feel like a hug even from across the room. âItâs the kind of thing that happens to parents all the time when they become too parental. Sometimes we want to be great parents so much we end up acting like idiots, and if you tell your mom I said that, no dessert.â
âWhat is dessert, by the way? She wouldnât tell me.â
âBanana cream pie.â
âI wonât talk.â Ben sat up. âDad, I gotta find a way to prop him up. Iâm just not sure I know whatâs the best way.â
The whole truth there, nothing but.
âMaybe you can convince him that he can help the team more by wanting it a little less,â Benâs dad said. âDoes that makes sense to you ?â
Ben nodded, smiling back at him, because it did.
âMom says Lilyâs the genius,â he said. âActually itâs you.â
âNow that you can tell your mother,â his dad said.
He wasnât going to lie to his buds, he was just going to leave some stuff out, basically. He didnât think Shawnâs secret â about not wanting to play quarterback â should be that big a secret. But it was. Because it was Shawnâs secret.
And Ben had promised.
His mom would tell him sometimes when she was going over one of his English papers, it wasnât what you put that made your writing better, it was what you left out.
And Coop talked all the time about what he called the âBro Code,â what guys were allowed to do and say and what they werenât, Ben and Sam just rolling their eyes when he did, knowing he was just making up rules as he went along.
One time Ben pressed Coop on what he thought was the single most important part of the Bro Code and Coop thought about that for a minute and said, âHaving each otherâs backs, no matter what.â
Sam and Coop both knew Ben would have their backs, no matter what the situation. But this situation was different: For now, Ben had to have Shawnâs back, too. He was alreadyhoping that when Shawn started to see how much he could trust the Core Four, heâd tell the others that he was only playing quarterback to please his dad.
Ben knew that no matter how much he could justify what he was doing, he and Sam and Coop had always told one another everything. If they got their feelings hurt later because Ben had been holding back on them, Ben would have to deal with that. Maybe that was the real Bro Code.
For now, though, he needed to keep it simple: Shawn was too tight, they had to find a way to loosen him up.
When he explained that to Sam and Coop in his basement, Coop said, âAnd this is our job ⦠why?â
They had decided not to watch a movie after the Packers game, had been playing Madden on the big screen instead. When Lily found out there was no movie, she called and informed them her idea of fun wasnât watching them lose their minds over a video game, but she might wander by later if there was time before supper.
âItâs not our job ,â Ben said. âHeâs our teammate, and he asked for our help. So itâs like when you help a teammate up after he gets knocked down in a game.â
He looked over at Sam, down at the other end of the long couch. Waiting for some backup. Only this time it wasnât coming.
âCount me out,â he said.
âYouâre kidding, right?â
Sam said, âYouâre the one that must be kidding. If Iâm gonna do some extra work, itâs not gonna be with him. Or for him.â
âSame,â Coop said. âIt might be your idea of the Code to prop this guy up. Not mine. You heard the way he called me out yesterday?â
âEverybody says stuff they donât mean,â Ben said. âYouâve done it plenty of times.â
âDude,â Coop said. âTrust me. He meant it.â
âThe only guy on the team who doesnât think Shawn is a jerk is you,â Sam said.
âHeâs