“Now? Isn’t it a bit late for —”
“It’s important.”
“Couldn’t you call?”
“This needs to be face-to-face, Dad. In person.” Jay put his dishes in the dishwasher and went to the hall closet for his coat.
“I’ll drive you over when your mom gets home. She’ll stay with Sam.”
“Mom’s probably going to be late. Someone’s having a baby or there’s an emergency or something.” Jay hauled on his jacked and grabbed a scarf.
“I can babysit myself.” Sam stood at the top of the stairs with Rudy beside him.
“What if a burglar crashes in and ties you up and locks you in the closet and steals all your toys?” said Jay.
“Rudy will bite him.”
“Then Rudy’ll get arrested and the burglar will sue for damages.”
Sam thought about Jay’s words for a few seconds. He patted Rudy, then sat down on the top step with one arm across the dog’s back.
“I won’t be long, Dad. I’ll likely be home before Mom.” As Jay closed the door, he heard Sam asking his father something about lawyers for dogs.
***
For the second time in two days, Jay stood on the Hebbs’ front step, uninvited. He rang the doorbell.
Colin opened the door, then started to close it again.
“Wait!” said Jay. “Give me a chance to talk.”
“If this is about me being in the washroom —”
“It isn’t! Forget that. I have to ask you something important.”
Shauna came into the front hall. “Hey, saw that clip of your basketball game on YouTube. Everyone’s watching it. You on Facebook? Diane wants to friend you.”
“You know Diane?” Colin asked Jay.
“Not really, I —”
“I introduced them yesterday on my phone,” Shauna said. “And Diane thinks Jay’s cute.” She grinned and walked away.
Colin gave Jay a weird look. “Diane’s maybe twelve.”
Why even try to explain? Jay switched the topic. “Did you see the video clip?”
“Yeah, I saw it.”
Was Colin actually impressed by the clip? Jay couldn’t tell by the expression on his face. Colin was still holding the door. Jay was still standing outside. He knew if he waited any longer to say what he’d come there to say, he’d be staring at a closed door.
“I want you to take on the job of co-captain of the Rockets.” Jay didn’t give Colin a chance to interrupt. “We’ll have different roles. You’ll do team strategies and help with things players need to work on. I’ll do team awareness and pep talks, stuff like that. Lots of teams have co-captains.”
“But you won the vote.”
“Coach said the vote was really close. It makes sense to have co-captains.” For a couple of seconds, Colin didn’t say anything. Then he stepped outside and closed the door behind him. “How come you’re doing this?”
“I promised myself the Rockets would get that regional championship banner this year. Centreville’s got too many of them. This one’s ours.”
“What’s that got to do with me being co-captain?”
“I gotta say this straight up. You’re —” Jay wanted to make sure every word was exactly right. “Things aren’t going that good for the Rockets, even if we did win our game today. Part of it’s because you got suspended. That started the season off on the wrong track.” He took a deep breath. “And if we’re co-captains, maybe things’ll smooth out for the team. Give us all a chance to concentrate on playing our best basketball.”
Colin looked down, not making eye contact with Jay. “I didn’t think you guys had a chance against MacLeod if I wasn’t playing.”
“The win was a fluke.”
“That play was no fluke.”
“We couldn’t pull it off again. Not unless things get back to normal and the team gets a chance to really gel. Right now, things are all over the place.”
Colin rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Coach Willis called me tonight after I got suspended by Ms. Himmelman. He said he was one hundred per cent behind her decision. He told me if I didn’t change my attitude, I’d be off the team for good and he’d find a replacement. He wasn’t joking.” Colin stared up at the light over the door, then turned back to Jay. “I mean, it’s pretty bad hiding in a washroom while everyone else is heading out to play basketball. I felt like such a loser.”
“That’s not —”
“I don’t know what I’d do if I really got kicked off the team.”
“So don’t get kicked off the team, then. It’s your call. If you’re co-captain, it’ll show Coach you’re working on changing and making things better for the team.”
“Why should Coach Willis say yes to me being co-captain?”
“He plays fair. He’ll let you have this chance to show what you can do. Besides, if he thinks this’ll help the Rockets, he’ll want to give it a try.”
“What about the guys on the team? You sure they’ll be okay with this?”
“Like I already said, a lot of them voted for you anyway. And I’m still a captain, so the guys who voted for me will be cool with it, too. It’s a win-win situation. So are you in or not?”
Colin seemed to think through every detail of their conversation. Finally, he nodded his head slowly and smiled. “I don’t get it, though. After all the stuff I did, you still want me for co-captain. You’re nuts!”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” said Jay, grinning. “We’ll call a team meeting tomorrow so the guys can meet their new co-captain.”
On his way back home, Jay was feeling really good. He’d finally accomplished something for the Rockets. At least he wasn’t a complete write-off as team captain. If the guys thought he was copping out by giving away half his responsibilities, he’d just have to accept that. The co-captain idea was definitely going to work, and soon the team would get back to normal.
“Jay!” The shout came from the other side of the street. Kyung waited for a car to pass, then jogged across. “I did not expect to see you.”
“Just heading home.”
“Me too. I was at Finn’s house watching our play on YouTube. One hundred times.” He laughed. “I have sent it to Min Ki and he will be very impressed. He will show it to his team, I know for sure.”
“Seoul, Korea, watching Richmond, Nova Scotia. Too cool,” said Jay.
“I am making a Rockets Facebook page with Finn. First to introduce all the Rockets players and second to post updates during the basketball season. It will be excellent!”
“Hey, great! Maybe the first part could be something like the Knights promo. Action shots of everyone and special effects and everything. That promo’s awesome.”
Kyung grinned. “I have watched that a hundred times, too.”
“I was just over at Colin’s,” said Jay.
There was a quick shift in Kyung’s mood, but he didn’t say anything. “It was okay. Really. I . . .” Though he wasn’t sure what Kyung’s reaction would be, there was no sense holding back. “I asked Colin to be co-captain and he said yes.”
“Does Coach Willis know?”
“Not yet. I’ll call him in the morning. He’ll be okay with it.” He decided not to mention that Colin had been warned he could get kicked off the team. Why spread stuff like that about the Rockets’ new co-captain?
“I know why you are doing this,” said Kyung. “You are helping the Rockets by making sure that Colin will change from negative to positive.”
”Something like that.”
“When I nominated you for team captain, I did a very good thing.” Kyung grinned, then started back across the quiet street. “I will see you in homeroom tomorrow!”
“Okay. See ya.” When Kyung got to the other side, Jay shouted, “And tha
nks! Not just for the nomination. For all kinds of stuff!”
Kyung waved. “No problem!”
As he walked along, Jay could see the flash and flicker of wide-screen TVs in some living rooms. Other homes were already darkened and everyone in bed. Nearing home, he noticed his mother’s car still wasn’t in their driveway. His dad would be waiting up for her, and Sam would be in bed, already sound asleep.
“How’d your visit go?” asked his dad.
“Good.”
“Just good? Seemed like something pretty important was up when you left here.”
“Yeah, well, it all worked out.” Later, he’d fill his dad in on the co-captain deal he made with Colin and all the reasons why. Right now, he had one more very important thing to do.
As Jay passed Sam’s room, Rudy lifted his head and looked out, then resumed his sprawl across the bottom of Sam’s bed.
Jay opened his laptop and typed a quick message to Mike Murphy: Check this out. The banner’s ours! Rockets rule! He added the YouTube video link and pressed SEND.
Jay grinned, picturing Mike getting that message and having a good laugh. At first. Just a bit of competitive fun between team captains, right? But at the next Cougars practice, Mike would get his team working on new strategies — a few surprises to hype up their first game against the Rockets.
Whatever Mike and his Cougars did, they’d be wasting their time. This year, the Rockets had the winning combination. Jay could already see the basketball championship banner hanging on the wall in the Richmond Academy gym.
Copyright ©2013 Sylvia Gunnery
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $24.3 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada. We acknowledge the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gunnery, Sylvia
Game face [electronic resource] / Sylvia Gunnery.
(Sports stories)
Electronic monograph in EPUB format.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-4594-0377-2
I. Title. II. Series: Sports stories (Toronto, Ont. : Online)
PS8563.U575G34 2013 jC813’.54 C2012-908238-4
This digital edition first published in 2013 as 978-1-4594-0377-2
Originally published in 2013 as 978-1-4594-0375-8
James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers
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Toronto, Ontario
M5V 1P9
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Game Face Page 9