Once there was a basketball player called Ben. He had blond hair, dark grey eyes and he was seven foot tall.

Ring! Ring! Ring! went the alarm clock.
“Time to get up,” said Ben to himself. So Ben got up and went to get himself some breakfast. He had his gourmet meal, cornflakes, and then went off to his work as a basketball player.

Suddenly, something hit him on the head and he fell to the ground.
“Look – he’s waking up,” said someone. Ben could barely open his eyes, but eventually he came round. He got up. He was in the same place where he had been hit on the head. He got up and looked for what had hit him on the head: there beside him was a key.
“What can I do with this key?” thought Ben. He continued walking to the basketball club. Ben was a brilliant basketballer so he was treated like a hero.

At the basketball club …”Great shot, Ben,” said one of his team mates as he scored a good goal, but then the opposition shot the ball at the goal and it landed on the floor. It bounced up and then hit Ben on the head. It was surprisingly hard!

Ben was knocked out again. Gradually he got up, and went to see why the ball was so hard. He turned the ball round and round to see what had hit him. Then his eyes fell on a lock on the basketball!
“What the …?” said Ben. “Just look at this!” Then he noticed it was midnight and everyone had left …

“Oh, well,” he said to himself. “What could fit in that lock? Wait a sec!”
He got out of his pocket the key which had hit him on the head when he was going to the basketball club. He pushed it in the lock.
“It fits!” he shouted. He opened the basketball …

In the basketball was a note. He unfolded the note. It said: ‘If you score in the next match then you will never play ever again.’
“Oh dear,” he said, then he went back home and fell fast asleep.
The next day Ben got up and went to basketball. His team was playing Greenwood, their worst enemies, and they had lost six nil last time they played them, so they were determined to win this time.
“PLAY!” said the ref. A minute passed and it was still nil-nil, then someone passed to Ben. He had an open goal – then he remembered the message! Then he said to himself “What the heck!” He jumped up and scored.

But then he fell to the ground for a third time, and never got up again…

The End