02 The Dance by Christopher Pike

Author:Christopher Pike [Pike, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

On the Thursday before homecoming, Nick Grutler stayed after practice to work on his free throws. In the game with Holden, he had been fouled every other time he’d gone to the basket. The free-throw line, only fifteen feet from the hoop, was well within his range; the problem was, he was supposed to stand relatively still while taking a foul shot, and he had trouble hitting even the backboard when he couldn’t move.

Nick put up a hundred practice shots and made half—not bad, but not great, either. He finally decided that when he was sent to the line during the game, he would just pretend he was taking an ordinary jump shot, and not mind what the people in the crowd thought.

Another reason Nick had stayed after practice was because he didn’t want to take his shower with the rest of the team. When the coach was around, and they were working on plays, the guys treated him fair enough. But if Sellers was not present and The Rock—or the other two leftovers from the football team, Jason and Kirk—were in a bad mood, which they generally were, then he got razzed. If only Michael were around, Nick thought. The week before, when Michael had been coming to practice, no one had said so much as boo to him.

Putting away his basketball, Nick briefly wondered if it was all worth it. Here it was four o’clock, and he had to be at the warehouse by five to work an eight-hour shift, and he was already exhausted. Michael had told him he had to take the long view, but that was hard to do when he could barely see where he was going late at night while riding home on his bike. He couldn’t see how all this was going to get him into college on a scholarship.

And he had thought being on the team would impress Maria. Yet as far as he knew, Maria didn’t even go to basketball games. Even if she did, and he scored a hundred points every night, she wasn’t going to talk to him. Why should she risk it? She was afraid he might kill her.

But that doesn’t matter. None of that matters.

Maria’s own words. They applied to his situation now. He had discovered something last Friday night during the game, the one thing that was giving him the strength to persevere. It had happened four minutes into the first quarter. Michael had passed the ball to him down in low. It had been the first time he had handled the ball on offense. He had two guys on him, and probably shouldn’t have put it up. He just did it on impulse, without looking for anyone to pass to. He missed, but managed to get the rebound. Stuffing it home an instant later, hearing the roar of the crowd-roaring for him—he felt an intoxicating power flow through his limbs. It was then the realization hit him: he loved to play. And it was strange, in the midst of all the hoopla, in a very quiet way, he had felt at home on the court.

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