Boy21 Read Online Free

feel quite up to taking on a troubled teenage boy, because Russell requested it, they have agreed to care for him until he goes to college next year.”
    I suddenly realize that Russell will be eligible to play for our basketball team. And even though Coach is talking about the aftereffects of a murder, I’m ashamed to admit that I immediately begin worrying about my starting position. It’s like being told I have cancer and might need a part of me removed—the part called starting point guard.
    “So,” I say, “he’s going to play for us, Coach?”
    “Well, I hope he
will
come out for the team, but at this point his mental health is what we need to be focusing on. He hasn’t touched a basketball in months. You see, after all that’s happened, Russell’s not really right in the head. We all think that a boy with his gifts should be using them and, with so many colleges ready to give him a full ride, it would be a shame to watch him sit the season out, but we need to take one thing at a time, which is why he’s going to enroll under his mother’s maiden name. The Allens don’t want college scouts and coaches bothering Russell until he moves past his issues. The basketball world doesn’t know he’s here. And he’s not exactly interested in basketball right now.
Understand?
”
    I have no idea why I’m in the truck.
    I’m lost.
    “I’ve told them that our high school can be rough and Russell would be better off in a private school, especially since he’s inherited a lot of money. But, for some reason, the Allens want the boy to play basketball for me this year. Probably because they know me, and after all that’s happened, they don’t want to put Russell into the hands of a stranger. So under the name Russ Washington, Russell is going to transition to our school, which couldn’t be any more different from the prep school he attended in California. Administration, his guidance counselor, me, and now you—those are the only people who’ll know Russell’s true identity. Okay?”
    I don’t know what to say. I really don’t.
    Coach says, “I thought that maybe if Russell had a friend who knew what it was like to be
different
, the transition might be a little easier.”
    Suddenly, I think I might understand my role.
    “You have a question on your face, Finley. Now’s the time to ask it.”
    Even though I know that the Allens live in an all-black section of town, I say, “So, Coach, are you saying Russell’s white?”
    “Does the color of his skin matter?” Coach asks.
    He’s always saying that he doesn’t see the color of a man’s skin, but I know that’s just politically correct talk. Coach absolutely changes his game plan depending on the opposing team’s skin color, because black and white teams usually play different styles of basketball, and that’s just a fact.
    When I don’t say anything, Coach says, “Russell’s pretty much the same color as I am.”
    “Then why
me
?” I ask.
    “Well, let’s just say that I have a hunch you two will get along. That and you’re pretty much the only boy on the team I trust to help my dead friend’s son.”
    Those words make me swallow hard.
    Part of me just wants to be with Erin, and yet, another part of me’s intrigued, kind of flattered, and a little nervous, all at once.
    Coach shifts into gear and drives us across town to the Allens’ house.

7
    WHEN HE PARKS , Coach says, “There’s one other thing.”
    He gets this look on his face like he has to use the bathroom or something. He looks way uncomfortable. He’s strangling the steering wheel.
    “Russell isn’t exactly going by the name Russell at this moment in his life.” Coach glances out the windshield with this vacant look on his face. “Russell now likes to be called Boy21.” He nods a few times, as if to say he isn’t joking.
    “Why?” I say, noting that twenty-one is my basketball number. Could this night possibly get any weirder?
    “The people at his group home and his