Before the android showed up, everything was really good. Maybe even great.
All morning, the sky had been slightly overcast and the team had a rare, welcome break from the sun. Without it, practice seemed easier. The hill sprints went faster. The crunches weren’t as grueling. The pads were a little less heavy, and the hits seemed to sting just a little less. They’d made it through all the boiling summer practices and the first hot weeks of September. The whole team was actually having fun for the first time in weeks. Players were joking and laughing but still totally focused on the practice. It was a perfect combination.
Even Coach Williams was in a good mood. This morning, the head coach wasn’t on Danny’s case after every play. Most days, it seemed that no matter what decision Danny made as quarterback, there was always another one—a better one—he should have made. That was just Coach’s way. In his history class, Coach Williams was known for rarely ever giving As, as he always said those were saved for the truly exceptional. Today, every choice Danny made seemed to be the right call. At least on the football field, he was grabbing As left and right.
His reads of the defense were spot on. It was as if he knew what the linebackers and corners were going to do even before they did. These were his own teammates, guys he’d played with for four years now, and he recognized their “tells.” He could see by the way A. J. was leaning whether or not he was faking man-to-man or really in zone. He could see in Crabel’s eyes whether or not he was going to blitz.
And his passes were just about perfect this morning. Danny was hitting his receivers in stride with ease and with (mostly) perfect spirals every time. Whether they were long balls down the field or short little passes to the running backs out of the backfield, everything was dropping right into their hands.
Then she walked out onto the football field.
The android was dressed in pads and already wearing a helmet, but everyone knew who she was. The coach had told the team earlier in the week that this was going to happen. He also warned them not to make a big deal about it. The main reason androids had been invited to attend certain schools was so they could become more socialized. Sure, they were amazing at math and doing all sorts of difficult physical work, but they weren’t very good at dealing with humans yet. They were too cold and didn’t seem to know much about emotion, which meant they didn’t care about peoples’ emotions. The government hoped that if they experienced human society earlier in life, that might change.
The whole team just stood there staring.
Remembering what Coach had told them, Danny shook himself out of his distraction. He shouted for the team to huddle up, but no one seemed to care.
He was finally a senior, the clear first-string QB and co-captain of the team, and yet not one player was paying attention to him. Not even his friends.
Even the coaches had stopped what they were doing.
Finally, Coach Williams walked over the to the sideline where the android was and spoke a few words Danny couldn’t hear. The coach had said the android probably wouldn’t play much but just wanted to attend some practices and be on the sidelines during the games.
Fine, Danny thought. That’s what he’d done his first two years on the team. He’d started out weighing 120 pounds soaking wet and only got in one play his entire freshman year. One. They’d put him in as a cornerback, and he’d half jumped on a pile after the real tackle was made. His nickname then had been “Noodle” because of his skinny arms. Whatever. For the next two years, he’d lifted and changed his diet, worked hard, and watched enough game film to impress a professional QB.
Now he was the starting QB.
If some android wanted to hang out with them during practice, what did he care? They were 2–1 already, having only lost a close one to state powerhouse Beechwood Prep. The Fitzgerald Flash were a good team this year, and they had a definite shot at making a serious run in the playoffs for the first time in a long time.
But before any of that, first they had to deal with West High in this next game.
And now the distraction of this android.
Across the field, Elena Garcia, their placekicker, had gone up to speak with the android. Garcia had joined the team as a sophomore, quitting soccer to become one of the best kickers in the state.
No one was bothered by the new player being a girl—after all, they had been playing with Garcia for years now. And they’d had a couple girls on the team long before Danny ever got there.
It was the android part. All those circuits and chips and wires and artificial . . . everything.
Androids in the classroom were bad enough. There, they were smarter and faster.
On a football field, they were that and stronger too. Coach said this one only wanted to watch and practice a little, Danny thought to himself, but what will the team—
“Hey, Noodle!”
Danny refocused and looked around. It was Coach Williams, five feet away and yelling at him again. Yes, he’d put on fifty pounds and gotten off the bench, but that hadn’t made the nickname go away. If anything, the whole team enjoyed using it more.
“What’re you doing, numskull?” Coach shouted. “Get them huddled up!”
Danny glared and tried to keep his head up. He got the offense into a huddle and looked to the sidelines for the play.
“Dude, do you think it’s like tackling a washing machine?” someone asked.
“The robot has probably already learned the entire playbook,” another kid said. “I still don’t know it.”
“Shut up,” Danny snapped, and they all grumbled back and rolled their eyes while he finally got the play. He crouched down into the huddle to relay it. “Okay, pro-zone open, red—”
“This is so messed up,” one of the lineman muttered, interrupting the call.
Danny stood back up. He glared across the field at the new player.
It didn’t take much to change the whole mood of the team.