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saw another hand waving and I recognized Mom. Carl was with her, but his attention was on the match taking place on the
     floor.
    I waved to her, then raised five fingers and mouthed the words “Five minutes,” while I pointed toward Gail and Barbara.
    I squeezed between two shoulders and climbed up to where the girls were sitting. Gail had pressed up against Barbara and was
     patting the empty space beside her, smiling broadly.
    “Thanks for coming!” she said.
    “You’re welcome,” I said.
    I sat down beside her, and something dropped out of my pocket. It was Max’s I AM KING button. I quickly picked it up and jammed it back into my pocket, hoping neither of the girls had seen it. But then again,
     if they did, so what? It wouldn’t mean anything to them.
    I looked down at the gym floor and saw that none other than the Octopus, Max Rundel, was wrestling with Dick Treman, our best
     in the125-pound class. I cringed as I saw Rundel whirl Dick over onto his back and get on top of him in a crossbody ride, pulling
     up Dick’s left arm, which might’ve turned into a potentially dangerous hold if he hadn’t let go of the arm and spun onto Dick’s
     back.
    Both girls started to jump up and down, clap, and shout like crazy.
    “You two wouldn’t happen to be from Franklin, would you?” I said, grinning at Gail.
    She laughed. “How can you tell?”
    “You’re cheering for the Octopus. And nobody would cheer for him unless they were from the same school.”
    Her laughter faded. “Oh? Do you know him?”
    “
Know
him?” I was about to tell her about what had happened between us a week earlier, but then I changed my mind. How did I know
     that they weren’t good friends of Rundel’s? It was best that I kept my mouth shut. “Yeah, I know him,” I said, my tone of
     voice suggesting that I wasn’t elated about it. “But I think I’ll know him better one of these days.”
    She looked at me with those large eyes.“What do you mean? Oh, that you two might wrestle each other?”
    I nodded. “We might.”
    “You?”
Barbara cried, sizing me up and down. “You and Max?”
    I could tell what she was thinking.
    “I wouldn’t be surprised,” I said. “I may be short, but we both wrestle in the same weight class.”
    “Oh, no!” Barbara moaned, as if the Octopus and I getting together in a wrestling match would be like Rambo going up against
     Mickey Mouse. “That can’t be! It wouldn’t be fair!”
    “Why not?” Gail said, turning toward her. “Don’t you think Max is beatable?”
    “Yes, but…” Barbara leaned forward to look at me, sizing me up again to make sure her first evaluation was correct. She didn’t
     have to say anything more.
    “Size has got something to do with it,” Gail admitted, “but not everything. It takes guts, too. And Sean’s got a lot of that,
     in my opinion.”
    I laughed. “Thanks, Gail,” I said. I could’ve hugged her, but I didn’t have the nerve. After all, we’d just met.
    Suddenly, there was a loud cheer and I saw the ref put up an arm — the one with a green band on it — and raise a finger. A
     point for Dick Treman. Hooray for the home team.
    Moments later, however, the Octopus surprised him with a half nelson and pinned him.
    Both girls cheered, Barbara much louder than Gail. I wondered why she wasn’t down on the floor with the Franklin JV cheerleaders.
     She certainly had the enthusiasm — and the voice — for it.
    I sat with the girls about five minutes longer, then excused myself. I said I hoped to see them again, looking directly at
     Gail as I said it, and they both promised that I would.
    I found Mom and Carl, and we watched Bull win his match with no problems at all, scoring the most points of any of us, which
     was no surprise.
    Later, after he’d showered and dressed, Bull came up into the stands and squeezed in beside me. After watching a couple of
     ninety-eight-pounders go at it for a while, Bull said, “How about you and me going