Trevor sat on the bench outside the school library, waiting for his tutoring class to begin. “What a huge waste of my time,” he thought. “This school doesn’t have a team without me. I’m gonna pass just for showing up to my classes”. He was right! He was the star center on Sherbrooke High School’s basketball team. The whole town knew it. This year they were going to the state finals. Trevor could out-dribble, out-jump, out-shoot, and just out-play all of the competition. He did own a bookbag, but had put it in his locker and not taken it out once since his sophomore year had begun. “No need,” he would tell anyone who asked, “you don’t need no algebra or English to play b-ball, and that’s what I do”.
That is what he did until a freak accident during a pick-up game in the schoolyard. He was executing one of his patented, high-flying 360° slams, and misjudged the height of the defender. He landed shooting elbow first on the concrete court. The result was multiple compound fractures and nerve damage that left doubt as to whether he would be able to use the arm again, much less play basketball.
Trevor sat on the bench outside the school library, waiting for his tutoring class to begin….clutching his bookbag.