The League

by Thatcher Heldring

  “Wait, her mom didn’t know her own kid was a mermaid?” I asked, handing the finished worksheet back to Kate. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “It makes sense, Wyatt. There’s a lot Mom doesn’t know about me,” she replied secretively.

  “Fine,” I said. “How did they keep the secret?”

  “First, they took an oath. So you, Aaron, and I will have to do that. Second, they came up with code names, built hideouts, and even made up a language only they understood. So we’ll have to do that too.”

  “How about we just start with the oath?”

  Kate sighed. “Okay, but if we get busted speaking English, don’t blame me.”

  It took us a while to get Aaron’s attention because he was on the phone with Olivia. Finally he came into my room looking seriously annoyed.

  “What?” he asked.

  “She knows,” I said.

  “Knows what?”

  “About the League of Pain,” said Kate, savoring the moment.

  Aaron picked up my paperback copy of Frankenstein and hurled it at me. “What did I say about keeping your mouth shut?” he barked.

  “She figured it out,” I replied, covering my face in case another book was coming at me. “She’s not going to tell anyone.”

  “Wyatt’s the mermaid,” said Kate.

  “The what?” Aaron asked.

  “Never mind,” I said, then looked at Kate. “Can we get this over with?”

  Aaron glared at me, like he knew something weird was about to happen. “Get what over with?”

  “We have to take an oath,” said Kate.

  “Do I look like a Boy Scout?” Aaron said. “I’m not taking an oath.”

  “You have to, or they’ll find out, and the mermaid will die.”

  “Who will find out? And what mermaid?” Aaron looked around. “What is going on here?”

  Kate held out her hand, palm down. I put my hand on hers. Reluctantly, Aaron did the same.

  “Now what?” he asked.

  “Now we swear the mermaid oath that will bind us together for all time,” Kate explained in a hushed voice. “Repeat after me,” she started. “Under sea, under sky, under star, under—”

  “Oh-kay,” said Aaron, pulling his hand away. “How about we cut out all this sea and sky garbage and get to the point.” His eyes shifted between me and Kate. “If either of you tell anybody about the League of Pain, I’ll drive you into the mountains and leave you where nobody will ever find you. Deal?”

  “Deal,” I said.

  “That’s not how it goes,” said Kate.

  “Just say ‘deal,’ ” I said.

  “Fine.” Kate sighed. “Deal.”

  “Is that it?” Aaron asked.

  “Hold on,” I said. “So Mom and Dad think I’ll be at golf camp. The golf club thinks I’ll be at space camp—”

  Aaron interrupted me. “Space camp? Seriously?”

  “It’s all I could think of. The point is, they won’t be expecting me at golf camp.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “The problem is this story has major holes,” I said, starting to panic. “Like, what happens if Dad drops by to play a few rounds and I’m not there? What do I say after two weeks when I’m not any better at golf? We have to think this through or it’s not going to work.”

  “Relax,” said Aaron. “Lying isn’t about thinking it through. Lying is about thinking on your feet. You have to take it one problem at a time and survive to live another day. There’s just one rule: once you start lying, don’t stop.”

  Kate jumped in. “Oh, like in gym class Friday, Madison asked me if I liked her haircut and I said I did, and when she asked me if I liked her shoes I said I liked those too even though I thought they were both ugly.”

  “Sure, whatever,” said Aaron, heading for the door. “Just don’t start anything you can’t finish.”

  “I think it’s too late for that,” I said as Aaron and Kate left my room.

  Even though I knew I was taking a big risk defying Mom and Dad for the first time, I fell asleep easily that night, knowing my secret would be safe. Aaron had never given me a reason to trust him, but this time none of us could say anything to Mom and Dad without all of us getting in trouble. We were bound together for all eternity, just like Kate wanted.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The next morning I called McKlusky, who told me there was another two-hand-touch game in the park at noon. After breakfast, I snuck out of the house without saying goodbye and rode my bike to Boardman Park, arriving just in time for kickoff. It was the last Sunday before the end of the school year, and my final chance to practice before the League of Pain started.

  For most of the game I ran downfield on every play, hoping someone would throw me the ball. I was just beginning to wonder if I’d ever get to do anything else when Caleb called my number in the huddle. At the time, we were near midfield and the score was tied 35–35. But it was fourth down.

  “What do you want to do?” Caleb asked. “We could go for it, but if we don’t score and they do, they win.”

  “And we have to score on this play,” Kenny replied. “It’s fourth down and we can’t get two completions on one throw.”

  “I say we go for it,” said Caleb.

  “Let me guess,” said Khalil. “Fake it, then throw to Morelli.”

  Caleb shook his head. “They’ll be expecting that. We need to shake it up.” He looked at me. “Can you catch?” he asked.

  “I think so,” I said.

  “Good,” said Caleb, holding out his palm. “You line up next to Roy like this.” He poked the right side of his palm with two fingers. “Run side by side for about twenty yards. When you’re downfield, Roy, you gun it for the end zone. The defense will follow you. Wyatt, when you see Roy speed up, you cut across the field. I’ll hit you in stride.”

  “Then what do I do?” I asked.

  Caleb turned his hand over. “Catch the ball and follow your blockers to the promised land.”

  I walked up to the line of scrimmage ready to play football. For the first time that day, I felt like I was in the game. I lined up beside Roy and ran as fast as I could to keep up with him. After about twenty yards, he accelerated straight down the sideline. That was when I broke left and crossed the field. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Raj had left me alone to cover Roy. I was wide open!

  Suddenly the football was coming right toward me. Instinctively I held up my hands and caught it without slowing down. Tucking the ball into my arm the way I’d seen the pros do on TV, I turned and raced toward our end zone. I knew I’d have to hurry. Fish and Raj were all the way on the other side of the field, but McKlusky was coming up behind me and he had much longer legs than I did.

  I felt the wind at my back. And just like in the baseball game, I kept myself focused and knew nothing was going to stop me from getting where I had to go. With a burst of speed, I broke away from McKlusky. I wasn’t in the clear, though. Raj was zeroing in on me from the side. He reached me just as I got to the goal line. As he extended his arms to tag me, his fingers less than an inch from my shoulders, I planted my right foot and spun around him. Raj flew right past me, stumbling out of bounds as I sprinted into the end zone for a touchdown.

  “Touchdown!” I heard Caleb yell. He was jumping up and down with his fists in the air.

  I couldn’t believe it. I’d won the game. It felt just as good as it had in baseball.

  Roy scooped up the football and stuck it in Fish’s face. “Better luck next time, losers!” he shouted before throwing the ball in the air.

  Kenny high-fived me. “What a move!” he said. “That was amazing.”

  “I told him he should play football,” McKlusky said to Kenny as we picked up the cones and sweatshirts before leaving the field.

  Soon we were walking down Boardman Street under a bright blue sky. The sun cast long shadows of Kenny, McKlusky, Caleb, and me as we left the park behind us. There was a lot of friendly
shoving and tackling, especially for whoever happened to be holding the football at the moment. I was having so much fun being part of the pack, I didn’t even mind when the three of them knocked down the bike I’d been pushing and dog-piled me on a grassy corner. I couldn’t remember the last time I had laughed that hard hanging out with Francis.

  “It’s too bad you can’t play flag football with us this summer,” said McKlusky when we were standing in front of my house.

  Something about the way McKlusky said that made me feel like I was officially a part of their group. But that left me wishing more than ever that I could play football with them this summer. It sounded safer for one thing, and would probably be more fun. There was nothing I could do, though, since Mom and Dad were not going to change their minds.

  “Hey, maybe we can just keep playing two-hand touch,” I said hopefully, wondering why nobody had thought of that before. We could be like our own league, except without the pain.

  McKlusky shook his head. “Never gonna happen,” he said. “My parents said I gotta do an organized activity. You know, supervised.”

  “Same here,” said Caleb, nodding. “Otherwise they think I’m just wasting time.”

  “They don’t realize they’re just wasting money,” Kenny added. “We could be playing football for free.”

  For a second I wondered if I should tell them about the League of Pain, but I knew Aaron would consider that a betrayal, so I stayed quiet. I hoped I’d still be a part of the group when summer ended.

  The smell of barbecue drifted into my backyard as Evan stood in the middle of the grass holding Kate’s purple hula hoop. There was a jump rope tied to it. “Pretend you’re drowning,” she said. “I’ll save you.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m drowning.”

  I was actually sitting on the porch step.

  “Wyatt, help me out. I need to practice my rescue technique. So get down here and drown.” She pointed to the grass.

  I lay down on the lawn.

  “Flop around,” Evan ordered.

  I flopped around.

  “Now call for help.”

  “Help. I’m drowning. Help.”

  “Relax!” Evan shouted. “I’m a lifeguard. Do not struggle. Hold on to this flotation ring and I will pull you to the side of the pool.”

  She threw the hula hoop. It landed an arm’s length away from me. I wrapped my arms around it and Evan pretended to pull me forward. She knelt down and turned me onto my back. She then held her ear to my mouth. “Yep, you’re breathing.” Leaning in, she asked, “What’s your name?”

  “George Washington,” I said.

  “And you’re responsive,” she replied, nodding. “You’re going to be okay. I better check your pulse just to be sure.”

  I lay still on the grass while Evan picked up my arm and held my wrist in her fingers. We weren’t holding hands, but it was close.

  “Your heart rate is a little high,” she said after about ten seconds.

  I sat up. “Well, I did almost drown.”

  “True,” she answered, sitting next to me. “That must have been scary. Lucky for you there was a lifeguard on duty.”

  “You know who else could have saved me?”

  Evan plucked a blade of grass. “Who?”

  “Dr. Pirate.”

  “I wouldn’t let someone with a hook take my pulse. That could get bloody.”

  I wondered if she’d hold hands with someone who had a hook. Maybe in Dr. Pirate 2, Dr. Pirate would get a girlfriend and they could hold hooks. “I think I want to go to the fireworks with you,” I blurted out.

  “Cool,” Evan answered. “You don’t have to fold flags with the old folks?”

  “I guess all the flags are already folded.”

  “Well, look for us at the very top of the hill, by the sundial.” Evan stood up to go. “I’ll be the one dressed in red, white, and blue.”

  “I think a lot of people will be.”

  “That’s a joke, Wyatt.”

  “Oh, ha.”

  She smiled. “I should have let you drown.”

  “You’ll make a great lifeguard someday,” I told her. “I mean it. That’s not a joke.”

  “Thanks. I hope no kids fall into the deep end on my first day, though.”

  “Wyatt,” Mom called from the kitchen. “I need you to come inside and try on some pants.”

  “Mom, it’s too warm for pants,” I said.

  Mom appeared on the porch holding a pair of brown dress pants on a hanger. “I need to know if these fit you because if they don’t, I need to buy you new pants for your graduation on Wednesday.”

  Taking the pants from Mom, I said good night to Evan and went inside.

  “Toodle-oo, kangaroo,” she said as the door closed behind me.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  After the graduation ceremony Wednesday, there was a party in the school courtyard for the families. Mom and Dad made me pose for a million photographs. When that was over, I sat in the shade on a folding chair with a glass of lemonade and a sugar cookie.

  Francis showed up and took a seat next to me. Sipping the last of my lemonade, I realized it was now or never. I had to tell him I wasn’t going to golf camp.

  “I’m so glad we’re out of here.” Francis sighed and adjusted his tie. “No more kid stuff.” All the other guys had taken their ties off, or at least loosened them, but not Francis. His was still hanging tight and straight. “Our new lives start this summer,” he added. “I can’t wait to be around people who—”

  “I have some bad news,” I said, cutting Francis off. “I can’t go to golf camp with you.”

  “Seriously?” Francis said. “Why not?”

  I looked around like we were being watched. “It’s the stock market,” I whispered.

  “What about it?”

  “All I know is my dad said no more golf camp.”

  Francis shook his head. “Man, I told him to diversify his portfolio.”

  “Well, it’s too late now,” I said, trying to act as bummed as Francis.

  “Do you want my dad to talk to him? Maybe he could throw a few tips his way.”

  “No!” I practically shouted. “You can’t say anything to your parents.” I lowered my voice again. “My dad is kind of embarrassed, and if your parents knew I wasn’t in golf camp, they might start asking questions.”

  “Okay,” said Francis, nodding. “I’ll cover for you. But I don’t know what I’ll say if you’re not in the father-son tournament.”

  “I’ll come up with something by then,” I said, tossing my empty cup into a nearby trash can.

  “What are you going to do instead?” he asked.

  “Probably just lie low.”

  “Hey,” Francis said, excitement returning to his voice. “I have a great idea. You could be my caddy. I could pay you.”

  I didn’t think it was possible, but Francis actually managed to find something that sounded less fun than golf camp. I tried to picture myself lugging his clubs up and down the fairway while he soaked up the sunshine. “I’ll think about it,” I said. “But thanks for having my back.”

  “What are friends for?” Francis replied, holding out his fist, which I bumped with mine.

  I felt a twinge of guilt as our knuckles met. It was hard to forget that I was lying to someone I liked. Still, I thought I had a right to do what I wanted this summer. I just wished I could have been honest about it with Francis. That was impossible, though. If Francis knew what I was really doing, he would make it his job to tell his parents, or my parents, even if it got me in trouble. So it was really his fault I had to make up the stock market story. It had to be this way, which was never the fun way.

  “We’re so proud of you, Wyatt,” Mom said as she handed me a gift-wrapped box with an envelope taped to the outside. It was dinnertime after graduation, and the whole family was watching me.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “It’s a lot of things,” Dad replied. “It’s your graduati
on present slash starting-golf-camp present slash, well, just all-around-great-job present.”

  “Do I get a present?” Kate asked. “I got good grades too.”

  Yeah, thanks to me, I thought.

  “So he got good grades?” Aaron said. “Why do we have to make a big deal out of it?”

  “It’s called positive reinforcement, pal,” Dad told Aaron. “You want presents at dinner? You bring home straight As and stay out of trouble for a year, I’ll get you whatever you want.”

  “I want a truck,” Aaron said.

  Dad looked at him. “You get straight As, I’ll buy you a truck. Until then, be happy for your brother. If you’re nice to him, he might tell you some of his secrets.”

  “Yeah, Wyatt,” Aaron said. “Tell me some of your secrets. What makes you so smart and special?”

  I wanted to crawl under the table until the end of dinner. Why did Mom and Dad have to make such a big deal about my grades in front of Aaron?

  Mom pointed at the box. “Open it up,” she said.

  I felt the box. It was pretty obvious the present was a pair of shoes, or at least something heavy in a shoe box. Sure enough, when I’d pulled off all the wrapping paper, I was staring at a pair of golf shoes. A pair of old golf shoes. I could tell they’d been white when they were new, but grass and dirt stains had turned them a brownish green on the sides. Metal spikes jutted out from the bottom of each shoe.

  “For golf camp!” Mom exclaimed, in case I couldn’t put it together myself. “They were your dad’s.”

  “I’ve held on to them so I could pass them on to one of you. They’ve been in this box for thirty years.”

  “That’s gross,” said Kate.

  “So, they’re yours now,” Dad went on. “Just in time too. Camp starts Monday, right?”

  I nodded. “Yup,” I said. For some kids, anyway.

  “Do you like them?” Mom asked.

  “They’re great,” I said.

  “The best thing is they’re all broken in. You could run a marathon in those shoes.”

  “They have spikes,” I pointed out.