I hadn't seen the school's basketball court yet. Up close, it doesn't look that bad. I was thinking worse. Yes, the lines on the ground are a little worn, but the nets are very white. They must have been changed recently.

Lucas pats me on the back. "So? Are you ready?"

"Of course I'm ready. Do you have the ball?"

"No. We don't play basketball now. Let's play later."

"Okay, I understand. If you're backing out, I understand."

"Not at all. I'm not backing out."

I rest my hand on his shoulder. "Take it easy. I'll tell everyone you didn't let me make a single basket." I smile. "Reputation first."

Lucas shakes my hand off. I like to tease him. I think we will become good friends.

"Paul, listen to me. You don't stand a chance with me." He clicks his tongue. "Your wishes not to make a single basket will soon come true. But first..." He slips his backpack off his shoulders and opens it. "We have to solve the problem of Test."

Right. The Test.

"If you don't pass the Test, there's no point in coming to play." He rummages through the backpack. "The regulations say we can't even pass you the ball."

"What regulation?"

"The one where there is the list of Tests to be done."

"Why do we have to abide by that stupid old list?"

Lucas continues to rummage: kicking out his tongue. "The list is important... Got it."

Lucas pulls off one of those padlocks to tie the chains. "I was saying, it must be seventy years that the ThunderDevils have been abiding by this regulation. You can't do your own thing."

Sounds like bullshit to me.

"Has anyone ever refused?"

"Yes, it didn't go very well for him, though." Pulls up his nose. "The story goes that a guy named George refused to do one of the Tests."

"So what? What happened?"

"Rumor has it that he couldn't even make a basket since that day."

"Bullshit!"

"I swear." He lets out a cough. "Or at least that's what they say."

Lucas waves the padlock right in my face. "You want to prove if the story is true?"

I remain silent. Damn you, Lucas!

"Let me see this thing." I snatch the padlock out of his hand.

"Way to go, Paul! You must succeed."

I really have no idea how to do such a thing. I turn it around from all angles. I can fix cars, not break into doors.

"All we need is: a paper clip and a hairpin."

"Don't tell me it works like in the movies?"

"The principal's door opens just by looking at it. It's a piece of cake."

I am unconvinced by this.

Lucas pulls a paper clip and hairpin out of his pocket. He actually took them.

"I don't believe you can open a lock with those two things."

"Trust me. So, this is the paper clip."

"Thank you very much. I had figured it out."

"Don't be stupid. Listen. You fold the paper clip like this." He opens it and one end is now straight. "Then, you take the tip of this straight end and bend it up a little bit. About thirty degrees. Like this." It made a kind of upward beak.

"Thirty degrees? Look this is geometry!"

"So what?"

"I think you're telling lies. First, the basketball player can't be good at math and, now, you bring up this geometry stuff."

Lucas smiles. "Geometry is also useful for playing basketball.... And to get into the principal's office."

"Later you show me how you play basketball, huh? Something's not right."

Lucas laughs and nods his head. "So, we fixed the paper clip."

"That's it?"

"That's all. Now, let's get the hairpin."

"Then, you'll lend it to me, right?"

I really wouldn't know where to get it.

"Yes, I'll give it to you."

"And the hairpin, too."

"I'll give you everything. Now, be careful what I do." He takes the rounded end of the hairpin and bends it at a right angle.

But where did he learn these things? Even then, it doesn't necessarily work.

"This is the key part: see the lock that has a wider part and a narrower part?"

"Yes, in the narrow part goes the little teeth of the key."

Lucas shakes his finger in my face. "They are called cuts."

Does the father work in a hardware store?
"Okay, so what do I have to do?"

"Insert the round part of the hairpin, which I bent earlier, into the widest part of the lock. This will act as your key: afterwards you have to turn it and it will open. You try it."

I take the lock and hairpin. And so far, so good. I insert the round, and bent, end of the hairpin into the widest part of the lock. I try twisting the hairpin to open the lock.

"Why won't it open?"

"Because now you have to use the paperclip to unlock the lock. The bent hairpin is just for turning the lock as if you had a key."

"Okay, show me how to use the paper clip."

This is getting interesting. I feel like Lupin: the King of Thieves.

Lucas pulls the padlock out of my hand. "So: the hairpin is in and, now, you have to hold it taut at all times, as if you were going to turn the key."

"Perfect."

"Keep the tension all the time and insert the paperclip into the narrow part of the lock." He slips that end he had straightened and It had the beak. Start scratching inside the lock.

"See, now, push the beak upward. You have to push along the entire depth of the lock."

He actually scratches up and down inside the lock.

"Make sure, though: the paperclip goes up and down and scratches inside the whole depth of the lock, but meanwhile, you must always keep the hairpin taut as if you were going to turn the key."

The lock won't open, my guess is that nothing happens.

"You just have to give it some time." He scratches up and down with the paper clip.

The hairpin, which was in tension, now turns as if it were a key. Click. The padlock opens.

"See?" Lucas's big face stretches into a huge grin.

So, he wasn't bullshitting.

"You opened it!"

"I opened it."

"Let me try."

I close the lock again. So the hairpin is in the wide part, and the paperclip is in the narrow part. I scratch with the beak inside the whole lock. I go up and down and back and forth.

"You're forgetting to keep the hairpin taut. The hairpin, in the end, is supposed to be your key."

He's right. I have to do as he says. I keep the hairpin taut all the time. I scratch up and down. I scratch up and down. I scratch up and down. Why doesn't it open? A drop of sweat slips from my forehead. Click.
It opened. "It opened." I jump on Lucas to hug him.

"Good boy. Good boy. You learn fast."

"I did it." I'm Lupin.

"Tomorrow, I'll see you to do the bank job." He smiles. "Be sure to practice." The look turns serious. "You can't go wrong when you're there."

I nod.

"Hey, guys." Michael runs toward us. "Shall we have a game?"

"Let's show Paul how to play basketball."

I am happy to have found new friends here. The only bad thing, maybe, is that I'm about to do something dangerous. I don't feel safe doing something like that. What could happen if I got caught? Would they call the police? This doesn't seem like a suspension thing to me.
No, no, I don't even want to think about it.

Now, I'm here. I want to enjoy these two shots at the basket. Two shots and nothing else.