The Pal List

Chapter 29

Tuesday, January 29th

After school, Ben and I drop Kaisey off at home and then head back to school for the charity wheelchair basketball game that the Student Government is hosting. I went to school early with Tanner all last week to help plan it, and it's looking like it's going to be a good night. Since Ben's baseball practice got cancelled because of the game, he signed up to help us sell tickets.

At the door, Tanner is standing by the ticket table with Jamie Tarrett, the Vice President of the Student Government.

"Hey guys!" Jamie says. "Just in time! Tanner and I have to go sit at the score table. Can you guys just work the ticket table until the game starts? Mark and Laura are going to come and relieve you then." The game is set to start at 5:00 and it's already 4:15, so we have a while to sell tickets.

I smile and take the roll of tickets out of Jamie's hands. "Perfect! Hey, Tanner!"

Tanner smiles. "Hey! See you in there!"

Ben and I sit down at the table and sell tickets to everyone that walks through the door. He handles the fifty-fifty raffle tickets and I handle the game admission.

With ten minutes until game time, we've already sold six hundred admission tickets and one thousand dollars in the raffle. Our gym can sit eight hundred people, so we're expecting a full house.

At about 4:58, Mark and Laura approach the table to relieve Ben and I just as Mrs. Shepard and Amara are next to buy tickets. Ben and I sell to them and then Mark and Laura take our seats.

When we walk into the gym, I'm overwhelmed by the sight of all the people sitting on the bleachers. I know that Ben and I sold them all tickets, but it seems like twice as many people when they're all sitting together. It's amazing to see our community like this, coming together to support a good cause. It's sort of like the way it's coming together to rally against Hudson Crawford. But really, who can blame them?

On the bleachers, Ban and I take our seats behind Sullivan and Max and some of the other guys from the baseball team. They all greet us and we greet them, and then they thankfully turn around to watch the game. I like most of the guys on the baseball team, but I'd rather just watch the game with Ben instead of trying to make conversation with them.

One of the teams is comprised of people in our community that actually play in a wheelchair basketball league. Many of them have been paralyzed from the waist down or have only one leg, but some of them just play it for fun. The ones who play just for fun are typically not as good as the ones who are paralyzed or physically handicapped in another way. Just in warmup, they seem like they're really skilled at the sport.

The other team, however, is not going to be nearly as good. It is comprised of teachers from our school and from the junior high. Most of them are gym teachers, but some of them are teachers of other subjects. I see my eighth-grade science teacher, Mr. Amanda, rolling in a chair around half court. He never seemed to be very interested in sports, so I'm excited to see if he does well or not.

At the whistle, the members of the real wheelchair basketball team steal the show right away. It takes them only seconds to score. The one that scores is a really young boy, who looks to be only thirteen or fourteen. The whole team gathers around him and pats him on the head.

"Wow," I tap Ben on the shoulder. "He's really young."

He nods in agreement. "Yeah. He's fourteen I think."

"How do you know?" I ask. I look at his hands to see if he grabbed a program, but he didn't.

"That's Rowan. Reese Asner's little brother." Ben points to Reese and his dad sitting in the front row. They're cheering loudly for Rowan as he scores another basket. The teachers are now down by four points only 30 seconds into the game.

"Oh, right. I wonder why he's in that wheelchair." When I look at Rowan now, I can see the resemblance between him and Reese. The only difference is that Rowan looks lot less scrawny than Reese. His arms are really muscular, probably because of all the basketball he plays.

Ben nods. "Yeah, me too. He looks like he has fun, though."

"He does," I agree. Suddenly I feel myself start to envy Rowan. Life threw him a pretty big obstacle and seemingly he just went with it, finding another way to live his life and have fun with it just the same. The wheelchair doesn't look like it holds him back, only helps him reach his full potential. Whenever I get thrown an obstacle, I let it affect the way I think about everything and my overall attitude. It doesn't look like Rowan does that at all. Then again, I'm not in his head or in his home. Who knows what goes on there.

At halftime, an Adrian Morgan song plays over the loudspeaker as everyone is up getting snacks and shooting stray basketballs. In front of us, a girl from my History class stands on the bleachers and waves at Ben and I with both of her hands.

"Hey!" she shouts, then she points up at the ceiling, presumably referring to the Adrian Morgan song, not the faulty gym lighting.

"Yeah!" Ben says, nodding with a polite but totally fake smile. She sits back down and goes back to chatting with her friends.

"Why are we now automatically associated with everything Adrian Morgan?" I wonder.

"Hey, it's not often that people in this town get to have a real conversation with someone famous. People need something to make them feel like a little bigger of a part of the world than they are."

"True." I nod. "I just wish we could have met, like, Bruno Mars."

Ben gasps and puts his hand on his chest, "Adrian would be very upset to know that."

I shrug my shoulders. "I think he'll be fine."

After halftime is over, the game starts up again and the teachers start to score some points, but it's obvious that it's because the other team is letting them have a little bit of fun. At the end of the game, the score is 60-32.

At the buzzer, both teams pose for a picture with the leaders of the Student Government. It's a beautiful sight of smiling faces from all different parts of our community. From the bleachers, people begin to walk down and make their way out of the gym.

Ben and I finally reach the door to the parking lot after being stuck in a crowd of people for five minutes. When we get there, Ben holds it open for the old couple behind us and then we make our way to his car.

"Less than a week," Ben says.

I nod. "'Til everything changes."

Ben pauses, holding his seat belt buckle for an extra couple of seconds. "I don't know."

"What do you mean? You don't think it's all going to change?"

"I mean, yeah," he says. "But the only thing that's really going to change is that the jury decides whether or not Hudson is guilty, right? People have already been hurt, both Jude's and Andy's families are already broken by this, I just don't see how it's going to change that much. I think it's a big deal and it's scary, but the impact won't be as bad as what's already happened."

"I'm not following," I say.

"I'm not saying that whatever happens isn't going to change things a little. But we're going to support Jude and his family no matter what. Thomas Beckett and Amanda Lennon aren't going to come back no matter what. And no matter what the jury says, there are going to be people that disagree either way. The way I see it, this is just going to be a part of our lives from now on like it has been since we heard the news."

"I guess you're right," I say. I try to think of a counter argument, because I still feel in my heart that big changes are coming, but I just can't think of a reason why. I just know that they are.