Free The New Kid by Temple Mathews Page A

horror as Sharon continued with the public dump.
    “Sorry to do this now, Dunky, in front of all these people. Wait a minute, no, I’m not, because this definitely makes it officially official.”
    Smiling politely and then tossing a come-on look at Will, Sharon walked off with the other cheerleaders laughing and trailing behind her, leaving Duncan floundering in a pool of humiliation. If he was angry before, he was seriously, dementedly, borderline-brain-exploding furious now and he sucker-punched Will, who was momentarily dazed, stunned just enough so that when Todd and another of Duncan’s
muscular bootlickers shoulder-jammed him against the lockers it took him at least two seconds to react with a couple moves of his own, spinning and kicking. The melee was on and Rudy jumped up and down.
    “Kick their butts, Will!”
    Will had had it with these punks and was just about to go into time-bending mode when a stentorian voice rang through the hallway: “That’s enough!”
    It was Coach Kellog, a towering bulky man who you could tell was once in fantastic shape but had hoovered way too many Whoppers since and had gone mostly to flab, straining his Sansabelt slacks. Still, on the football field and in the hallways he was the law, and the skirmish subsided as swiftly as it had begun.
    “So, you like to hit, huh?” he asked Will.
    “Not especially. But if somebody hits me, I hit back.”
    Will noticed the coach wore a Patek Philippe Calatrava watch that ran around twenty grand. He made it a point to be able to spot expensive jewelry because sometimes it tipped him off. Demons were often too proud and too stupid to hide the fact that they were suckers for expensive jewelry. But then, so were a lot of so-called normal people.
    Coach Kellog’s eyes narrowed. He grabbed Will’s arm by the bicep and was pleasantly surprised at how strong the kid was.
    “Nice attitude. Let’s see you bring it to the field after school. You got a problem with that, Duncan?”
    The coach turned to Duncan and his boys. Duncan hung his head.
    “No, Coach,” he said, and then stomped off.
    “Well then, it’s all settled, we’ll see you after school, New Kid.”
    Will watched Coach Kellog cut a swath as he swaggered down the hallway.
    Rudy sidled up next to Will and grinned. “Looks like somebody’s trying out for the team after all.”

    Then he went into his goofy primate dance and in a singsong voice talked about the one girl in school that he’d thought about every single day ever since third grade.
    “Sharon Mitchell. Oh, man, I can’t stand it! Sharon Mitchell! ”
     
    The rest of the school day passed without incident and as he trudged toward the football field after the final bell rang Will wished he’d never antagonized Duncan. He should have just backed down and hidden behind a cloak of bogus cowardice, something he’d done many times before in order to get the job done. But not this time, this time he’d put himself out there in the thick of it and he wondered if he’d made a mistake. But then he answered his own question. Of course he was doing the right thing. Just how bad were these bad boys? He had to find out. It wasn’t the first time finding out the truth would mean enduring some pain.
    Rudy, who was making it a habit of being ubiquitous, appeared beside Will crunching a bag of chips. “’Sup?”
    “Not much. I’m just going out to get my head pounded by a bunch of pubescent gorillas.”
    “You don’t know how lucky you are, having a chance to make the team.”
    “It’s not that big a deal,” said Will.
    Rudy shook his head back and forth in disagreement. “Spoken like someone who’s never had a problem being on a team, or being popular, or being a chick magnet. Me, I’m the opposite. I’ve never been on a team in my life. I’m an only kid, I don’t even have brothers or sisters.”
    “I’m an only child, too,” said Will.
    That made Rudy feel a little better, but he still ached over the fact