Chapter 20: The Banquet

The middle school gym smelled of floor wax and sheet pizza, and every folding chair was taken.

Banquet night had a banner across the far wall, Raleigh Rockets, Season Champions, in team colors.

I sat at a round table near the back with Sam on my left.

Colleen had paid her fifteen hundred dollars in cash on my porch and signed the clipboard with a hand that shook.

She had not left town.

She had not been able to, because Cody would not go, and there were forty parents who now knew why.

She sat at the front table in a tailored green dress, smiling hard, with Carlton beside her in his one good suit.

He had not looked at me once since we sat down.

His boss sat two tables over with his wife.

His son played second string, and the family clapped for every kid who walked up for a certificate.

"You don't have to stay for the speeches," Sam murmured.

"Cody asked me to."

"Did he say why?"

"He said he'd rather not do it with nobody there who likes him."

Sam took my hand under the tablecloth and held it.

The coach worked through the awards, and the parents clapped, and a boy with a mouthful of cake was named most improved.

Then the coach put his hand on the microphone stand and said, "And our point guard, the heart of this team. Cody Maddox. Come on up, son."

Cody stood at the front table.

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