Center Court Sting (6 page)

Tired as he was, Daren felt good as he headed for his locker. He had played hard, he hadn’t made anyone mad at him, and
later on, he would give Gary some good tips without —

He stopped and stared at his locker door, unable to believe his eyes.

Taped to the door was an ugly cartoon drawn with a red pen. The figure in the cartoon was supposed to be him, since it had
the number four on its uniform. The cartoon face had a huge open mouth full of big teeth. The caption underneath read,
daren — big mouth, tiny brain
.

Lynn came up alongside him and looked at the cartoon.

“Oh, man,” he said. “Not again.”

Daren ripped the drawing off the locker and marched toward Lou Bettman, with Lynn alongside him. He knew he had done nothing
today to deserve this. If Lou was going to pull this kind of prank, then Daren would… he would… he didn’t know
exactly what he was going to do, but he wanted to confront Lou with the evidence.

Lou was standing in front of his own locker, looking mad. He waved a piece of paper in Daren’s face. Daren looked at it and
didn’t know what to say.

It was a cartoon, drawn with a red pen. The cartoon character was supposed to be Lou. It was ridiculously tall and skinny,
with a big round head on top of a bony body. Tied to the cartoon player’s sneakers were concrete blocks.

The caption under the cartoon read,
lou skywalker
—
triple threat
:
can’t jump
,
can’t shoot, can’t run
.

Before Lou could say a word, Daren showed Lou
his
cartoon.

The two Rangers exchanged long looks of amazement.

Both knew the other had been on the
court the whole practice. So neither of them had done these cartoons.

And maybe neither of them had pulled the towel or shoe prank, either.

“If it wasn’t you —,” Daren started.

“Then who was it?” Lou finished.

“Hey, guys,” Lynn said softly, “maybe I just solved the mystery. Look over there.”

He pointed to a corner of the locker room. Daren and Lou followed his finger.

Andy Higgins sat there, lettering a poster. He was using a red marking pen.

A
ndy was busy with his poster and hadn’t seen the three Rangers watching him.

Lynn said, “I bet he did the other stuff, too: Lou’s shoes and Daren’s towel. Let’s go over and —”

“No,” said Lou. “I don’t want to do that.”

“You don’t?” Lynn was amazed. “Why not? He’s been messing around with the two of you until you were ready to fight each other.
Hey, he had almost the whole
team
ready to fight! Why not let him have it?”

Lou started walking back to his locker. He looked over his shoulder at Lynn and Daren.

“Just because Andy was using a red pen, we don’t know for sure that he did the other stuff. And I’m really tired of hassles.
All we do lately is yell and scream. I just want to play ball and forget this garbage.”

Daren said, “I feel the same way.”

Lynn’s jaw dropped open. “You
do?
I figured you’d want to get Andy good.”

But Daren had been thinking about some of the things he had said to Andy lately. Things that he now suspected had hurt the
manager’s feelings. He was still bothered by what he had done to Gary, too. But he didn’t want to talk about it just now.

“I’ll explain it later. Right now, I just want to get out of here. I’m supposed to meet Gary Parnell and teach him some basketball.”

Lynn shrugged. “Cool. You want to ride home with me?”

“You really aren’t mad about what I said
yesterday? I was a total jerk,” Daren admitted.

Lynn smiled. “I won’t argue with you. But forget it.”

Daren shook his head. “I won’t forget it, but I’ll try not to do it again.”

Riding home, Lynn kept staring at Daren until Daren asked, “Is something wrong?”

“That’s what I was going to ask you,” Lynn said. “You’re acting funny. You all right?”

Daren thought for a moment. “I’m not great, but I’m working on getting better.”

“Whatever
that
means,” said Lynn.

“It’s cool,” Daren replied. “I’m okay.”

Gary was waiting in his driveway when Daren got home. His basketball was next to him.

He jumped up when he saw Daren coming. “Hi, Daren! Wanna watch me dribble?”

Daren smiled. “Sure, just let me put my bike away.”

When Daren returned, Gary said, “Look!” He stood motionless for a moment, lifted his eyes so that he was looking over Daren’s
head, and started bouncing the ball. He didn’t let himself look down at the ball and made four or five good dribbles before
the ball got away from him.

“Great!” Daren chased the ball down and threw it back to Gary. “That’s better!”

But Gary looked upset. “I was doing it even better before you got home! Really! I was really doing good!”

Daren smiled. “That’s the idea. Just keep working on these things, and before you know it, you won’t even have to think about
it. You’ll do it automatically.”

“But I was really doing good before,” Gary insisted. “Let me do it again!”

“Okay,” Daren said. “But don’t expect to get real good all at once. It takes time.”

Gary wasn’t paying attention. He was
staring hard at the basketball he held in both hands. Then he started dribbling again, with his eyes focused on Daren’s face.
After six bounces, the ball hit his foot and bounced onto the lawn. Gary looked like he might start crying.

“I was really dribbling great! I can’t do it anymore!”

“Hey, hey, take it easy!” Daren reached out and patted Gary on the shoulder. “You
were
doing better. I could see. You weren’t looking at the ball, and you were controlling it better.”

“But I did it for a lot longer before, only you didn’t see me.” Gary looked miserable.

Daren sat down on the grass beside the driveway. “You’re doing better than I did when I was your age. When I started trying
to play b-ball, I was awful. It was embarrassing!”

“Really?” Gary looked doubtful.

“Absolutely! My dad put up a hoop for me, but I couldn’t reach it. I would take that ball and
heave
it up as hard as I could, and it would hit the wall, or it wouldn’t hit anything at all. Finally, Dad lowered the hoop for
me — and I
still
couldn’t reach it. I remember the ball hit me in the head a couple of times!”

Daren rolled his eyes, as if he’d been bonked on the head by a heavy object. Gary laughed.

“But my dad,” said Daren, “he was cool about it — not like me the other day. He told me that I’d get better, and he was right.”

Gary nodded. “Yeah. And
I’ll
get better, too, huh?”

“Sure!” Daren stood up. “Hey, why don’t we work on passing today? I bet you do better with that, because you can use both
hands.”

Gary frowned. “Two hands? Isn’t that just for little kids?”

“No way,” Daren assured him. “Even the pros make two-handed passes. I’ll show you. You stand right here.” He placed Gary near
the garage end of the driveway and stood next to him with the ball.

“Okay. Now, hold the ball in your spread fingers, like
this.”
Daren demonstrated. “When you want to pass, use your wrists and fingers to control the direction of the ball and give it
speed. I’ll show you.”

Daren moved ten feet away and threw a gentle pass to Gary, who caught it, and grinned.

“Now you do it,” Daren suggested.

Gary nodded, gritted his teeth, and threw the ball as hard as he could — straight to Daren! “Way to go!” Daren shouted. Gary’s
smile was huge. Daren flipped the ball back. “Let’s see another one!”

Gary had no trouble getting the hang of two-handed chest passes. Daren gave him a few tips about how to position his feet
and after a few minutes, held up a hand.

“Let’s move on to bounce passes. They’re a great way to move the ball around the court. You mix up the kind of passes you’ve
been doing with bounce passes, and you’ll keep the defense guessing. Like this.”

He bounced the ball off the driveway pavement to Gary, who caught it waist-high. Gary tried getting the ball back to Daren
the same way but bounced it off Daren’s feet.

“Whoa!” Daren said, grinning. “Take it easy on my toes — I only have ten of them.”

Gary giggled.

Daren explained how a bounce pass should be aimed to hit the floor several feet in front of the other player, so it bounces
about waist-high and is easy to catch.

They practiced bounce passes and more
chest passes. Daren moved back a little bit when Gary showed he could throw the extra distance.

All the while, Daren told Gary stories about his learning to play basketball. Like how he didn’t know how to tie his shoelaces
when he first played and fell on his face a couple of times rather than asking other kids to help him out. Gary, who Daren
had seen tie his laces, laughed. He was no longer nervous or anxious about making mistakes. He was having a great time.

Daren realized that he was enjoying himself, too.

Once, when he chased a ball onto the Parnells’ lawn, he noticed that Judy was watching quietly from her porch.

After a while he forgot to notice the time. Then Judy came over and said, “Gary, it’s almost time for dinner. Come in and
clean up.”

Gary made a face. “Just a few minutes, okay? We haven’t done any shooting yet!”

“Let’s leave shooting for another day, all right?” Daren said. “I had a hard practice today before I started with you, and
I’m wiped out.” He tossed the ball underhand to Gary, and pretended to pant, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. “I’m
not as young as I used to be.”

“Okay,” Gary said, with a laugh. “Next time! See you, Daren!” He sped into the house.

“I really am whipped,” Daren said to Judy. “He’s doing good.”

“I know,” said Judy. She looked embarrassed and seemed to have trouble meeting Daren’s eyes with her own. “Urn… about yesterday…
I just wanted to say…”

Daren, who also felt bad about the day before, interrupted. “Hey, you don’t have to… I mean, I wasn’t…”

“No, really,” Judy said, looking straight at Daren now, “I shouldn’t have said some of the things I said yesterday, and I
want you to know that I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Daren replied. “I was a jerk with Gary, and what you said was right. And what you said made
me start thinking about some stuff that I should have thought about before. So let’s say we’re even.”

Judy nodded, smiling. “Good. So, when’s your next game?”

“The day after tomorrow.” Daren sighed. “It’s a big one, too — against the Rebels. If we lose, we may be out of the tournament
this year, and those guys are really tough.”

“You guys are tough, too,” said Judy. “I’ll come to the game and bring Gary with me.”

“Yeah?” Daren grinned. “That’d be fantastic. Well, I better get inside. See you.”

Judy waved. “Bye.”

When Daren sat down for dinner that evening, he was starved. His father smiled, watching him clean his plate.

“Looks like you worked up a real appetite at practice,” he said, offering Daren a second helping of chicken.

“Thanks,” Daren said, spearing a piece. “Yeah, Coach Michaels really worked us hard, and then I was helping Gary out for a
while.”

Mr. McCall also took more chicken. “But it was a pretty good day, wasn’t it?”

“It was a
really
good day. And maybe tomorrow is going to be even better.”

Daren’s mother spooned some more peas onto her plate. “By the way, Daren, how is Mrs. Bettman doing these days?” she asked.
“What have you heard?”

Daren stared at her. “Huh? Hear what? I didn’t hear anything!”

“Something wrong with Lou’s mother?” asked Mr. McCall.

“Yes, she’s very ill,” replied Mrs. McCall. She looked at Daren with surprise. “You didn’t know? I understand she’s been in
the hospital for weeks.”

Daren put down his fork. He suddenly had no appetite.

Mr. McCall frowned. “Sorry to hear it. Dar, you never said that Lou’s mom was sick.”

Daren shook his head. “I didn’t know!”

“Lou didn’t tell you?” Mr. McCall asked.

“Uh-uh,” answered Daren. “I don’t think he told anyone.”

His mother sighed. “That poor boy. It must be very hard on him.”

Daren pushed back his chair. “Can I be excused?”

Mr McCall pointed to Daren’s plate. “Don’t you want that chicken?”

“Uh, no, I changed my mind.”

Mrs. McCall gave her son a careful look. “Are you feeling all right, sweetie?”

Daren nodded. “Yeah, I just wasn’t as hungry as I thought I was.”

Daren trudged up to his room. He felt awful. He’d been giving Lou grief, and Lou’s mom was sick! No wonder the guy was down!
Why hadn’t he said anything?

Daren understood that it didn’t matter why. He had to get Lou to listen to him, at least long enough for him to say he was
sorry.

A
s he and Lynn biked to school the next morning, Daren asked, “Do you know about Lou’s mom?”

“What about her?”

“She’s sick. She’s in the hospital.”

Lynn whistled. “Wow. That explains a lot. Think that’s why he hasn’t been playing well?”

Daren considered it. “Yeah,” he said. “I bet if it was my mom or dad, my head wouldn’t be in the game one hundred percent.”
After a minute, he added, “I could kick myself for the way I’ve been riding him.”

“
You
didn’t know his mom was sick,” Lynn pointed out.
“And
you thought he was playing tricks on you.”

They reached the school yard and chained their bikes to the bike rack. They were about to head into school when Daren stopped.

“Tell me something, okay?”

“Sure.” Lynn looked closely at his friend.

“I just wanted to know — how come you’re still my friend? I mean, the way I act sometimes, and the stuff I say to you… Why
haven’t you just walked away?”

Lynn laughed. “Believe me, it isn’t easy.” His face grew serious. “I just like you, I guess. You can be fun to be around,
when you’re not being a jerk. And we’ve been friends for so long, I must have just got used to you.”