During the meal, Mom gave Bob the news, who, very excited, gratuted me, "It's in the blood, Dun, being athletes. Your dad was a great basketball pyer, and now you, the quarterback. I'm so proud," Bob said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Well, actually, there were very few of us at the tryout, so Mr. Cooper immediately assigned each of us a position oeam," I crified.
"So, they had no choice but to put you oeam," Gabe said mogly, receiving a reprimand from Mom in the form of a tap on the back of his head. "It doesn't matter how you got oeam; the important thing is that you're in it," Mom said, scolding Gabe.
"Anyway, it's a great opportunity for you, PJ. If you mao stand out, maybe you'll get a sports schorship for college. You have to put a lot of effort into it, and then you'll have a ce to go to uy," Bob said, now a bit less enthusiastic.
"Well, ging the subject, Teddy, how's the new school?" Mom asked trying to ge the mood.
Teddy, who hadn't spoken during the ride home, lifted her face from the pte of food and said, "Fine," before tinuing to eat.
"Well... How about you, Gabe?" Mom asked, puzzled by Teddy's behavior.
"It was the same as Colorado. I'm in the same css as Missy, but she hangs out with irls, so I hung out with Lucas," Gabe ented casually, then he seemed to remember something and raised his head, saying, "Oh, PJ, remember the chubby kid from the other day? Matilda Sparks," he ughed at a joke only he and I uood.
"Yes, didn't he bother you?" I asked.
"No, in fact, he was afraid of me, so Lucas and I had fun chasing him in the schoolyard," Gabe said proudly.
"Who's Matilda Sparks?" Mom asked, fused. "He's just a kid who used to bother Sheldon, the smallest Cooper kid," I respoo Mom. "Oh, I see. Gabe, don't bother him from now on," she scolded the boy.
"Well, my day was quite productive. I took care of a bug iion i of a hotel a few kilometers away. It was as easy as putting poison in the most ied areas and waiting for the job to be done on its own. They offered to take me out to eat as a reward, so I was thinking we could go weekend. I saw they had..." Bob began before being interrupted by Mom rushing to the bathroom.
"Wow, is it that disgusting to imagine?" he asked, surprised by Mom's suddeure.
"Well, it's a bit gross, Dad, and I don't think she'd want to eat there," I replied, trying to cover up the reason for Mom's sudden nausea.
Mom returned a few mier, and the meal tinued without any special is. When I finished, I thanked for the meal a my utensils in the dishwasher.
On my way to my room, I noticed Teddy had her door open. She had eaten very little, exg herself long before anyone else. She seemed to be doing homework.
Toug the door frame to get her attention, I asked for permission to enter.
"What are you doing, Teddy?" I asked, approag her desk.
"Math," she responded without enthusiasm, returning to her task.
"Do you need help?" As I asked, Teddy snorted mogly, but upon realizing I was serious from my silence, she turned with intrigue and said, "You're serious about helping me? You?"
"Yes, why not?" I replied.
"Well, basically, you're PJ. You're not the... brightest, in the family. Do you even think you uand it?" she said, arranging her notebook and pencil aside for me to see.
I wasn't surprised that Teddy thought PJ was dumb. His past grades and his way of being, from what Mom told me, only showed someo very smart. Maybe this approach isn't well pnned.
"Well, I fot a lot, but suddenly, school stuff seemed very easy to me. You ask Geie or Sheldon. They tell you that I answered many questions correctly in css. Let me see," I lied as I crouched dowo her to look at her notes.
They were simple first-grade equations.
"Well, Teddy, to solve these types of equations, you o find the value of the unknown represented by the letter 'x.' By using the equal sign, you rearrahe equation by moving terms to the other side. Do you know how to move terms to the other side of the equation?" I said.
Without receiving a response, I turo see Teddy looking at me with an expression of disbelief on her face.
"What the heck? It's true, now you're much smarter," she said surprised. "Yes, I know how to move terms to the other side. You use the inverse operatiht?" she tiaking the pencil and starting with the first equation.
"Well, thank you for notig my intelligence, and yes, you use the inverse operation. Although what you're really doing is adding, subtrag, dividing, or multiplying the entire equation so that the result remains unged. If you subtra one side of the equation, you subtra the other side too, that's why it appears as the opposite operation oher side," I expined as I watched her work on her assig.
"Ah, now I uand. So, if I o remove a hat's multiplying 'x' on the left side of the equation, I divide it by itself on both sides. Si's divided by itself on the left, it bees 1, and on the right, it appears as a division," she said happily as she picked up the pace.
"Correct" I said happy for her, but remembering her behavior i said "You know, you talk to me if something bothers you,", notig her happy expression fading.
"Why do you say that?" she asked, furrowing her brow.
"Well, I noticed you didn't talk much during the ride home and didn't say anything about your new school when Mom asked. Did something happen, Teddy?" I inquired.
"No, nothing happened. Literally" said suddenly exploding "I don't know ahere, and everyone already knew each other from before, so no oalked to me. What if no one ever talks to me again? In Colorado, Ivy was all I needed—my best friend. Here, I don't have a single normal friend," Teddy said, with tears welling up.
Not quite sure what to say, I gave her a half-hug so she could y shoulder. "Teddy, it might seem like you won't have friends here, but give them time. They're silly; they don't know what they're missing by not wanting to be your friend," I said. "And besides, if you don't make friends, just wait one more year, and you'll be in a school where your brother is the quarterback, and everyone will want to be your friend," I tinued, making Teddy ugh a little.
"Yeah, a quarterback who got selected because there was no one else," she said pyfully.
"Give me some time, and I'll be the best quarterback this town has ever seen," I said as I let go of her and stood up. "Now, finish your homework, and I'll go do mine," I tinued, making way to leave her room.
"PJ," she said suddenly, makiop and turn around. "Thanks. I like the new you better. Maybe we should throw Gabe dowairs," touched by what she said, I replied, "You're wele, Teddy."
Outside her room, I heard footsteps running, and at the end of the hallway, I saw strands of blond hair, clearly Mom's, disappearing around the er.
With a little ugh, I headed to my room, where I could hear the notes of a guitar.
Gabe ying one of his guitars again, going through them one by one in a circle. This time, when he saw me, he didn't get embarrassed and tinued pying as I prepared to do my homework.
"You doing homework? After the first day of school?" Gabe said, surprised. "Who would've thought, losing your memory ge people," he added with a teasing snort.
I ignored his joke and tinued doing my homework. As I worked on the problems, my memory was being clearer, and they became easier to solve as I progressed.
When I finished my homework, not even 30 minutes had passed since I started. Since I was done early, I figured I could practice a little.
I went to the guest bathroom, where I knew Mom kept a first-aid kit, and took the tweezers and suturing thread. From the kit, I grabbed an e and a knife auro my room.
At my desk, with the desk mp pointing at my hands, I let my muscle memory do its work. tinuous sutures*, interrupted sutures*, buried sutures*—I performed oer another in a trahis brought memories of my tless hours of practi the uy dormitories, w until te at night, reading books, and practig with whatever I could find while my roommate watched different sports on his small TV, occasionally shouting over losing some kind of bet.
Suddenly, snappi of my memories and making me realize there wasn't much space left on the e for cuts, a voice said, "What the heck are you doing with that e? It looks like Fraein with so many cuts. Are you cooking it?" Gabe said, leaning over my shoulder. "It's called suturing, dummy. Doctors do it to close the ends of a wound," I replied as I put the e and the remaining tools iop drawer of my desk.
Seeing the intrigue on his face, I sighed and said, "Fet about that. Are you done practig?" I quickly asked, ging the subject.
"Yeah, I'm starting to get a blister on my thumb," he said, proudly showing me his thumb.
"I see, that means you're putting in effort, although I don't want you to overexert yourself, little buddy. Mom would bme me," I said, standing up and tousling his hair. "Take the pybook and follow me. Let's practice," I told him as I picked up the football from my desk.
Outside, it was a beautiful day, and although it wasn't very te, most people were iheir houses. Some were walking their dogs, and there were a few children riding their bikes.
As I heard the door from the Cooper's house, I turo find Gabe with Bob. "Let's practice those pys," Bob said, g his hands with the pybook in them.
With the pys expined in the book, it was my job to be the quarterback, while Gabe pyed as the receiver, and Bob preteo rush me, so I had to dodge him to throw the ball to Gabe. Overall, it was a lot of fun, although many of the passes didn't ect because Gabe couldn't turn in time or the ball slipped from his hands. Bob was quite slow, so it didn't take much effort to evade his "quick" approaches.
At some point during our "practice," a voice from the Cooper's house said, "So, you finally decided on the best sport, huh, Bob?" Mr. Cooper, holding a beer in his hand, shouted from his backyard, greeting Bob.
"No, Gee, I'm just helping my son practice, the quarterback," Bob boasted, waving back at Mr. Cooper.
"You don't have to show off to me; I'm the one who put him there, remember? He's got good aim. Keep it up, PJ, don't hurt yourself," Mr. Cooper replied with a smile on his face.
"Why don't y your kids over so we all practice together?" Bob said to Mr. Cooper.
With a nod, Mr. Cooper went bato his house aurned a moment ter with Geie and a somewhat annoyed Sheldon. "But Professor Proton is expining how the potato gees electricity inside due to the acidity caused by *ascorbic acid," Sheldon said.
"I told you it's not possible. A potato is a vegetable and doesn't gee electricity," Mr. Cooper responded, smiling and not looking at his son.
"Tuber," Sheldon said. "What?" his father replied. "Potatoes are tubers, not vegetables," Sheldon replied, exasperated. "Whatever, the Duns invited us to py, so that's what we'll do," Mr. Cooper said as he joined us.
"So, you're not satisfied with practig at school, you also do it at home," Geie said with monoyance as we high-fived. "Well, the championship won't win itself," I replied with a smile that he mirrored.
Mr. Cooper, without needing to look at the pybook, positioned us in ve spots, with Geie and me in our respective positions oeam. "I'm not going to touch the ball, and I don't want to get hurt," Sheldon said, not moving from his spot. With a sigh of defeat, Mr. Cooper didn't say anything and cpped, starting the game.
We tinued running pys from the pybook, switg positions on some and doing random things on others. Overall, it was a lot of fun.
Once again, dodging Mr. Cooper, as Bob was "detained" by Geie, I threw the ball to Gabe, who this time mao catch it, thanks to Mr. Cooper's advice. "And he scores!" Mr. Cooper celebrated with his arms raised, joined by Bob and Gabe. "Good throw, PJ. It still cks power, but with that accuracy, we could make it to the state championships," Mr. Cooper said, giving my shoulder a shake.
"The ungle is incorrect; you lose power by releasing it at the midpoint of the total extension of your arm," Sheldon said suddenly.
"Sheldon, I've been teag football my whole life. The throw is good; it just needs a little more muscle in those bones, and it'll be perfect," Mr. Cooper responded desdingly to his son.
"See, dork, the throw is good. You don't know anything about football," Geie said, annoyed.
"It's not football; it's physics," Sheldoed, bei again.
Deg to ignore his son, Mr. Cooper repositioned us, this time sing Gabe. "If Gabe touches you, it's the same as getting tackled, PJ, so throw before he reaches you. This time, I'll wait there, but let's pretend I ran to that spot," Mr. Cooper said as he adjusted his position. Bob teased him, saying, "What's the matter, Gee? 't run a few steps?" With a fake ugh, Mr. Cooper settled into pd cpped again.
Dodging Gabe, I decided to follow Sheldon's advid waited for my arm to fully extend before throwing the ball. The football quickly flew into Mr. Cooper's hands, and upon catg it, he let out a groan. "Phew, good arm. What was that? Were you hiding your strength, PJ?" he said, shaking his hands in pain.
Looking at Sheldon with a smile, I said, "No, I just waited for my arm to fully extend before throwing."
"As I said," Sheldon said with pride in his voice, "physics."
Before anyone else could say anything, Mrs. Cooper yelled from the window of their house, "Kids, it's diime!" aurned ier giving us notice.
With handshakes, Mr. Cooper and Bob said their goodbyes, and Geie gave a high-five to both Gabe and me, saying, "See you tomorrow at school," before heading back to their house.
Sheldon waved from afar to everyone and walked back to his house.
"Well, kids, we o go ioo. I have to make dinner before your mom thinks about it," Bob said as he headed back to the house.
After quickly sh to wash off the dirt and sweat, I joined my family for dinner.
The day, after returning from my daily run and taking a shower, Bob dropped me off at school since he didn't have any t meetings this time, giving Mom enough time to take Gabe and Teddy and avoiding me having to go with Geie and Mr. Cooper.
Arriving at school, I met up with my friends in the hallway, taking things from their lockers, vely located o each other. Approag mihe st of the five neighb lockers, I greeted everyone.
"How's our quarterback today?" An said with mock reverence. "Geie was telling us you 't go long without training, huh, superstar?" Broke chimed in teasingly while giving me some friendly pats on the back.
"Well, I have to train to be able to carry all the weight of this team", I said, pointing at his belly, which made my other friends ugh at the joke.
"Whatever," Broke replied, pretending to be annoyed.
"Hey Geie, isn't that your brother?" David said, pointing towards the hallway.
Dodging taller students, Sheldon hurried through the school hallway with a few books in one hand and his portfolio iher.
Geie looked irritated and tinued anizing his ln his brother.
Feeling sorry for the boy, I shouted, "Sheldon!" making him turn his head towards me. With a haure, I motioned for him to e over, and he walked towards us. "Good m, PJ," he greeted me. "Why aren't you on your way to css? Mrs. MacElroy could be there already," he said urgently. Cheg my watch, I realized there were still a few minutes left before the first period bell, so I chuckled and replied, "We were on our way when I saw you. Join us." I guided him by the shoulders to stand in front of me.
Geie whispered with annoyan his voice, "What are you doing?"
"I'm just guiding him to his first css. Look, people might step on him if he's not careful," I whispered back, pointing at his brother. Probably feeling guilty for my remark, Geie nodded, and we all headed towards the first-period css.
Once we reached the , Sheldon immediately let go of my grip and sat in his seat. When the bell rang, he let out a sigh of relief and smiled gratefully, givihumbs-up.
Mrs. MacElroy entered with her head held high and a wide smile on her face, showing her evident ustache. Her attention focused on Sheldon, who didn't say anything about her appearance.
The css tinued as usual after that, but for some reason, many of the teacher's questions were directed at me specifically. "Dun, you jugate this verb for me, please?" or "Dun, is this spelling corre correct?" The more questions she asked me, the more Sheldon frowned and turned his body towards me.
At the end of the css, Mrs. MacElroy asked me to stay behind. "Evelyn told me to ask you to avoid Sheldon correg me," she said. "Evelyn?" I asked. "Yes, Mrs. Ingram," she replied. "I see she was right. Dun, keep answering the questions correctly, and I'll give you some extra points at the end of the term, if you hem. Now, you may leave." She began to review some papers on her desk.
I hope this doesn't tinue, or Sheldon will hate me.
Unfortunately, during the sed-period sce css, Mr. Givens, who smelled strongly of aftershave lotion, directed many questions at me, ign Sheldon's raised hand as much as he could.
At the end of the css, the same process repeated. Mr. Givens asked me to stay behind, and he promised me extra points at the end of the term and allowed me to leave.
In the cafeteria, at the table with my friends and teammates, I was eating my lunch peacefully until Broke, sittio me, tapped my shoulder and pointed beside me.
Sheldon, standing tall as he could, had an expression ance as he handed me a piece of paper. "What is this, Sheldon?" I asked. "It's a decration of duel. From now on, I'll answer more questions than you ahe best grades. Just wait and see, PJ Dun. I will defeat you!" he excimed, turning around to leave when he finished.
With my friends ughing and teasing me about what happened, I tinued eating my lunch, ign the ongoing taunts, until I was tapped on the shoulder again.
"Sheldon, I uand what a decration of duel is. You don't have to..." I started saying until I turned pletely and saw a very cheerful blonde girl o awo girls behind her.
"You're PJ Dun, right? o meet you. I'm Regina, and these are Gret and Karen," she said, greeting the other two girls with a nod. "We had Mrs. Ingram's css during the sed period, and she told us you could give us tut oopics we didn't uand, if you have time," she said, shaking my hand with a flirtatious tone and pying with her hair iher hand.
"Sure, I help you with whatever you need. But rigth now I 't do it, how about week? We're pretty busy with training this week," I replied kindly to the girl, pointing at my teammates. " week sounds amazing," Regina responded with a wide smile. "o meet you, PJ," she said, still pying with her hair as she bid farewell, followed by her two friends who also said their goodbyes. My friends and teammates were pletely infatuated and tinued saying their goodbyes even after the girls were out of sight.
"Wow, that girl is totally hot, and she was totally hitting on you, buddy. You have to take me with you when you do those 'tut' sessions," Broke said, sittio me, the first to snap out of the trance.
During the st period of the day, in math css, Mrs. Ingram was teag as usual. As she warned, her questions were reted to the topics she had given me. So whenever only Sheldon raised his hand, which happened almost every time, I would also raise mihe more questions I answered, the more I could see Sheldon's anger growing.
At some point he lowered his head in sadness, and I started feeling bad. Sheldon was still a child, a very intelligent one, but still a child. I didn't raise my hand in some questions, letting Sheldon answer each time. Whehis happened, Mrs. Ingram looked at me with desperation in her face, but for her tranquillity, seemingly motivated by the petition, Sheldon only answered the question correctly and remained silent to wait for the one.
The css tinued with this bad-forth of questions and answers until the end of the period.
Already aced to teachers' requests, I stayed until the st persohe . Sitting in front of Mrs. Ingram's desk, I waited for her to finish writing on a paper, which I assumed were more topics.
"You didn't study all the topi-depth, or why didn't you raise your hand? You know the answers very well, so I don't think you didn't know the answer," the teacher said, somewhat annoyed.
"Sheldon is still a child, ma'am, and he challenged me to a duel of questions, which, although a bit childish, I accepted. So I don't want to have an advantage over him based on tricks," I said, handing back the paper. "I appreciate that you offered me extra points, but I'd like to earn them on my ow. Sheldon will be fog on our petition, so he won't bother you as mu css, and it'll push me to study more. Everyone wins," I expined as I stood up.
"Okay, Dun, I uand. Anyway, I don't think you he extra points. You and Cooper are the only ones who answer correctly," she said, a bit defeated.
"Thank you for uanding," I said as I walked towards the door, stopping in the doorway. "By the way, did you tell Regina, Gret, and Karen from the roup that I could help them with their studies?" I asked.
"No, I probably mentiohat you and Cooper are the only ones who answer my questions correctly, but nothing more," she replied.
"Oh, okay. See you, Mrs. Ingram," I bid farewell, leaving the .
I joined my friends, who were waiting in the school locker room, already wearing their uniforms. "There he is, the superstar," Broke said with fake appuse, "arriving te because nobody is worth your time," he tinued joking.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up, Broke. We have to train," I replied.
Outside on the school field, the coaches were already waiting for the team, which was finally plete with the five of us. With some warm-up exercises, we began training before splitting into two teams. Coach Wilkins stayed with the defeeam, while Mr. Cooper remained with the offeeam.
While practig one of the pys in the pybook, An, who was standing behind me, discreetly poio one end of the field, where the cheerleaders were practig.
Among the cheerleaders was Regina, who happily greeted me wheiced that I noticed her.
After finishing training and taking a quick shower in the locker rooms, everyo home.
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Glossary
*tinuous Suture: In the tinuous suture, the stitches are ected along the wound.
Interrupted suture: A suture in which each stitch is separately tied.
*Buried sutures: The knot is buried by pg the suture using an ied teique in which the suture loop begins in the dermis.
*Ascorbic acid or Vitamin C: It is a colorless, odorless, solid crystal, soluble in water, with an acidic taste.
*Ovoid: A closed symmetrical curve with respect to its cave axis, formed by four arcs of a circumference: one of them is a semicircle, and the other two are equal and symmetrical.
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Author's Thoughts
Once again, I'm not Ameri, nor a doctor, nor a mathemati (Sorry, I'm a creature of routine).
Boom! This chapter is retively long and includes a small math css in it (you're wele).
The first person to tell me where the three new supp characters are from will receive an incredible prize (there's no prize, though). The first subplot of this arc is just around the er, and I'm very excited.
I o make some crifications:
1. In the inal movie (Boom, a hint!), it is not mentiohat the three girls are cheerleaders, but for the sake of the plot, I'm assuming they are.
2. I'm not sure if it's the same in the Uates, but at least it's like this in Mexico: the same school grade have several groups of students, like Group A, Group B, Group the story, for the sake of the plot, there will only be two groups: A (where the MC is) and B (where the MC is not, duh).
3. The iion with Teddy might seem tedious, but it served as a pretext t up the whole math topid to have the MC approad talk to his sister. As you know, one of the MC's desires and promises is that his family should be happy, so he'll be deeply ed about her (uhe M DAD...).
4. Someoiohat there are different football teams in High School depending on the year the pyers are in. I'll pretend it's not the case, so I apologize if it bothers anyone, but there will only be oeam, the one where the MC pys.
I think that's all.
As always, if you find any errors, please let me know, and I'll correct them immediately.
(I believe that with 7 chapters, you leave your review now. Please do it; I hope to read your reviews to know what I o work on more, I beg you.)
Thank you for reading
