Coach tells Taylor and me that we just may get some playing time tomorrow night. I didn't play last season, so sitting the bench and staring across the court at the stands will be nerve wracking enough. I get the jelly feeling as I think about stepping on the court to really play.

"Don't get your hopes up, French," Taylor says, as he picks up my clean towel and swipes it underneath his sweaty armpits.

"Man," I mutter, then toss the towel back into my bag.

"You didn't play last year, so you may never ever touch the court."

"Taylor, I just heard him tell us we may play."

"Saying and doing are two different things. Last year he wouldn't put me in unless we had a huge lead and then he'd tell me not to shoot." Taylor leans against the row of lockers and props his foot on the bench beside me. I have to look away because he's wearing loose fitting boxers.

"Geez, move, I don't want to see your rod and tackle box in my face."

He merely keeps talking. "Me, not shooting, are you kidding me? If I'm on the court and I get the ball...it's going in the basket."

I slide down the bench into "ball-free" zone and shake my head. "If Coach tells me not to shoot, I ain't shooting."

"See, that's the difference between you and me, French. You play basketball, and I'm a basketball player."

My eyeballs ignore my brain command and roll upwards.



Cassie Willows grabs my arm as I head down the hall. "Hey, Rory. Have you done any research yet?"

"A little. Like a page."

"I am seriously pissed at Taylor for getting us into this," she says. Her lips are all shiny and pouty and I can't seem to stop looking at them.

"Have you done much?"

"No. I was hoping we could all just meet at the library today after school. If we put in a good hard hour of research we can finish this thing."

Her fingers slip through her hair and I watch as each strand falls.

"I'm fine with it, but I have to be back by 5:00 for late practice."



Taylor's mom lets us pile into her oversized SUV and drops us off.

We all settle down at a long table, removed from the few people who are reading or writing.

"Losers," Reid Willoughby says looking over each person.

"Hey, Reid, lighten up. Maybe some asshole got them in trouble and they have to do a research paper too," I say. Both Reid and I look at Taylor. "Hey, Taylor, go see if the librarian will look up any reference books. I'll tackle the science journals. Make sure you get the names and all that crap for references. Alicia is going to need that for her power point presentation."

Taylor nods and heads to the front desk.

"Hey, Rory, I was wondering if you'd help me. I'm not real good at this kind of stuff," Cassie says, with a little hesitation in her voice.

Just hearing her utter my name sends me into happy land. If she had just asked me for a kidney I would have cut it out myself. "Sure," I say without a second's hesitation.

Cassie smiles and air kisses me. Then she heads over to the magazine rack and picks up a fashion magazine. She returns with it and smiles sweetly at me as she settles into the seat next to me.

Taylor and Reid come back and sit down. Reid keeps looking at his phone and when I confront him about it he thrusts it my way.

"I can access the Internet on this baby. You'd know this if you lived in a house with running water and inside plumbing."

"I have both of those, smart ass. I even got one of them new fangled Computer things," I say as snidely as I can.

The librarian looks up sharply and waits until we get the hint and calm down.

Reid waves his phone in Cassie's direction. "How come she's not doing her part?"

"Maybe she has a fancy phone at home, Reid."

"Or maybe she has some idiot bumpkin to do her work," he mutters, but starts scrolling on his phone.



Taylor and I have to walk to the local ladies gym to catch a ride back to school. His mom is working out and her class doesn't end until 4:45. I leave Reid and Cassie at the library. I hope he doesn't say anything to hurt her feelings.

Very rarely do I get to the area known as Old Patterson Proper. It's the town square and the historical part of our county. It's where the first settlement was and there are still several colonial buildings that were built in the early seventeen hundreds. It's a really scenic part of the town, but the areas surrounding it are pretty iffy.

Taylor and I have to walk through most of the bad section. There are pawn shops, Patterson's one and only tattoo parlor and the ABC store. Driving by these places is one thing, but hoofing it through is a whole different experience.

I'm trying to look through the window of the tat shop, because I can see a girl getting ready to get one and part of me wants to see where she's planning to get it.

"Jeez, Rory, you act like you never see girls."

I look up to flip Taylor off when I see it. A marquee that should probably be emblazoned on my family crest is just beyond the block.

Llarado's Gentleman's Club. The stuff legends are made of.