Athlete vs. Mathlete: Double Dribble Read Online Free PDF

again. Never mind the tune. We weren’t even listening to the same kind of music.
    Why would Coach give us game time instead of the Matthews twins?
    The answer was simple: he wouldn’t.
    I felt a shiver scurry up my spine.
    Basketball had become very important to me, very quickly, and I’d never thought about losing it all so easily.
    What if there wasn’t room for me on the team anymore?
    I was enjoying my role as the school’s athlete so much, I wasn’t sure how I would handle going back to being
just
the brains.
    I could feel the stress building up inside me, so I started thinking about the periodic table, which usually calmed me down.
    Elements that begin with “A”: actinium, aluminum, americium …
    â€œOkay, Pioneers,” Coach Baxter shouted, then blew his whistle to call us to center court.
    â€œHere we go,” Owen muttered.
    I followed the rest of the guys over to the huddle, already missing them. They’d become my friends as well as my teammates.
    I shook my head, knowing I was being unreasonable. After all, the Matthews twins hadn’t replaced me.
    Yet.
    â€œI want you to meet your new teammates, Mitch and Marcus.” Coach pointed to each of the brothers. Judging by the looks on their faces, he hadn’t matched the right names with the faces. “They’re new transfers, from Saint Paul, Minnesota.”
    The rest of the Pioneers nodded but didn’t say anything.
    â€œSo,” Coach continued, “I know there’s been some grumbling about tryouts, but I don’t want to punish these guys because they moved here midseason.”
    â€œI do,” Owen whispered.
    â€œI think that once you see these boys play, you’ll agree that we’re lucky to have them.” He smiled at our new teammates. “Very lucky.”
    And that was the end of the discussion.
    I don’t know what I was expecting. I should have realized that basketball, unlike Masters of the Mind, was not a democracy. What Coach said, went.
    As I ran laps around the gym for our warm-up, which was the most grueling part of my week, I watched Mitch and Marcus run together. Their strides perfectly mirrored one another, their elbows moved in unison, and their chests rose and fell in time when they inhaled and exhaled.
    It was like they were one person, split into two bodies.
    Watching them, I was embarrassed by my jerky legs and flailing arms. They looked natural, like they were born to run while I wasn’t even sure I was born to
walk
.
    When Owen lapped me for the second time, I paid attention to how steady his pace was, and how he kept his head high.
    For the first time I could remember, I wished that my brother and I were more alike.
    And I kept wishing for that as the practice went on.
    Coach Baxter had us line up for all the usual drills, but seeing the Matthews twins in action was like watching an instructional video.
    Basically, they were the “dos” while I was a “don’t.”

    â€œNice play,” Nicky Chu shouted during the scrimmage at the end of practice. M&M had just dazzled all of us with an unbelievable joint effort to score yet another basket.
    â€œNow
that
was a no-look pass,” Paul said, shaking his head. “How’d they do it?”
    That was what I wanted to know.
    Owen and I worked well together on the court, but we couldn’t coordinate moves like the new twins even if our lives depended on it.
    Thankfully, they didn’t.
    â€œShoot, Russ!” Nate shouted the next time I had the ball.
    I hesitated as one M came toward me. He was the tallest player I’d ever gone up against, and he had at least three inches on me. Of course, that meant they both did, so I should have been expecting the other reaching arm that came from behind me and snatched the ball.
    But I wasn’t.
    â€œLike candy from a baby,” one of them said as he dribbled away from me.
    I wished I could tell them apart, so