Down and Out by Alex Kuskowski

Author:Alex Kuskowski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
Published: 2014-08-07T15:01:58+00:00

6

Miguel met Terrance at the end of practice. He grabbed a football.

“Hey, Terrance!” Miguel threw the ball. The thing was sad. It wobbled in the air. Terrance had no trouble catching it. He threw it back.

“Oof!” Miguel caught it. But just barely.

Terrance laughed. “Maybe you should stick to soccer, bro.”

“Don’t hate. I got this.” Miguel threw the ball back. It was better this time. “Since you made the team last week you been all football all the time. Let’s head home. We gotta study. You gotta study.”

“Naw, man. I been doing better. Thanks to Jasmine. Math is easier each day.” Terrance grinned. He really liked being tutored by her. They met most days during study hall.

Miguel and Terrance walked down the street. A white van drove by. Terrance jolted. Another store had been robbed. It was on the news last night. Someone was stabbed. It wasn’t Sid’s store. But Terrance was worried.

“Yo. You never told me what’s up with that. Seems she be crushing on you,” Miguel said.

Terrance forgot the van. “For real? I hope so. I asked her to the dance.”

Terrance acted cool. Like he hadn’t been nervous to ask. He thought about it all week. Today he finally asked her.

“What’d she say? You gotta tell a bro,” Miguel said. “I’m going with Lexi. She’s friends with Jasmine. Maybe we can double.”

“Jasmine said she was planning on going with her girls but … She’s thinkin’ about it.” A maybe was better than a no right? Terrance hoped so.

“Aw, man! You’re in.” Miguel punched his arm. “She told Darius to back up off her yesterday when he asked. He was steamed. You better watch him, bro.”

“No way! She blew him off?” Terrance was surprised. He thought maybe that’s why she hadn’t said yes. That she was going with Darius.

“Yeah. You gotta tell that dude to stop talking smack to you. His head’s up his ass anyway.”

Terrance shook his head. “I don’t know, man.”

“Seriously,” Miguel said. “You think a Mexican in this ’hood never had haters? Just stand up to him. He’ll back down. Bullies always do. Can’t take their own medicine.”

Terrance hoped it would be that easy. He’d see what happened at the next practice.

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.