Chapter 258 The University 8 (1/2)

Having discovered the limit that he could run in training Jake was motivated again to do his training, in a few more weeks he would have the Chicago marathon to run and ensure his fitness by then.

Their training on the basketball team was going well and they would start in a few days doing the play drills and game simulations to decide the holders for the new basketball team season.

With that decided everyone was very anxious and just Jake didn't expect much of it, he knew he probably wouldn't be the starter and wanted to secure the spot during the games this season, yet he would still train as hard as the others.

The only problem with that was that he couldn't get any closer to his teammates at this time, who would be tense with position disputes, after training Charlie stopped to talk to him.

Charlie was closer to Jake than the others on the team, and he didn't want to run for the starting lineup either because he was aware that he wasn't as skilled as his teammates.

”Hey Jake, do you think you're going to get a starting position on the team?”

”I don't think so far, I have this problem with the team and Coach Smith wouldn't risk putting me on the team in this situation, not to mention that Ed Cota and Shammond Williams could play in the same position as me.”

Charlie was surprised that Jake wasn't expecting to become the starter at the beginning of the season like the others, it shows that he was more mature than the others and knew to wait for the right opportunity.

”Even if you can't play on the team starting the game, for now, you will be able to do it in the future with your skill, and even though it doesn't seem like it now everyone was very grateful that you slowed down your training, so you'll be fully integrated with the team.”

Charlie knew that Jake could have a much better chance of joining the starting lineup early in the season if he showed far better performance than others in training, but that would make the team players even farther away from him.

After all, it was as if Jake was a supermarket owner who started his business in a city with several supermarkets that all had the same quality products and started selling much cheaper than his competitors.

Customers would be very happy and start buying more at their supermarket, but competitors would be dissatisfied with unfair competition and would do their best to affect Jake's supermarket sales.

Jake knew this and was confident of getting a place in the starting lineup without having to cause problems to his teammates, he knew that his skills would stand out in the games, that was the difference between a talented team star and a star who He was a problem player.

When Jake returned to his dorm Zack and William were waiting for him again, they went out to eat and left Aaron who was reading behind, Zack and William didn't want any problems and so they learned to ignore Aaron because they didn't want to bother their roommate.

Only Jake thought differently and intended to talk to Aaron when he had another opportunity, Jake had realized that Aaron seemed to have overcome his problems and seemed to be shy and had no courage to start a conversation with either of them.

After all, Aaron knew that despite having problems he had been rude to his roommates who just wanted to be kind, now he didn't seem to know how to apologize.

At the restaurant where they ate William and Zack were talking while Jake was distracted thinking about several things he had to do in the coming weeks, so Zack saw Jake distracted and started talking to him.

”Jake, where have you been going early in the morning?”

”I already told you to stop being nosy like that, Zack, if he doesn't want to talk about it leave Jake alone.”

”No problem, William, it was no secret at all, I'm leaving in the morning to do my running training for the next marathon in a few weeks.”

After they talked about themselves in the conversation William and Zack asked several people and were able to confirm that Jake had indeed won the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics, they also confirmed that Jake was on the college basketball team.

They couldn't confirm if Jake really was that good at high school or if he really had won a marathon in Chicago and came second in New York, but they figured Jake wouldn't have to lie about that.

”Which marathon will you compete in?”

”In Chicago, I won my first marathon there last year, I want to run there again.”

They were both impressed that Jake spoke so calmly about doing something amazing like winning a marathon with the best runners in the world, they weren't used to Jake's humility yet.

”Can I run with you too, Jake?”

”You can come, Zack, but we won't be able to run together because you can't keep up with my training pace, you can run at your pace.”