Page 253 of The Locker Room
grab your ass.”
Coach came out at that moment, and called them all to attention.
The music started to shake the floorboards; the entrance to the tunnel
went dark with strobing lights to punctuate the darkness. The crowd
noise became thunderous and deafening, and the announcer began their
intro. And the players were suddenly all about the purity of the game.
The Locker Room 219
They took a deep breath, bumped fists, and started the cold-bowel
adrenaline dump that Xander always associated with the game.
“"Kay, guys,” Xander breathed, loving the way his heart thundered,
loving this moment until his atoms quivered with it. “Just remember. Get
the fucking ball—”
“Down the fucking court and into the fucking net!” the team
finished, and that was their cue to run up onstage, underneath the
strobing light and the adulation that awaited them.
THE bench team almost lost their lead, and Xander strained his voice,
screaming his mantra at them.Get the fucking ball down the fucking
court and into the fucking net! Fuck!(That last word came out on a fit of
desperation as the twenty-point lead that the starters had sat down with
was narrowed to two points because the bench lost the rebound for the
fivezillionthtime.) The starters were up and into position, dying for the
buzzer, pushing against the invisible barrier of time like dogs pushing
against a window to get a bone.
The buzzer rang, the coach waved them in, and—
Xander had the ball, in what was usually their classic team
position, and Xander looked up, saw Aames waiting for the bounce pass,
and said, “May I?”
“Do it!”
And Xander blew past the defense and down the court and one-
two-up for a dunk, the kind where the basket was about at his waist.
