When I got to him, he was dazed and acting drunk, saying some crazy things like “Hey, Lump, when you die, do you get to eat at Kinchley’s Pizza every night?”

Coach Koffler had seen me run over to Bones and was right behind me with a water bottle. He knelt down next to Bones and said, “Hey, Hank, you got to hydrate, pal. I was watching your last mile, you were holding a five-minute pace.”

I knew nothing about running, but I knew Coach Koffler ran marathons so I asked him if Bones was any good. He said, “Oh, yeah, he could be on the high school varsity team with those kinds of times.”

I looked down at Bones, who was now sitting up and drinking from the water bottle, and said, “Wow, Bones, you’re actually good at something!”

Just then we all saw my Dad’s car pull up in the parking lot. I was confused—Estelle never drove that car, and she was never early. And my Dad never picked me up from practice.

Suddenly, Bones popped up like nothing was wrong and started to jog over to the car. Coach Koffler yelled after him, “Hank, you really should think about running cross country this fall.”

Bones just threw a wave and yelled back, “Thanks, Coach, maybe right after I beat the cancer! Shotgun!”

Coach Koffler looked at me, perplexed. “Did he say ‘cancer’?”

But all I could think was, did that idiot just say “shotgun”? Why does he want to sit next to Estelle? Just then the window of the car rolled down.

Of course . . . it was Gina.

Challenge Question!

Page 49