Lucky Cap by Patrick Jennings Page B

wet.
    â€œAre you crazy?” Chase laughed. “No way ! I’m exhausted, dude!”
    â€œI’m still up for it,” I said, though I was totally exhausted, too, and the last thing I wanted to do was more exercise. In other words, I was bluffing.
    Lance glared at me. “Count me out, for sure. You coming, Chase?”
    â€œWhich way you going?” Chase asked me.
    Oh, yeah. I forgot. Home. I had to get home. And the bus had left ages ago. And home was far away.
    I nodded in the opposite direction they were going.
    â€œAll right, then,” Chase said. “Catch you tomorrow, Enzo. I bet you’ll be on Killer’s list.”
    Lance grumbled, “Yeah, right,” under his breath.
    â€œThanks,” I said. “I bet you will be, too”—I glanced at Lance—“Chase.”
    Lance faked a smile, then erased it. “Come on, dude,” he said, bumping Chase’s shoulder with his own.
    They walked away, smacking each other around like guys do.
    I was alone. And a long way from home.
    I took out my cell. An empty battery symbol flashed a few times, then the phone went dark again.
    I adjusted my cap and started walking.

8. Slam Dunk
    Usually I get home from the first day of school exhausted, depressed, bitter, and dreading the hundreds of school days ahead of me. But even after the long walk, I was in a pretty upbeat mood.
    Mom, on the other hand, was a basket case.
    â€œWhere have you been?” she screeched when I walked through the door. She threw her arms around me and squeezed and kissed me desperately, as if I’d just run out of a burning building or something.
    â€œYou weren’t on the bus,” Lupe chimed in. She was sitting on the new flowery, pink couch, and making the universally recognized face for I got you so busted!
    When Mom finally released me, and my blood started circulating again, I told her about basketball tryouts, then I spilled the whole day’s events in one big rush of words. (Who cares about being cool around your mom?) She shrieked with joy and congratulations.
    â€œI am not surprised,” she said. “My strong, handsome, intelligent boy!”
    Then she hugged the life out of me again.
    Lupe fumed on the couch. Obviously, Miss Perfect had hoped I would fall flat on my face at Stan. Ha! Take that, Lupe!
    Dinner wasn’t ready, so I headed to the laundry room, took my sweaty gym clothes out of my duffel, dumped them in a hamper, then climbed the stairs to my two-toned room. The walls were still bare. I had decided not to rehang my old posters and stuff. Instead, I’d hang the new Kap stuff from the trip, including the real prize: an autographed, full-color, life-size photo of LeBron James, slam-dunking. I so looked forward to the day when I could slam dunk. I imagined it was at least a couple years off.
    I took off my cap and set it on my dresser, visor pointing back at me. It was a bit worn, a little dirtier and sweatier. But its bill was still flat.
    â€œThanks, buddy,” I said to it.
    I ate a big dinner: three of my mom’s beef empanadas, some carrot onion salad, and two bowls of ice cream for dessert. Probably because of the tryouts. And the walk home.
    I hadn’t gotten any homework, so I watched an A’s game with my dad. He asked how my first day of middle school went.
    â€œThe rules are ridiculous,” I said. “The bus ride stinks. Lupe was a total snob to me.” I paused. “But it was pretty good.”
    â€œOh, yeah?”
    â€œI met a couple guys. Chase and Lance. One of them is pretty cool. Lance is out to get me.”
    â€œAlready?”
    â€œI think he thinks I’m trying to be Chase’s new best friend.”
    â€œAre you?”
    â€œI just met him. He’s okay.”
    â€œAnd Kai?”
    I sighed. “Kai still acts like a fourth grader.”
    â€œYou guys have been friends an awful long time.”
    â€œYeah, but this is middle