Scramble
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 21
One thing I really appreciated was, especially now that Li was done with basketball, that she and Eduardo would wait up in the stands while I finished seven-on-seven practice and my QB practice, which honestly took hours. Actually, Li did more than that, because she also watched Eduardo and me doing track practice.
She spent like three hours some days after school just watching us. Well, not just watching us. Mostly, she was doing homework, and once Eduardo was done, she’d work with him on his homework. So I guess it made a little sense.
But it was nice to walk home with friends rather than by myself.
“You looked good out there today, Eduardo,” I said, adjusting my grip on my bag as we turned down the road that headed in the general direction of all of our houses. “Those handoffs were clean. Really clean.”
He shrugged. “It was okay, I guess.”
“Okay? Come on, you dropped a full second off your split from last week.”
“Still not fast enough. I mean, my base time is still slower than most of the guys.”
“You’ve only been running track for what, two months? Some of these other guys are in their fourth year, and a few ran in middle school,” Li pointed out.
“Exactly,” I said. “That’s what I keep trying to tell him. His improvement rate is what matters, not where he is compared to everyone else.”
Li nodded along enthusiastically, but I could tell Eduardo wasn’t buying it.
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “It’s just ... when Andrew and Jason are still running faster base times, it makes me wonder why I’m even on varsity relay.”
“Hold up,” I said. “The only reason you’re kicking yourself is because you wore yourself out trying to make up how far behind you guys were and had a bad handoff, but the other guys in the relay, including the people with faster splits, were why you needed to make up the time. When it counted, you ran a lot better time than any of them, and you wouldn’t have needed to if they could compete. You can’t give them a pass for how they performed and kick yourself for your mistakes at the same time. One doesn’t happen without the other.”
I didn’t say it, but I still felt like some of it was my fault. I’d seen how he looked at me after my race, when I’d kicked it in early to try and pull out a win for us. I was positive that’s where he got the idea, except he hadn’t thought through the difference in our conditioning.
We reached the corner where Eduardo had to turn off toward his house. I knew he hadn’t heard a word I’d said.
“Thanks for the pep talk, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Blake. Six sharp, right?”
“You know it. We’ll work on your starts some more.”
“Sounds good.” Eduardo waved and headed down his street.
“He’s really beating himself up over that dropped baton,” Li said as we watched him go.
“Yeah.” I waited until Eduardo disappeared around the corner before continuing. “I’m actually worried about him. Like, really worried.”
“What do you mean?”
We started walking again, headed to the point where we’d split off from each other. “It’s been a week and a half, and he won’t let it go. And it’s not just about track anymore. It’s affecting everything, his mood, his schoolwork, even how he talks to people.”
“Maybe he just needs time. Some people process disappointment differently.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself, but ... I feel responsible, you know? I’m the one who convinced him to try out in the first place.”
“Blake, that’s ridiculous. You didn’t make him drop the baton.”
“I kinda did. He saw me close the gap in our race and tried to do the same thing. No way he kicks in early and breaks his training otherwise.”
We stopped at the crosswalk, waiting for a pickup truck to rumble past. The driver waved. That happened a lot, including every time I went out for a run. Ever since JV did so well last year, people in town had started noticing me.
“That’s ridiculous,” Li said once we crossed. “For one, all of that assumes Eduardo can’t think and make decisions for himself. Is that the message that you want to send him? That he’s a follower who just does what he sees you do?”
“Well, no.”
“Did he screw up? Sure. But that’s what happens in sports. You’ve had bad games; did you blame your coach for moving you to JV? Or giving you a starting spot?”
“No.”
“Then stop trying to take the blame for things that aren’t yours to take. Eduardo is able to make his own decisions, and it wasn’t even a bad one. It just didn’t work out. He needs to pick himself back up and move forward. Everyone has setbacks.”
I nodded, knowing she was probably right. “The thing is, his actual running is getting better. Like, significantly better. He pushes himself hard during practice, shows up early for our training sessions, never complains about the extra work. But his confidence is completely shot. All the technical improvement in the world doesn’t matter if he’s afraid to trust himself when it counts.”
Li stopped walking and turned to face me. “His confidence will come back. He’ll have some good races, put that dropped baton behind him, and remember why he started running in the first place.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that,” I said, and then had a passing thought. “Actually, I think I might know something that could help speed up the process.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
I grinned, knowing she was going to hate what I was about to suggest. “I’ve noticed something interesting during practices and training sessions.”
“Why are you being so coy?”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“You’re being cute. Trying to say something without saying something. Just say it or change the subject. I hate that.”
“Fine. I’ve noticed that Eduardo’s times are consistently better on days when you come watch from the stands.”
She stared at me for a moment, then burst out laughing. “You’re imagining things.”
“I thought so too, at first. But I started keeping track of his splits, and the pattern is too consistent to ignore.”
“Blake, that’s definitely just coincidence. My sitting in the bleachers can’t possibly affect how fast someone runs.”
I held up my hands. “Look, maybe it is coincidence. But the numbers don’t lie. Last Tuesday, when you were there for student council pictures, he ran his personal best. Thursday, when you had to go, his time was almost four seconds slower.”
Li rolled her eyes. “You’re reading way too much into normal training variations. Some days, people run faster, some days slower. It’s not because of who’s in the stands.”
“Maybe. But what if it’s not?”
“It is.”
“But what if it’s not?” I repeated, grinning wider. “Come to our next meet. See if your presence helps him when it really counts.”
Li gave me a look that suggested I’d lost my mind. “I’ll think about it.”
Her tone made it clear she thought my theory was ridiculous, but I pressed on anyway. “Even if I’m completely wrong about the correlation, having a friend there supporting him couldn’t hurt his confidence, right?”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“So you’ll come?”
Li sighed. “I’ll consider it. Mostly to prove to you that you’re seeing patterns that don’t exist.”
“Fair enough. I’ll take it.”
We’d reached the point where our paths diverged, Li toward Downing’s Antiques and me toward home. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“Maybe. But I’m also right about this.”
“We’ll see.”
I laughed and waved as I turned toward my house.
We’d see.
I grabbed the folding table from the back of Dad’s truck while he wrestled with the stack of metal chairs. Mom had already claimed a spot under one of the pavilions near the playground equipment at Frazier Park, her arms full of birthday decorations and party supplies.