Willy the Scrub by Jamie McEwan

Author:Jamie McEwan [MCEWAN, JAMIE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780761385950
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

CHAPTER 6

GIVING UP

Wrestling was hard. Even worse, it turned out that Willy was in the same weight class as Biff.

Biff had wrestled last year. He knew what he was doing. Wrestling him was like wrestling an oily boa constrictor. Willy spent most of the time with his nose pushed into the mat. Then, every day, Biff turned Willy on his back and held his shoulders down for two seconds. That meant Willy was pinned. You got points for taking the other guy down or for escaping when he was in control. But it didn’t matter how many points you had if you got pinned. If you got pinned, the match was over. You lost.

“I’m tired of wrestling you,” Biff said to him at the end of the week. “You’re not even good enough to give me a workout.”

“Then you must be ready for me!” said Clint as he picked Biff up and tripped him to the mat.

Clint was the team captain. He was an eighth grader. Willy had never noticed Clint before wrestling season. In school Clint was just a quiet kid who wore glasses and had long hair. Clint didn’t look all that big or strong, but in about ten seconds, he had Biff pinned. Willy wished he could do that.

“I’m ready to quit,” Rufus said to Willy later. “This isn’t much fun. I ache all over.” Rufus was a big guy, but he was slow. And he was not as strong as he looked. Guys a lot smaller than he was could beat him in practice.

“Yeah,” said Willy. “My shoulders are killing me.”

“No, we can’t quit!” said Dan. “Pain is just weakness leaving the body! What you can dream, you can do! Remember, a diamond is a lump of coal that—”

“Oh, come on,” said Willy. “That’s what you said about football! And you were wrong!”

“No, I wasn’t wrong,” said Dan. “It just takes a long time.”

“We won’t live long enough,” said Rufus.

Clint let Biff go and walked over to them. “How’s it going, guys?” Clint asked.

“I think Rufus and I are going to quit,” said Willy.

“That would be too bad,” said Clint. “You’ve already done the hardest part. You won’t know whether it’s going to pay off for a month or so. You should stick around to find out. It’s kind of like an investment.”

“An investment?” asked Willy.

“Yeah. You know? You pay now, and you win later,” said Clint.

“And what if we lose later?” asked Rufus.

“That’s a risk,” said Clint. “But you guys are getting better all the time. Besides, Rufus, we need a heavyweight. There’s nobody else in your weight class, so you’ll be varsity. Won’t that be cool?”

After Clint left, Willy said, “They need you, Rufus. But they don’t need me. You should keep wrestling. I’ll quit.”

“Aw, man, it won’t be as much fun without you,” said Rufus.

“We’ll miss you,” said Dan.

“Yeah,” said Willy, “but I won’t miss being a scrub.”

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