🌎 🌎 “Path to Manhood” by Dane C. Hawkins

They get to the caf and find Mike, Duc, Rob, and someone neither Jairus nor Ovaughn has ever met. The new member of the group is a young man who looks a lot more mature than he actually is and reminds everyone of a cross between the rapper Nas or Carmelo Anthony, although he refuses to acknowledge any resemblances when asked by Jairus. His name is Chris Watts and he’s a high school friend of Mike from Atlanta. The guys get a table for dinner then head to the food line. The whole time they are in line all Rob can talk about is the frat brothers they encountered. Everyone else is trying to move past it but him. When they finally sit down to eat Jairus starts to tell everyone about the party at the gym this upcoming Friday night. He also tells them about the idea of getting Nat to buy them something to drink before the party. Everyone is up for it except for Mike because he doesn’t drink or smoke, and Rob because he only smokes, not drinks. Paul shows up as the guys laugh at the replies of Mike and especially Rob. Duc, being a natural leader, coordinates the time and place they will meet to give their money to drink and smoke before the party and they end that conversation. For the rest of the time in the caf, they either discuss what women they see or laugh at the jokes that Mike and Chris toss back and forth about incidents from high school. This allows Chris to quickly get acclimated to the group. Chris is very cool, calm, and collected, but has a wit to him that is only matched by Mike’s sarcasm and ability to get under people’s skin.

They leave the cafeteria and Duc, Jairus, and Ovaughn sit in front of the freshman dorm and look at all the people walking around outside. It is a warm, clear night in late August and it’s the first full day of classes since school started. Eighty percent of the students at the college are out just walking or driving around meeting people. Ovaughn sits back on the stairs and watches everyone, too quiet to approach anyone, he isn’t even talking to his friends at the time. Jairus isn’t as timid, but also isn’t the type to go running up to every girl or guy he sees. Duc, on the other hand, is in extravert heaven. He immediately goes to work speaking to as many people as possible, especially women. He has no fear just walking up to people and introducing himself. “I’ve never met anyone from...”. “Did I see you in the Engineering building?” “You’re an upperclassman. I know you have some advice for me.” He always finds something to talk about. He meets mostly women because they are easier to approach. Of course, he introduces his friends to everyone he meets, and Mike soon joins in and begins to approach women along with Duc. Watching Duc talk to any and every one, Jairus can tell that he is the type of person that knew all 500 people in his graduating class. Ovaughn assumes he is the guy who always has a new female “friend” and can probably throw the best parties. He is in his element being around all these people. He probably won’t remember half of the people he meets but with such a strange name and a forward manner everyone remembers him.

It begins to get late and the amount of people walking around outside decreases more and more by the minute. Jairus decides that he is ready to leave so Duc, Mike and Ovaughn walk him up the street to his dorm before heading back to their own. The guys get back to the freshmen dorm and they all go inside. Ovaughn first goes to Mike and Duc’s room, and they talk for a little while. Duc finally gets his chance to learn more about Ovaughn. It’s almost like a very comfortable interview the way Duc leads the conversation through all three of their backgrounds so that he can get to know his new friend better. “I’m from PG, which is right outside of D.C. and Mike is from Atlanta. You from the city in North Carolina or one of the other parts?” Duc asks. Ovaughn lets them know he’s from Charlotte, which is the only city they know of anyway. Duc continues, “You know if you not a drinker you don’t have to worry about putting in this weekend. But I heard y'all be drinking down south so you probably can go! What y'all normally do for fun back in Charlotte?” Ovaughn is comfortable but keeps it short and pretty much rehashes the stuff he shared with Jairus earlier that day. He longed for some real friends on campus, so he is trying to be open. Duc has a way of doing most of the talking but still walking away with all the answers. After a while they all seem to conclude that the others are cool and don’t have much more to say for the time being. So, after rehashing another story he told Jairus earlier, about things he used to do back in Charlotte, Ovaughn decides that it’s time to head to his room. In part because he can tell by their looks that they don’t believe him or at least think he’s exaggerating and the more he notices it the more he feels like he’s defending himself. Once he leaves Mike asks what is up with Ovaughn and Duc says that he is cool, just reserved as hell. And he tells Mike that he needs to lighten up on him with the scary looks. Joking that Mike just looks like he is angry with people for no reason with his crazy facial expressions. Mike and Duc sat up playing a video game and talking about all their new friends, what they think of each person, until they get bored and decide there is nothing else to do but go to sleep. Back in Jairus’ room, Nat and Jairus talk about the plan he and his friends made to get something to drink and Nat agrees to go to the store for them, telling Jairus that he is starting off the year right. He also tells him how the first few gym jams are the best then they die down, but until he can make it to the clubs that’s the best thing he has. After a little PlayStation they put the night to rest.

That Friday once class is out, Nat, Jairus, Duc, and Ovaughn jump in Ovaughn’s car, which came as a surprise since they didn’t know he had a car, and make the run to get some alcohol. They get back to campus and after everyone has eaten and met up at the dorm they begin to drink. Everyone drank except Mike. Jairus, Duc, and Paul started drinking beer but Ovaughn and Chris start with vodka because Ovaughn claims that he doesn’t fuck with beer. Eventually everyone is feeling nice except for Rob so he leaves the room to go smoke and is closely followed by Paul and a stumbling Chris. Now it's only Mike and his three drunk friends with a half an hour before the party starts. Although they are still pre-gaming, he gets to see first-hand, with a sober mind, just how stupid his friends act when they drink.

Duc is the first to start acting crazy, grabbing bottles trying to make Mike take a drink promising him it will loosen him up and he’ll like it. “You won’t be mad at nobody no more, dog” says Duc. Mike thinks Jairus seems to be able to hold his liquor well. His demeanor doesn’t really seem to change and except for the color of his eyes and a slight slur in his speech, he is pretty much the same. Ovaughn, on the other hand, has done a complete 180. Instead of sitting there being quiet and throwing in an answer to some question every now and then he has diarrhea of the mouth and just won’t shut the hell up. Everything out of his mouth starts with “when I was back home,” and he is telling stories about anything he can think about. The bad thing about it is that no one is really listening to him but he just keeps talking and poking Jairus on the shoulder so he will listen to him. Mike all of a sudden starts to laugh out loud. Duc, who now loves and must hug everyone, stops and asks what Mike is laughing at and he replies, “Your touchy-feely ass and these other two drunk motherfuckers. This nigga won’t stop talking, and that nigga is trying his hardest to act like he ain’t gone. Your ass loves everyone in the dorm now and them niggas across the hall probably can’t walk by now.” Jairus stops him, telling him he is only mad because he isn’t feeling as nice as everyone else is and he chose to play chaperone. They talk and laugh a little more and eventually get a knock on the door from Rob, Paul, and Chris who are ready to go to the party.

The fellas leave and just as Mike predicted, Paul and Chris are having trouble walking to the gym and he is having a ball laughing at them. Rob who is laughing at everything takes a look at Ovaughn and says, “Slim, you don’t look much better than they do. You fucked up!” That leads to Duc and Jairus both staring at him and agreeing with Rob. About halfway there Ovaughn stops, yells “Holdup”, and throws up in the bushes. Mike then declares, “See! Shit like that is why I don’t drink. Not to be like that!” They still walk toward the party after Ovaughn has thrown up and even though they are almost dragging Paul and Chris along. When they get to the party, Jairus and Duc have forgotten their college identifications and must pay more than everyone else. They get inside and Chris runs straight for the bathroom. Rob takes Paul with him and plays babysitter for the rest of the night in between dances. Mike refuses to help them since everyone had so many jokes about him not drinking. He is repeatedly laughing at them saying things like ”Just lay them in the corner. They won’t remember.” or “You think I’m going to miss this party because he got drunk?” Duc and Jairus get into the party and go crazy trying to dance with every girl they see, as freaky as possible. Mike realizes that Jairus just needs something to do with his buzz. Ovaughn is sitting down on the floor against the wall in the gym because he is too drunk to try to dance. “That’s what you get for fuckin’ wit’ that hard shit,” Mike tells him.

Mike dances with a few girls but spends the night trying to keep an eye on his friends to make sure they don’t do anything too stupid or get into any trouble even though he is laughing at them until they leave the party and go back to the dorms.

The next day, Mike is the first one up and he purposely wakes Duc with loud music and video games in their room. Duc complains about it being too early and having a headache. Ovaughn pops up later followed shortly by Jairus, both complaining about horrible hangovers. Mike laughs at them all and they sit around making fun of how each of them was acting the night before. How Jairus was jumping on everything that walked, how Duc was running around like a chicken with his head cut off, and how Ovaughn couldn’t even walk but would not stop talking all night. Finally, after a week of school Ovaughn is finally starting to talk to someone other than Jairus. He finds it easier to open up to Mike and Duc now that they have seen him at his worst. They quickly realize that Ovaughn is more than willing to over-explain everything once he is comfortable with you. They talk for a few hours listening to music and playing video games. Jairus takes this time to bring up a topic that Mr. Carter talked about, in class on Thursday. The topic is peer pressure leading students to do things that they might not try otherwise. He tells them how Mr. Carter said the older and more self-assured they become the less peer pressure will affect them. He then asks them when they all started drinking and if they had tried anything else. They all have different stories about how they started drinking alcohol or smoking weed. Ovaughn’s story stands out because his claim is that he started much earlier than everyone else, having older siblings and nothing to do in N.C. Mike has been dry his entire life for personal reasons he doesn’t care to explain no matter how much they ask. Because of that Ovaughn makes a declaration to get him to try a drink, which becomes a reoccurring theme over time. Duc has a story similar to Jairus’ about eventually letting peer pressure get to him sometime during his senior year of high school. His friends discover that Jairus is the type of person who thrives on in-depth conversation and is good for bringing up hard topics or those that will make you think. That’s a big part of the reason why he likes Nat as a roommate. He is a constant source of opinionated knowledge. Eventually, Paul and Rob stop by to see if they all want to go get something to eat. And they all make their way to the cafeteria in one large group and spend the rest of the day talking about the night before.

3

“Don’t Mess Up That Good Potential”

As the semester moves along Duc, Jairus, Mike, and Ovaughn have all built individual bonds with each other and continue to get closer and closer, becoming good friends. They still have a larger group of friends they hang out with, but they naturally grew tighter amongst those four than with the other friends. Paul and Rob make it easy for them to be excluded from the inner circle because they become something of an inseparable pair within the group. The fact that they are a bit edgier, and less focused on school helps. Chris is also still a member of the group and very cool with Mike due to their shared high school history. But Mike knows, as everyone has learned, Chris is that friend who loves to fly solo. He genuinely views the guys as friends but is a natural loner and will break apart from the group to do his own thing and suddenly reappear at the end of the day or at some random moment. So those four often find that they end up spending most of their time hanging out together outside of class. Ovaughn has his car and Mike is from Atlanta so they can get around easily without help from anyone else.

The semester progresses and the guys start going to clubs around Atlanta more and more often. Through their escapades in learning to navigate the social scene and dealing with women, Duc even finds a girl he tries to make a failed attempt to be faithful with. It ends up being a very short-lived relationship as she quickly realizes he is only interested in her for physical reasons alone and begins to request things from him that required real commitment. Things like spending quality time and doing favors for her, all while continually finding reasons to withhold sex. After about three weeks of feeling like he is getting the “runaround” Duc decides he’s done with being a boyfriend and goes back to bachelor life by not returning her calls. Ovaughn is still quiet and mostly keeps to himself except for when the guys go out to a party or a club. Once they get him to a party, when he isn’t so drunk he can’t walk, he proves he doesn’t play the shy guy routine at parties. He gets in the crowd and is partying with everyone else. For a second it made everyone start to believe all those back in Charlotte stories, only for a second though. They find that when you get Ovaughn loosened up, usually with alcohol, he acts more like Duc than himself. Even in using liquid courage Ovaughn still isn’t forward with women though. Most of the attention he gets comes from girls who are more forward and flirtatious or know him from a class they have together. He avoids the possibility of rejection unless it seems like a sure thing to approach a woman. It doesn’t really lead to the best love life but he’s content with the little bit of attention he gets because of his height.

All the guys except Jairus spend a lot of time chasing women even though he isn’t completely innocent. He is strongly sought after throughout the semester by a few young ladies around campus. One thing that intrigues many is the fact that he knows a lot of upperclassmen through his roommate Nat. There is naturally an assumption that he is more mature and the fact that he isn’t actively trying to chase women doesn’t go unnoticed and creates an intrigue with some of the freshmen women he knows. Which is a lot more than it would be if not for Duc being so social. Temptation can get the best of any young man and Jairus isn’t immune. He maintains regular contact with his girlfriend back home and even makes a point to “friend zone” Lisa, making sure she knows he is spoken for, as she is the girl who intrigues him the most. His friends and Duc in particular hate it when they find out he told Lisa about Tania. “So, you really just gonna fuck up all your options?” Duc says to him as if Jairus disrespected him personally. Jairus’ only response is “maybe now y'all can stop worrying about getting me to mess with her.” That didn’t stop the fellas though, it just redirected them. As the semester goes by Jairus struggles to ignore his friends pressuring him with other women. Even when he tries to end any perception of something happening with Lisa, they just turn the peer pressure towards any other women vying for his attention. He is constantly hearing Duc say “She don’t even want a relationship. You can hit that and never worry about her again. It won’t even affect your relationship.” Or something like that.

Eventually a young lady named Kim is able to break through his defenses after he is pressured repeatedly by his friends. Kim is a girl who also has the same major as Jairus, Ovaughn, and Lisa. And although she is nothing like Lisa, she is just as distinct when you see her. She is a confident, no nonsense, go-getter who has a standout physique to match her standout personality. She is intrigued by Jairus. Since she isn’t friends with him, she settles for harmless flirtation to get his attention. And a lot of it.

“You are going to regret it if you spend the entire semester coming into class and not speaking to me, Jairus.”

“What’s up Kim? It always looks like you have plenty of people to speak to when I see you. I’m just trying to get my seat in class on time. I’m always late.”

“Seems like you have time for some of your friends” Kim says as she cuts her eyes to Lisa sitting at her desk. “I can be your friend too. I can be your best friend.”

Jairus can’t help but blush at Kim’s comments. Although he isn’t looking for it, he definitely enjoys going back and forth with Kim. A part of him feels good about having the attention of a woman that a lot of guys were murmuring about, and he conveniently forgets to tell her about his girlfriend in D.C.

Jairus tries to hold his ground and avoid putting himself into compromising situations throughout the semester but finds himself faced with temptation one November evening at a party. He and his friends are at a party, as they frequently are, and have a lot to drink. Kim also happens to be there with her friends and has been drinking a bit too much herself. Towards the end of the party, she seems to be alone and in need of a ride back to campus. At least that's what she wants Jairus to believe. She comes up to Jairus and says “Have you seen my girls? They are my ride home.” slightly slurring her words and seductively making physical contact with him. Jairus, being nice, won't allow himself to just leave her there and crams Kim into the car with him and his friends, Ovaughn, Duc, Mike and Chris. Kim is basically sitting in his lap and flirting with him the entire ride to the campus parking lot. Never missing an opportunity to try and push him out of his comfort zone, Jairus' friends talk him into walking her back to her dorm room at the on-campus suites. They are trying their best to force him into the tempting type of situation he has avoided all year by playing on his protective side. As they walk, Kim flirtatiously says, “Jairus, you know you don’t have to avoid me. I promise I won’t do anything to you that you don’t want.” In his inebriated state his mind can’t help but wonder. Especially with him, and a lot of people, assuming that Kim is more promiscuous than others due to her general aggressive demeanor. When they arrive at her room Kim leans in and surprises Jairus with a kiss after thanking him for getting her home safely. As he would later describe it, she shoved her tongue down his throat and not just the simple peck you would think. However, he never tries to pull away from the passionate kiss. There is a lot of built-up tension between them after all the time flirting and it is all coming out in this drunken moment.

She grabs his hand as she opens the door and tells him to come in. They began to make out even more as they moved through her suite making their way to her bedroom and even began to remove shirts and other clothing items. Kim pauses for a second, pulls away, and asks, “You sure we should do this?” after he unfastened her bra. She is surprised at how quickly it is escalating and second guesses her decision to go this far this fast. Even though the rumors about her amongst the male students say otherwise, this isn’t a regular thing for her. Her moment of clarity through the alcohol allows Jairus to compose himself and he suddenly stands up from his seat on the edge of her bed. She looks at him and says, “Not like this, right?” He is wide eyed and speechless, but still very conflicted between what his mind thought, and his body is urging him to do. He blurts out “I don’t have a condom,” grabs his shirt and starts to put it on. That is the only thing he can think of that is justification to leave as well as something that won’t personally reject her. He grabs anything else he has, says bye, and leaves as quickly as possible.

Jairus spends days avoiding contact with Kim and carries an emotional guilt that is visible to his close friends. He carries that guilt, trying to figure out how he is going to tell Tania, until one night Nat walks into the room and sees him once again sitting on the edge of his bed with a somber look on his face. “So, you wanna tell me what the hell you been moping about for the last few days?

Jairus looks up at Nat, standing by his closet, and responds “I fucked up. I cheated on my girl, and I know it’s gonna break her heart.”

“Hol’ up! You cut something? I told ya it was a matter of time bef...”.

Jairus cuts him off before he got too carried away and says “nah, I just kissed this chick that’s been going at me when I got drunk last weekend.” Nat gives Jairus a look that said, “that’s it” and “why are you tripping” all at once. After a moment of silence, Nat finally says “I know she not the only woman throwing it at you. You really like her or something?” Jairus quickly replies “No!” “A’ight... a’ight folk. I’m just trying to figure why you so down on ya self. You young. You gonna make mistakes. And if you think a kiss is bad I don’t wantcha to know the shit I done did.” Jairus just shakes his head. He hears Nat but it isn’t making him feel any better. Nat can tell his approach isn’t working so he tries to a different way. “Its only been one perfect man to walk dis earth. Don’t be more down on ya self then he would. You still gotta lot to figure out and I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna have your girl judging ya based off your worst moment. Especially when you clearly are paying for it already. Just some advice from some who had to learn the hard way.”

Jairus is still young no matter how mature he comes across and has a very idealistic view about himself and the way he hopes things will go in his life. It drives his focus and determination. Falling short of his own standards is jarring for him. The conversation with Nat helps him to start to get past that guilt and begin to move on.

Mike spends his fair share of time trying to learn his approach with the opposite sex but doesn’t go girl crazy like a lot of his friends have during the semester. He values his friendships almost as much as he secretly wants to find a girlfriend. Soon Mike, seeing how much all his friends enjoy it and after a lot of urging from Ovaughn, succumbs to peer pressure and tries drinking. The first time around he takes it slow and is pleasantly surprised when he doesn’t have a drunken incident like he’s seen the fellas have. It makes him comfortable with drinking again. Eventually he reaches the point where he drinks just as much as any of his friends. That lowers his inhibitions and apprehensions, allowing him to become more adventurous. Enough to start smoking weed occasionally with Rob and Paul. Since he’s local to Atlanta, Mike soon finds himself using his personal connections to help them get weed. Over time he reluctantly becomes the go-to for Paul and Rob when they want to get weed and can’t find it quickly on campus. And this happens a lot more than he is comfortable with because of how frequently they smoke.

It all snowballs into a complete change for Mike in a very short time period with him navigating a world he’s never been a part of. Naively accepting favors over the semester leads to Mike being in debt to a couple of guys he knows from his old neighborhood. They know his older brother, so they let him have a large amount of weed on credit when he comes to them to get it for Rob’s birthday celebration. The problem is he doesn’t have a job and doesn’t think about how he will get the money to pay off the debt. Or how soon they will want their money. Although Mike intentionally doesn’t show it, he regularly worries about the money he owes. He doesn’t put the same correlation to alcohol since it hasn’t caused him any problems, but he’s seen drug issues in his family and the stress of the situation during the semester adds to his stigma with drugs. He knows he knew better, from personal experience, and he now begins to question why he even allowed himself to start smoking weed to begin with.

Of the four, Duc and Jairus are best friends above all simply because they’re from the same area and relate to each other better, but you can’t tell any difference in the way all four of them treat each other. Ovaughn is extremely close to Jairus and also finds himself drawn to Mike as he is the most willing to entertain his continual stories of what was, back in Charlotte. Mike naturally is close with Duc being roommates and realizes more and more as time passes that he and Jairus have a lot of things in common with each other. The four of them, always joking around, regularly help each other in certain situations, usually dealing with women or school, and always making fun of each other's perceived weaknesses. They develop the type of friendship where they are more comfortable cursing each other out the closer they become and understand everyone’s sense of humor better. They grow so close that they begin to speak alike using each other's slang terms from the three different areas and becoming known around campus to always be together. Duc being the mouth of the group, Mike being the perceived mean dude in the group, Jairus being the nice guy, and Ovaughn of course receiving the shy guy label. By now Ovaughn openly speaks with his three friends, even though it isn’t much with anyone else, so they no longer view him as shy even though they understand that he is reserved.

With Christmas vacation right round the corner, that means final exams are looming, but tonight there is a basketball game to go see. Duc and Mike’s dorm room has been officially deemed the chill spot for most of the semester. Rob, Paul, Jairus, Ovaughn, Chris, and another from Maryland named Tim are in their room. Tim is a freshman also and came with Rob and Paul. Like most from the area Tim generally hangs with anyone else from the D.C. metro area. A lot of people are that way just as those from other major cities like New York, Atlanta, and Miami. Most people from the area also wonder why Duc and Jairus don’t associate strictly with others from “home” and that is how Duc and Jairus like to keep them... wondering. It just doesn’t make sense to them to come all the way to Atlanta and only associate with people from the D.C. area. Why not just go to school back home then.

The guys leave the room as a group to go to the game and they get seats directly behind the bench. Duc knows a few guys on the team, and they always make sure he has the same seats for him and his friends. Duc also likes sitting there so they can hear him when he is yelling at the other teams playing. It’s Ovaughn’s first basketball game this season, but all his friends tell him how good the team is this year. Tonight, on the other hand, the team finds themselves in a losing effort. The stars on the team show off their skills but it just isn’t enough for the victory. The entire time the game is being played Ovaughn is dissecting the players on the court. He randomly states how each player could change and improve their game as they watch. Things like “The center isn‘t crashing the boards hard enough. He’s too worried about getting beat back down the court when he could be getting extra possessions.” or “Our small forward is more worried about getting his own shot than getting the best shot. He’s missed the point guard open in the corner twice.” as well as “these back-up guards have no court vision.” Also telling how much better he is than they are at things and how he played high school ball back in Charlotte. Duc ignores all his talking since he is in his element around all those other students. Mike is in his own world as well. In the midst of watching the game he notices the guys he owes money to walking around the gym and kept staring at them until he saw them spot him, pointing and giving him a couple of ugly looks. Now he’s lost them in the crowd and is trying to find them again. But for some reason Jairus is unable to ignore Ovaughn this time and doesn’t hold back. “Nigga, everything you’ve ever done is ‘Back in Charlotte.’ You ain’t back home no more, why don’t you do some shit now and stop talkin’ that bullshit. I know you don’t actually think we believe you.”

“I could care less if you believe me, but I bet you won’t get on the court wit’ me.” The jaw of Jairus drops and everyone else can’t believe Ovaughn is that bold. Being the reserved one of the group, he usually doesn’t make such confident, bold statements. Everyone else in the group instantly starts jeering the two either hyping up Ovaughn to talk his shit because it never usually happens or hyping Jairus to accept the challenge. Mike is the only one quiet as he thinks to himself this may not be all talk from Ovaughn as he notices just how confident he sounds. Duc laughs and says “It’s only one way to resolve this issue. I suggest we all take it to the rec in the neighborhood down the street from school. We need to do this tomorrow!” Ovaughn and Jairus agree and Ovaughn warns Jairus not to sleep on him on the basketball court. His confidence is unwavering. Once again, he gets a few laughs from his audience and makes Jairus feel like he has something to prove to shut him up.

The next day after classes the fellas decide when and where they are going to play. There is a recreation center about a mile from the school that Ovaughn can drive to, and they will go before dinner to play. They leave campus at about 5:00 p.m. with Rob, Mike, Ovaughn, Duc, and Jairus in the car. They didn’t have enough room for everyone and Rob, being an instigator and having played high school basketball, isn’t missing this one. When they arrive at the basketball court, there are guys already inside shooting around. Ovaughn, moving with a sense of urgency to prove himself for once, initiates a game with the guys in the rec and everyone shoots for captains. He makes the first shot and Mike, who also played high school ball, makes the second shot. Ovaughn picks his team starting with the shortest person in the gym. As they go back and forth picking, he refuses to pick any of his friends because he wants to play against them. All but Duc is picked to play since they have uneven numbers, so he sits on the side and watches as he waits for the next game. As the game starts, Ovaughn brings the ball down court. Mike approaches to play defense and Ovaughn warns him “you better back up” with almost a snarl. Mike doesn’t listen, so Ovaughn commences to use his ball handling skill to shake the shit out of Mike and make him look like a puppet Ovaughn is controlling with a string connected to the basketball. When he’s done playing with Mike, he drives in and does a two-handed power dunk. The rest of the game continues in the same manner with Ovaughn giving special attention to Jairus. He made sure to call Jairus out saying “bring yo ass over here and guard me since you had so much to say.” At one point, he has Jairus on his knees trying to get the ball from him. He made every effort to try and dunk on Jairus unsuccessfully but did catch Paul, who is furious with Jairus about his defense. As Duc watches from the sideline all he can think is, 'why the hell doesn’t Ovaughn play for the school team?' Jairus, on the other hand, wonders why he won’t stop showing off on the court with a bunch of chumps who can’t play. After the game he says that if he plays against real competition he won’t look half as great. Mike and Rob resent the comment since they both played. Duc, quiet for the first time in a while, completely disagrees and has it stuck in his head that Ovaughn should try out for the team. He just has to figure out a way to convince him to do it.

He doesn’t have a slick way to approach it, so the next day when Ovaughn stops by his room Duc just brings it up to him directly. “So why haven’t you told any of us that you should be on the basketball team?” After all the big talk the day before Duc is surprised to see Ovaughn revert to his milder tone simply replying with a shoulder shrug and “you think so?” Duc is almost shocked that Ovaughn questions it after what he saw the day before. He gets excited saying to him “Young, they couldn’t see you yesterday. You looked better than half our team. At least half our bench!” Ovaughn looks over at Duc to see if he is serious somewhat wondering if he is just messing with him for fun. He can tell by Duc’s forward posture and wide-eyed stare that he believes what he is saying. So Ovaughn then says “It’s not like I can get on the team now if I wanted too. I mean, I love basketball but I’m straight playing for fun. Maybe I’ll do intramurals or something.” That’s all Duc needed to here to get the wheels rolling. “So, you wanna play. Bet. I’m a figure out a way for you to try out. Just stay ready.” Duc says.

Ovaughn seems to be drawn to the idea after realizing someone believes in him. It is somewhat motivating to him even though he has no idea how it can happen this late in the school year. Duc not only believes in Ovaughn’s basketball skill he believes in his ability to make things happen even more. And this will be the first time his friends get to witness how he makes his gift with words work to his advantage. Being such a people person, Duc met a couple of the players on the basketball team earlier that semester. So naturally he starts by going to those who know exactly how to make his goal happen. He went straight to the caf where the sports teams would now be having their separate meals from everyone and quickly greeted two of the players he knew “What’s up slim? Man I wanted to ask y'all about how people try out for the team. How does the coach pick walk-ons?” They were a bit shocked at someone of his short stature asking about walking onto the team and give him weird looks before saying “Umm. Well it’s actually pretty difficult and we like halfway through the season...” then the other player named Spencer cuts him off saying “At this point we‘d probably have to vouch for you and just being honest, I don’t know if you would make the cut at your size.”

Duc burst into laughter at the response then says “Nah, not me. I mean don’t sleep, I can hoop. But my man is nice for real. And he like six foot three and skinny like y'all bamas be.” Spencer respects that he doesn’t take his comment personal and says “That makes a little more sense. We actually have a couple of injuries and just called a couple of folks up from the practice squad to the bench. There might be some more movement but we gotta see him play before we put our necks out there.” This is the opening that Duc is looking for. He has no doubt that all Ovaughn needs is a chance to prove himself and it doesn’t matter if it’s through the practice squad as long as the team sees him. He tells the players more about Ovaughn and Spencer tells Duc to bring him to the open gym where the players sneak to play during free time unbeknownst to the coaches. It is that upcoming Sunday night and Duc shows up with Jairus, Mike, and Ovaughn, but only Ovaughn plays. Duc is like his hype man as they get to the gym telling him everything he needs to hear to build up his confidence. As he plays with the mix of school team players, practice squad players, and skilled students who have also been invited, Ovaughn doesn’t quite dominate the way he did when proving a point against Jairus. However, he does display all around skill in his three games making some flashy passes, getting a few steals, and hitting some highly contested jump shots. He left the court feeling like he was one of the five best players in the gym that night. Before they left for the night Spencer, who goes by Spence, says to Ovaughn, “Duc told me you trying to hoop. I will talk to coach and see if we need something and let you know what’s up.”

By the end of that week Spence, Duc, Ovaughn and the head coach are sitting in the coaches’ office having a conversation. Somehow, Duc has used those incredible people skills he has to Ovaughn’s advantage. At the time he didn't even realize it, but Duc has nearly mastered networking as a college freshman. It is too late for Ovaughn to walk onto the team but if he can prove himself in the next practice and the following scrimmage, he has the opportunity to join the practice squad that plays against the real team. Then he can stay in shape until the next season and have the opportunity to walk onto the team. Ovaughn agrees and goes to the next practice early that Saturday morning. He doesn’t necessarily feel like he is one of the top players on the court like he did earlier that week at the Sunday night game, but he does impress the coaches with his great ball handling skill and his quick and accurate shot. He is a pure shooter with a quick release that is very hard to block and has the handles of a point guard, add on the six foot three and a half inch 210-pound build and he is the perfect shooting guard and possible small forward for the division I-AA basketball team. After one practice with the team the coaches agree to allow him to play with the practice team for the rest of the season.

The second week of December is the last week before final exams, which actually start that Thursday. The guys all study for hours on end until Wednesday. Wednesday night Duc, Mike, Ovaughn, and Jairus go to the club along with many other students using a break from studying as an excuse. When they walk into the club both Jairus and Mike have the same idea and head straight to the bar area. They always scope out the bartenders to see if they are carding people or not and in this case they are. They then change focus to finding someone willing to buy the drinks for them, both calling out possible candidates. As they try to covertly discuss they suddenly hear a voice say “Go ‘head and gimmie the bread and I’ll get it fo’ ya, Mike.” Mike turns to see one of the two guys from his neighborhood that gave him the weed and the other one is just walking up and says “Look who we have here. And ready to spend all his money at the bar.” Jairus has already pulled a twenty out of his pocket before reading the room to realize there’s tension between them and is now staring at Mike to determine what to do. Mike doesn’t say a word, but he reaches up to grab Jairus’ arm to stop him from handing over the money. The first guy sees it and says, “Nigga we ain’t gone take his muthafuckin money!” And he snatches the twenty-dollar bill out of Jairus’ hand. “What you niggas want?” “Um...four beers” Jairus says. The second guy just stands there staring at Mike until the beers come back then says “Mike, it’s funny y'all in here buyin’ drinks but ain’t thought ‘bout payin’ us back. How much dey charge to get in here again?” They take the four beers from the first guy and Jairus notices he has one for himself then asks for his change. The response is “service fee nigga. Fuck out my face.” Mike just grabs him once again and pulls him back as they start to back away. As the two guys begin to walk away the second one says one last thing to Mike. “You better come see me before I come looking for you.”

Jairus is no fool and he is from the same type of neighborhood as Mike. He knows what he just witnessed. He turns to Mike and says “Mike, what the fuck?” “Aye, I’m already worried about finals. Can we please just let that go and try to have fun. It’s over for now. I’ll take care of it later.” Mike replies. It is one of the very few instances that Jairus bites his tongue and lets something go. He doesn’t want to stress out any more than Mike does. So, he keeps it to himself for tonight.

The four friends have fun partying all night long and wake up in the morning dragging to their exams, wishing they had stayed at home and just relaxed. The first exam that Jairus has is Mr. Carter's class. He gets in on time and takes the exam, which isn’t very hard, because it is open-ended and based on opinion. Still, Jairus is the last person in the class to finish his exam and as he is turning his paper in to Mr. Carter. “How was the club last night?” Jairus gives a shocked look because he is surprised that it is that obvious, but Mr. Carter tells him that he can see it a mile away. “You’re one of the smartest kids I’ve had this semester; Maybe one of the brightest in years. And you drag in here for an exam to give a half-assed effort,” he says. “I know you’re young and this is one of those mistakes, so I won’t come down on you, Jairus. But you have to remember that you’ve been put in this situation and given this freedom to prove that you have what it takes to make it in this world. Don’t mess up that good potential. I’ll be keeping up with what’s going on with you and I expect to hear from you. My door is always open, but I hope you don’t need it sooner than later. Take care, young man.” Jairus says his goodbyes and leaves. As he walks off, he laughs at how even when Mr. Carter checks you on your mistakes, he still makes it come across like he is so cool.