It was the fourth game of the season and, despite Danny’s earlier predictions, the win was all but guaranteed.
The Flash were up 24–6 coming out of halftime. Danny already had two touchdowns, one passing and one rushing, and Ox had four sacks. The home crowd was loving it. The team would be 3–1 by the end of the game, no problem. They were playing under the lights to a full crowd in perfect weather. The student section was packed, with everyone decked out in school colors.
He’d forgotten all about the android, Alice or whatever, standing somewhere on the sideline. She’d become like he’d been as a freshman, a meaningless uniform standing on the sideline. Her jersey was squeaky-clean, having never seen any real action.
The third quarter started with West getting the ball. They marched down the field and got a quick field goal to make the score 24–9. Danny grabbed his helmet and shouted some words of encouragement to his squad. It was time to respond with a touchdown and increase the lead even more.
After the kickoff, Danny trotted out onto the field with the offense.
The first play was a short pass that got them six easy yards. For the second down, the coach sent in a play that had their top receiver, Jeremiah Davis, streaking down the field. It was going to be a knockout blow.
Danny shouted the count until the ball was hiked back into his hands. He flared out to his right as the play was designed, but his blocker on that side had slipped. Two West defenders were coming straight at him, and his receiver hadn’t gotten into position.
Danny could get sacked and lose a couple yards—no big deal—or maybe wait another half second and take a chance on completing the pass. Or he could come back around to his left and try to find an open receiver on the left side of the field. He could almost hear Coach Williams yelling in his ear, telling him not to take the chance when they were up 24–9. Coach would probably want him to take the sack. But if he could come back around, at worst he’d throw the ball away and it would still be third down with four yards to go. No worries.
He spun back around and to the left, the two defenders whiffing past where he’d just been. He started looking for his blockers, hoping that if—
Danny slammed into a wall. More like, a wall slammed directly into him, and that wall was running at top speed.
Danny pulled the ball in close as he felt both his feet lift off the ground. He tensed, preparing for the pain. The linebacker who’d collided with him continued driving and slammed Danny straight into the ground. He felt his helmet bounce hard off the ground and actual stars fired across his eyes. The whole world had turned upside down. He heard the West linebacker say something that’d make Danny’s parents angry.
Danny made sure the football was still in his hands before closing his eyes, deciding whether or not he wanted to go to sleep. Sleep would be good, he thought, and then he thought about puking. He started to pull to his side, but someone was already over him.
It was the team trainer. “Relax,” he said, putting a hand on Danny’s chest and keeping him still on the ground. He worked Danny up into a sitting position and started saying something, but Danny wasn’t really listening. “Yeah!” Danny said. “I’m good.”
“That’s not what I asked you,” the trainer said.
Danny stared at him, trying to focus on his face.
“Let’s get him up,” the trainer said to one of the Flash coaches standing over them. “Slowly.”
Danny felt himself being lifted up to his feet and was only half aware of crossing the field. The crowd in the stands was applauding and cheering, but it all sounded like when you put your ear against a seashell at the beach. Like wind caught in a tunnel. They got his helmet off.
He was suddenly on the bench with a flashlight in his eyes. He heard the whistle blow again. People shouting. He got glimpses of the other players looking his way. Coach Williams came over and patted him on the shoulder. “Good game,” he said.
“I’m good,” Danny said again. But the coach had already moved away to the edge of the sideline. “I . . .” Danny started to stand up.
The trainer laid a hand on his shoulder pads. “Relax,” he said again.
“I . . .” Danny fought for the words, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.
“The game’s over anyway, Danny,” the trainer said. “I want to run some concussion tests in a couple minutes. But whatever they tell us, you’re still done for tonight.”
Danny lay back as the trainer grabbed his helmet. He’d suspected as much.
He fought to keep his eyes open. Their second-stringer was out with an ankle injury, so that just left a freshman, Hanson, as their QB. The kid could hand off the ball for the next thirty minutes, and they’d probably be fine.
Danny got up slowly and worked his way gradually to the sideline. He squinted up at the scoreboard, which was still a little fuzzy to look at. Boy, he thought, I really got clobbered.
He watched as West scored again and again. The Flash simply weren’t working together enough.
West intercepted a bad pass from the freshman quarterback. They scored, and just like that West had the lead, 31–24.
Danny couldn’t believe it. If he’d only taken the easy sack earlier and not tried to do something special, he’d have been out there. None of this would be happening.
He found Hanson on the sideline. The kid looked like Danny felt. He was literally holding back tears as he looked at Danny with wide eyes.
“Hey,” Danny said. “Learn from it and then forget it. Focus on the next series. I’ll be over here if—”
Hanson nodded, but Danny had turned his attention farther down the sideline.
Coach Williams was talking to . . . Alice. The other coaches had created a wall between the discussion and the rest of the players.
“One second.” Danny headed toward Coach Williams and the android girl.
“What is this?” he heard a player grumble.
Danny looked back to Hanson, who was now talking with the quarterback coach. The kid looked like he’d seen a ghost. When Danny turned back to the field, the offense jogged out with a new player. The android.
He stood with the others on the sideline while she crouched down and gave the play to the squad. He couldn’t believe it.
She was playing quarterback!