-
Montclare State
Lonnie Jackson plays basketball on his high school team. When he gets scouted for a chance at a full ride scholarship to Montclare. Once he gets up to Montclare from Harlem, New York he becomes friends with a few people on the team. -
Lonnie gets a job
After settling in and getting comfortable on the team, Lonnie gets a job at the hospital. Lonnie works in the the physical therapy department. Lonnie gets assigned to work with a kid named Eddie Brignole. Eddie just sits around by himself. He doesn't even acknowledge Lonnie when he comes in. -
Lonnie and Eddie start working
Lonnie works really hard to get Eddie to notice him. They are in the gym and Lonnie is playing basketball. He makes some impressive shots, but Eddie is uninterested. Lonnie missed one shot and Eddie smirked. Eddie liked to see Lonnie mess up. Lonnie put the basketball in Eddie's hand trying to get him to take a shot, Eddie took the shot, but missed. He tried again and made it. -
Sherry
Lonnie was walking around campus and ran into a girl that was in one of his classes. Her name was Sherry Jewett and Lonnie thought she was bautiful. They conversation between the two consisted of where they were from, the sport they were involved in, and the beginning of a study group. -
Meeting Fat Man
Lonnie plays a game under the table against the Mills. They paid 20 dollars per person. The game was coordinated by the Fat Man. He is the guy who sets up the games and gambles against other people. He talks players into playing for them. -
Jazz Quartet
Sitting back at the dorm Lonnie and some buddies were looking for something to do. One of them got the idea to to start a jazz Quartet. They then realized they didn't have enough instruments let alone money to pay for them. Later in the day they heard about a jelly ban contest down at the music sore. If you could guess how many jelly beans were in the jar you got a free instrument. -
Traveling Team
Lonnie found out that he made the basketball team officially and that he would be on the traveling team. His first game was against STL. After the game a newspaper article came out about the team. There was a little paragraph about Lonnie and it mentioned that Lonnie, "combined poor shot selection with sloppy passing to reveal himself as a rank freshman." (Myers 57) This made Lonnie super mad. Sine he couldn't stop thinking about the article he failed his math test. -
Music Store
Lonnie was woken up in the middle of the night to come down to the music store. His friend Juice had sneaked into the music store to count the jelly beans, but got stuck and couldn't get out of the store. Lonnie did not want to help because he didn't want to get caught and have the chance of losing his scholarship. But being the good friend Lonnie is he climbed in to try and help Juice out, but he got stuck. The next morning the owner came to unlock the store and saw them. -
Music Store Cont.
When the owner saw them Lonnie and Juice were playing instruments acting like it was a joke. The owner thought it was funny and since nothing was damaged he did not charge them. -
Eddie Brignole's Dad
Lonnie went to Eddie's house to meet Eddie's dad. Eddie's dad was a show off and basically a jerk. Eddie's dad wanted to play Eddie in a game of basketball to see how he has improved, but instead Lonnie asked to play him first. Lonnie was beating him bad until he saw that it did not make Eddie happy so Lonnie let Eddie's dad win. Then Eddie played his dad and he lost. Eddie's dad liked Lonnie, but the feeling wasn't mutual for Lonnie/ -
Italian Tryouts
Lonnie has been thinking about trying out for the Italian Basketball team, but if he does try out for a pro team he can no longer play on a college team. He decides not to try out when he gets there, so he sits and watches the players. He sees a good friend of his Ray. Ray played for Montclare a while back till he dropped out to take care of his family. Later that night after the tryouts Lonnie gets a call saying that Ray took his own life. Lonnie was upset and crying. -
Making a Deal
Lonnie meets with the Fat Man and makes a deal with him. If he doesn't let the opposing team come within 20 points of them then Fat Man will pay him 150 dollars. After the game Lonnie found his money under his pillow. He couldn't take it he felt weird about it and called it dirty money and was intentionally going to burn it. Then he decided to send it to Ray's wife. -
Eddie's Dad stops paying
Lonnie gets to work and is told that Eddie will not be coming here anymore because his dad won't pay for it. Lonnie is upset because the doctors said this is the most improvement they have seen from Eddie. After Lonnie gets off from work he goes to Eddie's house and tricks him into hanging out with him He says he needs help with his jump shot and needs Eddie to tell him what he is doing wrong.Eddie's mom told Lonnie she is unable to pay him, but in return Lonnie asked for a little help in math. -
Investiagation
Lonnie is being asked about. He eventually gets confronted by a cop. He is asked if he has connections with the Fat Man Lonnie denies. He goes under investigation. That meant he was suspended from the basketball team. Lonnie became depressed and started drinking. -
Investigation Over
Lonnie's investigation is over and he was clean. He got to get back on the basketball team. -
Lonnie as a person
In the end these events all effected Lonnie's life in some way. He started out as a good guy, but turned down a dark path. He eventually came back and got his stuff on track. He is a goo person that was just misguided.
