Break My Heart 1,000 Times by Daniel Waters

Author:Daniel Waters [Waters, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-10-16T07:00:00+00:00

In gym, Kirk was picked as one of the team captains, which meant that Coach Gleason wasn’t basing his decisions on athletic talent. There were sixteen boys in his class, and Coach Gleason split them into four teams of four. Kirk was awarded the first pick, and he picked James even though there were at least two kids in the remaining pool of eleven that were better than him.

“Winner keeps the court,” Coach Gleason said. “To seven. Teams one and two, get in there. Your ball, Red.”

Hearing his most hated nickname, Kirk gritted his teeth as Coach Gleason passed him the ball. He desperately wanted to answer, “Thanks, Bald,” but he didn’t feel like spending the afternoon in detention. He was on edge after Mr. Bittner’s weirdness in history class with Veronica, hot on the heels of his weirdness in the hall that morning. Something wasn’t right about that guy.

He inbounded to James, who drove toward the basket around his defender and laid it up for a point. Maybe there was only one kid better than James, Kirk thought.

They were up four to one in no time, and Kirk had felt bold enough to take a shot. The ball clanged off the rim, but James grabbed the rebound and tossed it back out to him. James planted his feet, boxing out a defender, and nodded to Kirk, who took that as a sign he should try to drive around the pick. Kirk started, and was halfway there when James swung around, his elbow slamming Kirk in the back, tripping him up with an outstretched leg. Kirk went down hard, the ball squirting away and out of bounds. The sound of Coach’s whistle was like a distant signal across a choppy ocean.

“Oh, sorry, man,” James said, too loud, a poor actor. He bent low and picked up Kirk’s limp arm, leaning in close as he did so.

“I am going to kick your ass after school,” he whispered. “The soccer field. Don’t miss it.”

Kirk let himself be dragged to his feet. His knee and elbow were scraped up. There was a pressure at the back of his eyes, but it was fury more than anything else, and it grew worse as he saw James’s smirk and similar looks on the faces of a few of his co-conspirators. He decided that he would meet James after school on the soccer field, and that yes, he would get his ass kicked, but it would be worth it if he could deliver one bruising shot to James’s smug face.

“Better be there,” James said, figuring he could cow Kirk into submission.

Fat chance, Kirk thought.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he whispered back.

Coach blew his whistle again, looking back and forth between Kirk and James.

“No foul,” he said. “Same team. Team one forfeits. You’re all bloody, Red. Go see the nurse for a Band-Aid. Team three, take the court.”

James tried to stare Kirk down as Kirk walked toward the exit, and when that didn’t work, he flipped him off. Kirk

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.