Jack Strong Takes a Stand Read Online Free Page A

practice? It’s important that you go, right? Big game tomorrow?”
    â€œPractice is at one-thirty. I’ll be fine. Come on, mom.” I was trying to be nice, since I really wanted that shake, but I was running out of patience.
    â€œOkay, you deserve it,” she said, sensing my mood. Moms are good at that. My mom is, at least.
    But by the time we got downtown, there was only one person there.
    Cathy Billows.
    She was sitting outside polishing off her free sundae, licking the spoon clean. I don’t think I’d ever seen her alone before, and it didn’t look natural. Maybe she was waiting for a ride. In any event, one thing I did know is that I didn’t want her to see me. I was trying to figure out how to avoid her when she spotted me.
    â€œHello, Jack.” No exclamation point, but at least no stare of death, either.
    â€œHey. So, I’m really sorry I couldn’t make your party last night. I heard it was awesome.”
    She almost smiled at the compliment. “It was pretty awesome. At least, until Alex started acting like a jerk.”
    It was my turn to smile. Finally, the rest of the world was discovering what I’d known for years: that Alex Mutchnik was the world’s most annoying person.
    â€œYo, Strong!”
    I turned around. Cathy’s brother Baxter was running toward us, grinning from ear to ear. Baxter Billows was a grade above us, and he was the happiest person I’d ever met. Probably because he was really good-looking, really good at sports, and really popular. I’d be happy all the time, too, if I were even one of those things.
    Baxter stopped and caught his breath. “Traffic is horrible,” he said to his sister, “so Mom wanted me to tell you to meet her at the post office.” Then he turned to me. “We got practice in an hour. You gonna be ready? Big game tomorrow!”

    I tried to sound confident. “Yeah, I’m definitely going to be ready.”
    By some fluke of nature and birthday cut-offs, Baxter and I wound up on the same Little League team, and the championship game was the next day. Since he was the star and I was, well, let’s just say not the star, we had different definitions of “being ready.” His definition was taking an hour of batting practice and two hours of fielding practice. My definition was being able to find my hat.
    Baxter smacked me on the back, which kind of hurt a little. “All right dude, see you at the field.” And off he went.
    â€œWell, I better get going, too,” said Cathy. “See you later.”
    â€œBye, Cathy!” I said. Great. Now I was the one using the exclamation points.
    My mom, who was sitting in the car, leaned out the window. “Was that Baxter? He’s such a nice kid.”
    There was no higher compliment in the world than being called “nice” by my mom, by the way.
    â€œYeah, he’s really nice.”
    I headed inside to get my consolation prize milkshake. Ricky, the kid who worked there, was reading a magazine.
    â€œHey, bro,” he said.
    â€œHey, Ricky. If my milkshake isn’t the best milkshake ever, I’m going to call your boss.”
    â€œThat’d be just fine with me.”
    Ricky and I always joked around like that. Working there seemed like it would be an awesome job, so I always pretended I was going to get him fired and take his job, and he always pretended that I could have it.
    â€œHow’s school going?” I asked him. Ricky was already in college.
    He shook his head. “Not going this semester. I’m just gonna take it easy and work for a while.”
    Wow. Working in an ice cream store and taking it easy?
    Some guys have all the luck.

 
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    At practice I managed to hit the ball out of the infield twice. Which was three fewer times than Baxter Billows hit the ball over the fence.
    â€œHow’d it go?” asked my dad when he picked me up.
    â€œReally