Mind of Their Own

Author Bio: I am Dylan, I like to play music, sports, Mountain Bike , read, and write. I am really excited about this story, and I hope you enjoy it.

Blurb: Mind Of Their Own is about Ean who has a basketball championship coming up, but his gear gets in the way of him playing. Ean learns that helping other people is very important, and teamwork always leads to success. Take a ride with Ean and go through all of his successes and struggles with him.

Ean’s shoes were very important to him. He used them for basketball, playing, and everything else. Ean did everything in his shoes, but after a while shoes get run down and do not work anymore. That is the last thing Ean wanted to happen to his basketball shoes.

One day in gym class Ean was playing basketball with his friends and having a great time. Across the room, the teachers were going through tests and then shredding them when they were done. Ean saw the gym doors slam open, and then three gigantic high-schoolers with full-grown beards came into the gym like they were catching their prey. The high-schoolers also wanted to use the gym.

But Ean said, “We were here first, go find another basketball court.”

One of the high-schoolers looked at Ean’s ball and his shoes and said, “ If you want to keep your shoes and your ball, kid, you gotta give us the court.”

“No way,” Ean and his friends told the high-schoolers.

One high-schooler snatched the ball from Ean, and another one picked him up and took his shoes off his feet. The high schoolers calmly walked over to the paper shredder with Ean’s shoes and ball. They put them in the paper shredder. The teachers did not seem to notice or care.

“You should have given us the court earlier,” the high-schoolers said.

Ean was furious. He had his basketball championship over the weekend, and he needed his shoes. When the high-schoolers walked over to the hoop and started shooting, Ean’s friends dropped their jaws so low they could have swallowed a whole basketball. Ean walked all the way home in his socks through the mucky mud coating the sidewalks, because he did not have shoes to wear.

When he got home Ean told his mom what happened, and she took him right to the sports store. Most stores were running low on basketball equipment, due to it being the end of the season.

When Ean walked into the store, a whiff of fresh plastic hit his nose. It smelt like his grandma's living room; where everything was covered in plastic wrap. He went over to the basketball section - but the shelves were empty. He went over to the manager.

“Do you still have any basketball equipment?” Ean asked the manager.

“Sorry son, we got blown out this season. you may be able to try an everyday shoe.”

“I guess if that is all you have, I can try it.”

Ean tried on a couple of pairs of shoes, and he was soon set on one pair. So his mom bought him the shoes and drove him home. When Ean got home, he went onto the driveway, then put on his shoes and got a ball from the garage. When he was putting the shoes on, he noticed they were called WESABA.

“I wonder what that stands for?” Ean asked his mom.

“I don’t know, honey. I am sure they will work fine,” she said.

They seemed to work well for dribbling. When Ean went up for a layup they worked fine also. After he went up for the shot he noticed the shoes had a button on the back of them. Ean wondered what the button did, and as any 12 year old would have done. He pressed it. Ean went up for another layup, yet this time he fell to the ground. He got a big chunk of gravel in his mouth, and it was the worst thing he had ever tasted. It was like Broccoli but harder and grosser.

These shoes seem to have a mind of their own, Ean thought.

Ean went up for another layup and the shoes did the same thing. He tried a jump shot but his feet started moving backward and he dropped the ball. He tried pushing the button on the shoes again but it would not budge.

Ean went inside and told his mom, “Mom, my shoes have a mind of their own.”

“Funny, Ean. I don’t believe you,” Ean’s mom said.

“No really Mom. They don’t work” Ean told his mom.

“They are fine, sweetie” Ean’s mom replied.

Since Ean’s mom did not seem to care about the shoes, he went up to his room. He went to his desk and opened up his computer, then typed in WESABA. The only thing that came up was a place to buy the shoes. Just as Ean was about to give up on his researching, there was a knock at the door. When Ean opened the door his friend Damien was there.

Ean said, “Hey Damien, we have to go to my room - I’ve got a problem. I’ll fill you in upstairs.”

Damien followed Ean up the stairs, and Ean told Damien what was happening.

“So, I guess I can try a little trick on your computer to find out about WESABA shoes,” Damien said.

Damien typed WESABA in the search bar and the same things came up that Ean got. So he did a weird thing with the keys on the computer and then typed in WESABA. The same websites came up just like the last time but at the bottom of the page, there was a website called A-Base-W.com.

“I think this is the site you were looking for,” Damien said.

“Wow!” Ean replied.

But when the site opened it said there was an error with the page. Damien did another weird hack and all of a sudden the computer lit up. On the website, there was a picture of an army from a long time ago and a couple of paragraphs with pictures of shoes. Damien scanned over it really quickly and got the story behind the shoes before Ean was even done reading the first sentence.

“So basically these WESABA shoes were based on shoes that were used in the army to give soldiers more running, jumping, and physical strength,” Damien said.

“But now we have to find out about the name,” Damien said.

Damien took a piece of paper and started writing WESABA all sorts of different ways.

“What are you doing Damien?” Ean asked.

“Decoding WESABA, duh” Damien replied.

He finally flipped the word around and got ABASEW.

“So that is were the A-BASE-W came from, but now we have to find what the A and the W mean,” Damien said.

Within a few seconds Damien found out what WESABA meant.

“Oh, I get it. WESABA is backward for ABASEW or A-BASE-W, which means Army Base Wear,” Damien said.

“That's probably why they will not play basketball - because they are meant for the Army,” Damien said.

“So what should I do about this shoe problem?” Ean asked.

“Just don’t wear shoes,” Damien said.

“I have to wear shoes” Ean replied.

“Well, you think about it. I should probably get home, I have math club soon,” Damien said.

“Nerd!” Ean yelled at Damien as he was walking out the door.

Ean and Damien both said their goodbyes and Damien was on his way. Ean went back up to his room laid down in his bed and tried to think of ways to solve his problem.

“Maybe I’ll pretend I am hurt,” Ean said to himself.

“Or maybe I will just not show up to the game,” Ean shouted for everyone in the house to hear.

His mom was downstairs vacuuming and she had no idea what was going on. The rest of Ean’s night was normal due to the fact of him not telling his mom what was happening.

⋯

Ean woke up the next day the day of the championship. He was tempted to go outside and try out his shoes one more time but he hoped they would work at the game because it was a new day. So Ean went back to sleep but a couple of minutes later Ean’s mom came into his room and woke him up. Ean took a shower, dressed for his game, ate breakfast, and got in his mom’s car to leave the house.

“Are you excited for your big game, honey?” Ean’s mom asked him as he got into the car.

“I guess,” Ean replied.

When Ean got to the gym he was super nervous and went straight to the locker room without even greeting his coach.

“I thought you were not going to come, did your shoes fix themselves?” Ean’s friends asked him as he walked into the locker room.

“I hope they fixed themselves,” he replied.

Ean opened up his bag and took out his shoes, he carefully put them on his feet and laced them nice and tight. Ean walked out of the locker room with his bag, and then put it on the bench and talked to his coach. When his coach was done asking him questions he went over to the ball rack to get a ball. Once he got it he tried dribbling the ball over towards the hoop but the ball kept slipping out of his hands.

“What's wrong with your dribble?” Coach yelled at Ean.

“It’s fine,” Ean replied.

Ean went up for a layup but he fell to the floor. He could hear the kids laughing at him as they were walking out of the locker and it stung him in the throat. Each time Ean went up for a layup or a shot he would fall right to the ground and the crowd laughing would get louder each time. Ean still had a while till the tip-off but he just gave up on warm-ups. He went over to the bench and sat there with his coach.

“Are you sure you are alright buddy?” Coach asked Ean.

“Yes,” Ean replied.

Ean sat on the bench for a while, contemplating whether to tell Coach what was wrong. Right when he was going to tell Coach what was wrong, he called everyone in for the huddle. Coach told Ean that he was doing the tip and that was the last thing Ean wanted to hear. He was getting more nervous as the clock was ticking down to the start of the game, and to Ean it felt like the clock was speeding up. his heartbeat was like a big loud drum getting faster and faster.

Finally, the ref blew his whistle for the tip and the drum stopped beating and Ean could barely breathe. Ean was standing in the center circle with a player from the other team - it was like the jousting match of the century but the winner was obvious. As the ref blew his whistle he threw the ball up and the other player jumped up but Ean just flipped onto his back and the whole crowd was laughing hysterically. Eans back stung like an army of bees just attacked him. From the floor Ean watched the other team take the ball down the court and put it right into the hoop. The sound of everyone clapping when the other team scored was like a thunderstorm that was going to get worse and more worse. One of Ean’s friends went over to him and gave him a hand up.

“Are you okay?” he asked Ean.

“I am fine. Don’t worry about me,” Ean replied.

Ean went over to the bench and Coach got him an ice pack. A couple of minutes of the game went by and Ean’s team was losing by a lot. It was almost downright painful for Ean to watch.

“Can I go in Coach? I think I am better,” Ean asked his coach.

“If you say your good to play, you can play,” Coach replied.

Within a minute Ean was back on the court but there was not too much time left in the quarter. Ean’s teammate passed Ean the ball but the other team took it right from him and put it in the hoop. This same thing happened many times and the quarter ended really quickly.

As Ean was walking off the court a woman from the stands yelled: “Don’t fall on your way to the locker room, kid.”

Everyone was laughing and Ean picked up the pace and ran into the locker room. When he got in the locker room he took his shoes off and hurled them against the wall, then he took them off the floor and put them in the trash can. Ean sat down on the bench to get some space from other people, but his coach came in.

“Are you sure nothing is wrong Ean?” Coach asked him.

“Well my shoes were used in the army for strengthening soldiers and now I am trying to use them to play basketball. They will not let me dribble, layup, shoot, or anything.” Ean told his coach.

“Ok, slow down Ean - I’ll give you a couple of minutes to work your problem out but then we have to play.” Coach replied.

“Thanks, Coach,” Ean said.

When Coach left the room Ean went over to the trash and got his shoes out. He sat down and started searching for clues a minute went by but he could not find anything right when Ean was about to give up he took out the sole of the shoe.

Underneath the sole was a little screen with a keypad Ean looked at it for a couple of seconds but then he noticed underneath the pad there was writing that said to put in a mission pad, along with to “please look at handbook.”

“It’s a mission pad, you type in a mission and the shoes will complete the mission,” Ean said to himself.

Ean was so relieved to find the answer to his problem. He took the keypad and typed in WIN BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP the screen showed up with a flashing ERROR. Ean typed in PLAY BASKETBALL and the screen showed up with another flashing ERROR. Ean was so happy to find the answer to his problem but nothing was working.

So, Ean typed in ACT LIKE NORMAL SHOES again the screen showed up with a flashing ERROR and then it turned to a flashing MUST SAVE PEOPLE. Ean understood now - since the shoes were used in the army, they would only work if they were saving people. So Ean had to come up with how this could save people, so he thought of his last two eventful days of his life. He then remembered why he was stuck in this situation.

“Those filthy bullies,” Ean said out loud.

Ean thought that if his team won the basketball championship, the high schoolers would not bully them. Ean typed in WIN BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TO SAVE KIDS FROM GETTING BULLIED BY HIGH SCHOOLERS. Ean was so happy the message just barely fit on the tiny screen. When Ean pressed the enter button on the back of the WESABA they lit up and then the light turned on.

Ean’s coach opened the locker room door and asked, “Are we ready?”

“Never been this ready my whole life” Ean replied.

Ean put his shoes on and tied them up as fast as he could and sprinted out of the locker room. When Ean got on the court he felt so alive that when Coach was talking to Ean’s team in the huddle, Ean was jumping up and down like a kangaroo.

When the second quarter started, Ean’s teammate passed him in the ball. He dribbled up the court to the defender. Through the legs, behind the back, crossover, sprint by the defender, layup, ball in the hoop. The crowd went crazy when Ean scored, but his team was still losing by a lot.

Get the ball fake the run, through the legs, behind the back, step-back swish. Ean felt so good to finally be playing basketball. The half time came a lot quicker than Ean thought and the score was getting to be closer. Ean kept scoring in the third quarter and the teams were finally tied. With one minute left, the teams were tied 43 to 43 Coach was yelling at them to keep solid.

But a player got behind them and scored they were down by two points. Ean’s teammate passed him the ball and he dribbled down the court he needed to get a three to be ahead. He took the shot but it went right off the rim and it bounced into the other teams they took the ball down the court and made another shot.

Ean’s team was down by four with seven seconds left. Ean got the ball dribbled it by a defender went up for a shot but a player behind him pushed him over. Ean was on the ground and he noticed a puddle of blood underneath him.

Coach rushed over to Ean and asked him, “Ean, are you ok? I think you need a sub.”

Before Ean answered coach he looked behind him and saw that there were only five seconds left.

“No ,Coach. I need to stay in to win this,” Ean said.

Ean did not even worry about the blood and got up and went to the foul line, the ref had a weird look on his face as if Ean had just totally ignored a pile of blood that poured out of his nose. Ean got the ball to take his shot he stopped breathing he released his arm and the ball went right into the hoop. The crowd went wild but he had to make this shot if he wanted to win.

The ref passed Ean the ball and he rubbed it in his hand. He bent his knees, put the ball in his hands and released it. Ean could feel the ball moving funky when he released it when it was gliding in the air the world went into slow motion for Ean as he watched the arc of the ball.

A million thoughts were going through Ean’s head as he watched the ball start arching down he knew the ball was going to hit the rim and bounce out. Clunk he heard as the ball hit the rim Ean dropped to his knees and knew he missed. But the ball bounced right back up and swish it went into the hoop. Eans teammates went crazy and jumped on him he kept reminding them they were still losing by two and there were only five seconds left.

Ean’s teammate was at the end of the court while Ean was at half court, the ball was rolling down the court to Ean he picked it up and sprang into the air and released the ball. Five, Four, Three, Two, One, SWISH the crowd was going crazy everyone ran over to Ean to pick him up. The feel of everyone's hands on Ean was like having an octopus strangle him but in a good way.

Ean was off the ground for at least ten minutes, as everyone was chanting his name and carrying him out of the gym. When Ean got home, the whole team was there and he partied almost all night.

⋯

The next day Ean was positive that the day of the championship was the best day of his life. As Ean expected when he got back to school not a single high-schooler made fun of me. Ean kept his WESABA as long as he could but overtime shoes get worn out as Ean learned earlier.

In the meantime, Ean got new basketball shoes and when he got home he noticed a button on the back of them, and as any 12 year old would have done, he pressed it.