Football Nightmare Read Online Free PDF Page A

long?”
    “Just a few minutes. Long enough to see that you look good. We could sure use you this year. I don’t want to push it or anything, but … is there any chance you might change your mind and show up tomorrow?”
    Keith looked from Cody to Heck and back, and said nothing.
    “If you don’t want to, then that’s that,” Cody added. “But, is there any chance?”
    After chewing on his lower lip a moment, Keith said, “Maybe.”
    The boys played for a while longer, then split for lunch. Keith helped his dad around the yard the rest of the afternoon. His father didn’t say a word about football, but it was all Keith thought about.
    That night, at dinner, Keith made an announcement.
    “I changed my mind about football. I’m going to practice tomorrow — if Coach Bodie is willing to let me play.”
    “Yay!”
shrieked Traci, clapping her hands.
    “I imagine the coach will be happy to have you there,” Mr. Stedman said.
    “Of course he will,” Mrs. Stedman agreed.
    “By the way, what made you decide to go out, after all?” Keith’s father asked.
    Keith swallowed the piece of steak he’d been chewing. “I thought about what you said yesterday, and you were right. About not being afraid all the time, I mean. I don’t want to be afraid of messing up all the time. If it happens, it happens, but I’m going to give it my best shot.”
    He grinned at Traci.
    “I thought about what you said, too, you know, how you didn’t want your last football memory of me to be me lying facedown on the dirt? I decided I didn’t want other people to remember me for that, either.”
    “Now you’re making sense,” said Mr. Stedman.
    Keith frowned. “I thought you weren’t going to influence my decision.”
    “I didn’t. I waited until you made up your own mind, and now I’m telling you I think you’re doing the right thing.”
    “Huh,” Keith muttered. “What if I’d said that I still didn’t want to play?”
    “In that case,” said Mr. Stedman, “I still would have said you were doing the right thing. But I would have realized that maybe you were a different kind of boy from what I believed you were.”
    Keith decided to take it as a compliment.

6
    T he next afternoon, Keith and Heck walked onto the field where the Bucks were having their first practice of the season. Now that he had decided to come out for the team after all, Keith was feeling a mixture of eagerness and tension. He wanted to get started and was remembering how much fun football could be, but he was worried about what Coach Bodie’s attitude would be and how the rest of the team would feel.
    Would the coach be cool toward him because of his earlier unwillingness to play? Would the other Bucks welcome him back, as Heck had assured him they would? Was it possible that they might not be as happy to see him as Heck thought?
    Well, he’d find out soon enough, now that he was here. On the field, Keith saw several players already present, wearing helmets and pads. A few were pulling footballs out of canvas bags, while others stretched and warmed up. It was Cody who was the first to spot Keith and Heck. His face broke into a broad grin, and he yelled, “
Yo,
guys, look who’s here!”
    It seemed to Keith that several Bucks looked surprised to see him there, but he couldn’t read their facial expressions behind the helmets and face masks, so he had no way to know whether it was a pleasant or unpleasant surprise. He would have to wait and see.
    It was clear that Cody was delighted. He raced up to Keith, wrapped his arms around him, and lifted him in the air.
    “I
knew
it! I
knew
you’d be here!
All right!
Yo, Coach, hey, look who’s here!”
    Coach Bodie, who had been writing something on a clipboard, looked up and saw Keith. He smiled and walked over.
    “Keith! I didn’t expect to see you with us today. Does this mean that you want to play, after all? I hadn’t heard anything about it.”
    Keith suddenly felt tongue-tied. He should have