Play Makers by Mike Lupica

Author:Mike Lupica
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Ben tried calling Lily when he got home, got her machine, decided not to leave a message.

He knew what he had to do and wanted to do it as soon as possible: Apologize for saying what he’d said about her and Chase, for walking out the way he did without even saying good-bye. He knew that Chase had gotten exactly what he wanted, for Ben to look like the jerk even though it was Chase who had been acting like one from the time he made sure he sat next to Lily at Pinocchio’s.

But Ben knew it wasn’t the little comments Chase kept making that got him mad, he knew better than that because he knew himself better than that:

It was seeing Chase with Lily on the other side of the table.

The two of them laughing it up the way they were, like all of a sudden there was a new club that only included the two of them. Ben knew it was more Chase than Lily, obviously. Lily wasn’t really doing anything. Or encouraging Chase. Chase had just taken over, doing most of the talking, telling stories about his old hometown, about new teachers and his new teammates, the differences between the way kids he’d grown up with talked in the Midwest and the way they talked here, saying he worried that he wasn’t cool enough to live in the east. Yeah, right, Ben thought, listening — and listening — to Chase be the big talker here the way he was on a basketball court. Lily was mostly listening, too.

And doing a whole lot of laughing.

But as far as Ben could tell, it wasn’t like she was being made to do any of it against her will.

That bothered Ben a whole lot more than the way he’d acted on his way out the door.

When they’d gotten outside, waiting for Shawn’s mom to come pick them up — Ben hoping that she showed up before Lily and the Darby kids came through the door — Coop had said, “I thought that went well.”

Being Coop, trying to joke away the tension they were all feeling or at least joke it down.

“Not now, Coop,” Sam said.

Coop put up both hands and said, “Shutting up now.”

Nobody said another word until they were inside Mrs. O’Brien’s big SUV.

Now Ben was alone in his room, not ready to go downstairs and watch the second game of the NFL doubleheader with his dad.

Out loud he said, “Things are going awesome these days.”

He went through the list, one by one. Sam was hurt. Team was 0–2. Chase Braggs wasn’t just getting the better of him in basketball now, he showed he could do it just going for pizza. Lily was probably mad at Ben, really mad, something that hardly ever happened.

And on top of all that? Ben was sure that somewhere Chase was smiling his stupid head off, feeling like he’d won something on a day when he hadn’t even played a game.

Yeah. Totally awesome stretch Ben was having.

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