Read Online Kid Owner by Tim Green - Free Book Online

give me a single chance during any of the meaningful drills for the rest of practice. I wanted to scream at him. I knew this was the position for me. And I owned the Dallas Cowboys; shouldn’t that count for something?
    When it was time for the offense to play scout team for the defense, Coach Hubbard told me I really should take some turns at wide receiver. “That’s probably where you’re gonna end up anyway, Zinna. I think it’s gonna be tough for you to see over the line to throw a pass.”
    So, even though my outlook had changed entirely and I suddenly saw myself as a very capable football player, it was obvious that because of my size Coach Hubbard regarded me as not much more than a movable tackling dummy. But I wasn’t going to accept that.
    I ran my routes hard and fast on scout team offense and banged into defenders as best I could on the running plays. When I played free safety on the defensive scout team, I threwmy body around like a missile. Bryan Markham never got his chance to wipe any smile off my face, because I’d already replaced it with a snarl. When we ran sprints at the end of practice, even though I was dog tired, I finished first in almost every one of them, second only a couple times to Jackson.
    It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good beginning.
    I was done with being pushed around. I wasn’t going to be anyone’s dupe again. I was suddenly strong and confident, and I intended to be that way in everything I did. I’d soon learn that sometimes that attitude can get you into serious trouble.

17
    When I got home that night, my mom listened as I excitedly told her about football practice and how well I did. I could tell something was on her mind, though, and when I finally finished, beaming at her, she said, “That’s great, honey. Can I talk to you about something?”
    â€œWhat?” I set my hamburger down without taking a bite. “Is something wrong?” The two of us sat at the kitchen table with Teresa at work quietly cleaning up.
    â€œDon’t worry, it’s not that big a deal.” She tried to play it off, but that made me worry even more because I could tell it was a big deal. “It’s just that I’m going to be telling the media that you’re not available for comment.”
    I stared at her, confused. “Wait, what media?”
    â€œWell, after the article in the paper this morning, the phone’s been ringing off the hook.” She took a small bite of a pickle.“And didn’t you notice the local news van parked down the street? I even heard from your principal, saying the school had gotten calls about you. So I talked to a PR firm and they said the best way to handle these things is to tell the reporters no interviews, let things settle down, and then have a press conference to defuse everything.”
    â€œPress conference? What do you mean ‘defuse’?”
    â€œThat way they’ll leave you alone. We can work through the team’s PR department to set it up. Mr. Dietrich wants you to go out there anyway to meet everyone, but not for a bit.” She nodded and took a big sour crunching bite. “There’s no hurry. The lawyers need another week to make the whole thing official anyway.”
    I shrugged. “Okay, whatever you say.” I wasn’t going to argue with my mom about it. As long as she wasn’t trying to sink the whole kid owner thing, I didn’t care too much about the media. Everybody in my world already knew about it.
    We had a pretty regular night after that. After I finished my homework, my mom let me play Xbox for an hour before it was time to read and get some sleep. As I lay in bed, thoughts swirled in my head. It was weird—I was finally a real football player, hitting and making plays on the field. Part of me still wished my father could have seen me, could have known that I was that kind of a kid. It seemed fitting that he should