Page 72 of The Locker Room

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they were both looking forward to getting on the bus or the plane and

going off on an adventure.

“Guys, you"ll never guess what happened!”

“The president declared calculus illegal?” Chris asked hopefully,

and Xander threw a pillow at him. Chris fielded the pillow and added it

to the one under his head, and neither of them mentioned that it had been

his pillow in the first place.

“No. You two were both granted a stay of execution, because I was

gonna kill you myself!”

“Yeah? What"d we do?”

“Stole my chance at first string!” Cliff Washington was six foot

seven, and he"d been looking forward to being the JV phenom this year.

He had a narrow, dark face and a soft Southern accent, and seemed to be

thrilled that the two boys from the most diverse section of Nor Cal didn"t

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Amy Lane

care if he was black or purple. More often than not, when someone came

pounding on their door, it was going to be Cliff.

“Well, I don"t see how you"re going to get that back!” Chris said, a

little bit of incredulity in his voice. Xander flat-out drilled the guy into

the ground, even Cliff knew it.

“Well, I will when you guys get moved up to Varsity!”

Xander and Chris looked at each other, mouths moving

soundlessly. Xander was the first one to speak.

“Really?” Oh God. They were good. They were really, really, get-

drafted-by-the-NBAgood.

“Yeah,really!” Cliff was practically dancing where he stood. “Now

c"mon, you two! What? You can pat each other"s asses on the court, but

you can"t even give a guy a hug and a high five in your own dorms?”

They ignored him, because they were both still in shock. “Are we

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