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Just as I pull the door open, she calls out once more, “Your dad will be home by five, so make sure you’re back by then!”

“Yep!” I scream out through the slamming screen door.

Racing down the front steps, I open the side door to the garage and pull my bike out. Shoving my football down the front of my shirt so I don’t drop it, I get on my bike and peel out of my driveway to head six blocks over to Danny’s house.

It only takes about five minutes to get to his house. I pedal through to his backyard where I can hear my friends laughing, and I slam my right foot back to brake the bike. Sliding a few feet, I check out my skid marks in the grass and smirk at the wavy line I left.

“Did you bring your football? Danny’s sucks!” Max calls to me.

Pulling it out from under my shirt, I let my bike fall to the side in a heap and run over to them. “Got it… right here…” I gasp, catching my breath. “We doing teams or just gonna toss it around?”

“Let’s just toss it. I don’t feel like running around right now,” Ethan says.

Nodding my head, I jog over to an open area, so we’re set up in a square position, and toss the ball over to Max. Perfect spiral. Dad and I have been working on my throw and it’s coming along nicely.

My older brother played football in high school for a few years, but he was only second string. Dad says that I’ve got what it takes to go all the way as long as I keep at it and put in effort between my pee-wee seasons. Middle school is next year, and I’ll finally have a school team to join. My little sister keeps telling us she wants to play, but we all know that football isn’t for the likes of girls.

“Nice,” Max compliments me and tosses it back, the ball flipping end over end.

“Right?” I ask, giving him a knowing nod. “Dad showed me where to put my fingers, so the ball spins the right way. Look. You gotta put your pinky finger behind the laces, and then your middle finger against them. Then your ring finger goes here.” I show him how to lay it. “Then this finger goes on the other side along the stitches. When you throw it, if you keep your finger really tight, it’ll spiral real nice and tight!”

I toss the ball to Ethan to show them what I’m talking about. Ethan misses the catch, letting the ball drop in front of him before he picks it up and tries to place his fingers where I told him. “Show me right quick, would ya?” Ethan asks.

Running over, I place his fingers where they should be and then step back while he tosses it to Danny with a decent spiral, though it wobbles a bit in the air. “That’s pretty good!” I tell him.

“It was alright,” Danny adds before tossing it over to Max, end over end again.

I really want to showhimhow to do it, but Danny gets pissed when people tell him he does something wrong, so I keep my mouth shut and run back to my spot. As I show the other two how to do it, Ethan and Max do their best to mimic what I did with the fingers. As we throw back and forth, they get better the longer we keep going.

After a while, Danny’s neighbor’s voice interrupts us and I halt my throw just as I’m about to toss the ball back to Danny.

“Danny?” she asks. I see her standing behind him, holding a jar in her hands, pressed up against her chest. “Momma told me to bring this over.”

Danny’s head falls back, and he looks up at the sky, sighing. “Lord, save me. What do you want, Mina?”

I lean to the side to look at the little girl who has been a thorn in Danny’s side since she moved in and see her shoving the toe of her shoe into the ground. “Momma said that your momma asked for a stain remover for your sheets. She told me to bring it over.”

Danny spins around, clenching his fists as he glares at her. “What the hell are you on about? My momma didn’t ask for nothin’ like that,Whalemina! God, I swear you get fatter every time I see you. Get out of here, would ya?” He’s so mad at her that his face is almost purple.

Max snickers from behind me. “Stain remover? What, you pee your bed or something, Danny? Gotta get the sheets clean before you sleep in them, you baby?”

“Shut the fuck up, Max,” Danny growls, glaring back at him.

“Whoa man, you can’t say that kinda stuff!” Ethan is quick to say, his cheeks turning red. We’ve heard the ‘f’ word around, but none of us have been ballsy enough to use it yet.

Danny huffs, annoyed with our friend. “Whatever. Goaway! I don’t even know what you’re talkin’ about!” he yells at the little girl, and I notice that she flinches when he speaks to her.

“B-but… momma said that I was supposed to bring it over!” I don’t think her arguing with him was probably the best idea because he stomps over to her and grabs the jar that she’s holding out.

Clenching the jar in his hand, he glowers at her before chucking it at the fence that separates their yards, and it smashes to pieces. The little girl is staring at the spot on the fence where the liquid is running down, biting her lip like she’s trying not to cry.

Max laughs, pointing at her. “Oh man, Danny. You’re gonna get in trouble! You made her cry! You gonna cry with her, bedwetter?”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Danny this mad, but his fists are closed and he’s shaking. “You shut your damn mouth, Max. I’m not a fat fucking baby likeWhalemina.” He turns to her and gets in her face, pinching her cheek. She’s alittlechubby, but I wouldn’t say that she’s fat. “Go onbaby, go run back home and tell your momma that you busted that jar all up. We’ve got witnesses to say that it wasn’t me. Hopefully daddy won’t be too rough with the belt this time, huh?”

Wait. What?

Looking over at my other friends, Ethan looks confused, and Max is still laughing at the two of them.

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