A confusing fight to win the respect of his schoolmates, his teachers and the most beautiful girl in school; Junior made it to the Varsity team and had to beat Rowdy his best friend in the Reardan’s game against Wellpinit. Throughout his difficulties in high school, his broken friendship, and tribal issues; Junior faced the deaths of his loved ones, due to poverty and alcoholism in the reservation. Junior cried after winning the basketball game, not because he felt happy and proud of himself; but because, all of a sudden, he felt ashamed for what he did to his best friend and to his tribe. He realized that the Reardan players have everything, while the Wellpinit players have nothing, and that he broke his best friend’s heart.
“I was suddenly ashamed that I wanted so badly to take revenge on them. I was suddenly ashamed of my anger, my rage and my pain. I jumped off my white teammates’ shoulders and dashed into the locker room. I ran into the bathroom, into a toilet stall, and threw up. And then I wept like a baby. Coach and my teammates thought I was crying tears of happiness. But I wasn’t. I was crying tears of shame. I was crying because I had broken my best friend’s heart.” (Alexie 196).
