Fighter by Leslie McGill

Author:Leslie McGill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
Published: 2019-07-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Jair

By the time his alarm rang the next morning, Jair had already been awake for an hour. He had hardly slept. His whole body hurt, and he couldn’t get comfortable. He couldn’t quit thinking about the video and how weak it made him look. There was no way he was going to school.

There were a lot of guys there who’d be happy he got taken down. Weak guys. The ones he’d schooled over the past few years. And the ones who thought they might be next in line. He knew they were going to make his life miserable until he set them straight about how tough he was.

He went into the bathroom and made loud gagging noises. Then he got back in bed. His mother soon came in. She had a worried look on her face.

“Are you sick?” she asked.

“I guess,” he answered. “I just threw up,” he lied.

“Well, you’d better stay home, then,” she said. “You don’t look good,” she added. “I can see you’re not feeling like yourself.”

No kidding. I got the crap beat out of me, Jair thought. He turned to face the wall. “I think I’ll just go back to sleep,” he said, closing his eyes.

His mother kissed him on the forehead. “You call me if you need anything,” she said.

Jair dozed while he heard his brothers getting ready for school. Soon the apartment was quiet. He got out of bed and got dressed. He checked his cell phone and sent a text message to Janelle.

“I want it. Can u meet me at ur house at 11?”

While he waited for her response, he sat at the kitchen table and ate some cereal. His phone buzzed with a message from Janelle.

“Sure. I’ll tell my brother cuz it’s his. C u at 11.”

He pushed his phone away. Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone coming up the stairs leading to his apartment. He raced into his room and tore off his shirt and pants, scrambling to put back on the T-shirt and basketball shorts he slept in. He jumped into bed and turned toward the wall, pretending to be asleep.

“Don’t know if there’s any food in here, but at least I’ve got a bottle,” his father’s voice said as the front door opened.

Jair could not hear the response. He counted at least three other voices, one of which was a woman’s. He didn’t know why they were at his apartment, but he figured he’d better let his father know the place wasn’t empty.

“Dad? Dad?” he called out.

“What the—” his father said. He threw open the door to Jair’s room. “What? Why are you here?” he asked angrily.

“I’m sick,” Jair said. “Mom said I should stay home from school.”

“Well, I’ve got some people out here, and we have to talk. About some business,” he added. “So you have to stay in here till I leave. But since you’re so ‘sick,’ ” his father dragged the word out with a sneer, “that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Jair’s father walked out and shut the door behind him.

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