Read Online Fairway Phenom by Matt Christopher, Paul Mantell - Free Book Online

a shot — you were trying to hit it.”
    “You got a seven, then,” Malik shot back.
    “Five!”
    “Fine. Two fives, and that’s that!” Malik put down two fives on his scorecard — with asterisks next tothem. On the bottom of the card, he drew another asterisk, with six and seven next to it — their real scores.
    From now on, he was going to watch Luis like a hawk. He knew his friend wanted to beat him in the worst way. Well, if he was
     going to do it, he’d have to do it honestly.
    No way Malik was going to let Luis get away with cheating — unless, of course, he let Malik cheat, too.
    Luis had a bad second hole, and an even worse third hole. Malik must have felt sorry for him, because he didn’t play too well,
     either. Better than Luis, though, for sure.
    By the fourth hole, Luis was showing his frustration openly. Dribbling his drive just a few feet in front of the tee, he slammed
     the driver into the ground.
    “Hey!” Malik said. “Easy with that club — one of my woods is already half broken from that kind of treatment.” He didn’t know
     that was why, but thought it was a good guess.
    “I hate these clubs!” Luis complained. “I gotta get me some real clubs, man.”
    “It’s not the clubs,” Malik said. “If you want, I could show you —”
    “I don’t need you to give me lessons,” Luis said hotly. “Just hit the ball, okay? Then I’m gonna take a do-over.”
    “A do-over?” Malik repeated, rolling his eyes. “Okay, whatever.”
    If Luis was going to play it that way, fine — so would he. From then on, whenever one of them missed badly, they dropped another
     ball and hit it, not counting the extra stroke. Malik knew this made score-keeping ridiculous. But Luis kept telling him his
     score after every hole, expecting Malik to write it down like it really counted.
    When they finished the ninth hole and stopped for a drink in the clubhouse, Luis said, “Add it up, yo. Who’s winning?”
    “We’re not playing for real,” Malik pointed out, but Luis wasn’t listening.
    “Just tell me the score,” he said.
    “Okay. I’ve got a forty-five, and you have a forty-seven.”
    “Hey, I’m beating you, man!”
    “No, Luis — lower is better, remember?”
    “Oh. But it’s only two strokes, yo. And it’s my first time — I’m gonna win by the time we finish.”
    “If we finish,” Malik said. “We’d better get back out there.”
    “I’m on it,” Luis said, tossing his soda can and grabbing his bag. “Let’s go.”
    Malik finished his bottle of water and followed Luis over to the tenth tee. The sky was getting darker, but it wasn’t because
     of the time. Clouds were rolling in fast. Maybe, Malik thought, that was why there hadn’t been a waiting line at the first
     tee — maybe everyone else had heard the weather forecast and stayed away.
    “From now on, we play for real, okay?” Malik proposed. “No do-overs. That first nine was just for practice.”
    “Okay, deal,” Luis said. “But I’m keeping score.”
    “No way.”
    “You don’t like it, we can both keep score.”
    “Cool.” Malik breathed a sigh of relief. This time, there would be no cheating — they’d each be on guard against the other
     — and it would be a real match between them. Malik had had enough of Luis’s bullying. He, Malik, was the more experienced
     golfer, and he was going to beat Luis fair and square — no matter what.
    He hit a tremendous drive, right down the center of the fairway, then stepped off the tee without a word.
    Luis took a deep breath, swung, and hit his best shot of the day. It landed right by Malik’s ball, then bounced another twenty
     yards. Luis turned to Malik with a smirk of pride on his face. He, too, said nothing. The match was on.
    Responding to the challenge, both boys played their best golf of the day. Malik had to admit that Luis was a fast learner.
     Oh, sure, his swing was too long and too fast, but he was a good natural athlete, and that made