1 Chapter SPOTLIGHTING SHERMAN The puck glided straight toward my goal At the last second I slid my mallet across the table and hit the puck Block It bounced against the side of the table and banked right into my opponent’s goal She never saw it coming Point I said as the electronic score on the side of the table switched from five to six Hope How do you do that my best friend Baylor Meece asked I’m not giving away all of my secrets I smiled One more point and I’d win If air hockey were an Olympic sport I’d have a wall of gold medals Baylor served So I’m getting new neighbors Cool I said keeping my eye on the puck One hit with my mallet sent it sliding back to Baylor 4
They have a son She blocked it and the puck crossed back over the centerline I think he’s in our grade I hit the puck again Is he cute Baylor set her mallet on top of the puck stopping play Errr Foul I said You can’t do that That doesn’t count if you want me to answer your question Baylor said Fine I said That foul did count And the puck should’ve been mine to serve But I didn’t push it Ever since my sister left for college Baylor was the only person who played air hockey with me Anyway I haven’t gotten a really good look at him yet Baylor said still hanging on to the puck I just know he has brown curly hair So maybe She sounded hopeful He’s got to be better than the guy who just moved out Yeah Baylor said nodding He was so gross 5
Always slobbering I said Always knocking us down Always had breath that knocked us down I said Baylor propped her elbows on the table and sighed I miss Cal already Me too I said Cal was Baylor’s old neighbor’s dog The Harveys didn’t have kids So they called their overweight bulldog Cal their son They really acted like he was too They stuffed Cal’s big gut into extra large doggie T-shirts He even had his own closet to hang them in When the Harveys worked late they paid Baylor to walk Cal to the dog park Lots of times I’d go with Baylor just to hang out Cal was a good dog Mostly There was this one time he lifted his leg on a toddler at the park Not good Maybe your new neighbors will have a dog I said 6
If they do they’ll probably just have their son walk him True I said But you can show him the way to the dog park If he’s cute that is Hope James My mom knocked on my door and stuck her head in Have you practiced at all today I noticed you haven’t logged your time yet Mom keeps a practice log on the side of the fridge I’m supposed to write down how many minutes I practice playing my flute every day And Mom checks it A lot If she doesn’t see numbers being logged she bugs me Like now I’ve practiced I said How many minutes Mom asked I looked at my watch Probably thirty so far Thirty Honey you know that’s unacceptable Mom stood in my room now Unplug that air hockey table and get out your flute I will Mom I said We’re just finishing our game here 7
