RUNNING SCARED

The first thing I got moving was my hands, believe it or not. It wasn’t pretty, and no, there were no fingertips involved—but just like that… I’D CAUGHT THE BALL!

And even crazier, I didn’t drop it!

If I could have, I would have played hot potato with Miller and tossed it right back. But that wasn’t going to happen.

“RUN!” I could hear Coach screaming. “RUN, KHATCHADO—”

I didn’t hear any more, because my feet kicked in next. All those Southside guys were looking at me like I was dinner and they hadn’t eaten in days. So yes, I took off running like I was supposed to.

It’s just too bad I ran in the wrong direction.

“NOOOOOO!” pretty much everyone screamed at the same time, except for the other team. I kept expecting one of those flags on my belt to get whipped out, but so far, it hadn’t happened. When I caught sight of Coach Shumsky on the sidelines, his face was somewhere between Smurf blue and plum purple. His scream was so high by now, I would have needed dogs’ ears to hear it.

I heard Flip, though. He was on the bench and yelling one word over and over, plenty loud enough.

“BACON!” he screamed. “BACON! BACON! BACON!”

So I just kept on moving.

I’m not sure what made me run backward next, but I don’t think anyone was expecting that. It got me headed toward the right end of the field, anyway.

Then I ran sideways. I zipped. I zagged. I turned and zagged again, like Junior was about to bite my heels off.

And that’s when I saw a little slice of daylight, right between two of those giants from Southside. It was just enough for skinny little me to squeeze through.

After that, all I could see was the end zone at the far end of the field, about a mile away. (Okay, maybe more like forty yards.)

And I just kept on running.

All I could feel now was my legs pumping. All I could taste was the blood in my mouth (I bit my tongue when I caught the ball—oops). All I could hear was the crowd in the stands—and they were cheering for ME!

If I hadn’t been there myself, I wouldn’t have believed it. In fact, I still don’t believe it.

But it was true.