Free Lessons I Never Learned at Meadowbrook Academy by Liz Maccie Page A

points. Anthony once told me that every guy’s dream is to find a chick that loves sports.
    â€œDo you have tickets?” Thaddeus asked. “My family’s got a season pass, box seats.”
    And in an instant, my world came crashing down. My family didn’t have season tickets to anything. We were lucky our TV worked half the time. Just last week, all eight of my uncles were over watching the game and drinking beer, when our TV blew a fuse right before the last inning. My mother panicked and grabbed my neon pink boom box that I had gotten for my birthday. My father, my brother, and all eight of my uncles huddled around my radio as the Yankees hit the winning run.
    I hated this feeling that I would never be good enough to matter. I just couldn’t tell Thaddeus the truth. I desperately wanted him to like me. To accept me. So I looked right at him and said with as much conviction as possible, “Yeah, we have box seats…”
    We turned a corner and headed down a less crowded corridor.
    â€œCool. Which box?”
    â€œWhich box? Uh, well…behind home plate.” It was the only thing I could think to say.
    Thaddeus stopped walking. “Your family has box seats behind home plate?”
    â€œIt’s really no big deal.”
    â€œNo big deal! Are you kidding me? I would do anything to sit behind home plate. Maybe I could tag along sometime, before the season’s out?”
    A rotund, worried-looking boy with a fist full of paperback books crashed right into me. “Sorry,” he mumbled as he gathered his books and took off again down the hall.
    Thaddeus reached out and helped me steady myself from the collision. “You’re having trouble standing today, huh?” He smiled.
    His hand on my arm felt incredible.
    â€œYeah, I guess so.” I awkwardly giggled.
    â€œSo what do you say?” he asked.
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œTagging along behind home plate? Only, you know, if you had an extra ticket.”
    â€œOh, God yeah, no definitely, of course, no problem,” I stammered while looking at a boy and girl kissing behind one of those potted trees.
    â€œThanks. That’d be really great.” He smiled and I wanted to die. “What class are you going to?”
    I took out my crumpled schedule from my pocket and looked at it. “Lunch.”
    â€œFirst period lunch, nice . That means you get first pick at anything that’s good.”
    An instant panic swept over me about being ridiculed everyday at lunchtime when I was overweight.
    â€œSee ya.” Thaddeus tucked his bangs behind his ear and walked away.
    I did a quick mental scan for damage control. Box seats. I mean, how hard could it be to get box seats for the Yankees a few weeks before the World Series? I was so screwed! Clearly I wasn’t equipped to figure this one out all on my own, but I knew exactly who to talk to in order to get some answers: my father.
    My dad knew everything there was to know about the Yankees, past, present, and future.He owned Yankees pajamas, boxers, hats, sweaters, sweatshirts, socks, mugs, Christmas ornaments, window decorations, car seat covers, and the most recent addition: a talking bank in the shape of a Yankees hat that says, “I’m a winner!” every time you put a coin in its back. I would simply get on my father’s good side and then beg him for box seat tickets to the Yankees. No problem.
    Maybe going to see a Yankees game with Thaddeus would be like a date. Maybe we would wind up becoming a couple, like boyfriend and girlfriend. I felt light-headed. I’ve never been able to imagine a boy liking me because I’ve always just been the “fat girl.”
    But Thaddeus didn’t know me from before.
    So maybe, just maybe, I had a chance.
    I retraced my steps back to Nurse Brown’s office to visit Mervin, but he wasn’t there. Nurse Brown told me that she had already sent him off to lunch. As sweet as the apples