Free Basketball (or Something Like It) by Nora Raleigh Baskin

loud.
    But Coach Vince seemed pretty fair. Everybody played. And besides, they won. Nathan almost smiled again, remembering, and then his mother spoke.
    “Anyway, it doesn’t matter if you play a lot,” his mother said. “We’ll just come to root for your team.”
    Mothers.
    “It’s settled then,” Nathan’s father said.
    Nathan thought he might be allergic to serotonin.
Hank
    “I t’s school policy not to ask anyone why they’re in here,” Mrs. Cooperman said. She was in charge of detention that day.
    “So why are you in here?” she asked.
    Hank smiled right away. Mrs. Cooperman was pretty and funny. Maybe detention wouldn’t be so awful after all.
    The whole thing had made him pretty nervous. He had never really
had
detention before. Not a real stay-after-school kind of detention. He had a bad stomachache that morning. He didn’t even want to go to school. But he had to. The school had called his mother the day before and sent him home with a note. Two days of detention.
    There is a no-tolerance rule about fighting, Hank’s mother was informed. (Of course, she called right away.) It didn’t matter who started it or for how long this boy, Alex, had been picking on her son. Hank’s mother almost started to cry right on the phone with the assistant principal. (Oh,
God, please no.)
Not because she thought Hank had been hurt, he obviously wasn’t hurt, but for the injustice of it all.
    Hank’s parents had this thing about injustice.
    “It was no big deal,” Hank had tried to explain that night.
    “Well, I’m glad you stood up for yourself,” Hank’s dad said. “You should do that more often.”
    “I did, Dad.” Hank said. “And I got detention.”
    “Well, that’s not real life. That’s middle school. In real life you’ve got to look out for yourself because nobody is going to do it for you. You’ll never get anywhere in this world unless you’re assertive. You’ve got to be more assertive.”
    Hank knew he wasn’t talking about the fight anymore or even about school. He meant basketball. He thought Hank was too unassertive. He felt Hank would be playing more if he demanded more time, the way the other kids did. The way the other kids’ fathers did.
    And frankly, Hank might
earn
more playing time if he were more assertive. If he played harder.
    At least, that’s what his father thought.
    Hank knew he already
was
playing as hard as he could.
    “Are you in here for fighting?” Mrs. Cooperman said. She took out a couple of plastic containers and placed them on top of her desk.
    Hank nodded.
    “I can see that. You look like some kind of tough guy. So where’s your friend? He’s supposed to be here, too.”
    They both looked at the clock as the little hand clicked into place and just as it did, Jeremy walked in.
    “Hope you two brought a snack,” Mrs. Cooperman said.
    “But I thought we weren’t allowed to eat in here,” Hank said.
    Mrs. Cooperman took a big forkful of her salad. “Well,” she said. “That’s true. But I don’t like to eat alone so you better bring something for tomorrow.” Mrs. Cooperman looked down at the computer sheet in front of her. “And we have another day together, so bring cookies if you can. I like cookies.”
Anabel
    A nabel was late for the fourth day in a row. She missed the bus and her dad had to drive her to school. He wasn’t getting this Mr. Mom thing very well. He was late. By the time he pulled into the drop-off line, all the other cars were gone. The doors were shut. Not a good sign.
    “I’m sorry, Anabel, but those are the rules. Three unexcused tardies and you get detention.”
    Anabel stood at the counter in the main office. She needed a late pass, and she got detention instead. If it helped any, the attendance secretary looked really sorry as she wrote out the slip. Really, she did.
    “What period do you have lunch?” the secretary asked.
    “Fifth, but I’m staying in for my science project,” Anabel said.
    “How about fourth?