Page 6 of Heart Check
Alex and I slide into a seat behind the other juniors and seniors, all clustered in the first few rows. The underclassmen fill in the back. Coach Dan and Principal Castillo lean againstthe edge of the stage, poker faced, watching us all file in.
My heart races. I glance around at the other guys, who seem just as nervous. The D-men are quiet. Sam’s bent over a textbook, deliberately ignoring everything going on around him, as focused as he is in the goal. Ryan’s uncharacteristically silent, his leg jiggling nervously, causing his seat to squeak. But the varsity forwards whisper enough for all of us.
“Think they’re mixing up positions for the season?” Brady rolls up the sleeves of his sweater as if preparing for a fight. “This is my last year. I need to finish strong. If they screw over us seniors—”
Louis Bautista shakes his head, locs swinging. “They wouldn’t bring in the principal for that. And they’d be idiots to mess with a winning game.”
Coach Dan surveys us all, nodding to each guy who enters. He’s quiet and calm. As if there’s nothing strange about this. As if he can’t hear the speculation.
My chest is tight with anticipation.
Frowning, legs outstretched and arms crossed over his chest, Noah asks, “Where’s Coach Red?”
It’s like all the air has been sucked out of the room. I’ve never heard these guys so quiet. Not even in the tense countdown before a face-off. Today, there’s no shuffling, no shifting of positions, not even any audible breathing. We’re all waiting for something we know we don’t want to hear.
Coach Dan and Principal Castillo exchange a glance. Castillo adjusts her glasses on her nose before clasping her hands in front of her.
“He won’t be coaching you anymore.”
There’s one beat of taut silence before the uproar crashes over her.
“Why? What happened?”
“What did you assholes do to—”
“We need him!”
“Is this about the rooster?”
Turns out Principal Castillo can outshout us all. “Boys, it’s school business,” she calls above the crowd, her voice cutting through the chaos.
Noah shakes his head, stone-faced. “He’s our coach. We deserve to know what’s going on.”
The entire team nods and murmurs their agreement.
Castillo and Dan share another look. “It’s going to come out anyway,” Dan says quietly. “And Noah’s right. They should know.”
Castillo sighs and squares her shoulders. My stomach ties itself a little tighter in the split second before she answers, the quiet of the auditorium raising the hairs on the back of my neck. One of those moments that I know will mean no turning back.
“He’s been let go. For misusing funds,” Principal Castillo says.
The silence is sickening.
“What? From where?” Ryan asks, face pale.
Principal Castillo purses her lips. “The new facilities project.”
My stomach drops out in shock. Our coach? The guy I’ve looked up to as much as my own dad, stealing funds? I picture the out-of-date equipment in the science wing. The plan to build more all-gender bathrooms throughout the school. The petition going around last year for more accessible classrooms and school entrances for wheelchair users.
An image of Harper burns in my mind, hands on her hips and her chin jutted up defiantly. Yesterday she was complaining about how the school puts all its funding into athletics, and that there’s barely any left to go around.
If Red really stole from the funding that had been allocated for facilities improvement… that would be pretty shady.
Alex shakes his head, jaw agape. “Forwhat?” His conscience won’t even let him give us a heads-up about how hard the precalc test is. The idea of stealing money is probably unfathomable to him.
But there’s no answer to his question. “Luckily, Dan will fill his role for the rest of the season,” Principal Castillo says, nodding to him.
We all turn to look at Dan. To be honest, I keep forgetting he’s in the room, and I have a feeling the other guys caught the same amnesia. He didn’t even react to Castillo’s bombshell, just kept his hands clasped behind his back, face steady and placid as always.
