9

After we dribbled with our right hands for a few minutes, the guy in charge of our group said it was time to switch to our LEFT hands. I thought he was joking, and I actually LAUGHED. But I probably shouldn't have, because that just made him write down my number. I guess some people can do things with both hands, but not me. In fact, my left hand is practically USELESS. One time I sprained my right wrist and I had to take a test at school using my left hand. And I think I would've done better if I'd held the pencil in my MOUTH.

我们用右手运球练了几分钟后，带队的人说该换成左手运球了 我当时以为他在开玩笑，还真笑出了声 不过我真不该笑的，因为这直接让他把我的号码记了下来 我猜有些人左右手都能灵活做事，可我不行 说真的，我的左手几乎啥用都没有 有一次我扭伤了右手腕，考试只能用左手答题 我觉得哪怕我用嘴咬着笔写，成绩都能比那好

Once we finished with our dribbling drills, we switched to free throws. And I really wished I hadn't learned to shoot a basketball with a BALLOON, because I totally misjudged how much effort I needed to put into my shot. HUP!

运球练习结束后，我们开始练习罚球 我真后悔当初用气球练投篮，这下我完全估错了投篮需要用多大劲 嘿！

I think Mom could see I wasn't doing so great, so, whenever one of the evaluators got near her, she'd snitch on the OTHER kids who were struggling. NUMBER THREE JUST THREW IT OVER THE BACKBOARD! But it's not like Mom was the ONLY parent helping their own kid. Some of the evaluators had kids who were trying out tonight, so I wonder how fair the scoring really was.

我猜妈妈看出我打得不好，所以只要有评委靠近她，她就会打其他表现差的孩子的小报告 三号刚刚把球扔出篮板后面啦！ 不过可不是只有我妈妈这么帮自家孩子 今晚有些评委自己的孩子也来试训，真不知道打分到底有多公平

By the end of the night, it was pretty obvious who was gonna make a team and who wasn't. But I guess they needed to decide which kid was gonna get the final spot, because they made the bottom nine kids fight it out in a practice play. And all I can say is it wasn't PRETTY. Once that was over, they collected our jerseys. The guy running tryouts told everyone that if we made a team our parents would get an email by tomorrow night. But after that experience I'm not exactly holding my BREATH.

试训快结束时，谁能进队谁进不了已经很明显了 不过他们还要敲定最后一个名额，就让排名垫底的九个孩子打一场练习赛分胜负 我只能说，场面实在太难看了 练习赛结束后，他们收走了我们的球衣 负责试训的人告诉大家，进队的话家长明晚之前会收到邮件通知 不过经历了刚才那些事，我可不抱什么希望

Tuesday When I got home from school yesterday, my plan was to relax and maybe take a nap. So I was pretty surprised when I walked into the kitchen. CONGRATS YOU DID IT! I was confused, because I knew for SURE I didn't make either of the basketball teams. But Mom said she heard from one of the coaches who said I DID. Then she showed me the email to prove it. It was from Mr Patel, Preet Patel's father. Preet's one of the best athletes in our grade, and during the student-teacher basketball game last year Preet totally DOMINATED.

周二 昨天我放学回家，本来打算放松一下，说不定还能睡个午觉 所以我走进厨房的时候，整个人都惊呆了 恭喜你！你入选啦！ 我一头雾水，因为我百分百确定我哪支篮球队都没进 可妈妈说她收到教练的消息，说我确实入选了 她还拿出邮件给我看，证明这件事 邮件是帕特尔先生发的，他是普里特·帕特尔的爸爸 普里特是我们年级运动最好的孩子之一，去年师生篮球赛的时候，普里特完全碾压全场

I couldn't understand how I got on the same team as a kid like THAT. But Mom said the evaluators must've seen something special in me, and that's why I made the cut. When I thought back to the night before, I couldn't remember Preet actually being at tryouts. So now I was even MORE confused. At school today Jabari Bruce told me what happened. Preet missed tryouts because he had to go to his uncles funeral, and the rule was that if you skipped tryouts you couldn't be on a team.

我完全想不通，我怎么能和这么厉害的孩子同队 可妈妈说评委一定在我身上发现了闪光点，所以才选了我 我回想试训那晚，根本不记得普里特来过试训 这下我就更糊涂了 今天上学，贾巴里·布鲁斯告诉了我事情的经过 普里特要去参加叔叔的葬礼，错过了试训，规定说缺试训就不能进队