Read Online Basketball (or Something Like It) by Nora Raleigh Baskin - Free Book Online

name-calling flop fight. At least, that’s what all the kids were saying as they began to wander away.
    “Everybody go back and sit down,” Mrs. Ossie, the cafeteria lady said. She had one hand on Carter’s shoulder.
    But Anabel saw something else. She saw Jeremy standing next to Hank, right next to him, for no other reason than they were on the same team. Jeremy probably didn’t even know Carter. Or Alex. He probably had no reason in the world to get into a fight with either of them (although something told Anabel that if there
had
been a fight, Jeremy would have won it).
    But there he was. No questions asked. Jeremy had come from all the way on the other side of the cafeteria to take Hank’s side. To be
on
his side.
    Hank knew it, too. You could see it in the way he was standing.
    And when she recognized it, Anabel was suddenly envious.
Jeremy
    J eremy’s back was starting to hurt from sitting slouched down in the chair outside the assistant principal’s office for so long. He was about to sit up, straightening out his back for a little relief, but he looked over at Hank. Hank had his legs out, his hands in his jean pockets, and his butt at the very end of the upholstered chair, too, so Jeremy decided to stay down. He could ignore the aching in his back. It wasn’t worth looking eager or too concerned.
    Mr. Bernardino’s door could open any minute.
    One of those boys, Alex or Carter, had already been in there and was gone. The other one, Jeremy didn’t know which was which, was still in there. Jeremy had heard the assistant principal call their names, like he knew them already. Pretty well.
    Alex and Carter. No tough guys are named Alex and Carter.
    “You didn’t have to do that.”
    He turned to the sound of Hank’s voice. “Do what?” Jeremy asked.
    “I mean, you didn’t have to get in trouble. For me,” Hank explained.
    Jeremy didn’t say anything. His back hurt toomuch, and Jeremy shifted his legs in and sat up.
    Hank immediately did the same. “But thanks,” he said.
    They were quiet again for a long while, still waiting, staring straight ahead. They could hear a deep, muffled voice on the other side of the wooden door. Obviously Mr. Bernardino was doing all the talking. It’s always that way. Jeremy wasn’t planning on saying anything when it was his turn. Nothing at all.
    “We have two games this weekend.”
    “Huh?”
    “Saturday and Sunday. We have two games,” Hank said. “If you need a ride or anything.”
    Why would he think that? Why would he think I don’t have a ride, Jeremy thought. Like it’s written all over my face. Like my grandmother can’t drive a car or something?
    Jeremy turned to say something appropriate and then stopped. Hank didn’t really mean anything by that. He probably just wanted to be friends. Hank was pretty okay, and he was a pretty good basketball player, too.
    “I’ll let you know,” Jeremy answered.
    The sound of a chair scraping against the floor and heavy footsteps meant Bernardino must be done with that big kid, Alex or Carter. Whichever one wasthe real big kid with the blonde hair.
    “He wouldn’t have done anything,” Jeremy told Hank.
    “Who?”
    “That big kid.” Jeremy pointed to the door.
    “Oh, you don’t know him,” Hank said, shaking his head.
    The door opened and Carter Burnell hurried out. He took up a lot of space. Jeremy and Hank watched him go. Mr. Bernardino called Hank in. Jeremy slouched down even further in his seat and waited.
Anabel
    N ormally Anabel wasn’t crazy about old people. It wasn’t like there were really any in her family. Both sets of her parent’s parents had died years ago. She didn’t even have a very old teacher. Mrs. Fronheiser in elementary school was pretty old, like fifty or something. But Jeremy’s grandmother, Mrs. Binder, was probably the oldest person Anabel had been this close to.
    It wasn’t really that she didn’t
like
old people, but they seemed
so
old. So far away from understanding