Jalen smirked as he heard the whispers of people around as he and his Prolific Prep basketball team placed themselves throughout the house party that was happening in their city of Napa, California.

The house was an estate, with spacious three floors and a grand staircase.

You could barely see the hardwood floors due to the amount of teenagers on the first floor alone.

"There are so many bad females here," Jalen trailed off, shaking his head then took a sip out of the red solo cup in his hand.

As Jalen surveyed the crowded house party, he tried to take notice of everyone who was there.

People from Jalen's private high school and people from the Napa public high school were placed interchangeably throughout the dark living room.

Jordan Pope, Jalen's teammate for basketball, gently nudged his shoulder then gestured in the direction of the corner of the room, closer to the kitchen.

When Jalen glanced over, he quickly scanned the girl.

He detected a height of about 5'9 maybe 5'10 with sandy brown hair, light brown eyes and caramel skin.

She was dressed in baggy blue boyfriend jeans with a gold chain that hung on the side, a pair of Air Jordan 1s, a bright red tube top and her curly hair high up in a ponytail.

She was swishing around the liquid in her red solo cup, more focused on speaking to the Asian girl standing next to her.

"Who's that?" Jordan questioned, "How does she know Jasmine already?"

"Mhmm," Jalen hummed an 'I don't know', "She's bad though. Who's Jasmine?"

"Sydney's bestfriend."

Sydney Peters was the girl that Jordan was currently dating.

Jalen had met her a couple times over the past month when she would drop off Gatorades during their practice.

Coleman Hawkins, another teammate of theirs walked up, following Jordan's gaze.

The three watched as Jack Wetzel, another teammate of theirs walked up to the girl and Jasmine.

"Here we go." Jordan laughed, "Should we stop him?"

"Nah, let him airball." Coleman snickered.

The girl nodded then turned to face Jack a little better, inadvertently showing off a gold nose hoop.

Jack responded then nodded before walking towards the three boys.

"Damn." Jalen laughed, covering his mouth with his elbow.

"I was this close." Jack held up his index finger and his thumb in a pinched gesture.

"Yeah, sure." Jordan laughed.

"Like you could do better?"

"I could. I definitely could." Jordan snickered.

Jack rolled his eyes and walked away to try his pickup lines on another girl who stood closer to the front door.

The three boys watched subtly as Sydney, a girl with toffee brown skin walked straight up to the girl and Jasmine.

Sydney glanced back at the boys then leaned in to mutter something.

"Did Jack say what her name is?" Jalen asked, glancing at Coleman.

"Nah." Coleman shrugged.

"He didn't get her name, bro?" Jordan groaned.

Then as if she knew the boys were talking about her, she turned to observe the boys, while Sydney continued to talk to her.

Then her eyes met Jalen's.

Her brown eyes bored into Jalen's, unafraid of the eye contact.

Jalen nodded at her, letting a smirk ease back onto his face.

The girl raised an eyebrow, amused, then turned back to her conversation.

"She gotta be new. Ain't no way she was already here." Jordan commented as he waved Sydney over.

"What's up?" Sydney asked, once she was standing with the three boys.

"Who's that?" Jalen asked.

"Uh, Noel. She just moved here from Hawaii." Sydney smiles at Jordan wrapping an arm around her.

"I'm bout to go over there." Jalen dapped up Jordan and Coleman before walking across the room.

Jalen tapped on the girl's shoulder to regain her attention, then stuck his hand out with a smile, "What's up? How you doing? What's ya name?"

The girl smiled back, sliding her manicured hand in his so they could shake, "Noelani. What your name?"

The question struck Jalen with slight surprise, "Uh. You kidding?"

"Uh, no?" Noelani responded with the same questioning tone he had used.

Jalen glanced at his friends across the room with a disgruntled expression.

Am I being punked?

"How do you not know who I am? You live under a rock or something?"

Noelani gave him an unbelieving smile, "Are you seriously asking me that right now?"

"Aren't you Jalen Green?" A blonde girl had walked up to him and Noelani, interrupting him before he could respond.

Noelani glanced at the girl and Jalen before turning to Jasmine and muttering something under her breath.

"Yeah." Jalen responded.

"Can I get a picture? Can you take a picture of us?" The girl asked Noelani.

"Nah, you should find someone who isn't living under a rock." Noelani says, then joins Jasmine and Sydney in going up the stairs.

"Okay..." The girl brushed the comment off before reaching her arm out in a selfie position.

Jalen leaned down and gave the camera a slim smile, a little distracted.

"Thank you!" The girl strolled off.

Jalen walked back to his friends.

"Did you air ball too?" Coleman raises an eyebrow.

"She walked away from your ass." Jordan laughed.

Jalen slapped the back of Jordan's neck, "Shut up, bruh."

But truth be told, being rejected bothered Jalen.

More than he would admit to his friends.

Way more than he was willing to admit to himself.

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