After the end of the game, Jake was tired and just wanted to go home, so after celebrating with some teammates that Jake had befriended he left home with Coach Jim saying that Jake should look for him the other day.

So Jake went home happy with this training after he got home he was very pleased with his own performance and after playing a game worthless he was much more excited.

Jake was feeling bad about having poor performances in both marathon and basketball, after all, it was hard for him to accept that he had a psychological problem when he went through everything he had before so playing well after resting for a while did very well for him.

The other day Jake couldn't go to school to talk to Coach Jim as he had promised because it was his birthday, he was so busy and thinking about everything that was happening that he even forgot his birthday.

But Eva hadn't forgotten, she knew Jake was going through some problems she didn't talk to her about, this year she knew they couldn't make the trip like every year because she was still busy with the restaurant.

So she at least wanted to celebrate Jake's birthday properly, so she called all of Jake's friends so he could forget about the problems, only Matthew couldn't come because he was in Europe tracking camera sales there.

Even though Tiffany and Clara who were in a lot of trouble showed up, Clara seemed to be feeling much better after being apart for so long, she was happier after knowing she could still count on her friends at a time like this.

So Jake was happy with the surprise and celebrated with his entire 17th birthday, after a simple celebration everyone congratulated Jake and went home, after all, they were very busy people.

"Thanks for that surprise mom."

"Glad you liked it, I didn't expect this surprise to work because you always pay attention to your birthday and mine, but it seems like you've been so worried about your things that you even forgot."

"You have nothing to worry about mom, I was training with some friends from the football team and so I forgot my birthday, nothing to worry about."

"I believe you were really coaching football, but your that you've been worried about something, but if you don't want to tell me okay, I just want you to remember that I'll always be with you and that you can always count on with me and say what is worrying you, after all, I am your mother."

After that Jake went to the bedroom to rest, he was happy to hear what his mother said, but still, he planned to say nothing about the problem he was passing to his mother, after all in a problem so she could not help anything besides giving support like she was already doing without knowing it.

Jake was now 17 years old and this year he would have to do many things, besides the national championship basketball games, he would still have some marathons to participate in and try to get into the Olympics that year.

Also, this would be his last semester at high school and his first semester at university, Jake just had to wait if Coach Bill could convince the university that Jake could continue sponsorship by himself as a marathon runner as well as a basketball player.

With Jake choosing North Caroline University, the school president asked all the NBA people and other basketball leagues who were trying to talk to Jake to quit, it was better for Jake not to end up offending some of those scouts.

The president didn't mind offending these people because he thought he had much more to gain from the universities than from the NBA teams.

So for Jake, this year of 1996 would be one of the busiest of her life, especially if Emily could finally find Jeff Bezos, so Jake would be much more relaxed knowing that his future would be guaranteed.

The other day Jake went to school to meet with Coach Jim, Jake had warned that he could not go the day the coach asked because it was his birthday and the coach even apologized to Jake.

"I called you here just to thank you, Jake, I knew you were tired after the friendly game, but I didn't expect you to have decided to play with us the day before your birthday, after all, it wasn't an important game."

"I was glad I played that game, not even I remembered that it was my birthday so it was my fault anyway."

Coach Jim really wanted Jake to play as his team's quarterback, he was jealous of Coach Mike who had a great player to lead the team and was still polite and humble.

Many talented players were arrogant with the coaches just for playing a few games well, most of these players did nothing openly, but talked badly about the coach with other teammates, which annoyed Coach Jim a lot.

A good example was the friendly game in which Jake helped the team, I could well say that as both team quarterbacks were injured that the team can only win the game thanks to Jake's good performance.

Even though the current football team was one of the best and even won the state championship a few years ago, the main reason for this was Coach Jim who had reorganized the team and the best defense for several years in a row.

But as it was a friendly game against a weaker team, the offensive team became arrogant and played very poorly and unwillingly in that game, fortunately, Jake had scored some points at the beginning of the game and then at the end with his passes and his touchdown.

So taking advantage that Jake can't come to training, Coach Jim did an analysis of the game with the players and stressed several times how the offensive team played badly and how he wouldn't accept them playing that way again.

So Coach Jim was happy even though Jake had joined his team for just a friendly match, so Coach wanted the players to say goodbye to Jake who would no longer come to the football team training.

"Coach, could you hear a request from me?"

"Of course Jake, if I will do what you ask if it is within my reach."

"I wanted to ask permission to come a few times to train with the football team, just the physical training, it's very useful to increase my strength."

"Of course, you will always be welcome here."

So Jake just said goodbye briefly to the other players of the team, so Jake could continue doing the football team training that was much more helpful in increasing his strength statistics.

As Jake would not participate in the training drills and other things would not disturb the football team, otherwise, Coach Jim would have to refuse Jake's request.

After settling everything with the football team Jake left school and decided to take a walk around town, so he enjoyed the rest of the day at the beach and went to the mall to buy something to give to his mother when he got home.

How used to it Jake walked by the music store and bought a new CD from Kate, as he had promised her when they saw each other in Jake's rehearsals, whenever he could he would go to the mall and buy a CD if he had one Kate's new album.

Contrary to what he thought she was a great singer and seemed to be very popular in current POP music, now she was 18 years old and looked like she would run for some music awards this year, even if Jake wasn't a big fan of music in his life Last time Jake found it odd that he didn't remember her name.

Even though he knew he would not meet Kate again he was glad to at least know of a good singer to catch up with now, after he bought a gift for his mother Jake left.

Jake wanted to take this vacation to rest well for next year, so he didn't do any more training after recovering from his training injury with the football team, Jake could do it because the system could always leave his physical condition at the peak even though he did nothing.

But that way he couldn't improve either, luckily Jake still had his imagination training that was given by the system, in this training dimension he could train every day and always accumulate experience and improve in basketball.

The other day Jake had to give up his plan to just rest on vacation, John called Jake and it looked like he had arranged with Alan for them to make a new advertisement with Jake together.

It would not only be an advertisement for two companies like Tiffany and Clara did, but it would be the same day that he would record both advertisements and they would buy the same advertising space on television, just as Jake appearing more his brands would also be more remembered.

As Jake had agreed when he signed the sponsorship agreement, he could not refuse it, in fact, John and Alan did not know that Jake was trying to take advantage of his running in marathons to continue sponsorship at the university.

So they thought they were in the last months of the sponsorship deal with Jake, yet they were very pleased with this more than a year of sponsorship that could end after the national ballet championship.

After all, they sponsored Jake for basketball and Jake still managed to win and then run second in two major marathons which were a great surprise for companies that were betting by sponsoring Jake who was still in high school.

After all, they hoped the sponsorship would last only a year because if Jake went to college to play basketball he couldn't get sponsorship and if he joined the NBA it would be their company that couldn't afford to raise the value of sponsorship for Jake.

Now they were even more fortunate because Jake was expected to get a seat in the Atlanta Olympics, even if Jake didn't win at a young age representing his country he would surely be known for.