Page 6 of Kingpin
“I just mean, don’t worry about it. You’re welcome. He deserved it.”
Now I smile. “I usually wouldn’t say something like this, but I guess I have to agree with you. He did deserve it. I still can’t believe your parents weren’t mad about you getting suspended though.”
“Well, my mom was mad, but my dad wasn’t. My dad laughed, actually,” he says, grinning with pride.
“He laughed? Wow. My dad definitely wouldn’t have thought that was funny. My dad’s in the military. He’s strict with stuff like that.”
“Oh, your dad’s in the military? So, you just moved here?”
“Yeah. My dad got stationed at Scott. We moved here from California.” I look up and see Lisa and Maggie glaring at us, but I ignore it.
“You like it here so far?” Dominic asks, his eyes back on the game.
“It’s okay, I guess. I mean, I did get pushed down and have my face shoved in the sand on my first day of school.”
Dominic looks at me and smiles. Even though his face looks a little weird because of how big and pink his lips are, he still has a nice smile. But he must not like it because he doesn’t show it often.
“Well, that makes sense,” he replies behind a chuckle. “I don’t know why some guys don’t understand that you can’t treat girls that way. My father taught me that hurting a girl was against the rules.”
“That’s good. I wish everyone would teach their kids to be nice to everyone. At least your dad is teaching you right.”
“My dad’s awesome. He teaches me a lot. I want to be just like him when I grow up,” Dominic says. I can tell he really means it.
“What does your dad do?” I ask. Dominic grins a little, but then pulls it back.
“My dad . . . he does a lot of stuff. He gets money from a lot of different places. He’s a business man.”
“Interesting,” I reply, but only because I can tell he’s lying.
“Yeah. He lives out in St. Louis.”
“Wow. He brings you to this school all the way from St. Louis. That’s like forty minutes away.”
“No, my mom brings me to school. My dad lives in St. Louis. My parents aren’t married. I stay with my mom mostly, but I hang with my dad on a lot of weekends. Joint custody agreement, or something like that, I ain’t really sure.”
“Oh, I get it now. My dad’s a doctor for the Air Force and my mom’s a nurse,notfor the Air Force.”
He nods, then goes back to the game again. At that moment, the bell rings and lunch is over. All the kids run to put their equipment away and line up to wait for the teachers.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say to Dominic as we both stand. Dominic puts the basketball away before turning to me with a confused look on his face.
“What’d you say?”
“I said I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You’re gonna talk to me tomorrow?”
I frown. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but nobody really talks to me here. They’re either afraid of me or they’re secretly making fun of me. So, I just kind of stay to myself.”
It doesn’t seem to bother him, but just hearing him say that makes me feel bad for him. It’s not fair that people ignore him like that. He doesn’t do anything to anybody, but they still treat him like crap. It’s not fair. He defended me.
“Well, I don’t know what’s wrong with everybody,” I say, walking to the back of my class’s line. “I don’t care what other people think. You saved me on my very first day of school, and made that guy apologize for hurting me. So,I’mgonna talk to you.”
He smiles at me again as he reaches the back of Mrs. Webb’s line, just as the doors swing open and the teachers usher us in.
Once we’re inside, Dominic looks over at me again, still smiling.
