Chapter 36

Coach Vickers blew his whistle and signaled the team over.

"Settle," he yelled as we formed a circle around him.

I was feeling good. It had been a good week. So far, no one had threatened to suspend or expel me. Dad gave me some funny looks. I think he was trying to decide if he had to say something about Tami and me, but in the end I guess he decided that Mom had handled it. Football practice had gone great and so had the play. It was Thursday. Maybe, just maybe, I would finally get the confrontation free week I'd been hoping for.

"I just have a couple of announcements, then you can take off. No game tomorrow, and we've looked real good this week, so I've decided to give you the day off."

The team cheered. It had been awhile since we'd had a Friday to ourselves. Robbie looked like she couldn't decide whether it was good news or bad till I clapped her on the back and she smiled.

"Next week, we have the first round of play-offs and we lucked out, we're at home.

The team cheered again.

"If we win..."

"When we win," Mark interrupted.

"When we win, we'll be at home for the quarter finals, too."

"Then the Tacoma Dome!" Mark yelled and that brought on another team cheer.

Coach Vickers was grinning as big as any of us. "Last, next week, Tony won't be with us on Monday and Thursday."

I won't?

"Some guys think they're special," Luke muttered.

I started to say something, but a sharp look from the coach silenced me. "Some guys are special," he said, getting right in Luke's face. "If he wasn't, you wouldn't be on this team right now."

Luke looked away from the coach, caught me looking at him, and looked down.

"And if any of the rest of you think Tony's getting special treatment," it might have been my imagination, but I thought he looked straight at Mike, "volunteer to give up twelve weeks of your free time to coach some kids and you can miss a few practices too."

Gymnastics. Tami and Robbie must have arranged it with the coach when they talked to him about getting me back on the team.

Friday was still peaceful. Not one teacher threatened me, though Mr. Singara gave me a dirty look on general principal.

That night Robbie and her dad, Tami, and I had dinner with the Bradleys.

I'd talked to Mr. Bradley a little before the concert, but now I had a chance to get to know him. He had a crude sense of humor, and I learned several new dirty jokes that could come in handy for settling pitchers during baseball season.

Betty and Jo spent most of the night in my lap, with both Tami and Robbie giving me satisfied looks. I promised myself that if either of them mentioned the words twins and harem in the same sentence, I'd spank.

Saturday I went with Gary and the team to Traci's gymnastics meet. Traci was having a pretty good year. She'd finished in the top six at every meet so far, but not yet in the top three.

Tami, Peter, and Kelly came along to cheer. Since Kelly was a level seven, she didn't compete until January.

The girls all had a pretty good meet, though not one stayed on the beam. Sixteen falls for twelve girls is not something to be proud of, but Gary said some days are just like that. Traci finished fourth all-around but took a first place on vault, which was going to have her dancing on the ceiling all weekend. The team came in third. Not bad, but they usually finished first or second.

"What's gotten into you? Tami asked as we walked around the park Sunday night. I was grinning at the stars.

"I did it."

"Did what?"

"A confrontation free week."

"Tony, I'm so proud of you." The sarcasm in her voice made me wonder about shipping a certain bad influence back to Tennessee.

"Think I can make it two?"

Tami smiled. "Go for broke, try for three."

I think we both knew a month was out of the question.