James paused again, like he was loading up a mental TikTok expnation. “Unpredictability.”

  “No freakin’ way!” Sajid muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes. Ahsan shot him a death stare that could curdle milk. Sometimes Sajid’s filter was permanently set to ‘off’.

  “Okay, but how tho?” Ahsan pressed, totally ignoring Sajid’s dramatic eye-roll. “Lay it out for us. How do we go from ‘predictable textbook’ to… whatever the opposite of that is? ‘Chaos-ball’?”

  James finally let a tiny, almost-invisible smile creep onto his face. It was subtle, but you could tell he knew he had our attention. “That’s… where I step in.”

  Another wave of murmurs went through the team, this time with a little more 'huh?' and a little less 'huh?'. 'Where he steps in?', 'Okay, what's the master pn, Spiderman?', 'Is he gonna pull some basketball Jedi mind trick on Motijheel?' The mystery was definitely thickening.

  Kiyoshi steps up to James and puts a hand on his shoulder, you know, like the supportive coach vibe. He's all, "James, this dude's got a whole different brain when it comes to the game." He's not pying by the rules, like, at all. Think outside the box? Nah, James is outside the box, chilling in a hammock made of pure strategy or something.

  And Kiyoshi's eyes are all lit up, like he just discovered the cheat code to winning. He turns to the team and is like, "Seriously guys, this practice thing? It's not just about not getting totally wrecked by Motijheel. It's about, like, leveling up. Becoming the ultimate version of us." He pauses for dramatic effect, you know how it is. "And I honestly, truly think," he says, like it's a deep philosophical truth, "with James on our side, we're gonna be a completely different beast."

  Then Tahera, she totally gets the vibe shift, like everyone's actually hyped now. She cps her hands together, loudly, because Tahera doesn't do anything quietly. "Alright squad!" she yells, voice booming like always. "Enough chit-chat! Back to the grind! We have, like, a million things to fix before Motijheel tries to eat us for breakfast!" She turns to James, gives him this look that's both welcoming and slightly chaotic, and grins. "And James," she says, "welcome to the absolute mess that is our team!"

  James just kinda nodded, a little smirk pying on his lips. Chaos? Dude, yeah, that was definitely the vibe he was getting from this Banani High crew. But honestly? It wasn't the bad kind of chaos, you know? Like, messy but maybe in a cool, creative way. Maybe, just maybe, under all the madness, there was something actually awesome brewing. And hey, if he could help set that fire, why not?

  As the team scattered, everyone diving back into drills and shooting hoops like they were suddenly caffeinated squirrels, Ahsan sidled up to Kiyoshi, looking all serious and contemptive.

  “Yo, Kiyoshi,” he started, voice hushed, “are we, like, sure about this whole James thing? Throwing a total newbie into the mix right before Motijheel? That's kinda…a massive gamble, right?”