Long Shot for Paul by Matt Christopher

Author:Matt Christopher [CHRISTOPHER, MATTHEW F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316095754
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2009-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

8

Coach Munson removed Paul from the game and sent in another player. Glenn was glad that it wasn’t him the coach was sending in. His heart was beating like crazy. Paul had sure goofed. He had given the Blue Waves two points, putting them four points ahead.

Paul sat beside Glenn. His eyes were dim.

“Don’t cry, Paul!” Glenn said huskily into his ear. “For crying out loud, don’t do that! It was just a mistake!”

“Don Marshang yelled at me,” Paul said, his voice ready to crack. “He called me a birdbrain.”

That doggone Marshang. If anybody was a birdbrain, it was him.

“Don Marshang doesn’t know any better,” said Glenn. He picked up the towel lying near his feet. “Here. Dry yourself.”

A little while later the coach had him go in for Dan Levine. I’m going to make up for Paul’s goof, Glenn promised himself. He played hard, covering his man like a tent. His chance came. He intercepted a pass, dribbled it to the center line, passed to Don. Don passed to Jim. Jim dribbled across the keyhole, flipped a pass to Glenn, who was running in. Glenn took it, leaped, just as a hand smacked his wrist.

The whistle shrilled as the ball wiggled through the net. The referee signaled to the scorekeeper that the basket counted, and that the foul was on 42.

“Thataway, Glenn!” Paul shouted from the bench.

He made the foul shot, and cheers burst from the Sabers fans. I got back those two points and one extra, Glenn thought. But we’re still one behind.

He never played as hard as he did those last remaining moments. He had another opportunity to shoot, and missed the ring by inches. Don tried his best to sink a field goal, too. But the Blue Waves swarmed over the Sabers like hornets. The seconds dribbled away until there were no more left. The Blue Waves edged out the Sabers, 51–50.

Don, Andy, and Stevie had no words to say to anyone in the locker room. No good words, that was. “If that birdbrain hadn’t given them that basket we would’ve taken them,” Don said to Andy. He said it softly, but Glenn, sitting only a few feet away, heard him.

His neck grew hot. He looked up at Don, but Don was unlacing his sneakers and didn’t lift his eyes.

As they left the Recreation Hall for home Paul couldn’t get over the mistake he had made. “I thought it was our basket! I wouldn’t have shot if I didn’t think so, Glenn! I thought it was — ”

“Forget it,” said Glenn. “I told you anybody could make a mistake like that, didn’t I? And for crying out loud, don’t cry!”

“Patience, Glenn,” said Judy, who had been walking on Paul’s other side and now squeezed in between them.

Glenn shook his head and crunched his teeth. Patience. Sometimes it was just too hard to hang on to.

The next day somebody started to spread the news around school that the coach wasn’t going to let Paul play again. It

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.