True Legend by Mike Lupica Read Free Book Online Page B

Paco,” Lee had said. “She thinks Paco should be pulling a higher grade.”
    â€œWelcome to my world.”
    â€œOnly the classroom world.”
    â€œWell, then,
vamos, Paco
!” Drew said.
    â€œYou know Spanish, dude?”
    Drew grinned. “
Vamos
and
hola
are pretty much all I got.”
    Then Drew said he’d meet him in the parking lot at four thirty.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    â€œPaco” finished early with Mrs. Conte, and when he tried to get Drew on his cell, the call went straight to voice mail. So Lee went looking for Drew, checking the locker room first.
    Then he poked his head into the gym, not really expecting to find him there, knowing the girls’ team had practice in there today, with no competition from the guys’ team.
    And yet, there was Drew.
    Lee didn’t spot him right away, didn’t even think to look up to the top level of Henry Gilbert—their gym was the only one in the league with two levels of stands, almost like a college arena. But somehow his eyes went up there, all the way to the last row of seats.
    And that’s where Drew was. As if he was hiding.
    Lee backed up into the runway, walked up the back stairs to the second level, past a closed concession stand, and carefully poked his head through one of the entrances.
    Hiding a little bit himself.
    Maybe because Drew made fun of girls’ basketball as much as he did. Except, watching him now, getting a look at his face, Lee realized his friend wasn’t watching
girls’
basketball.
    He was watching
girl’s
basketball.
    Singular.
    That meant the singular Miss Callie Mason.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    To use one of Drew’s favorite words, Lee could see him watching every dag-gone move Callie made.
    Some of the boys called her “Halle” Mason, because they thought she was as pretty as Halle Berry. Callie was the star of the Oakley girls’ basketball team, a five-eight point guard, already drawing interest from colleges, even though she was only a junior.
    From the start of the school year, Lee had noticed how quiet, even nervous, Drew would get when they passed Callie in the hall or saw her in the cafeteria. Or when they were coming out of the gym after practice and she and her teammates were on their way in.
    But when Lee asked Drew if he wanted to go to one of the girls’ games, he’d say no, almost like he was too proud, or maybe because he spent so much time busting on the idea of women’s basketball.
    â€œWhy don’t you at least try talking to her?” Lee had said a few days ago.
    â€œWe talk.”
    â€œYeah,” Lee had said. “That’s some major conversating—‘Hey, Callie.’ ‘Hey, Drew.’”
    â€œI ever
need
to say something to her, I will,” Drew had said.
    â€œSure you will.”
    â€œYou’re an idiot sometimes. You know that, right?”
    â€œYeah, I’m the dumb one.”
    Only now, not knowing he was being watched, tucked against a back wall, Drew looked completely happy watching Callie play. Like he’d be content to sit up here all day.
    As if he could watch her dish and shoot and run the court—pretty much be the True Robinson of the girls’ team—until her coach blew the whistle and sent everybody home.
    Lee thought about giving him a hard time, just for the fun of it.
    But he couldn’t.
    Couldn’t make himself walk down the row and call him out. Just because of the look on Drew’s face. Almost like a kid looking through a window at a store at something inside that he couldn’t have.
    Interesting, Lee thought.
    He loved the guy like a brother, but maybe it wasn’t the worst thing in the world for there to be something he couldn’t have.
    So he went back outside, past the concession stand again, down the stairs, out to the parking lot to wait. When Drew showed up about twenty minutes later, neither one of them mentioned anything