Chapter 1 FRIEDMAN I open my eyes and look up It’s Coach DeSalvo and he’s trudging my way Me I say Coach DeSalvo stops in front of me He folds his arms and looks around the soccer field I don’t see any other Friedmans Friedmans here he says That’s not strictly true There’s Tiffany Freedman but she spells it with two E s and she’s a girl Friedman he says again what are you doing back there Um playing defense I answer From behind the goal I look at the net Yup It’s clearly in front of me What’s the matter with you anyway Friedman Friedman What are you afraid of I want to say Green olives with red speckled tongues I want to say Stewed prunes and vampire bats and street sweepers I want to say Charlie Kastner who just a minute ago was charging toward me with a crazed look that I’ve seen
in the eyes of a raging buffalo on Animal Planet which is why I’ve ended up crouched behind the goal covering my head with my hands during our first PE class of seventh grade But instead I just say Nothing Nothing Good Coach DeSalvo walks around the net plants a meaty hand in the middle of my back and guides me to a spot near the middle of the field Then pick it up Friedman Stop running away from the ball All this has made my stomach shake but I manage to say Okay Coach DeSalvo marches over to the other side of the field He blows his whistle and the game starts up again Frank I say to Frank Maldonado am I on your team He looks at me like he’s not sure if I’m kidding I’m not Yes Unfortunately he says How can you tell I ask Pinnies he says like it’s a question I should know the answer to I look around Half the kids are wearing those little blue bibs Oh Yeah I say Thanks I try to move around like the other kids in case Coach DeSalvo is watching but not surprisingly he’s forgotten all about me I drift over toward the sideline where a gray squirrel is hunting around in that herky-jerky squirrelly way I watch how he picks up a fat brown maple seed the 2
kind with wings that looks like an angel He clutches it in his pointy little squirrel hands turning it around and around to find just the right biting-in place Then all of a sudden he freezes He sits up straight staring at a spot right behind me I freeze too feeling the earth shake under me I turn to see what’s causing it twenty-four sets of middle school feet charging down the field And out in front is Charlie Kastner dribbling the soccer ball like a maniac and heading straight for me This time there’s nowhere to run All I can do is brace for impact and hope to heal up by Thanksgiving But instead of being smashed and ground to dust I watch as Charlie’s legs fly miraculously out from under him His big sweaty body tumbles through the air It seems like an eternity that he’s up there and then he lands with a thud on the grass Someone has taken out Charlie Kastner and stolen the ball It’s a girl She’s by me in a flash passing so close that her hair slaps me across the face It’s not tied back in a ponytail like the other girls It’s flying wild The ball skips ahead of her celebrating its rescue from Charlie’s clutches All the other kids whose thundering feet would have trampled my remains if Charlie had mowed me down make a U-turn following this new girl as she dribbles the ball back toward the other team’s goal 3
