Plot Summary: Cam Callaghan can't help but to be somewhat irritated by his best friend Kyle Hodges' excitement for college. The two stars of Bloomington High School North's basketball team have always dreamed of playing for the Indiana Hoosiers. Now, Kyle is about to make that dream a reality, while Cam's only chance appears to be to try out to sit on the bench. However, Cam must band together with his friend to face a more immediate challenge: a game against Bedford and their star point guard, Jeremy Hayes. What happens, though, when Cam is offered a scholarship to Michigan, the team onto which "Shorty Hayes" has signed?
Characters: Cam Callaghan, Kyle Hodges, Jeremy Hayes
“Are you looking it up?” Cam Callaghan asked as he leaned his head back on the armrest of the couch while casually draping his left arm over the back cushion. His government textbook was sprawled out over his lap upside down, and the pages were beginning to bend at the corners. Even so, he paid little attention to its presence.
“What do you think I’m doing?” Kyle Hodges responded with some irritancy in his voice as he furiously typed on a laptop computer. He shot a sharp look over to his left, where his best friend was taking up nearly the entire couch with his legs, before turning back to the screen. “Aha!” he proclaimed triumphantly. “Here it is!” He stared over at Cam, who stared back in silence. “Oh, come on, if you want to see, get up!” Kyle griped at his friend. Cam slowly raised himself into a seated position, his government textbook falling onto the floor beside him as he did so, and scooted over towards Kyle and the computer.
“So apparently,” Kyle began, with a tone that made it clear he was about to explain something important, “he,” he continued pointing at the screen, “is one of the best point guards in the state.” He glanced over at Cam with a serious look on his face, and immediately turned back to the screen with an intense focus in his eyes. Cam said almost nothing as he looked at the screen for a moment.
Jeremy Hayes the caption on the top of the page read, underneath showing a picture of a brown haired brown eyed high school senior with a forced smile donning a Bedford jersey. Cam looked away, his eyes wondering towards the walls of the living room.
“Cameron!” Kyle barked, snapping his friend back into focus. “Did you hear what I said?”
“Yeah,” Cam nodded, somewhat distantly. “One of the best point guards in the state.” He looked over at the screen again and with a somewhat exasperated laugh added, “I know one of those,” deciding not to add that he knew, perhaps, the best point guard in all of Indiana. This was probably for the better, since the subject of his comment paid little heed to his small compliment. And while it may seem counter-intuitive, that modesty, at the moment, was almost infuriating.
“Signed with University of Michigan,” Kyle said, his tone peaking with interest. “Guess we’ll be seeing more of him.” There was another thing Cam found infuriating. Kyle’s constant use of the pronoun “we.” Of course, Cam had discussed with Kyle his plan to try out for the Indiana basketball team, but Cam could hardly have the same enthusiasm as his best friend, who, far from being a walk-on, was predicted to be on the starting lineup his freshman year. Frustratingly, however, it was difficult to blame Kyle for his excitement about going to college. After all, when you have strangers tuning into ESPN just to hear you tell the national public where you are going to school, it must be hard not to be excited about college. Not that the national public got to hear anything they shouldn’t have known already. One look at the newspapers and posters plastered on Kyle’s bedroom walls made it pretty clear where he had always wanted to go to school—where they had always wanted to go to school, if Cam was going to be completely honest about it.
“Let me look,” Cam sighed, drawing himself out of his thoughts. If he didn’t want to think about college, he needed to focus back in on the present. And, right now, the most pressing situation in the present was winning the game on Friday against Bedford. Apparently, that meant outplaying this Jeremy Hayes, whoever he was. Cam leaned over Kyle’s shoulder, planted his finger on the touchpad, and scrolled quickly through the information.
“6’1”,” Cam read off his opponent’s height. He chuckled. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
“You boys hungry?” a voice called from outside the room. Cam sat up straight and Kyle immediately minimized the window on the computer. The door opened to reveal Cam’s mother who looked towards her son and his teammate with a pleasant but questioning smile.
“I’m fine, Mrs. Callaghan,” Kyle replied politely. “Thanks.”
“You aren’t going to get much studying done with your textbook on the floor,” she said, pointing towards the floor with her eyes while her arms remained crossed along her chest. Cam picked up the book, which closed only with some difficulty, thanks to several now permanently bent pages.
“We were looking up an answer on the internet,” Kyle covered for him quickly. Nudging his head in the direction of the computer.
Mrs. Callaghan gave a slight, but knowing smile as she finished, “well, let me know if you need anything,” and exited the room, shutting the door behind her.
“Alright, back to Shorty Hayes,” Cam said in a half-whisper one his mother had left the room, nudging his friend on the arm. Kyle let out a loud laugh.
“Shorty Hayes,” he repeated, much louder between laughter. “That’s great!”
“Thanks,” Cam chuckled back.
“I dare you to call him that to his face!” Kyle joked.
Cam just shook his head. “I’m never gonna’ do that,” he replied honestly, but still lightheartedly, before adding, “I’m sure he’s heard it before.”
“Fair enough,” Kyle replied, and reopened the website. There was silence for a moment, as the two boys went back to reading the page. Then, Kyle looked over at Cam, shooting him the sort of look, understood only by friends, which made them both double over with laughter.
“I think we’re gonna’ win this game,” Cam said with a smile when their laughter had died down.
“No question,” Kyle replied with confidence. “Let’s do this.”
Jeremy Hayes at once completely resembled and looked nothing like the photograph on the internet. He was no taller than the internet had lead Cam to believe. If anything, the point guard from Bedford, Indiana looked shorter than his listed height of 6’1”. However, in person there was a determination in Jeremy’s eyes that could never have been glimpsed from his somewhat awkward team photo. Cam needed only to look at Jeremy for a moment to know instinctively that this was a player who had no intention of losing.
In the locker room, with time winding down until tipoff, it was clear that Kyle had made the same observations as Cam. “This is a team that’s ready to play to win,” the captain affirmed with vigor in front of his teammates. “If we’re gonna’ beat them, we have to have that same attitude.”
“Even more so,” inserted Cam, who, despite being the co-captain, had little penchant for pacing in front of his friends, piecing together fragmented but bold impromptu speeches. Between the coach and Kyle, there was no need for any more of those, anyway. The team nodded in approval of their captains’ words, before standing up, forming a circle, and putting their hands together for one last cheer before taking the court.
As they entered to the Bloomington High School North pep band’s rendition of “The Victors,” Cam had to wonder to himself whether Jeremy recognized that the fight song being played was originally written for the University of Michigan. Perhaps, he mused, his rival simply imagined that it was being played for him, rather than a cheering fan base which wanted to see nothing short of his failure. The very thought instinctively made him wonder if Jeremy was looking forward to college as much as Kyle was, a thought he finally shook off as he took his position for tip-off. Such speculations about the future could wait. Right now he had a game to win.
Within the first two minutes of the game, Jeremy Hayes proved why he ranked among the best. Bedford came out to an early six-point lead on back to back triples by the senior point guard, forcing North’s coach to call an almost immediate time out. The first possession after the game resumed proved no better for the Cougars. Though Kyle Hodges had clearly stepped up his defense on Jeremy, a simple shot fake by the shooter was enough to terrify one of North’s freshman starters, who dashed towards the perimeter, leaving his man unguarded. Jeremy read the situation perfectly, passing the ball to his teammate for an uncontested dunk. The score was now eight to nothing.
Unfortunately for Jeremy, the deficit did nothing to discourage his counterpart. In contrast, the challenge fueled Kyle, who barreled down the court with purpose, visibly intent on taking matters into his own hands. He drove into the lane before kicking the ball out to a wide open Cam Callaghan in the corner. Cam knocked down the uncontested shot with ease, giving North its first three points of the ball game. Following a long overdue defensive stop, Kyle singlehandedly brought the once seemingly out of reach game within two points. Quickly, and almost without warning, he fired up a three point shot from behind the top of the key, right over the head of Jeremy. As the shot fell and cheers erupted from the bleachers, Kyle ran back to the defensive end, now adorned with a cocky smile that elicited a glare from Bedford’s point guard. Before another play could be made, Bedford called time out. The coach immediately placed a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder, likely attempting to calm the overstated animosity locked in his eyes.
“Shorty,” Kyle whispered with a smile to Cam as the two teammates walked towards their own bench. Cam laughed along.
The game continued with much the same intensity as it had started. Bloomington North tied the score at eight and eight before falling behind by five. Two triples by Cam, both assisted by Kyle, helped bring North into the lead by the time only three minutes remained in the half. With Bedford trailing 27 to 29, Kyle buried a pull-up jumper that extended the lead to four points and began an 8-0 run by the Cougars who went into the locker room up by ten.
To Cam, Kyle, and the rest of North’s dismay, the second half began much as the first half had begun, rather than how it had ended. An early three point basket by Jeremy Hayes, who showed no signs of discouragement despite the score, provided Bedford the spark it needed to battle past North on a 12-4 run. The score now 41 to 39 in Bedford’s favor, Kyle Hodges once again proved he could make crucial plays under intense pressure. Driving to the basket, Kyle banked in a tough shot while drawing the foul. After converting at the line to put Bloomington North back up by one, Kyle could once again sense Jeremy’s competitive edge in full force.
On the other end, Cam grabbed a crucial rebound on a missed shot by Bedford’s number two scorer to pave the way for another two points for North. A small scoring drought by both teams followed, until, on an ill-advised defensive sequence, the Bedford players, focused on Kyle, left open a wide expanse of the court behind them. Barreling the ball across the court, Kyle found a wide open Cam Callaghan, who could have easily taken the shot, but opted instead to take the ball to the hoop, sealing North’s small run with a two handed jam that brought the dedicated crowd of high school fans to its feet.
Whether Cam had dunked to elicit cheers from the small crowd or to prove yet again that he could was debatable. It was unquestionable, however, that Jeremy Hayes, for all he had remained calm in-between tense exchanged looks with Kyle, had finally let his emotions get the best of him. On the next possession, Jeremy turned the ball over on an uncharacteristically sloppy pass that led to an easy fast-break layup. Bloomington North took control of the game from there, winning by a final score of 62 to 50.
Cam thought the words “good game,” had never sounded quite as hostile as when Jeremy Hayes said them to him following Bedford’s loss that night. For all that Cam had to respect the senior point guard’s talent; he was unsure how he felt about his demeanor, which was as uncannily collected on the court as it was evidently often on the brink with emotion. Following Jeremy’s rather hostile handshake, Cam couldn’t help but recall Kyle’s joke from earlier, when he dared Cam to call Jeremy shorty to his face. Cam, who prided himself on his sportsmanship, fortunately, never even thought to act upon that suggestion. Though he was not beyond childish nicknames, he saved them for friends. For just a moment, however, when he noticed that Jeremy was now exchanging what seemed to be a lingering handshake with Kyle, he worried about what words might pass between them. This was, fortunately, a worry against his better judgment. For all that Kyle made certain foolish decisions, he was not the aggressive type. Still, Cam predicted, at this moment, a very long four year rivalry between these two in the near future. As for his eventual relationship with Jeremy Hayes, he couldn’t image it being cordial. However, he noted to himself that its exact nature was for the future to determine…
Come February, Cam Callaghan hadn’t thought about his brief meeting with Jeremy Hayes in months. Indeed, for all practical purposes, he had forgotten the exchange which had taken place back in December. The senior class, as was to be expected, was abuzz with discussion about college choices. For the majority of students, the date April 1st loomed in the background of every conversation. For others, such as Kyle and the rare minority that had been accepted through early action, college talk was about excitement for the future rather than anxious waiting. Now, after a wait that seemed long overdue, Cam Callaghan was finally joining that exclusive group.
A few weeks earlier, Cam had verbally committed to the University of Michigan. Though the decision carried with it some regret that he would have to leave his home and his best friend behind him, it had overall eased the tension between the two friends. Kyle finally felt free to share all his stories about his official visit to Indiana, and wanted to hear everything about Cam’s travels to Ann Arbor in turn. Although Kyle was aware that his friend was less apt to expound upon elaborate stories than he was, Cam’s accounts always felt rushed. It was almost as thought Cam were withholding large details, instead settling for vague statements such as “I liked it” and “the coach was nice.” As anxious as Kyle was to compare their experiences, however, he realized that he was probably expecting too much information from Cam. He doubted, as much Cam seemed to stumble over his words at times, that his friend would ever keep anything important from him. More likely, Cam was still excited and surprised about his scholarship offer and unsure how to piece his thoughts together.
Cam was indeed excited about going to Michigan. He could barely stop talking about his next trip to Ann Arbor, during which, ironically, he would get to see Michigan play Indiana at Crisler Arena. It was during a discussion on this very subject, (which Kyle supposed was payback for months of his own enthusiasm), that a familiar name finally resurfaced.
“Shorty Hayes?” Kyle asked, as they sat side-by-side on the couch of his living room, with a slight tone of disdain in his voice.
“Yeah,” Cam replied, not laughing this time. “Jeremy’s gonna’ be there too.” He didn’t feel like mentioning that he was somewhat nervous about the prospect of formally introducing himself to someone who had not come across favorably during their first, brief meeting, but who, next year, might potentially be his roommate. Despite his lack of words, Kyle must have perceived the tension that Cam felt. He reached over and gave Cam a brief side-hug that caused Cam’s muscles to relax, if only the slightest bit.
“I’m just teasin’ ya,” Kyle smiled nervously. “I’m sure he’s a nice guy.” There was a moment of silence. “You two can cry over the loss together,” he interjected finally, with a laugh. “Can’t think of a better way for two people to bond.”
“Oh, shut up!” Cam retorted in a tone of joking annoyance, before pausing and looking Kyle in the eyes. “Really though,” he said, seriously. “It’s gonna’ be sort of weird to not be rooting for the hometown Hoosiers, you know?”
“I don’t know,” Kyle laughed, continuing the joke, but he stopped when there was no jovial reply. Cam sighed. He did the same. “I’ll miss you, bro,” he said in voice much softer than his usual brash statements.
“Me too,” Cam replied honestly, before repeating the statement with a soft echo under his breath, “me too.”
Sitting with Jeremy Hayes was less awkward than Cam had first anticipated, but the Bloomington native still felt out of ease next to his future teammate. Their talk had been amiable thus far, even, at times, approaching fun. Both boys were clearly excited about the possibilities that awaited them, considering that the shooting guard was a senior and the junior point guard, while he somehow managed to hold his own, had an assist-to-turnover ratio that left something to be desired. Their mutual excitement, however, did little to fill a strange feeling of emptiness that Cam felt as he continued to watch the game. It wasn’t that his relationship with Jeremy thus far seemed superficial, but, at the same time, there was nothing to indicate that their apparent new friendship was anything more than trivial, either.
Cam attempted to push his unease aside. Rationally, he knew that such friendships took time to develop. On the bright side, Jeremy was, surprisingly, quite agreeable. The pent-up anger that had accompanied his defeat back in December now seemed more a side-effect of his competitive nature than a natural personality trait. In fact, Jeremy’s emotional outbursts could, it seemed, just as easily come in the form of extreme excitement. That is, if the cheer that erupted beside him as Michigan’s 6’4” power forward, Steve Stanek, scored a second-chance basket following a gutsy offensive rebound over his 6’9” Hoosier counterpart was any indication.
“You’ve met Steve, right?” Jeremy asked Cam.
“Oh, yeah,” Cam smiled. “He’s…” he shook his head slightly as he chuckled. “He’s something.”
“I know, right?” Jeremy chuckled back, as the two future teammates shared their first genuine laugh together.
Time on the clock was running out in the game’s second half, but the game was far from over. Michigan led Indiana by just four points, soon to be narrowed down to two.
“Stupid Hoosiers just keep coming back,” Cam growled, watching the game intently.
“Bet you never thought you’d say that,” Jeremy smiled. Cam looked over at him, suddenly. It was almost as though he had forgotten that his soon-to-be teammate was from the same state as him.
“Yeah,” Cam replied, recognizing the knowing look in Jeremy’s eyes. “Crazy, isn’t it?”
“When I was in kindergarten,” Jeremy continued, “I was an Indiana basketball player for Halloween. I had one of those kid sized jerseys and everything.”
“That’s great,” Cam laughed.
“It really was,” Jeremy reminisced. “I’ll have to show you a picture.”
“You owe me now,” Cam warned.
“I always wanted to play for the Big Ten,” Jeremy continued, ignoring Cam’s teasing. “It still seems unreal to me that I’m finally going to.”
“No kidding,” Cam agreed. “I never thought I’d make it.”
“Me neither,” Jeremy concurred in a bittersweet tone, which immediately transformed into a cheer beside Cam’s as DuWayne Roberts extended Michgan’s lead to six with an explosive dunk. Jeremy and Cam leapt from their seats, discovering together for the first time how great it could feel to be a Michigan Wolverine. Jeremy immediately gave Cam a high five as they aided each other in a chorus of the Victors.
Before they sat down, Cam and Jeremy exchanged a look that was different from any they had previously shared that night. It was a mutual, singular expression of trust, clearly discernible in the way their eyes met just so. Jeremy was no longer just someone Cam was supposed to get along with. Nor was he someone good for a quick, cheap laugh. The unease which Cam had felt earlier was finally nowhere to be found. It was clear now. Jeremy Hayes and Cam Callaghan understood each other.
In the final fifty seconds, Michigan cruised to an eight point victory against the Hoosiers. After a final chorus of the Victors (during which Cam managed not to slip into the words to his high school’s song), the two new Wolverines exchanged a few final pleasantries as they stood up and grabbed their coats.
“That was fun,” Jeremy smiled.
“Sure was,” Cam enthusiastically replied. He reached out slightly to give Jeremy a small nudge on the arm as a small gesture of friendship, and, used to his friend Kyle’s size, was surprised to find himself reaching down so far. “That’ll be us next year,” he said with pride, as Jeremy added his own little punch on the arm from below, and couldn’t help but add in, in an amused, teasing tone, “Shorty.” Cam was shocked that the nickname had fallen so easily, and regretted saying it no sooner than the word had left his mouth.
“Hey!” Jeremy quipped back, though his indigence sounded lighthearted. “Six-one is not short!”
Cam laughed, relieved to find that Jeremy wasn’t offended. “You like more like six-foot and a half to me,” Cam replied, carefully examining his new friends’ height, now feeling comfortable carrying on with the joke.
“Quit it, Cam!” Jeremy piped back in a mock arguing tone that mimicked Cam’s faux fights with Kyle.
“You know it’s funny,” Cam responded.
“I hate you,” Jeremy said without smiling, though he was trying his hardest not to do so. Cam grinned and put on his coat.
“You’re the best,” Cam smiled at him in reply, quickly finishing the sentence off with “Shorty,” before darting away.
“You’re only two inches taller than me!” Jeremy called, perhaps too loudly after him, but Cam had gotten too far away to reply. With a sigh, Jeremy threw on his coat and began the inevitable chase.
