The Accidental Quarterback by Charles Curtis

Author:Charles Curtis [Curtis, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: children's, sports, football, superheroes, sports and outdoors, adventure, fantasy, friendship, social issues
ISBN: 9781946700490
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC
Published: 2017-11-01T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

“We’re still working on it.”

That was all my father had to say after a stranger had infiltrated a supposedly secure gym locker room and tried to get into my locker?

Three weeks later, I still had trouble sleeping. Every time I woke up, I saw the Man in the Hat at my locker or the Man with the White Patch reaching out to me. My body’s defense mechanism, allegedly operative at times of stress, never even bothered to kick in.

Everything else in my world, however, seemed to move into place. The Griffins had a 3-0 record, I was somehow getting decent grades, and I was nervously, secretly dating Sophi.

At practice, my throws got a little more accurate, and the workouts got a little bit easier. Occasionally, I’d get a compliment from a coach. Flab lurked in the background, as always, but left me alone now, too.

“You won’t say who’s protecting me besides Coach Carson?” I knew I was badgering my father, but I didn’t care. I wanted answers.

Dad hunched over his keyboard in the underground headquarters. “Look, Alex. You want me to tell you the truth, so I’m telling you: we’re working with our security forces to find this guy and figure out how he got in there. As you can see here, I’m working on it. We need to analyze the chemistry behind your nanobots before we can understand how you can control their response. Finally, no, I won’t tell you who works with us. It’s for their safety and yours.”

“You haven’t made any progress with this in three weeks?”

“It’s a question of the right balance.” He stared at the numbers on the enormous computer screen.

Besides the potential danger of getting hurt or kidnapped, it was nagging me that a day would come when Coach Schmick called my name and I’d have no powers to lean on, no great throw, no pinpoint accuracy, no strength, no arm. Nothing.

At least I had Homecoming to look forward to. The Friday night before our fourth game, the town sponsored a big bonfire and celebration in the park and everyone—the mayor, parents, alumni, students, and, of course, the fire department—attended. We’d all wear our varsity jackets, stand up in front of the local TV cameras, and listen to the mayor say how great we were.

The night of the bonfire, Dex and I met up and waited for Sophi to join us before walking over to the village park.

“Do you think Denny Deaner will interview me?” Dex squeaked. Deaner was the local sportscaster who always reported on high school sports.

“You know exactly who he’s going to interview.”

“Sure, but we’ve got a cooler story. The two nobodies who made the team on one throw-and-catch during gym.”

Little did he know how much of a story that really was.

“Hey guys!” Sophi arrived and gave me a big hug. She did the same to a very surprised Dex.

We walked slowly to the park in the middle of town at dusk and saw an orange-yellow glow in the distance. I let Sophi and Dex do most of the talking—they mainly discussed school.

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