miracle • guy germaine

forgiveness

the only thing i could seem to feel as i wrote 'i will not quack at the principal' on the blackboard, was the aching of my hand. it was cramping up, not to mention i couldn't even reach the top of the blackboard.

i stood on a chair next to fulton who, for the first time ever, didn't tower over me.

"i will not quack at the principal." we spoke over and over again, as if it were our new mantra.

"what do you want?" i heard karp sneer.

i knit my brows and turned around to see bombay standing in the classroom. fulton reached up his hand to help me off of the chair, which i accepted and jumped down, ready to hear what coach had to say.

"i wanna talk to you guys." he told us.

tammy huffed, immediately correcting him, "people."

"right, sorry," he acknowledged his mistake, taking a second to look at all of us,"sit down, please."

none of us made any attempt to move, staring at him blankly.

"okay, don't sit down," he chuckled to himself, trying to seem as sincere as possible,"look, what's done is done. i wanna be your coach again."

averman scoffed, unable to take his words to heart,"you wanna coach a bunch of losers?"

bombay shook his head,"no. i wanna coach the ducks."

i knit my brows, not sure if we should trust him just yet. it didn't explain anything that he had done, and some half-assed apology, which by the way there wasn't even an apology in that sentence, wasn't going to make me change my mind.

"what about the things you said?" karp questioned, just as skeptical as i was.

"karp, i was being sarcastic," he explained, looking down at the boy patronizingly,"do you know what that means?"

"noooo." karp said sarcastically, causing me to chuckle silently.

bombay let out a sigh,"okay, then you do. i didn't mean those things the way they sounded. you guys know what it's like to be misunderstood, right?"

peter shrugged, answering the mostly rhetorical question,"yeah of course, we're kids."

coach nodded, glad that we understood,"so... can you forgive me? can i be your coach again?"

fulton and i shared a glance, as i tried to contemplate my options. while his apology was less than stellar, i figured since it seemed to have gotten to everyone else, i might as well just give in.

"what about banks?" guy asked from his place next to connie.

i chewed my lip nervously, waiting for bombay to answer. i didn't not want banks on the team, considering the fact that he had actually been kind of nice to me the last time we went toe to toe.

but i knew it wouldn't go over as well with the rest of the team.

"he can be on the team if he wants," bombay said, taking a seat on top of one of the desks, "he should have been with us all year. it was you guys who got cheated."

"uh huh." i responded, just to show that i was listening.

"but let's forget all that crap! we're a team right?" bombay asked.

we all let out our various chirps of confirmation, the past seeming to be completely behind us.

"so, what's it gonna be?" he stood up, pacing down the isle of the desks,"we can play tomorrow night and still have a chance of making it to the playoffs...or we can forfeit and the seasons over," he came to a stop, turning around to peter,"what do you say, peter?"