One afternoon on the bright green football field of Georgia a light rain was falling and 13 year old Justin was handed off the ball. While he was running he suddenly slipped on the damp grass from the rain and fell down hard on his leg! The next thing he knew he was sitting in the hospital with a cast on his leg.
At the hospital on the cold bare bed mattress Justin thought “What am I going to do if I can’t play football? Anyway, the season ends in three weeks and my cast is on for four weeks. Oh, and were definitely not good enough to get in the playoffs and that’s my only chance to play more games this season.”
For two weeks Justin would come home from school moaning and complaining about how bad school was to his mom. “Mom, school was horrible. This cast is so irritating I can’t walk in it or even do my favorite subject P.E.” “Honey it couldn’t be that bad.” His mom would reply. But Justin wouldn’t listen. He would just barge up to his room do his homework, get into bed, and stare blankly at the ceiling. “My life is ruined, I’m never going to be a good football player,” He said while scribbling all over his football posters.
It was writing work shop and Mrs. Butterump was pairing up kids. “Justin, your with Charlie.” She called out. Charlie is one of those kids that never gets in trouble and always does what the teacher tells him to do. But the first thing Charlie did was question, “What’s the matter? “Nothing” Justin lied “Come on. Tell me. I know something is wrong.” “Fine. I can’t play football and I don’t know what to do.” Then it was silent but Charlie blurted out, “I could teach you how to play pool and you could be my partner for my doubles tournament in three weeks!” Justin shouted as quickly as possible, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” But maybe a little too loud because Mrs. Butterump heard.
Clunk! Went the white ball as it hit the other ball. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and Charlie was showing Justin how to hit the ball. “It’s that easy!” Justin said raising his eye brows in surprise. “Yup! Now the object of the game is to get all your balls into the holes. But there are a few other things like if you hit the eight ball in then you automatically lose and if you hit the white ball in then the other player gets to place it where ever they want. Got it?” “Yes.” Justin said. That next Friday they played a mach. Charlie won. Then Justin showed Charlie a move he had been practicing. First he hit the white ball which hit the left wall then the front wall which hit his ball which went in.
The doctor came in to take Justin’s cast off. Justin shook so wildly his mom had to hold him down. That afternoon Charlie came over. He said “Come here I have to inform you something.” Justin strolled over to him thinking “Is it going to be a bad or good thing?” But when Charlie told him he almost fainted. “I can’t imagine that I’m entering a pool tournament! How could this day get any better?” “Justin! We’re leaving in 10 minutes to get ice cream!” His mom cried out. “Oh, and your team made it into the playoffs!” Then Justin fainted.
It was the day of the pool tournament. It was Justin and Charlie’s turn and they had one ball left. It was in perfect shape for Justin’s move. Charlie went over, he pulled back and… CLUNK! BANG! BANG! CLUNK! The ball went in! They one! Charlie sprinted over to Justin and gave him a big hug!
“Set, hike!” The quarterback yelled out. It was the champion game and Justin was handed off the ball. He broke a tackle, then another, and another, and another! “To the 40, to the 30, to the 20, to the 10, TOUCHDOWN! Justin said heard the announcer call out as he ran across the goal line! They had won the championship! After the game Justin and Charlie went and got ice cream. At the ice cream parlor Justin asked “Why did you help me anyway?” “Because I didn’t want your life to be miserable anymore.” “Well thank you.”