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Kel mentally screeched as he watched Sunny stare at the basketball.
“How can you not know how to play?”
Had his wise words of basketball knowledge not reached through Sunny’s thick skull everytime he rambled for hours about it?
Also, hadn’t Sunny watched him play back in middle school, he asked himself.
Then he remembered—
The boy stared, terrified as he watched the other boy glare from behind his tennis racket. No one stepped up to go against him after that. You could hear a girl screaming in the background while shaking people, “that’s my brother! That’s my brother right there!”
That’s right!
Sunny had played tennis, anddddd promptly gotten kicked off for being too violent with it. However, to Kel it just sounded like they were a bunch of wimps.
How could they be scared of cute little Sunny?
He picked up the basketball and bounced it slowly to show Sunny how it was done (he definitely wasn’t trying to show off to make Sunny think he was cool).
He then dribbled it while running up to the hoop and lifted his arm, throwing the ball.
Unfortunately, it bounced right off the rim and was headed straight for poor Sunny’s head.
Kel gasped and reached out a hand to stop it.
Suddenly, he was face to face with the end of a sharp blade.
He stepped back but stumbled and tripped on his feet.
He was staring up at Sunny holding the ball like a skewer. HE WAS HOLDING THE BASKETBALL WITH A KNIFE? HIS CUTE LITTLE SUNNY CARRIED A KNIFE AROUND?
Sunny hadn’t moved from where he was holding the sad looking basketball impaled on a blade.
“Sunny, wha-“
Sunny turned to look at him. Kel was sure it wasn’t intentional but it was scary paired with his actions.
Kel gulped and smiled weakly,
“Why don’t we just have a picnic instead? Also why don’t you just put that down slowly before you hurt yourself.”
Sunny just stared for a little while before dropping it. It made a loud clang as it hit the court.
Kel cautiously picked up the basketball-blade contraption and removed the knife. The ball deflated sadly and laid flat on the ground. He internally mourned for the short life of his basketball.
“Sunny, you know what we must do now, right?”
That was how they ended up standing in front of the handmade grave for the short lived basketball in the park.
Tears came to Kel’s eyes,
“Rest well, my child.”
He didn’t see Sunny looking at him as if he had grown three heads.
He sniffed once more and then grabbed Sunny by the hand.
“Okay now you owe me a picnic!”
————————————————————
All of them sat on the checkered blanket laid on the grass.
“Hey Kel, I bet I could beat you at a game of basketball!”
Aubrey stood up and pointed her finger directly at him while she exclaimed loudly.
Kel sighed sadly,
“I’m sure you could but—“
Aubrey snickered and cut him off,
“Ah! So you’re scared I’ll win huh?”
Kel sniffed, the tears coming back as he still wasn’t over the death of his poor basketball.
“No Aubrey, we can’t play because Sunny stabbed the ball.”
“…”
“…”
“Huh?”
Aubrey snapped her head over to Sunny who was also mourning his loss. Except it was over his knife that Kel had taken from him because it was ‘dangerous to carry around’ as Kel had told him before.
Aubrey turned back to Kel, still not fully processing what he said. Her mouth was hanging open and she looked like she was trying to find the correct words to say.
That was when Basil spoke up,
“Um, guys, couldn’t we just get a new ball?”
Oh Basil, you sweet summer child, thought Kel. There was a ninety percent chance that Sunny would pull another knife from somewhere, Kel was sure of it. Everyone knows that if you expect something to be taken you should keep a secret second one hidden somewhere.
Sunny was now glaring at Kel as he tried to convey his feelings through eye contact.
Kel knew he was asking for the knife back, but he wouldn’t give in. He would win this staring contest.
Aubrey and Basil watched confused while Sunny and Kel had the world's most intense staring contest.
Aubrey’s brain had finally caught up to her mouth,
“WHAT?”
Neither of them moved at all as their staring contest grew to a fight of willpower.
Basil tried to interrupt but his measly attempts were drowned out by Aubrey screaming at the pair.
She let out all of her confusion with rapid fire questions onto the both of them while Basil sat quietly in a daze.
That was how Hero had found them later on when he entered the park.
Aubrey and Kel were arguing loudly and fist fighting each other while Sunny glared at Kel and Basil watched from next to Sunny.
“Uh, what happened here?”
Suddenly all the heads turned in his direction.
“Hero?”
He smiled sheepishly,
“Surprise?”