Sasquatch in the Paint Read Online Free

you’re gonna cry, call the wambulance. I’m a girl, dude. A girl with short hair who plays basketball, whose family is—” She broke off abruptly. “You wanna hear some of the names I get called?”
    Theo didn’t say anything. Actually, he was a little embarrassed to think of some of the names he’d called girls when hanging with his guy friends. At least he’d never done it to their faces.
    She stopped dribbling and pinned the ball against her hip. She looked him over and frowned. “You aren’t going to blame me for how badly you played, are you? Because you looked like someone learning to ice-skate for the first time.” She dropped the ball and did an imitation of someone trying to keep his balance on the ice. She laughed, which sounded like someone shaking a can full of nickels.
    â€œWhatever,” Theo said, and started walking away again.
    â€œâ€˜Whatever?’ I see you’re just as good with words as you are with a basketball.”
    Theo kept walking, grinding his teeth in anger.
    She grabbed her basketball and caught up to him, dribbling as they walked. “Anyway, they weren’t my friends. I just happened to be sitting next to them.”
    â€œAnd because they were yelling stuff, you had to, too?”
    She shrugged. “I didn’t have to. But it made the game more fun. To be honest, both teams kinda sucked. Yours happened to suck more.”
    Theo stopped walking and looked at her. She had reddish-brown hair cut in a bowl shape, a massive spray of freckles across her nose and cheeks, and an expression on her face that said she wouldn’t take crap from anyone. Mess with her, that expression said, and expect to get it back—twice as bad. She was athletic-looking and wore blue basketball shorts that hung below her knees and a red Philadelphia 76ers jersey with the number 6 on it.
    She saw Theo looking at her jersey. “Dr. J’s number,” she said proudly.
    Theo shrugged. He’d heard of Dr. J, but he had no idea who exactly he was or why he was called “doctor.” He’d never followed sports of any kind. That was his dad’s thing.
    She wrinkled her nose at his apparent indifference. “You don’t even know who Dr. J is, do you? Julius Erving. Fifth top scorer in NBA history. He got his nickname in high school from a friend. Julius called his friend ‘professor’ and his friend called him ‘doctor.’ It stuck. Later, when he became so good at the slam dunk, they called him the Doctor of Dunk. Cool, huh?”
    Theo shrugged again.
    She shook her head in disgust. “No wonder you stink at basketball. You’ve got no appreciation for the game or its history.”
    Theo leaned down so his face was close to hers and glared. “Yeah? Do you know who Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, and Vladimir Kramnik are?”
    She seemed to lift up on her toes to return his glare. When she didn’t answer, Theo straightened up and grinned. “See? The world doesn’t revolve around basketball. There are other things. More important things.”
    She put the basketball on her finger and spun it like a globe. “Those are the three top-ranked chess players in the world. Carlsen from Norway, Aronian from Armenia, and Kramnik from Russia.”
    Theo’s jaw dropped open like a cartoon animal’s. He was surprised it didn’t clunk against the ground.
    She laughed. “Lookin’ smart there, Sasquatch. Hey, maybe because of me, your nickname will be ‘Sasquatch.’ When you’re famous they’ll mention me in the Wikipedia entry about you. ‘Cute, awesome girl he knew who used to beat his butt at basketball.’ How’s that sound?”
    â€œYou haven’t beat me at anything.”
    She nodded toward the court. “You wanna try me, Sasquatch?”
    â€œShut up,” Theo snapped.
    â€œWow, nice comeback. Didn’t your mom ever teach you