“That would be cool,” Norval said, but he wasn’t convinced. Even though Coach Green’s tone had been casual, Norval sensed that the coach was concerned about something.
Leaving Arnie, Norval continued on toward the coach’s office.
“Hey, man.” Kadeem thumped Norval’s shoulder as they passed in the hall. Norval grabbed Kadeem’s arm.
“Hey, Coach Green just said he wanted to talk to me about something. Like, in his office. You have any idea why?”
“I don’t know, but he asked to see me, too,” Kadeem said.
“Are you worried?” Norval asked.
Kadeem shrugged. “Not yet. I’ll wait ’til I hear what he has to say.”
Kadeem was right, Noval thought. Why worry until he had something to worry about? With a nod, he left Kadeem and kept walking over to the athletic department.
Coach Green greeted him when Norval got to the office. “Have a seat, Norval.”
“Coach, I can put in the extra practice time if you want, but I can’t do that and do the extra chemistry on top of it,” Norval said before the coach could say anything. “There’s just not enough time to—”
“Hold on, Norval,” Coach Green stopped him. “It’s not you I’m concerned about.”
Relief flooded Norval. “It’s not?”
“No. It’s Arnie. You know him pretty well, don’t you? Have you noticed anything unusual about him lately?”
Norval felt he needed to be careful how he answered. He didn’t want to say anything that would get Arnie in trouble. “What kind of unusual?” he asked the coach.
“Lack of focus?” Coach Green said. “Maybe fatigue, headache.”
Norval ran through a mental list. Arnie had complained of headaches. And he definitely had not been himself at Kadeem’s get-together. He remembered, too, how Arnie had snapped at him after the game yesterday.
“Arnie isn’t drinking or drugging, if that’s what you’re asking,” Norval said.
“It’s not that,” Coach Green said. “I’m worried that Arnie has gotten hit in the head too often. I want to know if he’s showing symptoms of a concussion.”
N
orval tried to recall what he knew about the word concussion. The only thing that came to mind was that it was what everyone got upset about when someone had a head injury.
The year before, a player named Ty Hendrickson had been knocked unconscious on the field. Norval had visited the hospital along with Coach Gannon.
A doctor had put Ty’s head in a machine to take a scan of his brain. Then the doctor had said that there was no bleeding in Ty’s brain —he was good to go. By the next game, Ty was up and running again.
Ty no longer played running back because of some trouble he’d had with the police. It was too bad, since Ty had been a good player. Ty’s trouble had worked out well for Arnie, though. He took up Ty’s position afterward, which helped him stand out to the scouts.
“Did Ty Hendrickson have a concussion?” Norval asked. “I thought the doctor said he was all right.”
“All he really said was that Ty had no internal bleeding. Sometimes the symptoms of a concussion show up right away. Other times it can take longer.”
“What do Arnie’s parents think?” Norval asked.
“I don’t want to call and upset them until I have a better idea if there’s anything to worry about,” Coach Green said. “That’s where you come in.”
Norval didn’t like the sound of that.
“Research is showing that concussions are much more serious than anyone realized,” Coach said. “If one player runs into another player at full speed—that’s about the same as getting hit by a car going forty miles an hour. Especially at the college or pro level.”
“It feels more like getting flattened by a truck,” Norval said. He had been knocked down any number of times. He knew firsthand that it wasn’t fun.
The coach nodded. “Researchers are looking at the brains of dead athletes and finding that they don’t look the same as the brains of nonathletes of the same age. They think that concussion injuries can be a problem later in life, even if the concussion’s from when the player was young.”
“If it doesn’t show up at first, how can you watch for it?”
“There are still signs to look for right away,” Coach Green said. “The things I mentioned earlier—headache, fatigue, problems focusing. Vision problems, too. Unsteadiness, vomiting…”
“But Arnie has never been knocked out cold,” Norval said.
“You don’t have to be. Any tackle can be enough for your brain to get rocked.”
“Isn’t that why we wear helmets?”
“Helmets help prevent head fractures, not concussions. Your head still feels the impact. Since we started wearing better helmets, the number of fractures has gone down, but not the number of concussions. Some doctors even think concussions have gone up. They say good helmets make players want to play rougher.”
“Have you talked to Arnie about this?” Norval asked.
“I did,” Coach Green said. “He says he has no problems—he’s just great.”
“So why don’t you believe him?”
“Players may not tell the truth. They don’t want to be sidelined. Arnie’s not playing like he used to. His timing’s off. And he’s gotten hit a lot this season. I want you to keep an eye on him. Let me know if he shows any of the signs we talked about. I’ll take it from there.”
“I don’t know, Coach,” Norval said. “That’d be kind of like spying on one of my friends.”
“It’s more like watching out for him,” the coach said.
It still feels all wrong, Norval thought.
“Honestly, Coach, I’d rather not,” Norval said, getting to his feet. “If Arnie found out I was doing this he’d be really mad. If he says he’s fine, then he’s fine.”
“Think about it,” Coach Green said as Norval stepped out of the office.
“W
hat’s on your mind, Norval?” Sadie asked as they left the movie theater later that night.
“Nothing,” he answered.
“Oh, yeah?” she challenged. “How did the movie end?”
“Everything blew up.”
“That’s right. And it was sad that they all died, wasn’t it?”
“Very sad,” Norval agreed.
Sadie thumped his arm. “They escaped!”
“They did?” Norval felt genuinely surprised. He really had lost track of the plot—his mind kept wandering back to the conversation with Coach Green.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Sadie said.
“Okay,” Norval agreed with a sigh.
– – – – –
“So, are you going to do what your coach asked?”
“No,” Norval said. “I told him I didn’t want to.”
“Did Coach Green get mad at you?” Sadie asked.
“I’m the one who should be mad,” Norval said, his voice rising. “It’s not right for him to put me in that position. He’s the one who should be watching Arnie, not me. He’s the coach!”
“What about Arnie’s parents?”
“That’s another thing!” Norval cried. “Coach says he doesn’t want to upset them. So he tries to lay it on me. It’s like he didn’t even think about whether I’d get upset…”
“Are you upset?” Sadie asked.
“Of course I am! How would you feel if the cheer coach asked you to spy on Paige?”
“I don’t know,” Sadie said. “Weird, I guess.”
“Right? She’s your friend. Don’t you tell her everything? You don’t keep secrets from her.”
“That’s true. Have you told Arnie about this?”
Norval let out a sigh. “Not yet.”
“Why not?”
Once they reached Sadie’s apartment building, Norval took a seat on the steps. Sadie settled in beside him. “If I tell him, then he’ll hide any symptoms he’s experiencing. He won’t even talk to me about it.”
??
?I thought you refused to watch him,” Sadie said.
“I refused to spy for Coach Green. I still want to keep an eye on him, though. What if he does have a concussion? Arnie’s stubborn. He wants to be recruited so badly. He’d play even if his foot was falling off.”
“What will you do if you think he has the symptoms?”
“I’ll talk to Arnie on the side. I won’t blow the whistle on him, though. What kind of friend would I be if I did that?”
Sadie nodded. “How serious do you think this concussion stuff is?”
“I don’t know. Coach made it sound like it was the end of the world or something. But I can’t believe it’s that serious. Guys get their clocks cleaned all the time.”
“Well, you’ll just have to keep an eye on Arnie,” Sadie said.
“I know. Hey, look, I gotta go. Thanks for listening,” Norval said, and kissed Sadie goodnight.
A
ll that night Norval stared at his bedroom ceiling. Arnie said he was all right. Why should Norval doubt him? Besides, it was none of Norval’s business.
Coach Green should never have asked him to watch Arnie. And yet, Arnie was awake at 2:00 A.M., losing sleep over it, even though he had a chemistry quiz in the morning. He hadn’t even been able to study because he couldn’t concentrate. Didn’t Coach know anything about friendship? A guy didn’t spy on his friend. It was just wrong. If Coach Green asked how Arnie seemed, Norval would say, “Perfectly fine!”
Norval pulled a blanket over his shoulder and turned on his side. His mind was made up.
– – – – –
When Norval got to school the next morning, he saw Arnie heading toward class. He hurried to catch up with him.
“Hey, man, how’s it going?”
“Not bad,” Arnie replied. “What did Coach want yesterday?”
“Ah, nothing.”
Arnie raised an eyebrow. “Nothing?”
“Nothing much.” Norval tried to seem casual, but his mind was racing. Should he tell Arnie that the coach was concerned about him? That he’d asked for Norval’s help?
When he spoke, only a half-truth came out. “He asked if I had noticed any of the guys on the team acting strange.”
“Strange how?”
“Like, if any of them have taken too many hits to the head.” He went on to tell Arnie about the symptoms he had been told to look for.
“Have you noticed anybody like that?” Arnie asked.
“No,” Norval replied. “Have you?”
“Nope.”
They continued on to English 12 together. “Today’s our test on Gilgamesh,” their teacher, Mr. Wilson, reminded them. “As long as you finished the reading, this shouldn’t be hard. Take out a sheet of paper, everybody.”
Mr. Wilson pointed to three questions on the whiteboard. The class got busy answering them.
As the teacher had promised, the questions weren’t difficult. Even though chemistry was a challenge, English was always a breeze for Norval. And he’d enjoyed the action in Gilgamesh. The ancient style of writing wasn’t always easy to read, but at least it had fight scenes.
When Norval finished, he put down his pen and looked up. About half the class had already completed the test. They sat waiting for the other half to be done. Arnie gazed out the window. Norval was glad to see that he wasn’t still struggling to finish. He was fine. Focused.
At the end of class, Mr. Wilson collected the tests and dismissed the class. Norval waited for Arnie by the door. They were about to leave when Mr. Wilson called to Arnie. He held up one of the test sheets. “Mr. Johnson, what happened?”
The paper had Arnie’s name written on the top line—and that was all!
“Didn’t you read the book?” Mr. Wilson asked.
“Most of it,” Arnie answered.
“Then why didn’t you write anything?”
“The questions didn’t make sense to me,” Arnie said with a feeble smile.
Mr. Wilson ruffled through the other papers. “They seemed to make sense to everyone else.”
Arnie shrugged.
“Mr. Johnson, go home and finish the book. Then come see me about a possible retest. You have until Friday.”
“Thanks,” Arnie said.
Arnie and Norval headed out into the hall together. “Didn’t read the book, huh?” Norval assumed. “I thought you said you liked it.”
“I did—at first. I got through three-quarters of it. I lost interest after that, though.”
“You could have answered the first two questions, at least,” Norval said.
“Maybe. But for real—I couldn’t make sense of those questions.”
“They weren’t exactly hard. Are you feeling all right?”
“Kind of tired.”
Norval opened his mouth to ask another question, but Arnie cut him off. “It’s nothing. I’ve been seeing more of Lara. We’ve been going out, you know—staying up late and all.”
“That’s cool,” Norval said. Really, it was none of his business.
“You’re right. It’s cool,” Arnie said. “Everything’s cool.”
“Good,” Norval said.
His next class was trig. Arnie wasn’t in it. Norval had to play close attention in math. Like chemistry, it didn’t come easily to him. So for the length of that class he didn’t think of Arnie, or football, or anything else but trigonometry. In a way, the class was a pleasant distraction from his other worries.
On the way out, he met up with Kadeem, who was also in trig. “What did Coach want to talk to you about?” Kadeem asked.
Norval hesitated. Coach Green had spoken to him privately. He wasn’t sure if it was right to reveal Arnie’s business to another player, even if it was Kadeem.
Kadeem lowered his voice. “Was it about Arnie?”
“Yeah. Did he talk to you too?”
“Yeah,” Kadeem said.
“Do you think there’s anything wrong with him?” Norval asked.
“I don’t know, but I haven’t really been paying attention,” Kadeem replied. “I’ll watch him more closely from now on.”
“Me too,” Norval agreed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to tell the coach what I think. I don’t think it was right for him to ask us to do that.”
Kadeem nodded. “I know what you mean. But it doesn’t seem right not to do it, either. You know what I mean?”
Norval did know, but for some reason he didn’t feel like admitting it. “Not really. Doesn’t it feel like spying to you?” he asked as they walked down the hall.
“In a way,” Kadeem said. “But I hope Arnie’s as fine as he keeps saying he is.”
“Look,” Norval said. “If this is as big a deal as Coach Green makes it out to be, why doesn’t he take charge of it? Let him watch Arnie.”
“We’re around Arnie way more than Coach Green is. I think he is watching Arnie. He probably just wants some backup.”
“So you’re going to be watching Arnie too?”
“Yeah.”
That made Norval feel a lot better. With Coach Green and Kadeem on the case, they didn’t really need him.
“But I’m not tight with him like you are,” Kadeem added. “Arnie’s a great guy, but we don’t hang out. I don’t even have any classes with him this year. You see him the most.”
Norval nodded. At first he’d been happy that Kadeem was in this with him. But—if he really thought about it—talking to Kadeem would be the same as going to Coach Green. It would have the same result. Arnie could end up being sidelined—maybe for the rest of the season.
Then Norval remembered how Kadeem had talked about things. He tried not to worry until he was sure he had a reason to worry. And he wouldn’t turn in Arnie unless there was a reason he was sure of. Norval decided he would try to do the same.
T
he Titans had to win their next game in order to qualify for the semifinals. They were scheduled against the Hempstead Huskers.
“I heard they’ve been working on defense sin
ce the last time we played them,” Kadeem said in the locker room before they went out.
“We’ll run a strong interference,” Jerome Stevens said confidently.
“We’re going to have to really block them hard,” Kadeem added.
“We can contain them,” Arnie said. “This game is in the bag.”
Norval wasn’t so sure. Southside High was pretty evenly matched with Hempstead, especially if the Huskers had strengthened their defensive line.
Coach Green came into the locker room. “Arnie, Norval, Jerome. I need a word with you.” They huddled around the coach in a corner away from the other players. “I just talked to those scouts from Miller College. They were asking me about the three of you.”
“Me? Are you sure?” Arnie asked eagerly.
Coach smiled. “Yeah, you, Arnie.”
Arnie grinned.
“Stay sharp out there today. My feeling is they might make one or all of you an offer, depending on what they see in this game,” Coach Green continued.
“Awesome!” Arnie said.
Out on the field, Norval located the scouts in the stands. Then, once again, he tried to put them out of his head. Thinking about scouts during the game would just throw him off.
Midway through the first quarter, a Husker was about to sack Kadeem when he lateralled the ball to Norval. Norval leaped for it, but two other Huskers took him down.
Arnie swept up the ball before it hit the ground. Head down, he barreled forward, a straight shot at the end zone in front of him. The Southside fans went wild in the stands.
Arnie lifted up his head and looked into the cheering crowd, slowing down slightly before he reached the goal line. Without realizing it, he veered into the path of two defenders.
No! Norval thought, cringing as the two Huskers tackled Arnie to the ground.
– – – – –
Throughout the rest of the first half, Arnie and Norval were tackled repeatedly. Kadeem had been right. The Huskers were more formidable than they’d been the last time the Titans played them.
With minutes to go at the end of the second quarter, Kadeem threw a short pass to Arnie, who snagged the ball over the head of the defender. A couple of teammates blocked some of the Huskers as they came after him. Several more defenders broke through.