Taking Sides: Chapters 10–13

Lincoln nailed shut the front door, which the intruder had pried open, his breath white in the cold air.

He pictured himself as Frankenstein, minus the stitches on the brow and the electrodes protruding from the neck.

Monica was at a table, biting into her apple furtively because no food was allowed in the library.

The rule was that you couldn’t use the phone unless you had a broken leg, broken glasses, or generally were close to death. Last year one of the kids, feigning sickness, used the phone to order a pizza.

The principal and the secretary had to help pay for the pizza when it arrived. That was the last straw.

He ran the water scalding hot and nearly cried as he lowered his body into the bath piled high with bubbles.

His mother said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you that you got some mail. It’s on the mantel.”

The day was overcast and cold, but the trees were still: no wind, no spiraling leaves, no squirrels jumping from limb to limb.

He dreaded running into Monica, so he sneaked up and down the hallways between classes.

Coach Yesutis, in an ill-fitting suit and a Columbus hat with a plume, was marching among the students.

The picture had been taken on one of their excursions.

The gym was noisy. Spectators, mostly kids from Columbus, were stomping their feet in the bleachers.

His knee pained him a little, but it wasn’t bad. Laughing to himself, he thought that Mr. Bubble had done wonders for the ligaments in his knee.

He saw Danny Salinas push Bukowski, a subtle foul that wasn’t called by either ref, and he saw Bukowski shove back, sending Salinas to the ground.

As the Columbus players jogged into the locker room, the pep band let loose with the tuba and trombone, and the popcorn and soda man bellowed, “Get it hot. Get it cold.”

Lincoln looked at the floor, holding back a smile, feeling giddy because he was now understanding that he was a Franklin boy beneath a Columbus uniform.

Mr. Kimball tried to calm him down, and the tuba player covered Coach Yesutis’s ranting by blowing hard enough to pop an eardrum.

Lincoln waved to Monica, who waved back, then he hobbled into the locker room, where he showered and pampered his knee by lathering it with shampoo borrowed from Snake James.

Lincoln waved to Monica, who waved back, then he hobbled into the locker room, where he showered and pampered his knee by lathering it with shampoo borrowed from Snake James.

After the altercation with Coach Yesutis, Lincoln had jogged over to talk to Coach Ramos, who asked him to join the Franklin team for pizza.