Shutout by Brendan Halpin Read Free Book Online Page B

at me and glared at Sarah. “If you’ve seen somebody die young, you know there’s nothing good about it. This guy is a total idiot. Like you should kill yourself as soon as you win a race, because it’s all downhill from there, and there’s nothing else worth living for.”
    â€œUh,” Tom offered, “I don’t really see anything in here about killing yourself.”
    At that point the teacher, Mr. Gordon, interrupted us, and each group had to report to the big group. It wasn’t clearwhat the point of the whole thing was, but it was cool to at least get to talk about our opinions for once instead of just writing down the teacher’s.
    I don’t know what made me do this, but after class as we were packing up our stuff, I said to Angus, “Hey, I’m sorry.”
    â€œFor what?” he said. His face was red like he was still upset.
    â€œAbout whoever died young.”
    His face softened a little bit, and he whispered, “Thanks.”
    â€œMy mom died,” I said. “When I was little, I mean. I don’t really remember.” Now why did I say that? Our family status is so weird and complicated that I usually avoid saying anything that will make me have to explain it all.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Angus answered. “It’s . . . sometimes it’s worse to remember.” We both stood there not talking until Angus added, “Well, see ya,” and bolted from the room.
    After I got rid of my books, I headed to the locker room to get ready for soccer practice.
    Lena was there, and she asked, “Hey, Manda, what happened to you at lunch?”
    â€œI guess I disappeared,” I answered without looking at her. I needed to get out on the field and focus on stopping balls and not think about anything else right now. I opened a locker and took off my shirt and shoved it in there, pulling on my SOCCER IS LIFE! T-shirt and then wishing I’d brought another one because Lena and I bought those matching shirts at the mall at the beginning of summer, also known as a lifetime ago.
    â€œAre you mad at me or something?” Lena asked.
    â€œWhy would I be mad? Just because you ignored me for a bunch of people you just met? Why would I be mad about that?”
    â€œOh my God, Amanda, we were having a conversation, and I just turned to say hi to some people, and then you were gone.”
    â€œYou didn’t just turn to say hi to them,” I whisper-yelled at her. The older girls were filtering into the locker room, and I didn’t want to have a big fight in front of everybody and be the subject of all kinds of gossip. “You joined their conversation and I sat there for
eight minutes
while you didn’t say a
word
to me, and finally I left.”
    Lena looked at me for a second like she was going to yell at me, but then my best friend swam up through the sea of Lena’s new popularity and showed her face to me again. “Eight minutes? Really?”
    â€œI . . . uh . . . I timed it.” I flashed my digital sports watch with the heart rate monitor that I’d gotten for my last birthday at her.
    Lena looked at the floor. “Wow,” she whispered in the direction of her cleats. “That was bitchy. I’m sorry.”
    â€œIt’s okay,” I answered.
    â€œNo, it’s not. I’d be totally pissed if you did that to me. I won’t do that again,” she promised.
    â€œCool then.”
    â€œFriends?”
    â€œTo the end,” I said, and extended a hand. She clasped it, and it was funny how that one moment seemed to turn my whole day around.
    And then practice was awesome. Mostly. We did the usual drills, and we scrimmaged, and my team won 3–2, not that I was keeping track of the score in a scrimmage. One of the goals against me was this amazing lucky shot right up in the corner of the goal that no human goalie could have possibly stopped, so I didn’t feel