Chapter 9

Jeff

A few minutes later, Coach Douglas blew his whistle and ended practice. As everyone shuffled off the field, Coach put his arm around me.

“Stoddard,” he said. “Keep looking after the new kid, okay?”

“Look after him?” I asked.

“Help him learn the plays. Make sure he gets along okay at school. That sort of thing.”

It’s easy to blame Coach for a lot of what happened. All this time later, it seems like he was telling me to help Scooter take my starting job. But that’s not really fair. At the time, I was still the all-conference starter, and Scooter was just a shy kid who had some speed. For all we knew, the incredible run he just made was a lucky chance. I don’t think either one of us had any idea how good Scooter would end up being.

“What do you say, Stoddard?” Coach said. “Can you keep an eye on him?”

“Sure, Coach,” I said.

I should have said no. I realize that now. If I’d said no, none of what happened next would have, well, happened next.