It was a sunny day, with temperatures just right - not too warm and not too cold. Birds were chirping about and you could faintly see the change in color in the leaves, hinting the start of autumn. The smell of peanut butter wafted into Jayson’s nose as he bit into his sandwich. Suddenly a gust of wind spurred up, and the clouds began to cover up the sun. I hope the kids at this school are friendly, Jayson thought. Deeper down, he thought, I wish I get some friends soon. Jayson’s family had just moved from San Diego, and thus he didn’t know anyone here.
    After Jayson finished devouring his sandwich, he wandered around the school, not knowing what to do. At last, he found himself at the basketball courts.
Since Jayson had nothing to do, he decided to play basketball. He watched basketball on tv and knew how to play, and even played a few games with his friends. However, that was back in his old school, his old friends, and before he became a little… chubby. Jayson took a deep breath and walked up to one of the kids playing basketball. He had a round face and muscular arms. He was also about six inches taller than Jayson. He suddenly turned around and stared at Jayson in the eye. He stood over Jayson like a giant, with sweat beading from his forehead and a deathly glare.
    “What do you want?” he said in an annoyed tone. Suddenly the game paused and time seemed to slow as he became the center of attention.
    “C-Can I join your game?” Jayson asked.
    “You? Join our game?” he replied rudely.
“Please?” Jayson pleaded.
“No,” David replied.
“Let him play,” another boy besides him argued.
“Fine,” David grunted, “But he's gonna have to be on your team.”
They played aggressively for 10 minutes, and in the end, Jayson’s team lost 12 to 5. Jayson was ashamed because it was mostly his fault his team lost. He sat on the cold metal bench, waiting for lunch to be over.
    The next day Jayson sat at his usual place for lunch, at the corner of the pavilion. Right after he sat down, he noticed David was sitting nearby. As he started eating his lunch, which consisted of a peanut butter sandwich, some chips, and chocolate milk, David turned around to look at the newcomer.
    “What is that?” he asked.
    “This?” Jayson questioned, pointing to his sandwich.
    “Yeah, the sandwich. It looks disgusting!" he exclaimed. David was right, it did look pretty horrible. The peanut butter had somehow been squeezed out of the sandwich and was now in the corner of his ziplock bag. David pointed to the sandwich again, now talking with his friends.
    “Look at that sandwich!”
    “What is that? Looks disgusting!" his friend replied, snickering at his lunch
    Jayson felt heat rising to his cheeks. He quickly got up and decided to sit somewhere else. He got his stuff and moved to a spot under the shade of the large canopy of the pavilion. He got out his sandwich again, and put it back in his bag, deciding he would save that for later. He opened his bag of chips and began to devour them.

     After school, Jayson decided to go to the basketball tryouts. The announcements had said that it would be held at the basketball courts. As he eagerly waited in line for his turn, some kids started snickering at him and whispering to their friends. Jayson ignored the boys who were teasing him. There were about 70 kids crowded on the basketball courts. He also noticed David was there helping the coaches with the tryout. He waited impatiently for his turn to come. Finally, it was his turn. He was given a basketball and told to shoot from the 3-pointer line. As the ball went through the air, time slowed down. At last, it hit the backboard and went in with a swish. The coach told him to shoot again, this time from the half court line. It was easier the second time somehow. The ball hit the rim of the hoop and balanced there for a fraction of a second before leaning to one side and dropping to the ground with a thud.
    “Well that sucks,” David observed, in a tone of carelessness.
    “Hmm…” the coach said, frowning, pausing a second before saying, “Come back here tomorrow for the second round of tryouts.”
    The next day after school Jayson went to the basketball courts again. Everyone was in a long line that stretched out over the entire blacktop. This time there were only about 40 people there. The coaches divides them into 8 teams of 5 and played other “teams”.  Jayson was unlucky enough to be on the same team as David. He never passed the ball to Jayson, and thus he barely got to touch the ball.
During their 5 minute break, David said sarcastically, “Impressive skills.”
“Maybe if you passed me the ball I would be more of a help,” Jayson grumbled in an annoyed tone. Their team had lost 3 of the 4 games they had already played.
“Will it sucks to be you!" David sneered.
They played another 4 games, and by the end Jayson was exhausted. The coach told them that they were going to post the names of the players who made the team on the following Monday.
“You know what would be a miracle?” David asked Jayson.
“What?”
“You making the team.”
David walked away with a smug grin on his face.

    The following Monday was astonishingly cold, chilling Jayson to the bones as he walked to school. The wind howled at his ears as he neared the shelter of the pavilion. His first concern  was to see if he had made it on the basketball team. David was right, he thought, It would be a miracle if I made it on the team. As he neared the bulletin board, he noticed a group of boys huddled there, quietly talking.
“Who’s Jayson?” a tall blonde boy asked.
“I don’t know,” another boy replied.
“Well, I wish I made the team instead of him,” the tall boy responded, obviously annoyed.
Jayson dashed to the bulletin board and looked for his name. Albert, Jeffery, David, Jack. His throat tightened as he neared the end of the list. At last, he saw his name at the bottom of the list. Jayson. He walked to his next class confidently, thinking, a miracle indeed, a miracle indeed.