Trouble On Exeter Street by Huffman Marshall

Author:Huffman, Marshall [Huffman, Marshall]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2013-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

Light speed

Even though Neil glared at me every time he got the chance he was no longer chasing me. I think it was a combination of things. My dad having a conversation with his dad, Tommy standing up to him, and who knows what else. All I know is I didn’t have to fear for my life every afternoon.

One thing I did continue to do was run home as fast as I could as soon as I got off the bus. I started timing myself to see if I could break my own record. By the sixth week I was getting pretty good at sprinting the three hundred or so yards from the bus stop to the house. My times came tumbling down each day.

It was about that time that I found out they were going to have track tryouts at the school. Our middle school didn’t have a track or football field but we were right next to the high school so we could use theirs at scheduled times.

“You going to try out?” Tommy asked.

“I don’t know. I might.”

“Hey, what can you lose? You try out and if you don’t make it, big deal.”

“I just don’t want to look like a dork.”

“You already look like a dork so you might as well try out,” Tommy assured me.

“Gee thanks.”

“Always glad to help,” he said smiling.

“Are you going to try out?”

“Doing what? I don’t like to run. I sure can’t high jump so what could I really do?”

“Watch the cheerleaders?”

“You dweeb, they don’t have cheerleaders at track meets. So are you going to do it or not?”

“I guess so. I have until tomorrow to decide,” I told him.

“Now don’t chicken out. Come on, I’ll go with you and you can sign up. Waiting isn’t going to do anything but give you a chance to ‘forget’,” he said using his fingers as quotation marks.

“Okay. I guess,” I said.

We walked down to the gym and there were a bunch of guys signing in at a table. I realized right away they were all definitely older than me. Most were seventh and eighth graders. They seemed pretty sure of themselves.

“What are you here for twerp. You looking for the cheerleader tryouts?” a big kid asked me.

“Track team. So I can whip guys like you,” I said.

“Ha. I love it. A runt like you? You think you can beat me? Man I got to say one thing, you have spunk. I could probably beat you running backwards.”

“I guess we will just have to see,” I said and the next thing you know I was signing up.

“What are you going to put down?” Tommy whispered.

“I guess the hundred and two-twenty yard dash. I don’t know what the other stuff is.”

“Don’t get too carried away. Just put down those two.”

I checked the boxes for the one hundred and two-twenty yard dash. Once I was done we were directed to go sit on the bleachers and wait for the coach. Finally Tommy had to go. I asked him to stop by and let my mom know where I was so she wouldn’t worry.

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