Free The Counterfeit Tackle by Matt Christopher

1
    B UZZ stepped into the house and closed the door against the bitter cold air. His cheeks were apple-red. His glasses were clouding
     over so that he couldn’t see a thing.
    He put the sack of groceries on the table, took off his glasses and set them on the shelf beside the kitchen sink.
    He turned and looked at his twin brother Corky. The two of them looked exactly alike except that Buzz was nearsighted and
     had to wear glasses.
    “What’s the matter, Corky?” Buzz asked. “Are you sick?”
    Corky was sitting at the kitchen table, his chin cupped in his hands. If he wasn’t sick, his thoughts were a million miles
     away. He mumbled something that sounded like “Yuh.”
    “Okay, keep it a secret,” said Buzz. “I don’t want to know your troubles, anyway.”
    He took off his cap and coat. It was Saturday, the last day of September, and it sure had gotten cold all of a sudden.
    Dad appeared at the dining room door. His eyes met Buzz’s. He didn’t look especially well, either.
    “Guess I’m to blame for this,” he said. “I bought three tickets for the Bears-Giants game from Ben Welsh, thinking that the three of us could go. But Corky feels he shouldn’t go.”

    Buzz looked puzzledly from Dad to his brother. “Why not?”
    “He thinks that if he doesn’t show up at the Marlins game tomorrow, Coach Hayes will boot him off the team.”
    Buzz wrinkled his nose, a thing he always did whenever he heard something he didn’t like. “Boot him off the team for that?
     I don’t think Mr. Hayes would do that. Do you, Dad?”
    Dad shrugged.
    Corky lifted his face from his hands and shot piercing eyes at Buzz.
    “Well, he would! You don’t know Coach Hayes the way I do! He’s tough. He doesn’t want anybody to get there late or to miss
     a game. Just because I got there late last week he bawled me out.He said that if I was late again I’d be benched. Imagine what he’d say if I didn’t get there at all tomorrow!”
    Corky played right tackle on the Otters football team. The season had opened last week and the Otters had beaten the Dolphins
     21 to 19.
    Buzz hadn’t gone to the game. He had played basketball on his class team last year and was going to play again this year,
     but he didn’t care for football. It seemed like just a lot of head-bashing to him.
    Corky was different. He enjoyed football as well as basketball. He liked baseball, too. Buzz didn’t. Buzz would rather swim
     and fish. And play chess. He was the school chess champion last year. That was a game he
really
liked.
    “If I were you,” he said to Corky, “I’dgo to the game, anyway. I just bet you that Coach Hayes won’t boot you off the team.”
    “But you’re not me,” said Corky, and cupped his chin into his hands again. “And you don’t know Coach Hayes.”
    Dad looked at Buzz. “How about you, Buzz? Will you go with me?”
    Buzz lifted his shoulders and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Sure. I’ll go with you, Dad. But —” He paused.
    “But what?”
    “Well, Dougie was going to come over tomorrow. We were going to watch television for a while, then play chess. Wouldn’t —
     wouldn’t Mom and Joan care about going with you?”
    Joan was their seventeen-year-old sister, who was a cheerleader in highschool. Certainly she might enjoy going to the Bears-Giants game.
    Dad took a deep breath and let it out heavily. “Well, I don’t know. If Corky plays tomorrow with the Otters, your mother probably
     would rather see him play. Maybe Joan will go with me.”
    He turned around just as Joan walked in from the other room. “Did I hear my name mentioned in vain?” she said, smiling.
    “It all depends,” said Dad. He explained about the tickets and the problem with Corky. Then he asked her if she’d like to
     go to the game.
    Her brows shot up and her eyes opened wide. “Of course I’d like to go! And if neither of the twins wants to go, can I ask
     Steve to come along?”
    Steve Post was her latest