Bama Boy Read Online Free Page B

going to have more friends Friday night than you know what to do with!”
    “ ‘Friends,’ nothin’! Judge and jury is more like it.”
    He was right, of course. On Friday night the stands would be full of people looking for proof that Elmore’s new quarterback was as good as they’d been led to believe. And if Jimbo couldn’t deliver—I didn’t even want to think about it.
    “I see your point,” I said. “I’ll be there.”
    “You promise?”
    “Promise.”
    “What about Anthony.”
    “I’ll reason with him,” I said, giving Jimbo a wicked smile. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll try violence!”
     
Chapter Six
     
    “How did the tutoring go, Tracy?” Maggie asked. “You’ve been awfully quiet about it, and I’m dying of curiosity!”
    It was Friday night, and we were on our way to the first football game of the season. I had decided to go with Maggie, since Jimbo needed friends and Anthony didn’t qualify.
    “It was just fine,” I said, smiling at the memory. “Jimbo is really sweet, and funny, too.”
    “Hmm. This could get interesting,” she said, cocking one eyebrow suggestively.
    “Mags, he’s a yokel!”
    “So? Yokels need love, too. Besides, I thought you liked him.”
    “I do like him. I can’t imagine anyone not liking him. But I wouldn’t get involved with a boy like that for anything, not in a million years! What kind of future does he have, with no money for college and no grades to get a scholarship? After graduation, he’ll probably go back to Alabama and rot away in some backwater, reminiscing for the rest of his life about his glory days as a high school quarterback.”
    “What a pity. It sounded so promising,” sighed Maggie.
    “Believe me, ‘promising’ is the last word I would use to describe Jimbo. It’s sad, really. I feel sorry for him.”
    We had hoped to be at the stadium early enough to get fifty-yard-line seats, but apparently the entire town of Elmore had the same idea. We finally found a spot near the thirty yard line, and I sat down and searched for Jimbo among the players warming up on the field.
    “There he is,” I said, punching Maggie on the arm. “Number thirteen.”
    “Unlucky number,” she remarked. “I hope that’s not a bad sign.”
    Jimbo’s number was unlucky, all right—for the other team. He played with an intelligence that made it hard to believe that off the field he was struggling to make ‘C’s, and his confidence seemed to rub off onto the rest of the team. It seemed strange to think that most of these boys were the same ones who hadn’t won a game all last season. As the game progressed, it became more and more evident that the Elmore Eagles’ twenty-one game losing streak was about to come to an end. With one minute left on the clock, the score was 21-10, and Maggie grabbed me in a bear hug and started jumping up and down.
    “Oh Tracy, we’re going to win! Poor Brian finally knows what it feels like to win a game!”
    As the scoreboard clock ticked down to zero, pandemonium broke out in the home stands. The crowds swept out of the bleachers and onto the field, and within a matter of minutes one goal post teetered on the brink of collapse.
    “Come on, Tracy! Let’s go!” Maggie yelled, grabbing me by the sleeve of my denim jacket and pulling me into the milling crowd.
    “Where are you going?” I shouted over the noise.
    “To see Brian. He’s waited two years for this!”
    She released her hold on my sleeve and was quickly lost among the masses of people.
    “Maggie, wait up! Mags!”
    It was useless. She couldn’t possibly hear me over the noise, and she was probably halfway onto the field by this time, anyway. I turned and made my way up to the top row of bleachers, prepared to watch the show while I awaited Maggie’s return. I saw Jimbo only once, when he was hoisted up onto the shoulders of two of his larger teammates. He might have been a nobody when he woke up that morning, but he would go to bed a