Free Hat Trick by W. C. Mack Page B

climbed the stairs. I didn’t want him to give Mum and Dad the same blank stare he gave me all the time. I didn’t want him to watch Wendy make fun of me.
    I didn’t want him in my house at all!
    It was totally crazy.
    Batman didn’t invite the Joker to his bat cave. Superman didn’t have Lex Luthor over for Sunday dinner. There was no reason the gorilla should even knock on my door, let alone walk through it.
    “Are you feeling okay, honey?” Mum asked, reaching over to lay her hand on my forehead.
    Aha! Maybe that was my ticket to freedom! If I told her I was sick, I could stay home from school and Eddie Bosko could stay out of my life, at least for a day.
    But when I glanced at Mum, I knew I was kidding myself. She’d have the tutoring rescheduled so fast, my head would spin.
    “I’m fine,” I told her. I dug into the rest of my waffle, but it had kind of lost its flavour.
    Great.
    Eddie Bosko had actually stripped the taste out of blueberry waffles, without even trying.
    * * *
    I met Kenny outside for the walk to school in drizzling rain. We pulled up our hoods, since only girls carry umbrellas.
    “That game was awesome,” Kenny said.
    “What game?” I asked, still distracted by thoughts of Eddie Bosko.
    “Duh, Nugget. The Red Wings last night? We destroyed you!”
    “Oh,” I sighed. “I didn’t get to watch.”
    Kenny turned to stare at me. “What do you mean?”
    “I had to spend the whole night in my room, doing homework.”
    “Why?”
    “I was mean to my sister.”
    “Did you kill her?”
    It was my turn to stare. “No! Are you crazy?”
    He shrugged. “Well, that’s the only thing I can think of that’s bad enough to miss the game.”
    “We just had a fight at dinner.”
    “A fistfight?”
    “What’s wrong with you? She’s a girl, Kenny.”
    He shrugged again.
    “Look, I was rude to her, okay?”
    “And you missed the whole game for that?”
    “Yeah.”
    “For being rude? Man, I wish my brother lived at your place.” He shook his head. “He’d be grounded forever. Did you at least get to listen to PUCK?”
    “Yeah, I snuck downstairs for the trivia question.”
    “I didn’t get it.”
    “I did,” I said, proud of myself.
    “Cool. Did you try calling in?”
    “Nope.”
    “Why not?”
    “I’m waiting for the last day. I want to win the game tickets.”
    “And the shot from centre ice,” Kenny said, nodding.
    “Of course.”
    “You know, everyone’s going to be trying for that, Nugget.”
    “J.T.,” I said automatically, then shrugged. “Somebody has to win. Why not me?”
    Kenny was quiet for a few seconds. “I guess you’re right.”
    He didn’t sound very sure, but I decided to believe him anyway. The way things had been going, it could be the only time I was right all week.
    * * *
    My day went pretty smoothly, especially English class. For the first time that year, I was the kid with a hand up to answer questions, and I even asked two of my own. Mrs. Foster looked like she might fall over from shock when she realized I’d actually been reading
Over the Moon
. Star of the class Annie McHale stared at me like I was from outer space.
    “I didn’t even know you could read,” she whispered.
    “Thanks a lot,” I whispered back.
    When it was time for Social Studies, I did okay there, too. Mr. Marshall didn’t call on me, but I knew the answers to four of his questions, anyway. It was a good thing I’d cracked the Socials book after Math the night before.
    Apparently, studying worked.
    At lunch me and the guys ate as fast as we could, then headed to the gym to play a little pickup game. My team won by a landslide, and after all of the rotten stuff that hadbeen happening, it seemed like things were finally going my way.
    Of course, knowing Eddie Bosko was coming over still drove me nuts, but after a good day at school, I felt like I could handle it, and handle him. When I really thought about it, I knew he was just a kid my own age, who happened to be good