Jessica Jamison is 13 years old and she is having trouble being the only “co” in the Rustic Canyon coed basketball league. Her newfound friend, Shanika Bolt, is 26. And she’s having a little trouble making her new team, too. The Los Angeles Lakers.
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Chapter 1 - THE CHART ON JESSICA JAMISON
Jesse is moving out of her childhood house, her sneakers are wet, her socks are wet,
she just missed her last shot and now her ball is stuck. Probably forever.
Chapter 2 - THE NUMBER OF LAKES IN L.A.
“Hey. Forty-four.” The seven foot specter of Deacon Deene looms over Shanika Bolt. “How many lakes in Los Angeles?”
Chapter 3 - AIR A PARENT
You’d figure my parents would’ve heard that one about never moving house plants or teenagers.
Chapter 4 - BIG, ORANGE, ROUND
“You can talk your way into a lot of things in this world, Trev. The NBA isn’t one of them.”
Chapter 5 - DR. JAMES NAISMITH: RADIO TALK SHOW HOST
"But right from the start it also became a game about empowerment. And even liberation.”
Chapter 6 - SO CAL DIET
"It says here that you love to read and that you are an avid sportswoman. Yes? Wonderful! And Jesse’s favorite sport, class, is...badminton!”
Chapter 7 - THE GLIDE RATIO OF THE BRICK
Then there are some people who have a little trouble running past a three point line and not shooting from it.
Chapter 8 - THE COEDS OF RUSTIC CANYON
“Can I...um...do you...uh...need someone to pass to you?”
Chapter 9 - JACKIE AND PEEWEE
“Tim, can you check my headphones. I swear it sounds like I have about a thousand teenage girls screaming in my ear.”
Chapter 10 - OWEN WHO
Boys are suspicious creatures by nature.
Chapter 11 - THE RED DRESS
"I am not your little sister. I am not your soul sister. And you sure ain’t my big brothers. Got that straight?”
Chapter 12 - OVER TIME
“How big around is a basketball?” He pauses for a moment just blinking at her. “Inches or centimeters?”
Chapter 13 - MOUNTAINS OUT OF SPEED-BUMPS
“Worst word in the whole English language, Jes. Shoulda.”
Chapter 14 - HOW TO TREAT A SORE HEAD
“How do the boys at school show that they like you?" Jesse slumps a little and frowns. “They don’t.”
Chapter 15 - AND DON'T FORGET LEAP YEARS
"They’re playing this commercial four hundred times a day! Let’s see how many times it plays on the day after goddess-girl gets C-U-T.”
Chapter 16 - SALUTE, BOW OR FUHGETABOUTIT
“Now, class, isn’t this interesting. This is what Shakespeare would have called throwing ‘brickbats.’ A wonderful old English word that....”
Chapter 17 - YOUR BASKET HAS A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM
Daniel stops shooting and interrupts. “Look. This isn’t Rustic League.” He puts up another shot and then turns back to Jesse. “We don’t need a girl to play.”
Chapter 18 - NUTS, BOLTS, DEKES AND DAWGS
“You heard me. Cut her. And stop messing around. If she can’t make the league, she can’t. Cut her.”
Chapter 19 - ALL A-BOOT A BOAT
My favorite American philosopher, Satchel Page, used to say, ‘It’s not what you don’t know that hurts you. It’s what you know that just ain’t so.’
Chapter 20 - INVISIBLE WOMAN
“Don’t you just love it when they all get together in one room? All these grown up boys talking tax write-offs and fast breaks."
Chapter 21 - THE NOW GAME
“Don’t play the piano. I play basketball. And I never practice. I just P-L-A-Y.”
Chapter 22 - THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD
"Shanika can score a hundred points tomorrow afternoon and it won’t make a shred of difference in the world."
Chapter 23 - DIRTY HARRY
This isn’t your ordinary, everyday throat slash gesture so popular with the Reggie and Spike crowd.
Chapter 24 - TWO SISTERS
She slams the door to his locker out of her way. Deacon lets her huff and puff a moment more and then replies very calmly. “I’ll give you two.”
Chapter 25 - A WOMAN'S PLACE IS IN DA HOUSE
“Look-it, Sam. The day a female makes the NBA will be the day there’s a...there’s a female astronaut or something.”
Chapter 26 - DING, DING, DING, DING, DING
Deacon stops with a look of concern. Just has to call this play, doesn’t she.
Chapter 27 - SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY DEGREES
Sportscasters are going to be re-playing the clip in real-time, in slow motion and in super slo-mo for the next forty-eight hours straight.
Chapter 28 - LONG HALLWAYS
“This where I say something like, ‘You wanted to see me, Coach?’”
Chapter 29 - GET IN THE BOAT
The only other thing punctuating the play has been Mr. Biggs’ running commentary from up there on the third row of the bleachers.
Chapter 30 - INSIDE NET
She looks back at Shanika and gives her the putting-both-your-handprints-in-cement gesture to calm Shanika down.
Chapter 31 - THE DIFFERENCE IN THE GAME
"Let’s run that clock out. And do not, I repeat, do not let the girl steal the ball."
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