Read Online Curveball : The Year I Lost My Grip (9780545393119) by Jordan Sonnenblick - Free Book Online Page A

myself up maybe twenty feet away from the target. I’m not stupid or anything, OK? I knew I had to be careful and take it slow. I wasn’t trying to throw from a regulation distance right off the bat, and I definitely wasn’tthinking I could throw anything resembling a real pitch.
    Mostly, I just really missed standing there with a baseball in my hand.
    I stood there for the longest time, with that sick-to-the-stomach feeling you get when you’ve broken your mother’s favorite lamp or whatever, but she hasn’t noticed yet. I could even feel my legs trembling a little. But I went ahead and cocked my left arm behind my head. Then I tossed the ball.
    It went about three feet and plopped into the grass like a fat little dead pigeon. I sat down on the lawn and wept so hard I could barely breathe. Then I picked up the ball, dropped it into the bucket, carried the whole shebang over to our garbage can, and dumped it.
    Â 
    â€œA sports photographer, huh?” AJ asked me a few days later on the way home from school. “With Angelika? Suh-weet!”
    â€œYeah, but —”
    â€œBut what? She volunteered the two of you, right?”
    â€œYeah, but —”
    â€œBut nothing. You’re gonna be hanging out together, like, nonstop.”
    â€œYeah, but —”
    â€œFirst you’re going to go to all the games together, right?”
    â€œYeah, but —”
    â€œAnd then you’re going to have to edit the photos together. In the yearbook office. Wa-a-ay after school. Alone. It’s gonna be, like, your office of lo-o-ove.”
    â€œYeah, but —”
    â€œOoh, I know what you’re going to say, though. What about baseball season, right? I mean you’re good and all, but I don’t see how even you can pitch and take pictures at the same time.”
    Yeah, I know I could have told him the whole truth then. Believe me, I know. But instead I just let him roll over me. As usual.
    â€œBut wait, that’s perfect, Pete! Then she’ll have to come take pics of you in action. And she’ll be all, ‘Wow, did you really just strike out thirteen battersin one game?’ and ‘Oh, Petey, your butt looks so cute in that uniform!’”
    We stopped on the sidewalk in front of my house, and AJ said, “Uh, Pete, weren’t you going to say something?”
    â€œNah, it’s all good,” I said. “I just, uh … oh, forget it.”
    â€œWhat, man? You can tell me anything. I trust you with all my secrets, don’t I? I mean, that one time when we were in second grade and Nikki Krupnik kissed me in the coat closet, I told you. Am I right or am I right?”
    I laughed. “Uh, AJ, you told me that because you wanted me to tell everybody. This is different.”
    AJ put on his most serious face and sat down on my front steps. And once again, I had the perfect opportunity to tell him. “Well, Pedro, what is it?”
    I took a deep breath. Then I chickened out and came up with a weaselly half-truth. I mean, it was true, but it wasn’t everything. “I don’t know how to tell Angelika this. Or Mr. Marsh. But I’m supposed to take pictures of a volleyball game tonight. And …”
    â€œAnd what?”
    â€œAnd I don’t know anything about shooting volleyball.”
    â€œWhat’s there to know? You just point the camera wherever the ball is, and press the little button. Oh, and don’t get all distracted by the bouncing babes in tight shorts.”
    â€œNo, you don’t understand. Shooting indoor gym sports is really complicated. The light is crappy, you can’t use a flash because you’ll blind the players, and the action happens really, really fast.”
    â€œAnd there are bouncing babes in tight shorts. Sorry, Petey, you just can’t convince me that this is a problem. You’ll figure it all out. Just don’t stare too much, or Angie will get mad.”
    So