Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Chapter 242 - Playing With The Media

Jason left the table as he walked to his dad's office. He asked him if it was alright for him and the guys to go over to Tyreek's.

Jason's dad told him that it was okay with him and not to worry about the bill. After thanking his dad he walked back to the guys as they all got up and left.

After a fifteen minute bus ride the six of them found themselves at the community where Tyreek was currently staying with his niece along with Greg and Javier.

Jason walked up to the gate and swiped the card that Greg and Javier had given him prior. Jason then lead the rest of the boys as they walked into the community.

DJ whistled as he looked at the houses that they passed by while walking "Tyreek really moved up huh? He went from the hood to a gated community."

After a short walk Jason stopped as they stood outside the townhouse that Tyreek was staying at. Just as Jason was about to walk to the door it swung open.

Shania turned behind her and yelled out before storming through the door "This is such a bitch ass move Tyreek!"

It was only after slamming the door shut did she see Jason and the other boys. She furrowed her brows as she walked up to Jason.

"Thank god! Maybe you can talk some sense into Tyreek's bitch ass." After saying that she turned around and walked off.

Jason called out "Wait! Shania!" But despite him calling out her name she didn't stop as she walked off. Jason sighed before turning around to the other guys "That was not a good sign."

With the other boys behind him Jason knocked on the door. "Shania- Oh, what's up Jaya." Tyreek opened the door with a weak look on his face.

Jason shrugged his shoulders "If you're looking for your niece she just stormed off. She didn't seem all that happy."

Tyreek smiled weakly "That's a hell of an understatement bruh. You got the whole squad here huh? Come on in."

Jason nodded his head before walking in. Kyle and the rest of the boys greeted Tyreek as they followed Jason.

He along with the other boys all took a seat in the living room. Tyreek tossed them all a water bottle before taking a seat next to Jason on the couch.

"Greg and Javier is out right now so it's just us. I didn't know you and Kyle was back in Cali bro. I heard about yo contract with Nike man. Good shit."

Jason nodded his head "Thanks Tyreek. I was trying to hit you up all day yesterday bro. You decommitting from UCR?"

Tyreek sighed as he took a sip from the water bottle in his hand "My bad bro. I had a ton of shit on my mind yesterday.

But yeah. That's why Shania popped off earlier. She was pissed when I told her that I was decommitting from UCR last night but this morning she was even more heated."

Jason looked at Tyreek with a curios expression on his face "Why exactly are you decommitting from UCR? The first time I met you you seemed hella hyped about playing for them."

Tyreek shook his head before answering "You ain't wrong. I was hella hyped to play for em bruh. But that was back when they was my only offer.

But after our run at Nationals schools was hittin me up like crazy. I never thought that these top tier programs would even know my name."

He then paused as he looked at Jason with a gentle kindness behind his eyes "I owe you for that I guess.

If you never convinced me to be on the show then these schools would prolly still have no clue who I was. Thanks man."

He then stuck out his fist. Jason chuckled as he bumped Tyreek's fist back with his own "You ain't gotta thank me Tyreek.

Even if I got you on the show if you didn't ball out then the schools would have never became interested in you. That's your own sweat and blood man, I had nothing to do with that."

Kyle and the rest of the boys all jumped in as they all praised Tyreek for the incredible year that he had.

Tyreek laughed as his mood seemed to have improved a bit "In any case I decided to go to UCLA instead.

They offered me a contract that will pay out a hundred grand every year to play for them. So even if I don't end up getting drafted I can play four years and get a pretty decent bag."

Jason took a second to process what Tyreek had said "Sounds pretty good to me. Why was Shania so upset then?"

Tyreek sighed "It's because she'll have to move with me. Javier and Greg are good dudes and I trust em but the optics wouldn't be good. Two grown men living alone with a young teenage girl?

And Shania had finally managed to make some friends at her new school. She just started to put down roots and now she gotta pull em out and restart.

Not to mention that she prolly don't want to be separated from you guys. Y'all are her best friends." After he said that the mood in the room became somber."

Jason was the only one who didn't seem to have been affected "Is that it?" Everyone turned and looked at him.

Jason continued "If Shania doesn't want to move then she can just stay here. My parents have an extra room in the apartment that they're using as an office.

We could put a bed in there and Shania can sleep in my room while I stay in the office. You would just have to do some paper work so that my parents could act as guardians."

Everyone was stunned after hearing Jason say that. After a few moments of silence Tyreek busted out laughing.

"Hahaha I shoulda known man. You always like this Jaya. While everyone stressin out and sweatin you already got an answer."

Tyreek took a moment to think before continuing "Like always man I appreciate the offer. That helps to solve half the problem.

The only other thing I gotta worry about is the news. As soon as they hear about this they gon blow it up to a whole different level."

As soon as Tyreek was done talking a notification popped up in the corner of Jason's vision.

[Mission: Help Tyreek lower the level of media attention that he will recieve after announcing that he will be going to UCLA instead of UCR.

Rewards: A random Silver ranked skill badge.                                            ]

Jason then laughed "If that's what you're worried about then don't sweat it Tyreek. I got you covered."

Jason then explained the plan to Tyreek as well as the other boys. Everyone was shocked after hearing what Jason had to say.

Tyreek looked over at Jason with a serious expression on his face "You sure about this bro? You gon catch some serious heat. I don't know if I can do that to you."

Jason waved his hand as he casually sat back in the couch "Like I said man, don't sweat it. You know me. I don't care about what the media has to say.

Besides, this might actually help me. I just signed a contract with Nike to help them with their marketing. So the more my name blows up the better it is for me and Nike."

Tyreek nodded his head "Alright man. I really owe you for this. You a real one bro."

- - -

Later that day. The sun had just set as Jason and the rest of the boys were hanging out back at his apartment.

Kyle had Jason's phone in his hand as it looked like he was doing a livestream. Kyle smiled as he looked into the camera.

"What's up guys! Thanks for joining us for Jaya's first livestream. We just got back from the training camp in New York and thought that this would be a great chance to interact with our fans.

Even though I said that I'm pretty sure that most of you guys are here for Jaya and not us haha." The chat was bustling as they said all sorts of different things.

Some of them agreed with Kyle as they told him to get out the way and hand the phone to Jason while others told Kyle that they loved all the guys from Jefferson.

Kyle flipped the camera on the phone as he showed Jason who was currently playing against Vince in a fighting game.

From behind the camera Kyle spoke "We'll be doing a Q&A so shoot some questions over. I'll be bugging Jaya while he tries to focus on the game haha."

After he said that all sorts of questions began to appear in the chat ranging from asking what Jason's favorite color was to asking what he liked to eat.

Jason answered all the questions with his usual deadpan face all while focusing on the game as he didn't take his eyes off of the TV.

Soon after questions began to flood the chat asking about Jason's opinion on Tyreek's decision to attend UCLA.

Jason looked over at DJ who was sitting on the couch as he gave him a discrete signal. Jason got up and handed the controller to Matt.

"Take over for me bro. I don't want to get my ass handed to me on my first livestream." Jason then swapped places with Matt.

Jason looked into the camera "Since everyone's asking me I'll say it. I don't see what the big deal is. With how things work now college athletes are finally able to make money off of their skills.

It shouldn't be surprising that Tyreek chose the school that offered him the most money." Kyle then saw a question that was posted with DJ's burner account.

Kyle looked over at Jason "Yo Jaya. We got a real spicy question. LAbeast001 wants to know how you think our up coming season is going to be."

Jason smirked as he turned to the camera "If I'm being honest I feel like everyone got lucky that we had so many injuries to deal with.

But with our up coming season I guarantee you that we will make some noise at Nationals. Jefferson is going to win the state title and make a deep run at Nationals.

You heard it first hand from me. Take that to the bank because it's as good as money." As soon as Jason said that the chat started to go crazy.

The amount of people watching the livestream exploded. After a few minutes their original number of two thousand viewers blew up to over a hundred thousand.

Seeing that happen Jason couldn't help but laugh in his mind 'The best way to get the media to forget about something is to just give them a juicier story to talk about.

I wonder how they'll react with this sound bite. Haha I can already see all the haters faces getting red as they type away.'