I went to the Santa Cruz Warriors game with my dad and we ordered a large bucket of popcorn with unlimited refills. I told my dad I thought we could eat at least thirty buckets of popcorn, even though my dad and I also ate hot dogs and my dad also ordered one iced tea for me. My dad and I sat in the bleachers at Kaiser Permanente Arena, where the Warriors play, and each of us kept taking handfuls of popcorn. We had eaten half the bucket even before the game started.
I found out about the game a week before at my school, Live Oak Elementary. There came a person in a Pacific Leatherback Turtle costume named Mav’Riks. After I saw Mav’Riks, I wanted to go to the Warriors game even more. It was going to be a special game with a lot of people from my school.
When I came home from school that day, I asked my dad if we could go to the Warriors game and he said, “I will think about it.” He took a long time to think about it. Then, the day before the game, he told me we could go and I was so happy. I had never been to a basketball game, but now I am a big fan. This was my first time at a real live basketball game. Usually I watch basketball games at my house with my dad.
Before the game started, the team’s mascot Mav’Riks came out on the basketball court. It was the same Mav’Riks I saw at my school or I think it was. After the game started there were a ton of colorful lights and my dad and I thought, “Wow these lights are so cool,” and in the middle of the arena Mav’Riks the Warriors mascot was waving a flag around.
I asked my dad if he could take a video and then he took a video. Otherwise, I thought the game was pretty cool, and sort of boring, maybe because it was only my dad with me there and there was no one else for me to talk to. The Warriors lost to the Texas Legends, 134-116. It was the final game of the regular season and both teams finished with the same record, 14-22, not quite in last place but almost.
When my dad and I were walking around at the Warriors game, I saw a lot of kids from my school, including my friend Tennysen. I did see Dalary, who is in my class at school. She is nice, but we are not really friends, so we didn’t talk at all, although she was sitting in the row right behind me. She makes faces at me, but I want to be good with her.
I also saw one of my teachers, Ms. Karla Atencio-O’Brien, and she smiled at me. Back at school I interviewed her about the Warriors game and she said, “My favorite part was sitting by the courtside sitting with other students and seeing Anaïs’s face.” She said that, like me, she had never been to a basketball game before then.
I also saw someone else who I really like: my principal, Mr. Greg Stein. I was just sent to his office. At first I was scared, but I didn’t do anything. He wanted to talk to me about the trip my family took to Japan and other countries in Asia at the end of last year. When I saw Mr. Stein at the game, I did not really talk to him. I only said “Hi” when my dad and I went down to get more popcorn.
