Read Online Left Out by Tim Green - Free Book Online

. . . your face, Coach.”
    â€œWhy?” Coach Furster wrinkled his thick brow so that his eyebrows sank and his eyes nearly crossed again.
    â€œJust”—Landon pointed in the general direction of his ears—“so I can hear what you’re saying, or know what you’re saying.”
    Coach Furster only blinked at him.
    â€œIt’s easier to understand when I can see your lips,” Landon explained.
    â€œWell, you’re apt to miss a lot that way.” Coach Furster twirled his whistle and the tattoo on the side of his biceps—some Chinese symbol—jumped and quivered. “But don’t worry. We can bring you along slow. Was Coach Bell at your check-in?”
    â€œYes,” Landon said. “He told me I was a Double X player.”
    â€œCoach West and I will have to talk to him,” Coach Furster said. “Meanwhile, you just watch how we do things and then we can see how you do.”
    â€œI’ll watch everything, Coach.” Landon nodded vigorously. “For sure. I watch drills on YouTube all the time.”
    â€œGreat.” Coach Furster put a hand on Landon’s shoulder and escorted him over to the sideline in a cloud of that citrus cologne. “You know what? Heck, who cares?” Coach Furster knocked over a blocking dummy and dragged it ten feet off the field. “You can sit right there. That’s fine. You sit and watch and you’ll pick up a lot, right? You’re a careful observer, I bet.” Coach Furster pointed at him and winked.
    â€œFor sure, Coach.” Landon took a seat and beamed up at his new coach.
    â€œThat’s great, Landon.” Coach Furster patted his shoulder. “This is gonna work out just great. Glad to have you on the team.”
    Landon followed the coach with his eyes, the smell fading into the grass. Coach Furster returned to the other coach—Coach West—a tall, thin man who made Landon think of an undertaker. They were soon joined by big Coach Bell. They had a short, animated discussion. Landon couldn’t make it all out, but he knew by the way they kept looking at him that he—or really his ears—was the topic.
    Then he caught a full view of Coach Bell’s red face and could clearly see what he was saying. “—not mentally challenged. He talks funny because he’s deaf. He’s huge, and he’s got a doctor’s clearance and a custom helmet and his dad says he can read lips.”
    At that, all three coaches looked his way and Landon quickly averted his eyes, studying the grass. The blast of whistles got his attention and he saw that the coaches had moved on. The team fell into five lines, creating a rigid order where before it had been mayhem. Skip and his two friends, floppy-haired Xander andspiky-haired Mike, headed up three of the five lines. Another was headed by Coach Bell’s son, Brett.
    Whistles tooted and players took off from their lines, running with high knees from the goal line to the thirty-yard line and then stopping and reforming the lines, only to return some other way. They went back and forth with a backward run, a sideways shuffle, cross-over steps, butt kickers, and some runs Landon couldn’t even describe.
    After about ten minutes of that, everyone spread out and they did some more stretching. Five minutes later they were broken into three equal groups and running through agility drills overseen by the coaches. On the whistle, the players would sprint from one station to the next, with the coaches issuing an occasional bark—it seemed to Landon a mixture of criticism and praise.
    After that they worked on form tackling drills, just going through the precise movements of a tackle in slow motion since no one had pads on. Then the team split up into skill players—mostly the smaller guys like Skip and Mike and a kid named Layne Guerrero—who went with Coach Bell, and the lineman, or hogs, like Brett Bell, who went