“Hey.” Patty focused back on Sunny. She let go of his hand and readjusted herself in the booth. “I totally understand. I mean, I get it. Not the punishment part, but the part about your mom. My secret is sorta like that too.”
Sliding Sunny’s utensils over to him, Coach nodded but didn’t say nothing. He just listened and doled out the eating tools. He put another set in his right hand. Those were going to be Patty’s.
“Really?” Sunny said encouragingly.
“Yeah. I’m adopted, as all y’all already know,” Patty continued. “But I’m not like most adopted kids. Most don’t know their folks. But I know my mom.”
“You do?” Lu asked, with a mouth full of rice this time. He looked so surprised, like he should’ve known this about Patty since they had been friends for so many years.
“Yep. Me and my little sister, Maddy, go see her all the time,” Patty said. “She’s cool.”
“So why she give you up then?” Lu said stupidly.
“Lu!” Coach snapped. Lu stopped chewing. Coach pointed at me and Lu—why was he pointing at me!—and said, “Thing One and Thing Two, what y’all do before I picked y’all up? Study the world’s most inappropriate questions?”
“No, it’s okay, Coach,” Patty said. “It’s actually a good question.” She rested her hands on the table. “She actually gave us up because she doesn’t have legs. They had to get cut off because she got the sugar.” Patty paused to make sure we knew what she meant by the sugar. I guess our faces made it clear that we didn’t, because she continued, “Diabetes.”
“But who takes care of her?” I asked.
“She takes care of herself, mainly. But she couldn’t take care of us, y’know,” Patty explained, now fingering the corners of her eyes.
“So you run . . . for her,” Sunny said, now understanding how Patty could somehow relate to his story.
“Yeah.” Patty swallowed. “I run for her.”
Coach handed Patty her silverware. “That leaves you, Ghost,” he said. And let me tell you, I still wasn’t sure what my secret was going to be, but I definitely knew I had to think of it quick, because my duck was getting cold, and cold duck didn’t sound too good. At first I was going to tell them about the shoes. That I stole them. But then I figured Coach would not be okay with that, and even though he said we were telling secrets that we all were going to keep, I had learned a long time ago that adults play by different rules. So that was out. But I only had one other real secret. And I didn’t know if it was okay to tell, especially over Chinese food. But I couldn’t make up a good lie, despite the good job I had been doing lying over the past few days. I just didn’t want them to look at me different or give anybody anything to pick on me about. I mean, I technically was still getting to know them, but I didn’t know them know them yet. I didn’t know know anybody besides my family. I never even told Red and Dre stuff like this. Matter fact, I hadn’t even mentioned to them that I was on a track team, just because I didn’t wanna have to go through the whole, You? You on a track team?
But then I looked around the table. Everybody had told such personal stories about their families, so maybe my family story wouldn’t be so bad after all. Plus, um, my duck . . . it was getting cold. So . . .
“My dad’s in jail for trying to shoot me and my mother,” I blurted. And before anyone could say anything, I held my hand out for my utensils.
Lu dropped his fork.
Patty dropped her knife.
Sunny stopped drinking.
Coach’s mouth hung open as he pressed everything into my hand.
And I felt . . . good. Different. Like, even though they were all stunned by what I said, I felt like they could see me. Like we were all running the same race at the same speed. But I was also feeling pretty hungry.
“Thanks,” I said, taking my fork and stabbing the duck with it. I twisted meat off the bone and stuffed it in my mouth like nothing was wrong. Like I hadn’t just dropped the atomic bomb of secrets. But I didn’t really want to make a big deal of it. I just wanted to say it and eat.
“So what about you, Coach?” I asked through my chewing of the best food I had ever had. Ever. Duck. Who knew? Charlotte Lee could collect all the rubber ones she wanted. I was gonna set the record for eating the most real ones. I mean, it’s basically like the world’s greatest chicken or something.
Everybody else had started back digging in their plates, even though now things were definitely a little awkward. Just a little.
“Uh, what about me?” Coach replied at last.
“Well, what’s your secret?” I asked, pointing the fork at him.
“No, no, no, this is about y’all. Not me.”
“Come on, Coach,” said Patty. “Don’t be like that.”
“Yeah, I thought coaches were supposed to set an example,” said Lu.
“Watch it,” Coach snipped, but jokingly.
“No offense, Coach,” Sunny said. “But Lu’s right.”
“And Lu’s never right!” Patty teased, reaching over and snatching Coach’s chopsticks and fork.
Coach shook his head. “I can’t believe this. You dirty little rats. But I like the fact that y’all are ganging up on me. That means my plan is working.” He put his hands together like an evil villain. “You’re bonding.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Patty scoffed. “Just get to the secret, or kiss your noodles good-bye.”
Coach sniggered. “Okay, okay,” he started. “Well, it’s true, Lu. I did run in the Olympics. And I won a gold medal.” Coach looked pointedly at each of us, one by one. “Okay? So, there,” he said, snatching his fork and chopsticks back from Patty.
And the conversation for the rest of the night was pretty much all about the Olympics. Coach didn’t really say too much more about it. It was mainly just us talking about what it must’ve been like and all that. But I was glad that we were off my secret—it was like I had never even said anything about what happened with my dad, even though I did. I did. And it seemed like everybody at the table cared and didn’t care at the same time. And that made me feel, for the first time, like I was one of them. They even asked me if I needed to borrow some practice gear, which I thought was nice, but I told them I was cool. That my mother was going to get me some soon, even though I hadn’t even asked for none yet. Plus, I kinda wanted my first jersey and shorts to be the ones I ran my first race in. Which, I hadn’t really even thought about until just then. But I appreciated them offering to look out for me. Not many people do that. I could add them to the list of my mother, Mr. Charles, and, well, Coach. And it felt good to feel like one of the teammates. Like I was there—really, really there—as me, but without as much scream inside.
9
WORLD RECORD FOR CLEANING THE DIRTIEST CAR