"For real, for real!" Tahera confirmed, nodding so hard her head might detach. "They actually asked for us! Apparently, their coach wants to give their team some... 'different exposure' before the big inter-school thingy."
Ahsan, Mr. Practicality, finally piped up, his frown morphing into a full-on scowl. " 'Different exposure'? Hold up. Are we talking 'different' as in 'punching bag' different? Are we just gonna be their practice dummies?"
"Whoa, chill, Ahsan, no need to be so emo!" Tahera chuckled, but there was a tiny bit of defensiveness in her voice, like she wasn't totally sure about the "different exposure" thing either. "Think of it as, like, a glow-up opportunity! A chance to flex our skills against the GOATs! To soak up their wisdom!"
Kiyoshi, who'd been soaking it all in, finally stepped up. "Tahera's spitting facts. This is actually HUGE for us." He looked around at everyone, seeing a mix of wide-eyes and nervous energy. "Motijheel is, yeah, they're them. But think about it – we can learn a ton just by being on the same court. And who knows," he added, a little fire lighting up in his eyes, "maybe, just maybe, we can throw them for a loop too."
“'Throw Motijheel for a loop'?” Sajid, our speed demon small forward, snorted a ugh. “Kiyoshi, no offense, but they're basically basketball deities! We're more like… enthusiastic chaos monkeys with basketballs.”
The whole team cracked up, which defused some of the tension. Even Kiyoshi had to grin – Sajid wasn't wrong. Motijheel High was pying on a whole different level.
“Okay, okay, 'loop' might be a slight overreach," Kiyoshi admitted, chuckling. "But we can definitely make them sweat a little. Make 'em work for it. We can show them Banani High ain't just gonna be their doormat for the day."
"Yessss!" Tahera yelled, cpping her hands so loud it echoed. "That's the vibe! We're gonna go out there, bring our A-game, and show them what Banani High energy is all about!"
“Okay, okay, but seriously what is Banani High even made of?” Arshad shot back, always ready with the zingers, getting another wave of giggles. “Besides, like, pure unadulterated sweat and that questionable pizza we get after practice?”
“Yo! Hold up! The pizza is not questionable!” Imran, our power forward who could out-eat anyone and had strong feelings about post-game grub, protested dramatically.
“Guys, chill, chill, focus up!” Kiyoshi said, trying to wrangle us back to pnet Earth. “This isn’t just about pying a random game, okay? This is about… leveling up. Trying new strats. You know, experimenting.”
His words hung there, like a TikTok about to go viral. There was a shift in the air, a different vibe. Ahsan and Sajid, the more switched-on ones, definitely picked up on it. 'Experimenting'? Okay, Captain Serious, what kinda mad scientist stuff you got cooking?
Ahsan raised a skeptical eyebrow, cssic Ahsan. “'Experimenting,' Cap? Lay it on us. What kinda experiments are we talking here?”
Kiyoshi paused for a sec, like he was about to drop some major truth bomb. Then his eyes flicked over to someone standing a bit away from the squad. James. Mr. Mysterious New Kid. He was just chilling against the wall, watching us like he was studying for a final exam, face totally unreadable.
