Stumptown Kid by Carol Gorman and Ron J. Findley Read Free Book Online Page A

later what Luther taught me. I wanted to tell Will, too. He could use it when he was playing for the Wildcats.
    “Uh-oh,” Walter said behind his catcher’s mask. “Lookee who just arrived.”
    I turned and saw Brad Lobo and three of his baseball buddies walking right toward us through the park. I blinked and focused my eyes again, but I hadn’t been seeing things.
    One of the guys walking behind Lobo was Will.
    “Hey, Will!” Brian called out.
    Will lifted his chin but didn’t say nothing. He looked real serious.
    “Wanna play with us, Will?” Walter called out. His voice was high for a boy, and he was on the heavy side. Lobo smirked at him.
    “No, he doesn’t want to play,” Lobo said in a high, girly voice, making fun of Walter.
    Will didn’t say anything. I knew he didn’t like how Lobo was talking to Walter. Usually he stood up for guys getting picked on, but this time he stayed quiet.
    “Keep playing, Charlie,” Johnny said in a low voice from first base. “Ignore ’em.”
    Kathleen was up at bat now. Like I expected, Lobo had something to say about that.
    “Whooee! The Stumptown boys play with
girls!”
Lobo hollered.
    He and the other guys stopped outside the diamond, between home plate and first base. Will hung back a ways and watched.
    My heart drummed in my ears. I didn’t want to play bad the way I did at tryouts.
    “Come on, Charlie,” Johnny said. “Let’s play.”
    I took a deep breath that was a little shaky, laid my fingers across the seams, and wound up. I threw the pitch but forgot to follow through, and the ball went left.
    “Ball one!” Walter called out.
    Lobo and the boys standing with him laughed. “Stumptown can’t even strike out a girl!” Lobo yelled.
    “Hey,” Alan yelled at Lobo from third base. Alan was sixteen, four years older than him. “Cut the chatter out there!”
    “Whassa matter?” Lobo yelled. “Can’t concentrate ‘cause we’re too
loud?
”
    Alan took about five steps toward Lobo, but Finn, now shortstop, rushed over and grabbed his arm.
    “He’s not worth it,” Finn said.
    “Come on, let’s play,” Johnny called out.
    Concentrate,
I told myself.
Remember what Luther said.
    This time I kept my mind clear and pitched a good one to Kathleen, right over the plate. She connected and hit a grounder up to Johnny on second base. He scooped up the ball and fired it to Brian on first. Kathleen was out.
    We’d all done our jobs, so Lobo had nothing to yell about and he kept quiet. I glanced over and Will nodded to me. I figured he was saying,
Good job.
    Now Brian moved to the batter’s box, Johnny moved from second to first, and Finn went from shortstop to second. Alan on third became shortstop. Kathleen went to right field, Casey went to center, Devin took Bowie’s place in left field, and Bowie moved in line to bat.
    Now it was Leslie’s turn.
    “Hey, how come you’re not at home cookin’ and sewin’?” Lobo called out in a high-pitched voice that was supposed to sound like a girl.
    I couldn’t hardly take any more. “What a creep,” I muttered.
    Lobo must’ve had hearing like Superman, because he yelled, “What? What did you say, Stumptown?”
    I looked at him and he was staring right at me. My heart started hammering even harder.
    “Nothin’,” I mumbled.
    “What? Say it again.”
    “I said I didn’t say nothin’,” I repeated.
    “I think you called me a name, Stumptown,” Lobo said.
    He came out and stood there on the line between home and first base, his hands on his hips.
    “He called you a creep, Lobo,” said one of Lobo’s friends. He sneered, probably thinking about what Lobo was going to do to me now. Will was watching from behind. He looked scared.
    “Lobo, I wouldn’t start nothin’,” Alan called out. “You got three guys. We got thirteen.” He obviously wasn’t counting Will on Lobo’s side, but he wasn’t counting him on our side, either.
    Lobo looked kind of startled, like he hadn’t thought about