room and went to the kitchen to peer in the refrigerator seeing some food left along with milk in the carton he pulled out. He pulled out a jarred applesauce from the refrigerator and hunted for some dishes which he pulled out a bowl, spoon and a cup for the milk. Jinks helped he to a generous amount of applesauce into a bowl then put the jar back into the refrigerator. He poured what’s left of the milk into the cup and sat at the table eating the applesauce feeling himself much better from the food into him. He gulped down the milk and set the dishes in the sink which he wandered into the living room to spot on the desk was his backpack with papers next to it. Jinks went to his backpack and saw on top of the papers was a note detailing homework assignments from the High School. He groaned and sat at the desk’s chair putting his backpack on the floor and began taking out text books and a thick spiral bound notebook which he began doing homework assignments.

  Jinks remembered his Mom came home during him doing the homework assignments which he didn’t pay attention to her coming into the apartment or the noises she made putting away the groceries. He kept on doing the homework till he was finished with it to discover it was dinner time and smelled food cooking from the kitchen. He put away his text books and notebook back into his backpack and set it on the desk before walking into the kitchen to spot his Mom standing sideways at the stove drinking from a cup as he entered the kitchen. He saw her eyes narrow as if scrutiny him as he stood staring at her. Jinks frowned as she looked him up and down with her eyes then turned to face the stove to the pot on top of it. He sighed to pull out dishes and silverware which he walked out of the kitchen and set the dining table for himself and his Mom. Jinks went back into the kitchen to grab cups from the cupboards. He felt a hand on his arm looked at his Mom seeing he had to look down to meet her eyes seeing that he was towering above her.

  He saw her frown before signing “You don’t need to get me a cup. I already have one.”

  Jinks nodded his head and took out a cup from the cupboard which he looked in the refrigerator to see a new carton of milk in it which he took out and poured himself some of it in the cup. He put away the milk and took the cup to the dining table and sat with his form sideways facing the kitchen entrance. Jinks sighed as his Mom arrived in the room carrying the pot with a pot holder and set it on the table on top of a pot plate then she sat down next to him. He helped himself to the food seeing it was spaghetti which he heaped on a big helping and ate everything on the plate leaving him feeling hungrier to eat more. He took another big helping and ate it all up then gulped down his milk leaving nothing left in the cup. Jinks once finished helped his Mom with cleaning the dishes and putting them away before going to the couch to sit down staring at the TV which he turned on with a remote clicking to a local news channel. He listened absent mildly and jerked as the news broadcast mentioned sports.

  Jinks paid attention to hear “The undefeated State Champions Glastonbury crushing an opponent in their first home game with a school record touchdown scores and with no touchdown scored by the opponent team.”

  He listened with distaste running through him as the broadcast mentioned “It’s a pity that the team is Wethersfield.” which shocked him as he listen some more.

  He heard “According to football analysis Glastonbury seemed to figure out what moves Wethersfield were throwing by easily intercepting passes to score touchdowns out of them along with scoring touchdowns that weren’t blocked or intercepted by the opposing team.”

  Jinks felt he get furious hearing that as the broadcast showed the Wethersfield football coach near the end of the game throwing his hat on the ground with an angry look on his face.

  The broadcast he listened mentioned “Wethersfield was playing a game on Friday days from now to an opponent from the town of Hamden in Hamden’s territory. Hamden that was second in the rankings another undefeated team that only lost to Glastonbury in the state championship title game that was expected to win the game.”

  He listened with distaste running further in him as the broadcast continued to speak “Hamden was favored to win the game with assurances of doing a Glastonbury like playing in the game to crush Wethersfield.”

  He glared at the TV as the broadcast mentioned “Wethersfield wasn’t in the top ten rankings and not expected to challenge the higher ranked teams who are assured of an easy defeat due to Glastonbury’s easy victory.”

  Jinks snarled some growl at the TV that went on to talk about other teams in the high school football league which he glared at the TV fisting his hands.

  He felt a hand on his arm looked up to stare at his Mom who signed while removing her hand “The coach I’m told says that there’s stills a spot on the team for you if you want it.”

  He nodded his head and then signed “I’m playing that game on Friday no matter what happens to me.”

  He saw his Mom nod her head with agreement in her eyes as he got up from the couch and stormed to his bedroom slamming the door. He paced in the bedroom back and forth struggling to control his angry rage running through him. He felt himself needing a shower grabbed his pajama pants from the dresser drawer and stormed out of his bedroom leaving the door open. He went into the bathroom and slammed the door. Jinks yanked off his clothes and got into the shower cleaning he very well then came out to towel dry himself. He grabbed his pajama pants yanking them on once dry and walked out of the bathroom carrying his bathrobe and underwear shorts. He ignored his Mom standing in the hallway staring at him as he went into his bedroom slamming the door. He threw the underwear shorts in the hamper and hung the bathrobe on the bed post near the foot of the bed and went to the window to peer out glaring at the fading sunlight. He allowed himself to calm down from his anger as the sunlight went away followed by darkness with the stars shining and the moonlight shining. He yanked down the shade with such force and stormed to his alarm clock setting the alarm then went to the light switch turning off the lamps in the room. He blindly made his way to his bed reaching it got in it and yanked the blankets over him up to his waist.

  He snarled out loud “I don’t care how, Wethersfield is defeating Hamden period. I’ll see to it that we’re not the laughingstock in the state thanks to that loss to Glastonbury. I don’t give a care but I’ll kick the team’s seat if they bully me again by insisting that they clean their act and kick Hamden’s seat instead of mine.”

  He felt sleepiness hitting him snarled out loud again “I don’t care I’m playing that game and I’ll do what it takes to win it.”

  He shut his eyes falling asleep.

  Jinks remembered getting up at crack of dawn hearing the alarm go off getting dressed followed by eating breakfast and grabbing his backpack to take out his key and leaving the apartment locking the door to walk to the High School. He arrived at the High School grounds to spot five upper classmen on the football team in the parking lot gathered around a car that saw him starting running towards him. He threw his backpack and waited as they reached him which he used his karate to defend himself from them attacking him. Jinks allowed rage to take control met the football players’ attacks with fists and legs flying.

  He was abruptly restrained from behind and heard the football coach sounding in his ear “Alright break it up now! This is not what I expected from you players fighting among each other when you should be getting along to win games! So stop it now!”

  Jinks felt himself freed as the coach added “Get your butts in school to class now! I expect you all after school for practice getting along or I’ll personally kick your butts.”

  He went to his backpack picking it up and went into school noticing the coach had an angry look on his face in a glare at each player and wasn’t spared the glare. He attended school with no incident from the football players. Jinks after the last bell rang felt a presence behind him stuck out his foot in a karate kick and halted to see fellow sophomore a football player dubbed Bulk standing there with wide eyes that shifted from his foot to his face.

  Jinks lowered his foot to glar
e at Bulk speaking “What do you want?”

  He folded his arms as Bulk appeared to gulp and spoke with some nervousness in his voice “The others told me to tell you that they’ll kick your seat at practice and make sure you’re too hurt to attend the game in Hamden.”

  Jinks glared at Bulk who appeared to flinch from the glare.

  He walked forwards till he was inches away and spoke “Tell the others I’m attending that game for I intend to see us win it. I don’t care how for I’ll do what it takes for us to win that game. I’m not having Wethersfield be the laughingstock of the state with that loss to Glastonbury. I mean it with my words. We’re winning games period.”

  He saw Bulk nod his head before darting away running down the hallway going out of sight. Jinks snarled an angry growl grabbed his backpack and slammed the locker door shut before storming down the hallway. He went to the locker room to grab his uniform changing into it and grabbed his helmet and left the locker room to outside to the football field where the other players were. He stood among the players with arms folded noticing some of them glaring in his direction with fists waving at him. Jinks ignored their gestures to concentrate on the coach