“Did she say anything else?” I asked.
Dad gave me a funny look. “Well, she did ask me if you were enjoying space camp. Any idea what that was about?”
“Space camp?” I said.
Dad took the cover off his driver. “That’s what I thought. But maybe I misunderstood. It was pretty busy in there and Jo can be a little, you know.” Dad twirled a finger by his ear.
“What did you tell her?”
Dad punched me softly in the shoulder. “I told her you were having a blast.”
“Good one.”
He winked at me. “I thought so.”
It felt good hanging out with Dad. Playing golf wasn’t too bad either. The more I hit, the better I got. And the better I got, the more fun I had. After a while, we decided to play a few holes. I didn’t come close to par, but at least I didn’t have to pick up my ball.
We ended the day drinking lemonades on the deck. “You know what I see?” Dad asked. “I see someone playing with a lot more confidence.”
“Me?”
“You bet,” Dad said. “It’s not just here either. I’ve noticed it at home too. You’re growing up, Wyatt.”
“You got all that from a round of golf?”
“Smart alec. I’m trying to give you a compliment.” Dad signed for the bill and we got ready to leave. “And listen, if you decide in the end that golf isn’t your thing, I’ll respect that and you can try any sport you want.”
I hope that includes football, I thought, imagining how nice it would be to play a game without having to lead a secret life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
José drew up a trick play in the huddle. “We’re gonna run a flea-flicker,” he said. “You know how that works? I hand off to you”—he pointed to Aaron—“and you pitch it back to me. If the Morons bite on the run, someone should be open for a long pass.”
José started the play with a hand-off to Aaron, who took a few steps forward and pitched the ball back. José pumped his right arm, looking for an open receiver.
When Spencer got to ten Mississippi, José scrambled upfield, but the defense closed in and tackled him quickly.
It was second down.
“Okay, that didn’t work,” José said before the next play. “This time line up like usual. Receivers on the ends and backs behind me. Aaron, when I snap it, you follow my lead. I’m going to hand it to you.” José drew a diagram in the dirt. “When you get back to the line of scrimmage, you either hit someone downfield or keep running.”
José put the play in motion, but Aaron bobbled the hand-off. He didn’t fumble, but he had to slow down. By the time he turned the corner, the Morons were ready. They forced him out of bounds for no gain.
Third down.
José stayed cool, but I knew he was starting to sweat inside. We still had a chance to win the game, but if we lost, the season would practically be over.
“Forget the tricks,” he said. “Thirty-three falcon on two.” He looked at Aaron. “You line up in the slot, like a tight end.”
Turning to me, he said, “You’re the back on this one. Get ready, just in case.”
We got into position. Planet held the football in his hands and waited for José to call for the snap from the shotgun.
Suddenly José stood up straight. “Stampede, stampede!” he yelled just as Planet hiked the ball, sending it right into my hands. Just like that, I was the quarterback.
Seeing what had happened, José became a blocker. He, Ox, and Planet stood between me and the rushing Morons.
I knew I could either throw the ball or run it. I moved sideways across the field, trying to get a clear look at the receivers. I saw Aaron get open for a second, just as Spencer closed in on me. I raised my arm to throw the ball as Spencer jumped into the air, but I scooted by him. Bodies flew at me, but I dodged them, freezing Herc with a stutter step and spinning around Julian. I raced down the sideline toward the boulders. I was ten yards from the end zone when Julian hit me in the side like he was fired from a cannon. I landed ten feet out of bounds and skidded across a bed of tiny rocks.
I could feel the blood flowing out of my hands, arms, and legs, but it didn’t bother me. I jumped right up and carried the football back to the huddle.
“I got one word for you,” said José, putting his arm around me. “Wildcat.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“You’re gonna take the snap from Planet. I’m going to line up as an extra lineman. Aaron is your receiver. If he’s open, hit him. If he’s not, run it yourself.”
“I don’t know about this,” said Planet. “How do we even know he can throw?”
“He can throw,” said José. “Just do your job so Wyatt can do his.”
As we broke out of the huddle, I looked at the other team and saw five guys who were all bigger than me, but there was just one thought in my head: You might knock me over, but you are not going to keep me down. It was the same feeling that had hit me like a bolt of lightning in my baseball game and sent me charging into the catcher. Only this time, the feeling lasted a lot longer than a few seconds. For the rest of the game, snap after snap, drive after drive, I played football fearlessly. I got hit, clocked, smacked, and dropped, but I kept running, throwing, ducking. Whatever I had to do to move the ball closer to the end zone, I did.
And when I scored the winning touchdown on a sweep up the right sideline, the Idiots mobbed me the same way my baseball team had. I knew I was one of them—an Idiot and a football player.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
On Saturday Evan and I had plans to see Dr. Pirate. My pulse was racing as I walked to the pool to meet her. It was the last weekend before the Fourth of July and things were getting hot. Today we were going to the movies and soon I’d be watching the fireworks with Evan on the hill, where who knows what could happen. But the more I thought about that, the more aware I was of how quickly it could all end. One slipup and Mom and Dad would bust me. I had to keep thinking like Aaron or Brian—be ready for anything and show no fear.
When I got to the pool, Brian Braun was there with his dumb muscles ready to save someone from drowning, but Evan hardly looked at him.
“So where’s Ashley?” I asked, taking a seat at the picnic bench outside the snack bar, where we had ordered ice cream.
Evan sat across from me, wearing shorts over a red bathing suit and brown sunglasses that covered half her face. “Get this,” she said, removing the sunglasses since we were under the shade of an umbrella. “She dumped him.”
“She did?”
“Like third-period French.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know the details,” Evan replied. “But I’m going to find out.”
“Are you still, you know, over him?” I asked.
“Eh,” said Evan, unwrapping her ice cream bar. “I was never really that into him.”
“If you say so.” I decided not to remind her about the time she picked trash out of a garbage can just so she’d have an excuse to stand near him.
“You’re still coming to watch the fireworks, right?” Evan asked, kicking me under the table.
I thought I was seeing fireworks already. But I did my best to stay cool. “Definitely,” I said, taking small sips of my milk shake to make the moment last as long as possible.
“Wanna hear a joke?” I asked as we walked through town on the way to the movies.
“Is it funny?”
“No,” I said.
“I still want to hear it.”
“Where does Dr. Pirate work?”
Evan answered immediately. “I give up.”
“The E arrrgh.”
“That is the worst joke I have heard in my entire life,” Evan said.
“Thank you.” I knew it was lame, but telling bad jokes eased my mind.
We went another block. “I’m glad I’m seeing this movie with you,” Evan said. “I told my friends on the lacrosse team I thought it looked good and they laughed at me.”
“You’ve had a tough week,” I said.
“Tell me about it,” Evan replied. “What did your friends say when you told them you wanted to see Dr. Pirate?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. At the moment, I wasn’t even sure who my friends were. Except Evan. There was no doubt about Evan. “It didn’t really come up,” I answered after a second.
A few minutes later we were standing in front of Pilchuck Market. “Let’s go in,” said Evan, reaching for the door. “I want some Milk Duds. Actually, I want some Red Vines.” She let go of the door. “Oh man, I want both.”
“So get both,” I said.
Evan sighed. “I only have enough for one.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “You can have both.”
“What do you mean?”
“You want snacks? I’ll get you snacks.”
“That’s so sweet,” Evan said. “I’ll totally pay you back.”
I scoped out the store as we made our way to the candy aisle. Up at the counter, the same clerk who was working when I came with Planet and Ox was busy helping an old lady who wanted her food bagged carefully.
My mind was clear as I found the Red Vines and handed them to Evan. I knew what I was about to do was wrong, but I was afraid to chicken out. Like by going through with it, I’d be proving to myself that I could make it through the whole season in the League of Pain without getting caught. I was giving myself a test I had to pass.
I picked out a bag of M&M’s for myself. Then I grabbed a box of Milk Duds. I glanced quickly at the counter, then started to slip the Milk Duds into my pocket, imagining I was Brian Braun walking into the movie theater.
Evan grabbed my wrist. “Wyatt! Are you crazy? What are you doing?”
“You said you wanted Milk Duds.”
“Not like that.”
Evan locked her eyes on me. There was no escaping her glare. I blinked, then felt my hands begin to tremble. I dropped the Milk Duds back onto the rack. I didn’t understand why I was shaking. The clerk hadn’t even noticed. I still felt like a criminal. And not just because I had almost stolen a box of candy.
“What’s wrong with you?” Evan asked.
Before I could answer her, the clerk walked up to us. “Finding everything okay?” he asked.
I instantly raised both my hands, showing him the bag of M&M’s. Evan held up the Red Vines.
“All right,” said the clerk. “Why don’t you come with me and I’ll ring you up?”
We paid for the candy and left the store.
“What’s wrong with you?” Evan asked again.
“Nothing,” I said. “Just forget it. It was a stupid idea.” But it wasn’t nothing, and I knew it.
“Just forget it?” Evan shot back. “You just tried to steal, Wyatt. You could have gotten us both in big trouble. How am I supposed to forget that?”
“But I didn’t, did I?” Of course we both knew that if Evan hadn’t stopped me, I would have stolen the candy. Realizing that made me feel queasy, even though I was living the life I had wanted, doing what I wanted to do, taking what I wanted, like Brian Braun in the movie theater. Brian had made it look so easy, just like Ox had. Obviously there were some big differences between them and me. For the first time all summer, I was really scared. Not scared of getting tackled, but scared of being someone I didn’t want to be. I could feel my conscience starting to break apart.
Evan and I made our way in awkward silence toward the movie theater. There was a bug in my gut, like the first moment of the flu, and even in the warm summer sun, I felt a chill.
“Are you okay?” Evan asked as we approached the theater a few blocks later. “You look pale.”
“I’m fine,” I said, forcing a smile. “Let’s get our tickets.”
I barely paid attention to Dr. Pirate. It might have been hilarious, or it might have been the stupidest movie ever made. I wasn’t sure because I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened in Pilchuck Market. I wasn’t going to forget the way Evan had looked at me in the candy aisle. It made me wonder how Mom and Dad or Francis would look at me if they found out what I’d done to them. Maybe the only thing worse would be how I’d look at myself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I didn’t realize how strong José was until the end of our game on Tuesday, when he lifted me off the ground, celebrating my game-winning touchdown, off a bootleg that had fooled the Morons so badly, I’d high-stepped in untouched from ten yards out.
“That was ferocious, Parker!” José shouted.
The next thing I knew, I was back on the ground, standing in a circle with the other Idiots, our arms locked as we swayed.
“We are …,” José yelled.
“Idiots!” we screamed back.
“We are …”
“Idiots!”
We had never celebrated a win like this, but then again, this was no ordinary win. We had tied the season score at six games each, which meant that tomorrow’s game would be for the championship.
I was still fired up that evening, already daydreaming about winning the big game on the Fourth of July, then heading up the hill to watch the fireworks with Evan. I felt like the luckiest guy on earth.
Unfortunately, my luck was about to run out. It started with Aaron pulling me and Kate into my room.
“I think they’re getting suspicious,” Aaron said. We were in the same spot where we had taken our oath just a few weeks earlier.
“This is just like Don’t Tell Mom I’m a Mermaid,” Kate said, nodding.
“What do you mean?” I said. “What happened?”
“Well, the mermaid’s parents found all these shells in her bedroom and—”
“Not to the mermaid!” I snapped. “I mean, what happened with Mom and Dad. Why are they suspicious?”
“Not sure,” Aaron answered, looking unusually nervous. “All I know is Mom and Dad want to talk to both of us in the kitchen before dinner.”
“What do we do?” I asked, suddenly terrified I was about to be crushed by the full weight of my lies.
“First, we’re not going to panic,” Aaron said. “Just follow my lead. If we play it right, we can limit the damage.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If one of us takes the fall,” said Aaron, “it’ll take the heat off me.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” I said. “Sacrifice me.”
“Or her,” Aaron said, pointing at Kate.
“That is not how the mermaid oath goes,” she shot back. “The oath says We mermaids three under sky and in the sea—”
“Kate,” Aaron growled. “I swear, if you say one more word about mermaids, I will throw you into the ocean myself.”
“Sorry!” Kate cried. “I won’t say anything else about mermaids. If you want to make Mom and Dad mad at me, that’s fine. I’ll get in less trouble than you anyway. Just don’t kick me out of the group.”
“What group?” I said.
Kate pointed at me and Aaron, then herself. “Us,” she said.
“We’re not a group,” I said, figuring I’d say it before Aaron did.
“Then why are we all hanging out in your room?” Kate asked. “We never used to do that.” She hung her head and muttered, “Until the oath.”
Suddenly, we heard Mom’s voice calling from the kitchen. “Wyatt and Aaron, come down here, please.”
Aaron and I looked at each other.
“You ready?” he asked me.
“I guess so.”
“Seriously, man, it’s going to be all right. And whatever happens, we’re in this together.”
“Thanks,” I said, sensing that Aaron actually meant it. Trusting him to look out for me, I took a deep breath and tried to relax.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said, leading the way to the stairs.
Kate came running after us. “Can I come?” she asked, peering over the railing.
“You’re better off staying up there,” Aaron answered. “But we’
ll hang out again. And I promise, we won’t tell Mom you’re a mermaid.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Have a seat,” Mom said, waving to the two empty chairs at the kitchen table, where she and Dad sat facing each other.
“What’s going on?” Aaron asked, doing his best to sound casual.
“We’d like to know if you were at Corner Pizza last Wednesday afternoon.”
Aaron and I made eye contact for a millisecond. For me, it was long enough to decide that if Mom and Dad knew enough to ask, denying the truth would be pointless.
“Okay, you got us,” Aaron said. “We were downtown and I had to use the bathroom. My friend Will works there and he let me in.”
Then it was Mom and Dad’s turn to exchange a look.
“You’re probably wondering why we were there in the middle of the day, right?” Aaron asked.
“Actually, yes,” Dad replied. “Why weren’t you volunteering? And Wyatt, why weren’t you at golf camp?”
I couldn’t answer right away. Not until I pushed down the lump in the back of my throat with a gulp. I could feel myself on the edge of cracking, but I knew I had to trust Aaron just a little bit longer.
“Well, I left camp early that day.”
“Why?” Dad asked.
“I guess I needed a break,” I said. “We’d already played nine holes, and …”
“It was my idea,” Aaron continued. “They gave all the volunteers a half day, so I texted Wyatt to see if he wanted to do something.”
I wasn’t sure I had one more lie in me, but I dug down deep, like I was finishing the last mile of a marathon. “We went to Pilchuck Market for chicken strips,” I said, picking up the story. “It was just that one time.”
“Is this the truth?” Mom asked.
“Yes,” Aaron said, nodding slowly.
“Well.” Dad sighed. “I can’t say I like the idea of Wyatt leaving camp in the middle of the day, but I appreciate your honesty.”
“In the future,” Mom added, “please tell us if you do that so we know where you are.”
The League Page 12
