Center Field by Robert Lipsyte Read Free Book Online Page B

going all out.
    Back in the locker room Andy said, “It’s happening everywhere.”
    â€œWhat?” said Ryan.
    â€œIf the Chico was under the ball and called for it andMike ran into him, it would be considered a bias crime. Zack Berger would be out demonstrating.”
    â€œNot so loud,” said Mike.
    â€œYou gotta do something.”
    â€œLike?” Mike looked around. Oscar was in the showers.
    â€œCheck his immigration papers,” said Andy. “Check his age, he could be too old for high school ball. He might have a pro contract already. He might not even live in the district. Check his address, he might be ineligible.”
    â€œGet a life.” When Andy shrugged, Mike said, “What did Hector yell at you?”
    â€œSaid to get out of the way, you had a great arm.”
    Somehow that didn’t make him feel better, and he scowled at Hector when the little second baseman came over tugging Oscar. “He got something to say, Mike.”
    â€œSorry, man,” said Oscar. He looked sorry, eyes down. “Back home I take everything.”
    You’re not in your home now, you’re in mine, Mike thought, but he nodded and mumbled, “Forget it.”
    After they walked away, Ryan said, “Don’t sweat it, bro, you’ll start in center. You can’t have an illegal in center field, it just isn’t right. Joe D. and Mickey would roll over in their graves. Even Billy Budd would be out demonstrating.”

PART TWO
    â€œYou can’t win the pennant on opening day, but you can start trying.”
    â€”IMs to a Young Baller by Billy Budd

TWELVE
    The sun came out for the opening game.
    The school day had lasted forever but passed in a blur. Sunlight hammered the dusty classroom windows, blotting out words on the page, drowning teachers’ voices, making Mike jittery. Move it, he urged the clocks on the walls. He winced remembering the last time he had said, “Move it.” To Zack.
    Dr. Ching asked if anyone had the answer to the dropped anchor problem. Does the water level rise or fall? No one raised a hand. Mike knew the answer but he couldn’t get his mind focused. He was thinking about center field. Am I starting today?
    â€œBuoyancy,” prompted Dr. Ching.
    One of the math brainiacs finally raised a hand, but she needed help from Dr. Ching to make her answer clear to the class.
    Anything that displaces water is buoyed upward by theweight of the water displaced. The boat and everything in the boat must be displacing an equal weight in water, otherwise the boat would sink. While the anchor is in the boat, the anchor displaces an anchor’s weight in water.
    But when the anchor is dropped, it sinks, displacing an anchor’s volume of water. Since the anchor is denser than water, an anchor’s volume of water is less than an anchor’s weight of water. So there is less water being displaced, and the overall level of the lake drops slightly.
    The water lowers, not rises, when the anchor is dropped.
    I could have done that, thought Mike. Did I choke? Will I choke in center field? Will I get the chance to choke in center field?
    Lori stopped him in the hall. “You okay?”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œYou’re, like, sleepwalking?”
    Luckily he was called on only once, in Contemporary Social Issues. Ms. Marsot asked him to make comparisons between immigration today and a hundred years ago, but before he could even say “Huh?” Andy shouted out, “It’s mostly illegal now,” and Kat said, “But it’s still supply and demand.” Ms. Marsot leaned back with a smile and let them take over the class.
    He usually tuned out the Andy-Kat Show and drifted into his own thoughts, but today he kept watching Kat.Those deeply set dark eyes under thick eyebrows made her seem even more intense. He remembered her body while she sat on the edge of the whirlpool machine, soaking her leg, her breasts