Football Nightmare by Matt Christopher

Author:Matt Christopher [CHRISTOPHER, MATT]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV013000
ISBN: 9780316042178
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2008-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

8

The roar was deafening. Keith looked up at grandstands that seemed to rise into the clouds, and every one of the hundreds of thousands of seats was full, and the fans were all yelling at the tops of their lungs.

Billy kept throwing passes to him, and he was always clear … and he couldn’t hold on to any of them. He dropped one after another and each time there would be a thundering chorus of boos.

Gasping for breath, Keith spotted his family sitting in the front row, looking very sad. His father was shaking his head, and Traci was crying. All of his teammates, even Heck and Cody, kept pointing at him and scowling, while Larry Vincent kept smirking and shouting, “What did I tell you? He’s pathetic!. He’s a loser!”

Coach Bodie called time-out and ran over to him, screaming, “We’re going to keep throwing you the ball until you get it right!”

Keith’s legs felt like they were made of cement, and he couldn’t move. Billy threw another pass, but the ball went way over his head while he just stood there, feeling completely helpless.… He was a loser.… He was a loser.…

Suddenly, Keith woke up. He felt shaky and was sweating heavily. The dial of his bedside clock read 3:30 A.M. He fell back on the pillow and closed his eyes. But the awful nightmare stayed with him and he couldn’t get back to sleep for what seemed like hours.

When Keith sat down to have breakfast the next morning — the first day of school — his parents studied him carefully.

“Are you feeling all right, Keith?” his mother asked. “You look like you might be coming down with something.”

“No, I’m okay, Mom, really.” Keith knew that he must look awful after getting so little sleep the night before, but he didn’t want to talk about it with his mom and dad, and certainly not in front of Traci. Although he didn’t have much of an appetite, he managed to eat everything on his plate. He hoped that this would reassure his parents.

“Well, I better get ready,” he said, getting up. “Big day today.”

As he grabbed his backpack and windbreaker, his father followed him toward the front door. “Got a second, Slugger?”

Keith was reluctant to talk to his dad, not wanting to discuss what was on his mind. “I really have to get moving.”

“This won’t take long, I promise.”

Keith couldn’t see any way out of it. “Well … okay.” He sat down on the porch steps, with Mr. Stedman next to him.

“You had some trouble sleeping last night, huh?” said his father.

Keith was surprised. “How’d you know?”

“I’m a light sleeper myself, and I heard you doing some serious tossing and turning. I don’t think your mom knew — she could sleep through an artillery battle — but I knew, and I was wondering what was up. Could this have anything to do with football, and what you’d been worrying about?”

Keith was always startled at his father’s instinct for what was on his son’s mind.

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