs to his bedroom, and then told her to close her eyes. “Alright, open your eyes, babe.” Ray said. Ray had a dark blue box in his hand and opened it. Inside the box was a diamond studded necklace. “It’s beautiful” Jenny said. “Can I put it on you” said ray. “Yes” Jenny said. Ray put the necklace on Jenny and they both headed downstairs. Adam arrived shortly and they all started dinner. Dinner was good for Ray and Adam, after that they went to bed because the next day was the most important game of their basketball season. It was the championship game.
Ray woke up at 6:30am ready to go to school, mean while Adam was still sleeping, so ray went to Adam’s room and woke him up. School went by fast for Ray and Adam because they were so excited for the championship game against the Warriors, who went the season 81-1. After school Ray, Adam, and the rest of the team headed to the gym to get changed into uniform for the home game. The first half the game was close, by halftime the score was 82-82. Ray had 24 points on the board and Adam had 18 points in the first half. The start of the 3rd quarter had come and gone like wind, with the dragons up by 10. By the end of the quarter the Warriors had caught up and the score was now 110-110. 
The fourth quarter was very slow, everyone on the Dragons were focused on only one thing, winning the game. In the first five minutes the Warriors were beginning to take on the lead with the Dragons falling slowly behind on the scoreboard. By the 2 minute mark the players, the crowd, and the coaches were all biting their nails, thinking about what was going to happen next.  With one minute left in the game, it was officially tied 120-120. Ray had scored his career high in points with 45 points along with his rebound career high of 21. Adam had also set some career highs with 34 points, 9 assists, and 10 rebounds. 
The last 30 seconds of the game was more intense than walking on the sun. As the clock winded down the crowd went into complete silence. The clock winded down to 10…9…8…7…6…4…3…2…1… and at the last second Ray shot a jumper from beyond the arch and won the game 123-120. Ray and Adam were celebrating like there was no tomorrow. Coach walked up to them. “Guy’s I have some bad news” “What is it coach?” Ray and Adam said “Unfortunately your mother died in the twin towers this morning” Coach said, with a sad look on his face. “Oh my god!” Ray and Adam said, as they broke into tears. The game was over and the Dragons had won, the team went home with excitement and joy, but for Adam and Ray they went home sobbing and a broken heart.
   
  

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The Day Of The Game   	6-8