The Contract Read Online Free PDF

choice, or your second choice.”
    He started reading out names.
    â€œErnesto Alvarez.”
    â€œPitcher.”
    â€œSecond choice?”
    â€œThird base.”
    â€œOkay. Chris Chang?”
    â€œShortstop, second base.”
    Derek looked over at Chris, the little skinny kid he’d seen before who looked like he was only six. Chris was wearing a huge glove that looked brand-new, like it had never been used. Maybe it was a Christmas gift, he thought, pounding his own, well-worn mitt.
    Okay, so there was at least one other kid competing for Derek’s position. Sizing Chris up, Derek thought that he could probably beat him out for the job. Of course, you never knew.
    â€œSims Osborne Jr.?”
    â€œThird or first.”
    â€œAll right. Derek Jeter?”
    Derek looked straight at the coach and answered, “Shortstop.”
    â€œAnd your second choice?”
    â€œUm, I really don’t have one.”
    The coach seemed like he wanted to argue but didn’t have time. He just shrugged, sighed, and said, “Okay. I’ll just put ‘no preference.’”
    Derek wondered if he should have said something different. But it was too late; Coach Kozlowski had moved on to the next kid, and the next.
    When Coach Kozlowski called his own son’s name, Pete shot Derek a confident look that made him nervous—and said, “Shortstop.”
    Coach Kozlowski let out a little chuckle, said, “Surprise, surprise,” and wrote it down on his list. “Okay, next . . .”
    Derek couldn’t believe it. The coach hadn’t even asked Pete for his second choice!
    â€œRyan McDonough?”
    â€œFirst base, pitcher.”
    â€œOkay. Norman Nelson?”
    Maybe he just forgot to ask Pete for his second choice, Derek told himself. But it sure didn’t seem like a good sign.
    He’d thought all along that Pete would say “pitcher.” After all, hadn’t he just been pitching to Isaiah?
    Derek felt like he’d been ambushed. Not only did he have real competition for shortstop, but the competition might already be over!
    Two other kids had also picked shortstop as their preferred position. That made five out of ten kids, but the only one Derek was really worried about was Pete.
    Coach Kozlowski sent them out into the field to one of their chosen positions, and he began to hit grounders and pop-ups to each of them in turn. He told them to field the ball and throw it back in to Isaiah, who was the only kid to pick catcher. He had always liked catching, and was the only one to bring a catcher’s mitt and mask from home.
    Derek fielded his three grounders and one pop-up cleanly and threw hard and accurately back to home plate. But none of the balls hit to him were difficult plays, where he could have had the chance to impress the coach. Anybody on the team could have caught any of those balls nine times out of ten.
    Pete, on the other hand, got to show off his skills by diving for a ball to his right, getting up, and firing home so hard that Isaiah cried out in pain, took off his glove, and started shaking his hand out.
    Pete laughed, then turned to Derek with a confident look and said, “Your turn.”
    Derek set his jaw and was all set to take another grounder and make a spectacular play on it, no matter what—but just then Coach Kozlowski said, “Okay. Everyone shift to their other choice of position!”
    As the other kids switched positions, Derek just stood there at short. So did Pete.
    Coach Kozlowski noticed that they were both still there, along with Chris and two other kids who had yet to try out at short. “Pete and, uh . . .”
    â€œDerek. Derek Jeter.”
    â€œOkay, Derek. You and Pete go over on the side there and take turns pitching to each other while I see what these other guys can do.”
    It was a way for the coach to avoid embarrassing anybody. Derek saw that, and he understood that it had been an awkward