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Tension

I was sweating and panting on the bench. It had been a tough basketball match, and me and my brain desperately wanted to rest. I fell back against the wall behind me. Something about the day, or the game was bothering me.

My brain released the game and I began to daydream. In my head, I was stepping out onto an NBA-size court. I could see all the markings on the court. At the top of the key, there was the three-point line. I could see a heavy-marked free throw line. I could see more hash marks, more than you could ever count. Best of all an announcer was yelling like Boston announcers did, "At point guard, Henry!"

I could hear the tremendous roar of the crowd as the announcer yelled my name. I was playing point guard, my dream position. Playing point guard was a dream come true. I couldn't imagine why the crowd would roar so much. I didn't score many points. but still in my head, the crowd roared. I opened my eyes as a chilling thought struck me, what if we didn't make the championship?

After all those happy thoughts it was a surprise to think bad thoughts. However, it wasn't such a surprise to me. After all, if we didn't win this game, we wouldn't make the championship. I fought the instinct. I wanted to keep thinking happy thoughts. But bad thoughts took over. I could imagine my coach shaking his head at us and my teammates breaking into tears. My hands clenched as I thought about it. But no, that wouldn't happen.

I looked up after fighting the bad dreams. I wondered how many seconds we had to shoot. I knew the score was tied, but I wanted to know how many seconds we had to shoot. I looked for my coach, but before I could ask the question he yelled, "Two seconds!" I looked to see if we had the ball, slowly digesting what we had said. Then I realized it. Two seconds!!! My heart shrank. A coldness swept through me. Could we really lose?

Just as I started worrying, we got the ball. I cheered with the rest of my teammates -- then remembered we had two seconds to shoot. Our guy took the ball to the top of the key and began driving. That is what I would do, I thought. He brought the ball up, then shot. I heard a deep sigh directly from my heart as I realized the ball went before the buzzer.

At that moment everything in that game came back to me. My brain showed me tons of moments, but the one I liked was when I got a rebound and narrowly missed a layup. I saw as I got the ball off the rebound and raced up court. I missed the layup and got fouled. I saw as I shot the free throws.

Now I was back at the court and had a chance to go to the championship. The ball went up and in! We won! As we swarmed the court, I set myself for the game of my basketball career.

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