Red-Hot Hightops by Sucie Stevenson

Author:Sucie Stevenson [CHRISTOPHER, MATTHEW F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316095815
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2009-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

10

You okay?” Janet asked, as she came running forward, a worried expression on her face.

“I don’t know,” Kelly said, rolling slowly over onto her side and then up onto her feet. She looked at her hurt arm and saw a red bruise on it. But the skin wasn’t broken. “I’m okay,” she said. This is really turning into a rough game, she thought wryly. But she was enjoying every minute of it.

“Two shots!” the referee called. He got the ball, went and stood on the foul line, waiting for Kelly.

She made the first shot and missed the second. There was heavy traffic underneath the basket for a few seconds as Marge and Janet tried to push the ball up against the boards and into the basket, and two of the Lancers’ girls tried to get control of it. Suddenly one of the girls kicked the ball accidentally toward the sideline, and Kelly sprinted after it. She knew there were only seconds left to go in the half. But if she could retrieve the ball and take a shot before the horn blew…

She caught the ball just before it went out-of-bounds, turned, and bolted toward the basket. Two Lancers seemed to materialize as if by magic in front of her.

Neither one of them got any closer. They just kept their arms and legs spread-eagled in a tight-walled defense. Suddenly the ball bounced against the foot of one of them, deflected to the side, and Kelly bolted after it. At the same time one of the Lancers bolted after it, too, and both she and Kelly reached the ball simultaneously.

Shreeeek! the referee’s whistle sounded. “Jump ball!”

The referee got the ball and stood on the foul line, waiting for Kelly and the Lancer, both of whom were brushing their hair back from their shiny, sweat-beaded faces.

“Why didn’t you pass it?” Ester exclaimed from behind the Lancer.

Kelly tried to control herself from exploding. “I thought I had a chance to score a couple of points myself before the horn blew,” she said calmly. She hadn’t scored more than six or seven points to Ester’s twelve or thirteen. What more did Ester want?

The ball went up, Kelly tapped it to Janet, and Janet fired it to Ester. Ester dribbled it down to the Eagles’ basket, took a shot, and missed.

Two seconds later the first half was over. Eagles 48, Lancers 47.

“I think I’ll have you warm the bench for a while when the second half starts,” Coach Kosloski said to Kelly, as both teams headed for their locker rooms. “You seem to have gotten kind of over-energetic out there.”

Kelly stared at her. “I did? I didn’t realize it.”

“Oh, you did, all right,” the coach said, smiling.

Kelly met the gaze of her pale blue eyes. “Does this mean you don’t want me to wear these red sneakers in the second half?”

The coach laughed. “No. I want you to continue wearing them, all right. I just want you to sit it out for a while, that’s all.”

“Suppose I took them off? Wore my other ones?” Kelly asked.

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