My Life as a Teenage Rebel

Chapter 37: Rumbles and Relatives

Ky Madison

CHAPTER 37 Rumbles and Relatives

Coaching is kinda like raising a bunch of kids. Some days it makes you smile. Other days you wonder: How the heck did I end up with twenty-some kids in the first place?! The days they tell you they respect you and agree to cooperate with you, you smile. The days Colton accidentally hits Harley - of all people - with a basketball by the slip of a hand, you start to wonder. I guess that makes today a split day.

"Erm, Har, buddy, you alright?" Schwartz asks; him and the rest of the veterans approaching the board-stiff Harley tentatively. He was hit about a minute and forty-five seconds ago, and ever since he hasn't moved, his fists clenched at his sides like he's refraining from breaking something.

"I-I'm really sorry," Colton stutters for the fifth time in a mix of worry and faint fear.

I approach the scene with my arms folded calmly, twisting the string of my whistle around my finger. "It was an accident, Harley." I tell him evenly.

Harley clenches his fists tighter, his knuckles white from the strain. There seems to be a vein pulsating at his neck, and I don't think it's because of how much he's been running. I watch him for another moment as he stares straight ahead, not really seeing anything. Okay, deal with this now or never, Ky.

My eyes flicker toward the basketball at Owen's feet. I reach for it and then hold it out to Harley with one hand. "You can hit him too, if it'll make you feel better." I say plainly.

"Ky-" Andrew starts under his breath.

"No," Colton quickly cuts my friend off. "Do it, Harley."

Hm, brave child, brave indeed... Despite Colton's agreeing with my offer, the ball remains on my hand while the anger boiling in Harley continues to build up. In my best guess, it'll take a couple of seconds before it over-capacitates and Harley whips loose. So I wait patiently with the ball balancing on my palm. One... Two...

Swift as lightning, Harley snatches the ball from me and chucks it straight into Colton's unprepared face. I'm sure Colton was expecting the stomach area or at least the back of the head...but nope. I cock an eyebrow at first, and then shrug, crossing my arms again as Colton is temporarily stunned.

Ever so slowly, crimson liquid begins to trickle out of his left nostril. Blinking, Colton unfreezes himself to gingerly reach up and touch his finger to the thin stream of blood emitting from him. When he pulls his hand back slightly and sees the red, he instantly shakes himself out of his stupor. "You hit me in the face!" he exclaims.

"You stole my girlfriend!" Harley roars. And then he launches himself towards Colton, punching him.

Then it turns into a whole big mess. Almost everyone joins in, the freshmen, the veterans, even Manfred. Except the thing is, in the whole mess of boys, it's hard to tell who's trying to stop the fight and who's trying to weave themselves into it. (Although with Freddy I know for sure that he's trying to stop it...he's just not doing a very good job.)

I watch them with my head tilted to the side, playing with my whistle string again. Roy stands beside me, looking from me to the brawl. "Uh, Coach?" he starts, and a butterfly of happiness briefly flies through me as I hear him call me by that title again. "Aren't you...uh, going to stop this?"

"Eh," I shrug. "What's the point?" Roy blinks at me and then turns back to watch the bout as Evilyn, Kelsey and Madelin rush up next to me, Madelin with a concerned expression and Evilyn cracking up while going: "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Andrew seems to have joined the round, my twin brother is leaned calmly against the pole of the basketball hoop, and Evan has taken up bouncing the ball against a wall continually as the fight goes on behind him.