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.You must be excited about the Park game coming up.”Tim said, “Actually, Coach, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”Coach Quinn could feel a cold sweat forming on the back of his neck.Tim Mooney was a key component in what he felt was the best chance he’d had in years to ascend beyond the junior high coaching ranks.He said, “What are you talking about, Tim?”Tim said, “Coach, I don’t think I can play this year.”Coach Quinn said, “Excuse me?”Tim said, “I just wanted to tell you that I’m quitting the team, Coach.I feel like it’s what I have to do.”Coach Quinn said, “Where is this coming from, Tim? This is something you should really think about.Is anything going wrong? Maybe something at home?”Tim said, “Yeah, everything’s fine at home.I’ve thought about it a lot, actually.Sports just seem pointless.”Coach Quinn said, “Well, they’re not pointless, Tim.They’re the best times of your life when you’re young—hell, your dad can tell you that.Are you really okay with throwing that away?”Tim said, “I think so, yeah.”Coach Quinn said, “Well, I obviously can’t make you play football, Tim, but I think you should seriously reconsider this decision.God gave you a gift, son.You don’t just throw God’s gifts away like that.”Tim said, “I’ll think about it, Coach.But for now, I’m done for the season.”Tim stood up and turned to leave.Coach Quinn watched him leave knowing that his best chance at the addition his wife wanted to their house was walking out of his office.Tim left Coach Quinn’s office and continued to his American history class.He sat next to a girl named Brandy Beltmeyer.Tim had never had a girlfriend, but he thought that Brandy would make a good one.She was very plain-looking, not the kind of girl most guys would probably consider interesting.Tim liked the fact that she was understated.She didn’t get caught up in the same unimportant minutiae of being a teenage girl that all her peers seemed preoccupied with, and this made Tim curious about her.To Tim she seemed like the kind of girl who was probably extremely interesting to the people who took the time to get to know her.Tim had been partnered with Brandy for a final English project at the end of their seventh-grade year, a book report presentation on Huckleberry Finn.They got along well and he liked the way her voice sounded when she said certain phrases that seemed unique to her and that she repeated often.“That is not even possibly real” was among his favorites.Over the summer, Tim had sent Brandy a text message to see if she wanted to go to a movie with him, but she never responded.Unbeknownst to Tim, she would have been more than happy to see a movie with him but she never received the text message.In fact, she was disappointed that Tim never contacted her after their partnership, because she had developed a mild crush on him during the time they spent together and had fantasized that he would be the first boy to kiss her.Tim’s text message, which read, “Want 2 go 2 a movie maybe?” was intercepted by Brandy’s mother, Patricia, who ran a local watch-group called PATI, which stood for Parents Against The Internet and was also an abbreviation for her own name, a combination she found to be clever.She formed the watch-group after seeing an episode of Tyra about a phenomenon called “sexting.” In addition to forcing her daughter to divulge every password to every one of her e-mail accounts, her Myspace account, and any other online membership, when Patricia gave Brandy her most recent phone, she installed software on it that allowed her to access that phone from her own.And when Patricia saw the text from Tim asking her daughter to go to a movie, she immediately decided that it was too soon for her daughter to start dating and deleted it.Tim interpreted Brandy’s lack of response as lack of interest and never made another attempt to gain her favor or attention.He still thought about her, however, and wondered if he had been too forward with his text message, or, more likely, whether Brandy simply found him unattractive.Tanner Hodge, the Olympians’ tailback, walked past Tim on his way to his own seat.“Let’s kick some Panther ass,” he said, and offered Tim a fist bump, which Tim returned.Tanner had no idea that Tim had just quit the football team.Tim opened his book to the section he had already read the night before and wondered what his mother was doing at that moment in California as Mrs.Rector began her lesson about the Boston Tea Party.chapterthreeCoach Quinn began every eighth-grade season by delivering a speech, on the week of their first regular season game, that was designed to motivate and excite his team.He had given this speech so many times that it was almost identical to each previous year’s speech, with some small variation in inflection or tone and possibly one or two words changed.Coach Quinn had tried several times in the past few years to secure employment as a high school football coach in various school districts.He used to be comforted by the complacence he felt in his position as an eighth-grade coach, but that had given way to frustration in recent years, primarily fueled by his wife’s desire to live in a nicer house, drive a nicer car, and eventually even move to another city.He hoped this year would be his last at Goodrich Junior High School.But if he wanted to maximize his odds of employment elsewhere, he knew, a successful season was a must.Some of the thirty-two eighth-grade football players had already begun to notice that Tim Mooney was not among them.Coach Quinn could hear their whispers asking about their star linebacker’s absence.If he wanted to have any hope of salvaging the season, he knew he would need to address any questions and concerns his players had immediately, rather than ignoring them and hoping that Tim would come back to the team.With that in mind, Coach Quinn decided to improvise his season opening speech for the first time in his career.He said, “Guys, sometimes Jesus throws you a curve ball.This afternoon, he threw us one that broke about four feet.But Jesus isn’t trying to strike us out.Jesus would never do that.The reason he threw us a curve ball is because he wants us to swing at it.He wants us to hit a home run.That curve ball’s name is Tim Mooney.“For some reasons that are beyond all of my faculties to understand, Tim Mooney isn’t playing this year.He came into my office this afternoon and told me he didn’t see a reason to play, that football wasn’t important.And I know you all probably think that’s a bad thing, but I’ve come to a conclusion this afternoon.It’s not a bad thing at all.A team is only as strong as its weakest link, and Tim was psychologically weak.He didn’t have what it takes mentally to stick it out and help this team win a district championship this year.“So I don’t want to hear anything about Tim for the rest of the season.I’ve decided that Bill Francis is going to be our starting middle linebacker, and he’s gonna make us all forget about Tim Mooney.Isn’t that right, Bill?”No player in the field house was more stunned than Bill Francis by the unfolding developments of that afternoon.He stammered slightly before responding, “Yes, sir.”Coach Quinn said, “As I look around this room, I see the talent.I know you know how to win district this year [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]