Football Double Threat by Matt Christopher Read Free Book Online Page B

wished he could pull them back. It wasn’t any of his business why Jared’s dad had stopped playing soccer with him.
    Jared dropped the ball and nudged it with his toe. “My mom and dad got divorced two years ago and my dad moved away. I hardly ever see him now. Instead, I’m stuck with my stepdad.” He practically spat out that last word.
    “Oh. You don’t like him much, huh?”
    “What’s to like?” Jared eyed Rocky. “Would you want him as your stepfather?”
    Rocky blinked. “How should I know? I don’t even know who he is.”
    Jared gave the soccer ball another mighty kick. “Yeah, you do. You just don’t know it. No one is supposed to know.”
    Rocky was totally bewildered by now. “What is it that no one is supposed to know?”
    “That Coach Ward is my stepfather.”
    Rocky’s jaw dropped. “Get out of town!”
    Jared gave a short laugh. “Yeah, half of the time I can’t believe it either. But it’s true. He married my mom over the summer.”
    “Why isn’t anyone supposed to know you’re related?”
    Jared flared up at that. “We’re
not
related!”
    Then he took a deep breath and calmed down. “He’s worried the other Pythons will think he’s playing favorites if anyone found out. But that’s such a joke! I didn’t even want to be on his stupid team! No offense to the Pythons,” he added hurriedly.
    “Then why the heck did you join?” Rocky asked.
    “My mother thought it would be a good way for Coach Ward and me to get to know each other better.” Jared kicked at the grass. “But all it’s done is make my soccer friends mad. See, they don’t know about Coach Ward either. They think I ditched them to play football. Now they won’t even talk to me.” He gave Rocky a sidelong glance. “And until this week, the football guys wouldn’t talk to me either.”
    Rocky shifted uncomfortably. “Sorry about that,” he mumbled at last. “So why didn’t you just tell your mom you wanted to stick with soccer?”
    Jared lifted a shoulder. “She laid down a major guilt trip on me. About how I wasn’t even trying to get along with the coach and how I was making it so difficult for us to be a happy family, blah blah blah. After that, it was hard to say no.” He sighed. “Anyone ever guilt trip you into doing something you didn’t really want to do?”
    “Me? Nah,” Rocky replied. “So, is that why you agreed to play safety too? To make your mom happy?”
    Jared snorted. “No, I agreed to play safety because I was bored out of my skull sitting on the bench waiting to kick the dumb football! Now at least I’ll get into the game more.”
    Rocky laughed. “A lot more, probably. You know, for someone who hasn’t been playing football for long, you’re pretty good at it. Better than me at safety, anyway.”
    Jared gave him a quick look. “You’d be good too if you ever made it to practice on time!”
    “Don’t remind me,” Rocky said, shaking his head. “I can still hear Coach Ward yelling at me.”
    “Why have you been late so much, anyway?” Jared asked.
    “Let’s see.” Rocky ticked off the reasons on his fingers. “Thursday, I had to help Bobby take down about a hundred handbills we weren’t supposed to have put up in the first place. The day before that, I sat in an empty room waiting for Bobby and other student council candidates to show up for a meeting that Bobby had told me started at two thirty, but really started at three. And Tuesday, I had to go collect a second bunch of rock samples because the first batch disappeared — even though I’m sure I put them in Bobby’s backpack!” He sighed. “And on top of all that, I still haven’t sold hardly any of my chocolate bars, although I did manage to unload Bobby’s for him.”
    He looked up then to see Jared staring at him curiously. “What?”
    “Nothing. It’s just . . . well, does Bobby always have you doing so much stuff for him?”

16
    R ocky stared back at Jared. Then he looked away. “I guess I