Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Jason's face was pale as he covered his mouth. In front of him was a huge spread of food. Multiple plates covered the table as they were filled with a mixture of different dishes.

After taking a moment to gather himself Jason took his hand away from his mouth as he then tried to shovel a spoonful of brown rice with shredded grilled chicken into his mouth.

As the food touched his tongue a sense of nausea arose as the flavor of the food disappeared and became replaced with the most rancid flavors that Jason had ever experienced.

This was his third meal that he had eaten at the training facility. The first meal might have been a bit underwhelming in terms of flavor but it was just like any other meal to Jason.

He was easily able to finish the first meal that Dr. Patricia had prepared for him. The second meal was a bit harder but he was able to slowly make his way through it.

But now after lifting weights and working on his conditioning in between all the meals he was struggling to push down the food that they had prepared for his third meal.

Jason put his hand back over his mouth as he could feel the contents of his stomach fighting to come back up.

Dr. Patricia stood right next to him with her pen out as she wrote something down on her clipboard "If you throw up we'll have to bring in more food and have you eat everything all over again."

Jason's eyes shook after hearing her say that. He closed his eyes and forced his jaw to move as he chewed the food in his mouth.

But despite his best efforts he couldn't stop himself from gagging and coughing. Dr. Patricia sighed "Ignore it Jason.

It's all in your mind. You know what these foods taste like. The only reason why it tastes so bad right now is because your brain is trying to make you stop eating.

The human body has a surprisingly large bag of tricks when it comes to getting what it wants. Your brain knows that you've eaten a large amount of food.

It thinks that you need to stop eating so it's making all the food you eat taste disgusting. Fight through it.

Push through this wall like you've done to all the others that you've faced before. If you want to put on muscle and bulk up then this is the only way."

Jason started punching his leg as he scooped up more food and shoveled it into his mouth. If Kyle or any of the other boys were here they would be surprised to see Jason struggle to eat.

Using the pain to distract himself Jason was able to finish the five remaining plates that were laid out in front of him.

After finishing the last plate Jason's face was sickly pale. His lips trembled as he put his sports bottle to his mouth.

He drank nonstop as he emptied out his bottle. After emptying out the contents of his bottle he weakly dropped it to his side.

He then leaned back into his chair as he stared straight up at the ceiling. The focus in his eyes were gone as his vision became blurry.

"If you want we can stop this training and put you on a easier regiment. We can shift the focus of your training to work on your skills instead of building up your body.

But opportunities like this don't show up all that often. A diet of 6,000 calories a day is fairly expensive.

And even if you were willing to spend that money at home I doubt that you would have the equipment or personal to maximize your training.

It all comes down to how much you want this. How much are you willing to sacrifice for this game? How much of yourself are you willing to put on the line?"

The light returned to Jason's eyes as he stood up and faced Dr. Patricia. His voice was weak but the conviction behind it was strong "Let's keep going."

- - -

The van drove off after the boys got all of their belonging from the trunk. Monty and his group left without saying a word.

As Jason and the other boys stood in the lobby of the hotel Danilo had a bright smile on his face "Today was so fucking awesome!

I got to work with a shooting coach that actually worked with Luka before! He gave me a whole bunch of pointers and now my jumper looks so much better."

Alex smiled as he nodded his head "This training camp is so worth it. The trainer that I worked with had me working on my handles the whole day. I can already feel a difference."

Kyle excitedly added "I worked on my free throws and on my post moves. I actually managed to make ten hook shots in a row!"

3D looked at the time on his phone "It's already seven? Damn, time moves by slowly when you're having fun I guess. You guys want to go eat dinner?"

Everyone raised their hands and agreed excitedly "You know what guys, I'm good. You go ahead and get dinner without me."

Everyone's jaws dropped to the floor as they heard Jason say that. He smiled at them "I'm feeling kinda drained so I'll head up and call it a night early."

Everyone watched him as he walked away. It wasn't until a few seconds after he was gone that they managed to recover from the shock.

Rudy pointed to where Jason had just been standing "Yo did I hear that right? Jaya actually said no to some food? Free food?"

Danilo looked over at Kyle "Is he okay? We didn't see him at all after we all split up for our training. He was missing during the lunch break too."

Kyle furrowed his brows as he had a worried expression on his face "I've never seen Jaya say no to food before. I hope there isn't something going on."

- - -

After walking into his room Jason tossed his sports bag on the floor. He then walked over to his bed and fell backwards into it.

After laying in his bed for a few minutes he opened his eyes and stared up at the white ceiling 'Fuck, this is the first time I've ever hated food this much.

When I heard them bring up dinner I almost threw up right there in the lobby. Can I really make it through two weeks of this?'

As he was contemplating what the upcoming weeks would be like he felt his phone vibrate. He pulled out his phone and saw that it was Samantha.

He answered the video call "Yo Sammy. What's up?" Samantha had a smile on her face but after hearing Jason speak the smile disappeared.

"Are you okay? You sound really tired." Jason held up his phone up so that his face would show up on the camera.

He smiled as he answered "Of course I'm okay. I just sound tired because I am tired. I just got back from a whole day of training."

Her face showed that she had some doubts but she brushed them to the side "Well, as long as you say you're okay.

Oh by the way I saw the video of you playing at the Rucker." She gave Jason a thumbs up "You were super cool as always."

Jason chuckled "Hehe thanks. You know me. Doesn't matter if I'm in Riverside or New York I'm always down to ball."

Samantha continued to smile "I also saw the picture of you guys getting hotdogs after you visited the Rucker. Who's the girl?"

Jason thought about it for a second "Oh! You mean Jazz? She's super cool. She's the number one ranked amateur female boxer in her weight class right now and she's only a sophomore.

She even participated in the junior Olympics and got a silver medal. She is a total badass. Everyone in New York seems to know who she is."

Her expression turned grumpy after hearing Jason say that "Oh, you sound so excited when you talk about her."

Jason sat up from his bed and shrugged his shoulders "I mean how can I talk about someone that's at the top of her sport and not be excited?

It would be even weirder if I talked about her and sounded bored." Samantha rolled her eyes "Since you're still breathing then I guess I don't have anything else to check on."

The call ended as she hung up. Jason scratched her head "What the hell? She always picks the weirdest times to have a mood swing.

She was smiling when she called me and then a few seconds later she hangs up while looking pissed. Oh well."

He laid back down on his bed and closed his eyes. A few seconds later and he was snoring.

- - -

Samantha was sitting on her bed when she hung up on Jason. She turned to the side where Shania was sitting at her desk.

"See? What did I tell you? He is totally falling for her! We need to go to New York right now Shania! We need to go before he falls for that bitch's trap!"

Shania rolled her eyes "Girl you need to relax. First of all yo daddy already said no to buying you a ticket to New York.

Second of all it's too cold for me to be goin to New York. You ain't draggin my ass down there I can tell you that right now. I'm tryin to enjoy my summer in sunny California.

And third, you overreacting. He wasn't talkin bout that girl like he was in love with her. It just sounds like he admires her."

Samantha sighed "Fine. But if she tries to make a move on Jaya you and me need to fly over and have a talk with her."

Shania laughed "Sammy, did you not hear the part where Jaya said that she was the number one ranked female high school boxer in the country?

There could be ten of us and she would prolly still whoop our asses." Samantha looked at Shania with a disappointed expression.

"I was expecting you to say something way more gangster than that Shania. Something like 'I might not know how to fight but this glock can put in work.' "

Shania almost fell over from the chair as she began to laugh hysterically after hearing Samantha say that.

- - -

Three days passed as the boys all stuck to their personalized training regiments. Dr. Patricia was looking at lines of data on a monitor.

Her face was scrunched up as she read through all the information "What did the sensors and the data say today?"

A researcher who was standing next to her shook his head as he answered "According to the data there hasn't been any increase in his metabolic activity."

Dr. Patricia clicked her pen as she began to write notes down on her clipboard "We need to bump things up.

Tell the kitchen to increase the amount of food for Jason Yang. We'll increase the calories to 8,000 a day."

The researcher turned to Dr. Patricia in surprise "Isn't that dangerous? He's only a kid. 8,000 calories a day? That's equal to what a cyclist would consume during the Tour de France."

Dr. Patricia didn't even bother to look at him as she continued to write down her notes "It's okay. The kid is hungry, he can handle it."