Roosevelt Banks, Good-Kid-in-Training by Laurie Calkhoven

Author:Laurie Calkhoven [Calkhoven, Laurie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781947159228
Publisher: Red Chair Press
Published: 2020-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER Eleven

Eddie Spaghetti

The next morning I sat by the window and waited for Tommy’s family to get home from church. I figured he and Josh and maybe even Josh’s dad would be heading out for a bike ride. I wanted to catch them before they left. Maybe Josh’s dad would admire my baseball, and he’d see how cool I was and say, “This is someone we need on our trip.”

Josh would tell him that I don’t have a bike because it got all busted up winning Josh a blue ribbon.

Then Josh’s dad would say, “Who needs to bike? We’ll drive to the campground,” or “Let’s buy this kid a bike as a reward for the science fair,” or some junk like that. And then when he said “Onward, men!” I would be one of the men.

I slipped on my baseball mitt and started throwing and catching my foul ball, enjoying the quiet thwack it made when it settled into the glove’s pocket. Dad and I had even gotten a few of the players to autograph it.

I got to Tommy’s back door just as Dante and Malik burst out of it.

“Hey, what’s that?” Malik asked, plucking the ball out of my hand. He twirled it around, looking at the names. “Who are these losers?” he asked.

“Players from the college team,” I said. “Not losers. They won.”

He threw the ball to Dante. “Whatever, dude.”

They started throwing the ball back and forth.

“Hey, I wanted to show that to Tommy. Give it back.”

“He’ll be out in a minute,” Dante said.

He tried to get my mitt off my hand, but I pulled my arm away.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Rosie,” he said.

I was beginning to think this whole plan wasn’t going to work out so good.

Tommy came out a minute later holding his bike helmet. I was chasing after his brothers, trying to get my ball back in an embarrassing game of monkey in the middle.

“Hey, Roosevelt,” he said.

“I caught a foul ball at the game yesterday and my dad and I got some of the players to autograph it. It was the coolest day ever, and you could have come with us if you weren’t so busy riding your bike.” It came out all in a rush.

I waited for Tommy to be impressed, but he started babbling about riding with Josh’s dad and how they rode ten miles before lunch, like that was some big huge thing. Then they ate and hung out, and biked ten miles back.

He walked to the garage to get his bike, talking the whole time about how cool Josh’s dad was and the jokes he told and how they all drank soda after lunch and burped these really big, manly burps and how funny it was and I don’t think he cared about my baseball one bit.

And then I saw something that made me feel ten times worse.

A van pulled into Tommy’s driveway and Eddie Spaghetti slithered out like a snake—with his bicycle.

I looked at Tommy, waiting for an explanation, but he only looked away.

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