Miles shows his phone to Dante. "Braden scheduled a practice on Sunday."
"He can't do that. He's not the coach."
"Read the text. He got Coach to agree to it."
"Shit," Dante says. "Theo's going to be pissed. Now we'll have to deal with those two fighting."
"Theo fights with Braden?" I ask.
"Not directly. He just complains to the team when Braden's not around. Tries to get us to go against Braden, which none of us do."
"Why not?"
"Because it doesn't do any good. You piss off Braden he plays like shit. If we want to win, we have to keep him happy and let him think he's in charge."
"He did it on purpose," Miles says. "He knows Jason's memorial is Sunday."
"He must've really hated Jason," I say.
"He did. He didn't like some kid from the projects getting a free ride at Twisted Pine just to play football. And he was really pissed when he saw how good Jason was on the field. Jason started taking attention away from Braden, which you know he hates. The more popular Jason got, the more pissed Braden got. He said Jason didn't deserve the attention. That he didn't earn it."
"Did Braden go to his funeral?" I ask.
"We all did. Coach made it a requirement. He only did it because of Braden. The rest of us didn't even question going but Braden didn't want to go so Coach made him."
"Why didn't he want to go?"
"He said he doesn't go to funerals. But he went to Jason's so Coach wouldn't suspend him from the game that night."
"How did Jason die?" I ask, seeing if Miles will tell me something different than what I've already heard.
"A heart condition," he says. "That's all I know. I'm not good with medical shit."
"He wasn't feeling well that day," Dante says. "He told Coach it felt like his heart was racing. He was sweating really bad. Getting dizzy. It'd happened to him before but that day it was really bad."
"But he kept playing?"
"It's football. You don't miss a game when you don't feel good. You push through it." Dante checks his phone. "Shit, it's late. I have to go to my locker before class."
As we get up, the bell goes off. I have English next. Ms. Pruitt's class. I didn't study or do the homework, which means it's guaranteed she'll call on me, then give me that disappointed look when I don't know the answer.
When I get to class, Ms. Pruitt isn't there. We have a substitute, the same lady we had the first week of class.
"Ms. Pruitt is feeling under the weather," the substitute says. "So I'll be taking over her class for the rest of the week."
Ms. Pruitt's going to be out all week? How could she be sick enough to miss that many days? She seemed fine yesterday.
As the day goes on, I notice I'm not getting dirty looks from people anymore. Sitting at the football table seemed to restore my social standing, or at least not make me an outcast. I'm sure Braden's furious with me, but that's nothing new.
When I meet up with Trystan after school, he starts to drive off as I'm getting in.
"What the hell?" I yank on my seatbelt. "I wasn't even in the car."
He laughs. "I love giving you shit. You get all annoyed with me. It's fucking hilarious. Almost as funny as Braden's face when you sat at his table at lunch. I can't believe you did that."
"His rule was stupid and I didn't have anywhere else to sit."
"Did he tell you to leave?"
