“Look, Mom – I know I never should have posted that picture on my blog. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it until Lee made me see reason. That’s what was going on that night you came home and found Lee here with me. He was talking me into taking it down before it caused more problems. Unfortunately, someone took a screenshot of it before I did and it went viral around school. The damage was done. I don’t blame Caleb for being angry about it.”

  Lee looked like he was about to argue, but my mom beat him to it. “Angry is one thing. Threatening you and hurting you is another. I never would have let you photograph the game last night if I’d known any of this was going on, but I’m sure you knew that and that’s why you didn’t tell me.”

  Lee’s head jerked towards me. “I just remembered, I haven’t asked you yet. Where was Parker last night? I thought he was going to spot for you.”

  “Well, it turned out he had a big date with Olivia. He would have been there if I’d asked him to, but I didn’t want to ruin his night. That’s why I asked Brian to spot for me. He was standing on the sideline because of an injury. I guess I should have asked someone who would have paid more attention to me than the game. Especially since I knew Caleb was already steaming mad at me before the game.”

  Lee’s eyes narrowed as he pinned them on me. “And how exactly did you know that?”

  Oops. Now they were both going to be mad at me. I shifted in my chair, and peeked through my lashes at him. “Well, I heard him having an argument with his ex-girlfriend over the phone about the photo I took. He was furious because she’s seeing someone else and won’t have anything to do with him. Apparently, she’s keeping the photo on her phone to remind her why she shouldn’t date him anymore.”

  “Sounds like you heard the whole conversation. How did you manage that?”

  I could tell from his tone of voice that I’d better not try to hide anything from him. When I spoke, I was surprised at how soft my voice was, but I couldn’t help it. I knew this was going to upset him. “Well, I was in the parking lot going to Marisol’s car after saying goodbye to you when your bus left for the ball game, and he was there. He didn’t see me, and I knew I’d better make sure he didn’t, so I hid behind the car. I heard everything he said. When he hung up, he was cussing and punching his car, so I was terrified. I knew he would have taken me out right then if he’d seen me because there wouldn’t have been any witnesses, but I thought I’d be safe at the game with so many people around.”

  I watched warily for Lee’s reaction. I could see the muscles in his shoulders and arms bunch with tension and his jaw muscles clench. I’d seen Lee struggle to control his temper a few times, but it amazed me to watch the effort it was obviously taking this time. It worried me that he’d change his mind about going after Caleb.

  My mom was watching as well, her brows furrowed as she considered him. After a minute she said, “Lee, what happened to the notes Caleb put in her locker?”

  Lee looked at her a moment, like he was having trouble focusing. Then he threw his head back and took a deep breath to calm himself. “Principal Duncan has them. He was keeping them in case we needed official evidence. Unfortunately, we can’t prove that he’s the one who sent them.”

  “The principal knows about this? Why didn’t he tell me?”

  Lee shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he assumed Sienna would have filled you in.”

  “No. He knows darn well I would have been in to see him if I’d known what was going on.”

  “You’ll have to ask him then,” Lee told her, shrugging. “What are you going to do now? Caleb needs to pay for what he’s done. I… Well, as much as I’d like to deal with him myself, I know I should leave it for you to deal with. That’s why I knew we had to tell you about it.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be in Principal Duncan’s office first thing Monday morning. I’ll make sure something’s done about it.”

  Everybody looked grim, so I said, “Well, at least he’s gotten it out of his system.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” my mom said. Lee and I both looked at her, waiting for her to explain, so she said, “You need to read the article about the game in this morning’s paper.” She stood up and went to get it from the coffee table in the living room. She handed it to me and I spread the sports page out in front of me while Lee moved around to look over my shoulder.

  After reading the headline, “Haskins’ Crushing Defeat,” I saw my pictures of the game, and they distracted me for a minute. I hadn’t seen them yet since Mr. Greeley had sent them into the paper for me while I was in the hospital.

  Lee had jumped straight to the article however, and he mumbled under his breath, “Great.”

  “What?” I asked.

  He pointed to a paragraph near the end of the article and read out loud, “The game hung in the balance for two quarters of hard hitting, back and forth action between the two schools. The play that finally choked any momentum Haskins might have been gathering to push out a last minute victory was squashed by a late hit penalty on senior tight end Caleb Murphy, #63. Unfortunately, the hit also resulted in a student photographer, Sienna Whitfield, being taken to the emergency room where she was treated for a broken rib and minor abrasions. The impact was painful for Haskins as well who never recovered and lost with a stunning 14 point deficit in a game that had been slotted as a sure victory.”

  “Wow. They talked about me in the paper.”

  Lee sighed with frustration and said, “Yeah, but look – they called Caleb out and pinned the loss on him. This town is probably in shock that we lost the game anyway, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Caleb finds himself the whipping boy for the whole thing.”

  I looked at my mom and saw her nodding in agreement. A sense of dread stole over me. “But he won’t be mad at me for that. It was his own stupid decision to hit me.”

  “You give him a lot of credit for thinking rationally,” Lee said. “I wouldn’t count on it myself. He’ll be looking for someone to blame too.” He paused and looked up at my mom, though he was still talking to me. “Somebody needs to send him a clear message that taking this out on you won’t be tolerated.”

  My mom’s eyes were steady on Lee, her expression determined. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he hears it loud and clear.”

  Lee nodded, satisfied, though I could still sense incredible tension emanating from him as he stood a few steps away with his arms crossed tightly over his chest.

  I stood up and gripped his arms to get his attention. “Lee, you won’t get into a fight with him, will you? I’ve been so worried you would.”

  He looked down at me and dropped his arms to rub his hands over my shoulders. “I don’t intend to. I have to get going or I’ll be late.”

  “Will I see you again today?”

  “Of course. Where else would I be on your birthday than right here?”

  “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe I forgot it’s my birthday. I mean, I remembered, kind of, but it doesn’t feel like my birthday.”

  My mom smiled. “Well, we’ll have to fix that, won’t we?”

  She smiled across at Lee and he smiled back, though I caught a little twitch of self-consciousness in his expression that was weird. “Yeah, um, well, I’ll be back after practice. Don’t celebrate without me.”

  He moved slowly, like his muscles were stiff, and I forgot about everything as worry for him took over. I’d never seen Lee move like that. He was always so full of energy.

  When the door closed behind him, my mom said, “You know, I’ve never seen him so emotional before. It’s nice to know he feels that deeply for you.”

  “I thought it was his feelings that worried you.”

  “No. It was his hormones. I’m hoping his feelings are stronger.”

  I thought about the morning so far and realized how different things were now. Before last night, she was intensely against me having any kind of emotional attachment to a guy, much less a relationship. In fact, she’d been outright psycho about it sometimes. “Mom? What happened to make you change your mind about him? I mean, I know everything Mr. Greeley said at the hospital about how you needed to give us a chance and everything, but you still didn’t seem too happy about it. You still seem uncomfortable with it, but not as much. Why?”

  She didn’t answer me right away, but cleared off the table and fidgeted with things on the kitchen counter before she finally leaned forward on both hands and bowed her head a moment. When she looked up at me, she said, “Well, I haven’t gotten much sleep since we got back from the hospital so I’ve had a lot of time to think. I realized something that hadn’t occurred to me before. I think my prejudices were influencing me. Lee reminds me a lot of your father. He was also good looking, clean cut, and seemingly perfect. He almost seems too good to be true, you know? Well, in your father’s case, he was too good to be true. Everything about Lee, from his manners to the way he looked made me mistrust him. I realize now how stupid that was.”

  “So, if I’d wanted to date a guy who dressed like a gangster and was rude and obnoxious, you might have let me?”

  She laughed a little. “I wouldn’t go that far.” She walked back to the table and sat across from me. “Look, I realized after Bruce McGuire treated me the way he did that I shouldn’t have thought so highly of him just because he acted like a gentleman. I realize now, I shouldn’t have been so suspicious of Lee just because he acts like one too. You shouldn’t judge people on how they dress or speak, Sienna, but on how they treat people. I guess I’m still learning that.”

  I smiled at her to show her I appreciated what she’d said. To lighten the mood up a little, I joked, “If you want, I can tell you all the things about Lee that bug me so you won’t think he’s so perfect anymore.”

  She laughed and reached across to pat my hand. “That’s okay. I’m just glad you can see he’s human. I swear I thought Bruce was an angel. That was where I went wrong.”

  Chapter 3

  Lee

  I nearly groaned when I heard the whistle rattle, but my body responded like I’d been jarred by a cattle prod. After the first few painful steps, my feet flew down the court to the first line. I realized I was not in the lead as I usually was and dug deep to pick up my speed. I was so exhausted that the whole practice was a blur. I had no idea how many line drills we’d already run. I hoped we were almost done or I was going to collapse on the court in front of the whole team.

  I was in the group with the other players who were most likely to be starters, but usually I blew by them all. Today, however, I was one of the last ones to drag myself over the baseline. I stood with my hands behind my head, trying to catch my breath while the next two groups ran.

  Sweat dripped into my eyes, stinging them and blurring my vision, so I pulled my shirt up to wipe it away. When I could see again, I looked over at Coach Webb, trying to judge by his expression if we were going to go again. He was talking to his assistant, Coach Phillips, not paying any attention to us. Which was fine by me, as long as he didn’t blow his whistle again.

  “So this is our star basketball player,” someone said from beside me. I didn’t recognize the voice, but the mockery in it was obvious.

  I glanced over to see Thomas Hardy sneering at me. Man, I was too tired to deal with this punk right now. He was one of the new players from the football team. They were practicing with us for the first time after their disastrous playoff game last night. His blond hair hung over his eyes, spiked by sweat. I thought about suggesting a haircut so he could see if someone passed him the ball.

  “You got a problem?” I asked.

  “Yeah. All this school does is talk about how great you are, but you’re about to pass out after a few line drills. You wouldn’t have made it through one of Coach Hatfield’s practices.”

  I straightened up, realizing this guy was determined to start something. “Look man, back off.”

  He laughed and jerked his chin at me. “I’m going to run circles around you all season, Franklin. Hope you can handle humiliation.”

  Physical and emotional exhaustion had nearly sapped me of my control. I had enough left to deal with this guy’s taunts, but only barely. “You should be pretty familiar with it yourself after last night.” I stared into his eyes, watching the anger building in them.

  He made a move like he was going to swing at me, and my muscles jerked in response to defend against a blow that never came. Two of his football buddies had grabbed him just in time.

  I shook my head at him. What a toughie.

  I felt a different tension in the players around me and realized that Coach Webb had come over to see what was going on. I’d never seen his expression so hard or his stance so threatening. In fact, I’d always thought Coach was a little too soft to be truly effective. As I watched the new guy deflate under his attention, I changed my mind.

  “Hardy,” Coach Webb said in a quiet voice, “Do you mind telling me why you’re interrupting my practice and picking a fight with one of your teammates?”

  “No good reason, Coach. Sorry, Coach.”

  “That was a tough loss you guys had last night.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That’s tough for a team to take. But you’re on a new team now. And Lee is part of that team. Is this how teammates act?”

  “No, sir.”

  “And I think there’s something you don’t understand. Lee played a game last night too, a hard game. He never left the court. Then he went to the hospital because he heard about his girlfriend getting hurt at your game. He didn’t get home until long after you did. I’m sure,” he paused and turned to look at me with a sharp expression, “he at least had the good sense to get some rest this morning and not go for his usual run.”

  I looked down at the court and didn’t answer him.

  “Really? You ran this morning?”

  I nodded, once. Just enough that he could see. I had a feeling I was about to get my head handed to me. I looked up at him again through the sweat dripping past my eyes, hoping he would read the message in my eyes and drop it.

  Coach Webb turned back to Thomas, saying, “Look, if he wants to be an idiot and almost kill himself, that’s his business. But you aren’t going to help him do it, got it?”

  Thomas nodded and folded his arms across his chest.

  I looked around and noticed that my friend Will Cohen had shifted closer to me. So had Michael Fine, Marcus Browning, and some other guys from the original team. Several of the football players had moved closer to Thomas. The division in our team was going to be a problem.

  Coach Webb lifted the papers on his clipboard and pulled out a magazine. Having seen it that morning, I knew it was the one with my national ranking. I resigned myself to even more unwanted attention.

  Coach flipped through the pages until he found the one he was looking for, and then turned towards us. “Did any of you see the list of the top 100 basketball players in the country? It came out yesterday. Guess what? Lee’s name is on it. Number 87 to be exact. Know what it’s going to mean to this team to have a nationally ranked player?”

  “That we might win some games.” Marcus said. Everybody laughed, even Coach Webb. But he got serious again quickly.

  “Well, that’s up to you guys, isn’t it? Know how Lee got on this list?”

  My friend Will Cohen was quick to answer. “Because he’s got more talent than the rest of us put together?”

  “That doesn’t hurt,” Coach Webb agreed dryly. “But no. The reason he’s one of the top players in the country is because he has the best work ethic I’ve ever seen in a high school athlete and because he knows how to be a team player. If you all are smart enough to get your heads out of your butts and watch him, you’ll learn a few things. Maybe then you’ll impress one of the college recruiters that are going to pack these stands to see him play. Because that’s what his national ranking is going to do for us. It’s going to bring fans and recruiters. You can all benefit from that.” Without warning, he blew his whistle and said, “That’s it. Get out of here. I’ll see you at 2:00. Except you, Hardy. Ten Laps while you think about how you’re going to be respectful from now on – to me and every player on this team.”

  I almost sagged with relief that practice was over. All I wanted to do was hit the showers, but of course, I was swamped with everyone wanting to talk about my ranking. Thankfully, Coach saved me by calling me over to his office.

  Dragging my body forward, I leaned against the doorframe, and said, “Yes, Coach?”

  “Why don’t you sit down before you fall down?”

  I might have smiled if it hadn’t been too much effort. “I won’t get back up if I do.”

  He shook his head at me. “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

  “No. I’ll be better by practice later.”

  “Maybe, but you’re not coming in.”

  “What? Yes I am.”

  “No, you’re not. That’s what I called you in here to say. Everything I said out there was true, but you’ve got one major flaw, Lee.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You expect too much of yourself. It’s going to get you in trouble one of these days. You can’t push your body indefinitely without giving it what it needs. Right now, I’d say you need rest – and plenty of it. I don’t want to see you again until Monday.”

  I hesitated, wanting to argue, but I sensed his decision was final. “If you say so, Coach.”

  “You agreed quicker than I expected. How’s your girl?”

  “She’s got a broken rib and she’s beat up pretty bad, but she’s better than I was afraid she’d be.”

  He nodded. “Things looked bad from the photos last night. I’m glad she’ll be okay. You hate to see accidents like that.”

  “It wasn’t an accident.” My voice was cold and hard.

  His eyebrows went up. “It wasn’t huh? You think Murphy hit her on purpose?

  “I know he did. I have proof.”

  He was quiet, and his eyebrows drew down as he considered what I’d said. “Does Coach Hatfield know?”

  I appreciated that he didn’t question it – that he trusted me. He would be a good ally in this. “Not yet. I only told Sienna’s mom the situation this morning. She’ll be in to talk to Principal Duncan soon, but I’d like to get a few things squared away first.”

 

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