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morning.
    “Did you win?” Sal asked excitedly.
    “Take a look,” Manny said, pointing to his dresser. His two medals were there, and Sal hopped off his bed and picked them up.
    “Wow!” Sal said. “You smoked everybody?”
    Manny grinned. “Not exactly. Those are for a fifth and a fourth. But that’s not bad for our first meet.”
    “I wish I had been there.”
    “Next time you will. It was awesome, Sal. It felt like being a pro athlete. People from all over were competing. Fast runners, but I held my own.”
    “Cool.”
    “Wanna go to a basketball game?” Manny asked.
    “Definitely!” Sal said. “The Knicks?”
    Manny laughed. “No. At my school. I’m meeting Donald and Anthony in a half hour.”
    “Great! Let’s get breakfast and get out of here.”
     
    The two brothers walked down the hill and met Donald at the corner of the Boulevard. Donald was waiting for them; usually he was the late one.
    “Where you been?” Donald asked. “I got here ten minutes ago.”
    Manny shrugged. “Slept late. We were in New York until almost midnight.”
    “Oh yeah, the big track meet,” Donald said. “You guys get slaughtered?”
    “Not hardly,” Manny said. “We kicked some butt.”
    “Big deal. Anybody can run.”
    “Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it,” Manny said.
    “I still say running is punishment.”
    “I bet you’d like it.”
    “No way.”
    They walked in silence for a few minutes along the Boulevard’s rutted sidewalk, past small restaurants and liquor stores and a florist. Sal followed a few steps behind. When they reached 14 th Street, a block from the school, Manny stopped under the big digital clock that jutted out from the bank building.
    “What are you doing?” Donald asked.
    “I told Anthony we’d meet him here.”
    “What for?” Donald’s voice was impatient.
    “To go to the game.”
    “Hope it’s not crowded,” Donald said. “He’ll need three seats.”
    Manny frowned, but he just looked at Donald for a moment instead of challenging him. Finally he said, “What’s your problem?”
    “What?”
    “You’re always busting on Anthony. But never to his face. He’s a good guy, but he’d pound you if he heard that.”
    Donald waved his hand. “He’d never catch me.”
    “Don’t be too sure.”
    Sal pointed toward the next corner. “Here he comes!”
    Donald held up his hand for a high five as Anthony approached. “What’s happening, bro?” he said.
    Anthony smacked Donald’s hand. “My man,” he said. “How’s it going?”
    “It’s going awesome.”
    Manny gave Anthony a gentle punch on the arm. Then he looked at Donald curiously. What a fraud, he thought. Acting all buddy-buddy with Anthony two seconds after ripping on him.
    The basketball team was playing against Lincoln. Hudson City was supposed to have a good team this year, but they’d gotten pounded in their opener a few days before. The wooden bleachers in the small gym were about a third full of spectators.
    “There’s Sherry,” Anthony said, nudging Manny’s arm.
    “Yeah,” Manny said. “She’s here to watch Fiorelli. She’s drooling over him.”
    Jason Fiorelli was one of the stars of the basketball team, just as he’d been in football. He was a carefree kid with good looks and great athletic skills. Manny liked him. He wasn’t arrogant like a lot of the better athletes.
    “Wish we had him on the track team,” Anthony said.
    “He told me he might join the team in the spring,” Manny said. “After basketball.”
    “He’d make a good sprinter,” Anthony said. “Probably a good jumper, too. Or a hurdler.”
    “Or just about anything,” Manny said.
    Donald sighed. “Can we talk about something besides track? It’s boring.”
    “Not to us,” Anthony said.
    “To everybody else it is,” Donald said.
    Anthony looked around and smiled. “Everybody who? It’s just us sitting here. You bored, Sal?”
    “No,” Sal said.
    “See?” Anthony turned back to Donald.