Read Online Game by Walter Dean Myers - Free Book Online

excited. In fact, it looked like everybody was bored. I tried to check out the other two defendants, but they mostly kept their heads down.
    Ruffy and I didn’t speak while the hearing was going on, but when there was a break, he asked me if I knew them.
    â€œNo,” I said.
    â€œThat’s Norman and Little G,” Ruffy said. “Remember them from Marcus Garvey Park?”
    â€œOh, yeah.”
    Norman and Little G used to play ball with the older guys, but neither one of them really had any serious game. Norman had got a girl pregnant and tried to make her get rid of it, and the girl had been crippled. That was all I knew about him except that both he and Little G were losers nobody liked and everybody was half afraid of because they were always into something dangerous.
    At noon the hearing ended for the day. After Tony had been taken away, his lawyer came over to us and said he was glad we could make it.
    â€œWhen the actual trial starts, we want the jury to see that Tony has a family. That way they’re more likely to think of him as a human being rather than just a felon,” he said. “Is your mother coming tomorrow?”
    â€œI think so,” Ruffy said.
    â€œIt’ll help if she can make it,” the lawyer said.
    We went into the hallway, and Ruffy called his mom to tell her the hearing was over for the day. I looked at everybody wandering around in the hall. Mostly young black men I figured were on trial or going to see them except for a fine-looking Latinasister in handcuffs. I gave her a smile and she looked away. It wasn’t smiling time.
    We got on the elevator, and there was an older brother already in the car. He had real wide shoulders but he kept them hunched forward. He was leaning over and trying to catch his breath. I thought he might be having a heart attack.
    â€œYo, you okay?” I asked.
    â€œNot guilty,” he said, looking up at me. “I’m walking, man. I’m walking.”
    â€œYeah, that’s all good,” I said.
    When we left the building, the guy stopped and took a deep breath. I didn’t know what had happened with him, but I could see he was glad to be free and out in the world.
    The court scene got me down. I thought about what Jocelyn had said, that Tony had messed up even though people loved him. Maybe being loved wasn’t enough; maybe there was something else you needed not to get in trouble. Then I thought about the older guy in the elevator. He was walking out of the building, but it must have been a close call because he was still shaking.
    â€œThat guy was still trying to catch his breath,” I said to Ruffy as we started walking uptown.
    â€œSo am I,” Ruffy said.
    I looked at him and he wasn’t smiling.

 
    A t practice House set up backdoor plays over and over, with one of the forwards sliding off center picks for the bucket. Everybody on the team knew he was setting stuff up for Tomas, but we didn’t kick it around. All during practice I was watching the guys, seeing if they were on my side or slipping over to Tomas. I didn’t want to be suspicious of them, but that was the way I was feeling. I knew I could trust Ruffy, but I wasn’t sure about the others.
    We also practiced maintaining distances, because the guys were bunching up too much, especiallywhen we were trying to overload a zone defense.
    After practice I walked home with Ruffy and we talked about what colleges we wanted to go to.
    â€œI just want to go to a school where if you’re wearing their name on your jacket, people are going to know who you’re talking about,” I said. “A guy I know went to Bethany College out in Kansas. People kept asking him where it was and if it was a real school, so he stopped wearing their jacket.”
    â€œI want to go to a school where all the girls have big legs,” Ruffy said. “And it’s okay if they’re not too smart, too.”
    â€œYo, man,