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a moment, because a little while later, he mistakenly cut to the middle while Billy threw a pass toward the sideline.
    Disgusted with himself, he kicked at the dirt before looking up to see Coach Bodie frowning at him.
    “Sorry!” he called out. “I wasn’t thinking. It won’t happen again!”
    As he went to get the ball, Keith heard Billy call out some encouragement. But he was still annoyed at his blunder, and thought to himself that, this year, he was in for a real battle, and he couldn’t afford to mess up like he had just done.
    Or else he might find himself on the sideline a lot more than he wanted, once the games began.

7
    Y ou looked good yesterday,” Heck said, as he and Keith headed for the second day of practice. Cody was with them.
    “And the whole team was glad to see that you decided to come back,” said Cody, to which Heck nodded in agreement.
    Keith wasn’t so sure. “Thanks, guys. I guess I did all right, and I know you two are happy that I’m playing, and that some others are, too. But, ‘the whole team’? I don’t
think
so. Not everyone.”
    Cody looked startled. “Huh? What are you talking about? Who wasn’t glad?”
    “Larry Vincent didn’t look overjoyed, for one,” Keith pointed out.
    Cody’s face took on a look of disgust. “Oh,
him
. Well, so what? The dude is a loser. Don’t pay any attention to him, and don’t worry about anything he has to say, either.”
    “What do you mean?” demanded Keith. “What is Larry saying?”
    Before Cody could answer, Heck said, “
Cody
… cool it, would you?”
    “No, really,” Keith said. “I want to know. Come on, Cody, what is Larry saying? Don’t worry — I’m not going to start a fight with him or anything.”
    Cody looked unhappily at Heck before answering. “Oh, just stupid stuff about the game last year, and what happened … you know, really dumb stuff.”
    Keith nodded. “How I cost us the unbeaten season and the championship,
that
kind of stuff?”
    “Which we all know is total garbage,” Cody said quickly. “Like I said, nothing for you to pay attention to or worry about.”
    “Absolutely,” Heck agreed. “The rest of the team knows that without you we probably never would have had a shot at an unbeaten season. Larry’s just jealous, that’s all.”
    “Sure,” Cody said as they reached the practice area. “Because Larry knows he can’t compete with you — that you’ll be our top receiver again this year, and he’ll spend a lot of time on the bench.”
    “Hey, guys,” said Keith, “I know you two are on my side all the way, but you saw the practice yesterday. Heck, you know that Larry is a lot better than he was a year ago. He’s going to be a player this season. He’ll make a contribution.
    “And as far as I’m concerned, that’s cool. We can use another good downfield threat. I don’t know much about what kind of guy Larry is, but he’s improved a lot.”
    “True,” admitted Heck, “but he better not badmouth you. For one thing, if Coach hears him doing that, the least that’ll happen is that Larry will get a major chewing out.”
    “He’ll get worse from me, if
I
hear any more out of him,” growled Cody.
    Keith put a hand on Cody’s shoulder. “Listen, I know you’re trying to help me, but if you get into it with Larry over this, you won’t be helping me
or
the team. And you might be the one to get chewed out.”
    “Keith’s right,” Heck said. “Don’t add to the problem — if there
is
a problem. Okay, Code?”
    The husky lineman said, “Yeah, I know, you’re right. But it gets me hot when this dude talks about Keith behind his back, that’s all.”
    “I can handle it, don’t worry,” Keith insisted.
    As they walked onto the field, Keith saw that the coach was talking to a man he didn’t recognize. The man seemed unhappy, and from Coach Bodie’s expression, the conversation appeared to be an argument. Finally, the strange man threw his hands in the air and walked away,