Sasquatch in the Paint Read Online Free Page B

been a good idea. He started to press the numbers when Motorcycle Guy turned his head and looked at him. He stared as if memorizing Theo’s face, which made Theo’s stomach drop.
    Then Motorcycle Guy jammed his helmet back onto his head, limped to his bike, climbed on, and roared off.
    â€œYou okay?” Theo said, a little breathless after running up the slope.
    There were no tears in her eyes. She didn’t shout angrily after him. She just stood without any expression at all. “Of course,” she said, as if that was a silly question. “You just have to roll with the punch. Didn’t anyone ever teach you how to fight?”
    â€œI’ve never been in a fight.”
    She frowned at that, as if unsure whether he was lying or crazy. Then she shrugged and said, “Probably just as well, because you’re not in very good shape. I thought you’d pass out running up this slope.”
    â€œYou’re welcome,” Theo said. He picked up her basketball and handed it to her. “Who was that guy? What language was that? Why did he hit you?”
    She smiled at him, the side of her face bright red from the slap. Then suddenly she ran off, calling over her shoulder, “See you around, Sasquatch.”

“HEY, Stretch! You wanna play? We need a sixth man.”
    Theo looked down at the five boys standing on the basketball court. They’d been shooting around since he’d arrived, waiting for another player to show up. Theo wondered if they’d seen Motorcycle Guy slap the girl. If they had, why hadn’t they joined him in running over to help her?
    Help her? Is that what he’d done?
    Now that Theo thought about it, what actual help had he been? He was tall, sure, but he couldn’t fight. One slap from Motorcycle Guy and he’d have floated away like a kite. Theo saw himself more as a scarecrow. Trying to look fierce and scary, but powerless to stop the crows from eating the crops if they really wanted to. That seemed to be his role on the basketball court, too.
    Maybe that should be his nickname: “Scarecrow.”
    Theo glanced over his shoulder to where Crazy Girl had gone. Crazy Girl. Yeah, that should be her nickname. She didn’t make any sense.
    No sign of her. What had Motorcycle Guy wanted from her? What would he do the next time he caught up with her? Or Theo?
    Theo shook off the questions. Not his problem. After all, she’d been the one to run off. And she’d called him Sasquatch during the game. She’d led the chanting. He didn’t owe her anything.
    Theo joined the other boys on the court. They were all older than him by a year or two. He recognized two ninth graders from Valley Crest High School. They didn’t seem to recognize him. Why would they? He’d been pretty invisible last year.
    He was one of fourteen black kids at a school of six hundred. You’d think that would have made him stand out more, but it had just the opposite effect. To many of the students, he was just “one of the black kids.” He didn’t blame them. The school had about three hundred Asian kids and a hundred Hispanic kids and sometimes he thought of them as “one of the Asians” or “one of the Hispanics.” Brian said there were about thirty Jewish kids, but Theo only knew of Brian and Isaac (who wore one of those little Jewish beanies). When Theo asked who the others were, Brian said he wouldn’t out the others, because they were trying to go through school undercover, like spies. If no one knew who they were, no one could pick on them.
    â€œI’m not that good,” Theo warned the kids on the court. Better to lower their expectations right away, he figured. No slam dunks or alley-oops today, boys.
    â€œDon’t worry about it,” the Asian kid said. He grinned a little, as if he thought Theo was just pretending not to be good. Sandbagging. He tossed the basketball to Theo. “You wanna take a