Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Chapter 306 - A Bountiful Harvest

Game two of the Wizards vs Bulls series was a real nail biter but it didn't start off that way. With the Wizards leading by over 20 points after the end of the first half everyone thought that the Bulls hot start had come to an end.

But lead by their star player Reggie the Bulls were able to rally together and put up a strong performance in the third quarter that ended with them gaining a ten point lead.

Unfortunately for the Bulls they just didn't have enough left in the tank to finish the game as they would fall short of the comeback.

They might have lost but the fact that they had managed to put up another good game against the first seeded Wizards began to raise the whispers that they might just have a shot of winning the series.

Game three would end up being one hell of a game as the Wizards no longer had any room to play without a sense of urgency.

They took the Bulls seriously from the tipoff as all of their players were locked in. But with Reggie leading them and their roster now emboldened by their previous performances the Bulls were full of confidence and energy.

With the largest lead in the game being only eight points and with over twelve lead changes throughout the course of the game all of the fans watching were on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

In dramatic fashion Reggie iced the game with an acrobatic layup over two Wizards' defenders to put the Bulls up by four with only six seconds left on the clock.

The next few games were just as exciting as the third as the Wizards and Bulls exchanged one great game for another.

Despite the fact that this was a first round series the excitement of the fans and media alike gave it a much more serious feeling.

The atmosphere of the games made it feel like it was a finals or conference finals series. And as the Bulls forced a game seven the media storylines began to pick up.

They began to call the Bulls the underdogs of the century with the biggest heart of any team to ever be the 8th seed. 

And after a hard fought win to steal the series the Bulls became the biggest headline in the world of basketball.

And of course Jason didn't miss this opportunity to make some money. He told Coach Swendel when to bet on the Bulls and when to bet on the Wizards.

He also made extra money by placing extra bets on different things such as point differential and buzzer beaters.

The best part was that Jason didn't just focus on the Wizards vs Bulls series. He had Coach Swendel place multiple bets on multiple different teams in the West and Eastern conference.

In order to avoid being detected and raising any alarms Jason had Coach Swendel alternate between the different websites and channels that he used to place his bets.

He also made sure to include some losing bets along with his winning bets in order to make things look less suspicious.

But even with the money that he threw away on losing bets Jason had managed to accumulate over 20,000 dollars by the time the first round of the playoffs had come to a close.

This period of time was a crazy one for Coach Swendel. Not only was he doing something that could completely ruin his life if he were to be found out, he was doing it successfully!

The emotionally rollercoaster that he went through alternating between the fear of being caught and the happiness of making easy money kept him on his toes.

For the first few days he was paranoid of any phone call from an unidentified number. But after he began to spend his newfound wealth he was able to relax.

But the betting on playoff games wasn't the only thing that took up Jason's time. After a video of the four of them practicing together as a band blew up online multiple schools began to contact Jefferson.

The schools were calling to request that Jefferson do a joint dance after a large number of their students requested it.

Because of the large number of requests and no reason to reject them Principal Morris agreed to a joint Spring Dance with five other middle schools in the city.

He was more than happy to share the costs included in planning a Spring Dance. The extra funds would also allow for a more extravagant dance.

The fact that Jason would be performing during the dance with three of his friends in a band became one of the biggest talks of the city.

All of the schools that would be joining Jefferson for their Spring Dance were hopping in excitement while the schools that missed out were still holding on to a sliver of hope that they would be included.

- - -

Jason was laying in his bed in what used to be his mom and dad's office room. While Kyle played a game on the computer that was in the room.

After landing the killing blow on the boss Kyle put his hands together and cracked his fingers "Ah, finally got over Zanthor.

I still can't believe that you couldn't get over him. All you have to do is make sure that you have a shield scroll that you can activate during his AOE attack.

Then you have to shave away at his six health bars and survive two transformations that change up his attack pattern.

It's really not that hard once you get the hang of it." Jason looked away from his phone to chuckle at Kyle "Really? And here I was thinking that it was so hard."

Kyle rolled his eyes "Ha ha Jaya, real funny. Anyways, how much longer are we going to do this? Not that I'm complaining.

I love Evil Souls just as much as the next guy. Some people might say that the brutally difficult gameplay and lack of tutorials is borderline sadistic while I think that games like this have their own charm.

But I thought we were going to hang out tonight. You know, celebrate the big win and everything? I mean, we did just advance another round in the tournament."

Jason shrugged his shoulders "You're asking the wrong person bro. I thought we were going to head out too.

But the girls said that they needed some time for themselves for some girl talk. I can't really do anything at this point."

Kyle leaned back in the chair and sighed "I guess you have a point there. Shania and Sammy are both too scary to interrupt when they're in the middle of their girl talks."

Jason stood up from the bed and walked over to Kyle. He patted him on the shoulder "Don't be too bummed out dude.

So what if we miss out on some celebrating tonight. We have way more chances coming to party after a win."

Kyle ran his hand over the top of his head "True, we still have two more games to go in the county tournament and the state and national tournament are still on the horizon.

Should be plenty of opportunities to kick back and have some fun then." Jason smiled as he slapped Kyle on the back.

"And to think that you used to be all scared and shaking before our games. Look at you now, you sound just as excited for these games as I am."

Kyle laughed as he pushed Jason away from him "Shut up dude. You make it sound way worse than it was."

Jason smiled as he sat down on the edge of his chair "Really? Because if my grades are any sign then my memory must be pretty decent."

Kyle grabbed a squishy toy basketball from the top of Jason's desk and threw it at him "You know what? You are the smartest dumb person I know Jaya."

Jason caught the ball and laughed "You could have just stopped at calling me the smartest." He then threw the ball back to Kyle.

This started an impromptu game of dodgeball. As they were in the middle of their exciting game the door to the room swung open.

Shania saw Kyle ducking behind a chair and Jason with the ball held high in his right hand. She rolled her eyes.

"Y'all might be the same height as some grown folk but I swear you two are the biggest kids I know."

Samantha nudged her in the side with her elbow as she smiled "Oh come on Shania, you know how it is. Boys will be boys.

You can't be too harsh on them. It's not their fault that guys mature at a slower rate than girls mentally."

Jason just smiled before tossing the toy basketball in his hand toward Samantha "Whatever, are you guys ready to go or did you just come here to clown on us?"