Socket 2 - The Training of Socket Greeny Read Online Free PDF Page B

horrible
coordination.
    He dropped the wrapper on the ground. “You
ever tag?”
    “Huh?”
    “Tag. You know, tagghet. The game we
were watching until you couldn’t get a ticket.”
    “Uh, yeah.” My call went to Streeter’s
voicemail. I didn’t leave a message. I considered calling
again.
    “So where do you go to school?”
    “Uh, nowhere. I’m homeschooled.”
    “Homeschooled? You got a homeschool team, is
that it? What do you call yourselves, the Homeschool Hippies?” He
hit Lee in the chest and the three of them laughed on command.
“Homeschool Hippos?”
    He smacked the shit out of that gum while he
laughed with his mouth wide open. Chute scolded him for being an
asshole. But he had the other three rolling.
    “You’re lucky you don’t play us,” he said,
catching his breath. “I’d beat your ass so wicked your goddamn hair
would turn white.”
    They let loose, this time; half-turned, fell
over each other. There was no stopping him, laughing right in my
face. He was taking me out of the picture. Chute drilled him in the
shoulder, this time. Called him a jerk off.
    “Oh, come on, now that was funny.” He
regained his balance. “He’s already got white hair, get it? I’m so
good that his hair is already white. Before I even play him, his
hair is white. Get it? That shit’s funny. Come on, now.”
    “What position you play?” I asked.
    “Second lance.” He shadow-boxed at me and
shuffled his feet, throwing an awkward right hook. “The best you’ll
ever see.”
    “Lancer, huh?” I picked up the gum wrapper.
“You must be quick.”
    “Dude, I’ll make you dizzy.”
    I was still nodding, thoughtfully. He juked
around his boys, play-faking moves. When he was done
pretend-scoring, he held his hands up like a heavyweight and
bounced on his toes.
    I folded the wrapper and held it between two
fingers. “You dropped this.”
    He smiled at his boys and swiped at the
wrapper without looking but came up empty. He swatted again and
missed. I’d barely moved my fingers and he’d whiffed twice.
    He stopped torturing the innocent stick of
gum and finally looked at me. I turned my hand over, palm up, and
the balled-up wrapper rolled into my hand.
    “I learned that in homeschool.”
    He pecked at the silver ball to catch me
off-guard, but I bumped the wrapper off his wrist and caught it low
with my other hand. He swung with his left just trying to knock it
away and I batted the wrapper back to my right. Now he was swinging
wild while the wrapper went back and forth between his hands. His
cheeks were flush but he was chasing the bouncing ball like it was
a phantom housefly.
    Finally, I popped it high above our heads. He
watched it come down but before he could grab it I flicked it like
a pebble shot out of slingshot; hit him right between the eyes. His
head snapped back in surprise.
    It took a second for him to get his wits
back. A red dot was glowing between his eyebrows. I had my empty
hands up and parted my lips, the silver ball between my teeth.
    Shelly tried to smile, but I’d crossed that
friendly line. His boys weren’t smiling, either. He thought about
taking it to another level, but he couldn’t fight. He wished he
could fight, but he was over his head. All bark, no bite.
    Instead of taking a swing, he wrapped his
arms around Chute, interlocked his fingers over her stomach,
pulling her against him tight. Smiling, sort of. “Let’s get out of
here, guys.”
    He thought he had the upper hand, that
teammates meant more than friendship, that Chute would choose them
over me and that was the best way to strike back, but Chute was
about a half second from planting an elbow in his left ear. He
crossed her line.
    I should’ve let her do it, but when he
touched her like that I didn’t respond. I reacted.
    I reached my mind around him like a net and
dragged through him like fingernails. Pon had put the brain-freeze
on me a hundred times. It was the quickest way to confuse an
opponent.
    Shelly turned