Goal Line by Tiki Barber Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    â€œOoohhhh,” Tiki moaned. “I’m
sooo siiick
.”
    Ronde blinked, and cocked his head to one side. “What’s wrong with you?”
    â€œMy head feels like there’s an axe stuck in it! And my stomach … ooohhh, my stomach…”
    â€œMOM!” Ronde yelled. Seconds later her footsteps sounded on the stairs.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” she called to them.
    â€œTiki’s pretending to be sick.”
    â€œI’m NOT pretending!” Tiki shouted. “Ma, I’m really sick! Really!”
    She came into the room, looked him over, frowned, and felt his forehead. “Hmm. You don’t have a fever.”
    â€œBut my head is pounding!”
    â€œYour tongue’s not coated.”
    â€œBut I’m nauseous!”
    â€œHe just doesn’t want to read his essay in front of the whole school,” Ronde told her.
    â€œShut up!” Tiki yelled, trying to sock Ronde in the arm.
    Ronde dodged the blow, and added, “Everyone’s expecting him to be there, Mom. The whole assembly is just to honor
him
!”
    â€œI know all about it,” she said. “I tried to get off work today, because I wanted so much to be there.” She turned to Tiki, who looked like he was about to cry.
    â€œWhy does nobody believe me?” he complained.
    â€œTiki Barber, look me in the eye. Are you sick, or are you just scared to death?”
    He frowned, sitting up in bed. “I’m
not
scared!”
    â€œThat’s what I thought,” she said, smiling. “My boys are brave. They wouldn’t let something like giving a speech scare them. Why, you didn’t even have to memorize it. You can just read what you already wrote!”
    â€œBut, Mom—”
    â€œTiki, you get dressed now and go to school. If you’re still sick after the assembly, you go straight to the nurse’s office, all right?”
    Tiki sighed deeply and stared at the wall.
    â€œGood,” said Mrs. Barber. “Now let’s get moving, or we’ll all be late.”
    â€œI’m going to get you back for this,” Tiki told Ronde after she’d left the room.
    â€œCome on,” said Ronde. “You know you were faking it.”
    â€œWhy’d you have to tell her that?”
    â€œYou think she wouldn’t have known? Dude, she knows
everything
. Have either of us ever faked her out?”
    Tiki frowned. Ronde was right, and he knew it.
    â€œCome on.” Ronde offered a hand to help him out of bed. “Look at it this way. Those kids
need
to hear your essay.”
    â€œYeah? Well, why do they have to hear it from
me
? Why don’t they just publish it in the school paper—under a fake name?”
    â€œYou know what?” said Ronde. “They probably will publish it. But you know your name’s gonna be on it.”

CHAPTER SIX
FAME
----
    â€œâ€¦ AND SO, TO SUM IT ALL UP, WHAT DOES THE saying ‘Play proud’ mean? It means playing—and working, and learning, and doing, and helping, and everything else—in a proud way. And what does ‘proud’ mean?”
    Tiki looked up from his paper, which sat on the lectern in front of him. They were all out there—every kid he knew, every teacher, even the photographer from the
Roanoke Reporter
—and there was not a sound in the whole auditorium.
    When he’d first stepped up to the lectern, he’d been so nervous he didn’t know if his legs would give out underneath him. He had no idea whether his voice would even come out, let alone if it would crack like it sometimes did lately.
    The worst thing would have been if they’d laughed at him. He didn’t think they’d throw stuff. Everyone pretty much liked him, after all, especially now that he was the school’s number one football hero.
    But this deathly silence was worse than laughing! He didn’t know if it was because they loved the speechor hated it.