Read Online Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 by Chanda Hahn - Free Book Online Page A

on Mina’s face, and when the third play began, she was still
standing there, confused, as Mina flew around her. Like the wind,
she turned, twisted, and dodged around Savannah, and took off
running toward the end zone and Brody. He was running, and she was
keeping pace with him. Someone on the red team reached for him, and
she screened him. It felt good to protect the guy she liked.
    She wasn’t even winded as yard by yard she
stayed dead even with him and interfered again as another player
came to steal his flag.
    Not happening, she thought, and quickly turned around and ran
backward and slowed to get in his way.
    “ Move it!”
    “ Make me!” she yelled
back, grinning from ear to ear. She could hear the yell of her team
as Brody crossed the end zone. No one else was even near
them.
    Brody ran back and high-fived her. “Nice
screening. I didn’t know you were that fast.”
    “ Neither did I.” She
beamed, feeling glorious.
    There were others who took notice of Mina’s
newfound confidence. The coach even tried to convince her to go out
for track. Boys started to pay attention to her, not for her looks,
but for her tomboyishness—which made her one of them. Brody didn’t
like the attention she was getting, and it was obvious. He kept
moving her closer to him until she was playing running back.
    It felt great the one time that Savannah had
the football, and Mina got to rip both of the flags from her belt
in rapid retaliation. Mina was so fast that she was snagging flags
left and right. It was a close game. They were tied, and her team
had the ball.
    Brody counted down, and she ran. She heard
Steve yell, “Mina’s open—toss it to Mina!”
    Wait? What? OH NO! Not quite prepared, she looked up and freaked as
the spiraling pigskin was coming straight toward her head. Without
thinking, she reached up and confidently caught the football. Now
what? Oh, yeah, run. She took off toward the end zone, both of her
yellow flags still attached to her band. Frank was running toward
her arm, outstretched to end her run, but no, she wasn’t going to
let that happen. She pumped her legs harder and bore down the
field, dodging right, then left, staying out of the reach of the
other team’s defenders.
    She could see it! The goal, and nothing was
going to stop her. She didn’t know what was happening, but whatever
it was, she liked it. Especially when she carried the football into
the end zone and still had all of her flags. Mina did a little
victory dance and tried to toss the ball on the ground in
celebration, only for it to bounce up and hit her in the face. Yes,
she was faster and stronger, but still as uncoordinated ever.
    Her hands flew to her face and her swelling
nose. She pulled her hand away and saw blood.
    Brody was the closest to her. “Ouch! Are you
okay? Do you need to go to the nurse?”
    Mina rolled her eyes. Of course, he would
see her act of stupidity.
    Coach Beeber had caught up to them and
echoed Brody’s previous statement.
    “ No, I don’t need the
nurse, just a towel and some ice,” Mina mumbled through her bloody
hand.
    “ I’ll escort her,” Brody
announced.
    “ To the girls’ locker
room?” Coach Beeber scoffed. “She’s a big girl, Carmichael. If she
can’t find the ice pack and sit in the girls’ locker room for a
spell, then I feel bad for her. Besides, there’s still ten minutes
of class left.”
    Brody turned scarlet. Coach Beeber turned to
her. “Now, if you think you need to go to the school nurse, don’t
hesitate for a moment.
    Mina nodded her head in understanding and
slowly jogged across the field to the gym’s blue double doors. She
slipped into Coach Beeber’s office and headed to the small mini
fridge. She was quite familiar with the location of the ice packs.
In fact, she probably had one with her name on it. Sure enough,
there was the cute bear-shaped ice pack. She grabbed it out of
habit and retreated to the girls’ locker room. She sat on the
bench, applying pressure,