Bab 20: Bitter Work
The members of the Illinois men's basketball team did not expect it at all.
Never in their wildest dreams that as the university's basketball pride, they would be tasked to do something like this.
Legend and the upperclassmen were bamboozled, some of them almost lost their souls from shock.
As for the freshmen, who had been briefed to be ready for even the most outlandish of requests from the coach, they took it better. Although, not without any gripes.
It was a Monday, and many of the morning students saw the suffering of the men's basketball varsity from outside the facility.
Tremaine sighed massively. Even if his lawnmower was doing all the work in mowing the facility's unkempt lawn, he was still caught off-guard by their head coach's orders.
Clean the entire practice facility before lunch?
It was wild, unprecedented, and insane.
Although, it was not really as hard, since their number was higher than the actual maintenance staff…
But still, they aren't maintenance workers. They aren't getting paid to do this!
Looking into the sidewalk, where his captain was crazily cleaning up the clusters of fallen leaves like his life depended on it, Tremaine understood how much work their captain puts in at every task.
"He really fits my picture of a great father." Tremaine admitted to himself, upon finishing his lawn mowing task.
Half an hour later, the front and the back lawn and garden was as good as new.
Tremaine and Legend huffed like they've trained resolutely for the whole day as they drank a bottle of sports drink each.
"My back actually hurt from that." Legend was smiling though, as if the grunt work had unlocked something within him. "Although, it feels nice to do some off-brand shit like this every once in a while. It makes you feel a little more useful, eh?
Tremaine wondered aloud. "What do you think is the coach's aim in making us do this, Cap?"
Of course he had his ideas, like fostering camaraderie, or making them appreciate things they take for granted, or building stamina…
But they know their coach isn't someone to do it that way.
"That's a hard question to answer." Legend crossed his arms as he thought of it. "In my four years as his player, I never truly understood how that man's reasoning worked. I became his student as a teenager, and now, as a father, I still never knew what he wanted."
"Makes sense. He really does seem as eccentric as he looked." Tre chugged the Gatorade completely.
"I'd wager it's something along the lines of… the place is dirty, 'I'll tire you out and then there's gonna be another scrimmage.'" Legend even mimicked his voice, which was a spectacular failure considering how deep his voice was compared to Coach Roughan. "Maybe I should ask Hannah? No… even she doesn't understand her dad."
The two rested for a little while more, before reentering the facility.
Legend and Tremaine were dazzled by what they saw.
The practice facility— or at least the main area— was spotless. Even the balls seemed like newly acquired ones!
Tre and Legend ran straight into the men's locker room… which was undoubtedly the worst of the entire facility. If that place had been cleaned until it was spanking, sparkling new, they would both cry.
When they opened the now cleaned door, reality caught up with their expectations.
Men sprawled all over the floor…
Smell of sweat hung in the air like toxic fumes…
Dirty clothes were all over the room…
And Curtis Walters taking a selfie that caught everyone in its radius.
"Men!" Legend slammed the locker room door as hard as possibly could, rousing his exhausted group. "What's happening here?"
"Boss, we can't finish this by lunchtime…" Khalil was lying face down on the ground.
"Boss… it's already 11 in the morning…" Quandre and his massive muscles were also aching.
"Boss…" Their very own resident rich person Samuel Andrews Jr. was already delirious. Among all of them, he's the one most unused to manual labor. "I can't do it anymore…"
Legend sighed.
The main area, the outside, and the bleachers had been thoroughly cleaned. Coach Roughan said not to touch the women's locker room, though, for privacy issues.
So that leaves literally the locker rooms, and the general use toilets as the only part of the facility uncleaned.
"Fine. Y'all should rest up, replenish your energy, and take a bath." Legend walked away, thinking about something. "Mills, Richardson, and Ryan, on me. We'll clean the toilets."
***
Noon.
Legend, Tremaine, Deshaun, and Ryan came out of the toilets in disastrous fashion. They looked like they waged a war on germs, and thoroughly got demolished.
The remaining members of the team, however, were clean.
Subconsciously, Legend felt a tinge of sadness.
"Boss, we've cleaned our locker room." Khalil gave his captain a reassuring smile, something he needed. "You four should go wash up real quick, before the coach arrives."
The four scrambled away, and within five minutes, came out refreshed.
It was at this moment of jubilation by the team, that their unbelievably annoying coach arrived.
"Punks, line up!" Roughan actually used the word punks, when he called his players out. "Do you think you've done a good job?"
"You should check it, sir!" Khalil had the balls to fire back.
"I won't check it." However, Roughan's eyes were focused on how the main area looked. There was no denying it was clean. The players absolutely deserved the pundits for their work.
"I would like to ask all of you, though. What have you learned from all of this?"
"Privilege." As a son of African immigrants, Khalil knew this word very well.
"I learned that I'm insanely lucky." Samuel was serious. Born heir to a large landowning family, he grew up ordering people to do even the slightest of chores.
"Everything is hard… if you don't know what you're doing…" Surprisingly, Curtis offered a great answer.
"Muscles aren't everything…" Quandre's answer carried a tinge of sadness.
"This is a nice change of pace, it makes us a little more grounded." Legend's inquiry was for the team in general.
"I'm proud of my mother, for being able to stand doing jobs like these to feed me…" Tremaine had spoken from his heart, honoring his mother's sacrifices to raise him.
"Hmmm… I learned that I should just put my head down and work hard." Jaylen was only focused on his basketball dream, and nothing else.
"Interesting insights." Coach Michael Roughan didn't seem interested at all however. "However, what I care about is whether you'll continue to fight. The reason you're here today, following my useless order, thinking it had any significance."
A flurry of question marks appeared inside the heads of the Illinois players.
There's no fucking reason for all of this?
This is so much!
***
Extras:
Five players held mop cloths on their hands in a starting sprint position. All five were lined up by the wall, at the edge of the facility.
Five bastards. One lap around the facility.
Sean Nguyen was ready to roll over these weaklings.
Caleb Wilson was ready to show off his speed.
Lamont Harris was roped into this, but he won't lose.
Deshaun Richardson might be a rookie, but he will not go down without a fight.
Dwayne Evans was already eyeing up the places where he could gain a significant advantage.
DJ Johnson was mopping the floor with an actual mop right beside them, when he started counting down. "On 3…"
Their engines were revving up.
"On 2..."
Quandre was already taking bets on the far side.
"On 1…"
Caleb and Dwayne sped away shamelessly, prompting the other to go without the whistle as well!
"All according to plan." Khalil was glad that cleaning the main area sped up because of his great, convincing plan. "Hehehe."
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Konkey_Dong
Konkey_Dong Sorry for the lack of chapter yesterday. I went with my gorilla mom to find a gorilla doctor, and spent more than half a day to find someone. Hospitals are shit.
If the Bucks win, Giannis will finally enter the league's pantheon of greats. Hell, even if he loses, his herculean performances will surely make him among the greats.
As a neutral, I still want the Suns to win... because my savings are all bet on them... fuck... I'm gonna be even poorer if they lose...
Thanks for reading!!!
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