George blew bubbles and watched the ballgame. He was riding the bench this year. He could have stayed in J.V. for one more year, but his coach wanted him to practice with the big boys. George thought that meant he had high expectations for him. It took George only a few weeks to find out that those expectations involved him as a practice dummy for the real athletes of the team. He clapped at the right times and even stood up and offered his hand for high fives, but he wasn’t into it anymore. During the games, he went to a far off place where they didn’t have baseballs or coaches.

His parents watched every game. He told them not to come. It was embarrassing because they sat with the real player’s parents, the ones who actually played. But George’s parents were proud of him, and they wanted to show him their support. They dragged George’s younger sister Kimberly to every game. She read during the game, hunched over a book to shadow the pages from the midday sun. His parents both had big foam fingers, which they waved wildly during the game. His high school team’s name was the Hamilton Bald Eagles. His parents used black markers to change the finger from the Boston Celtics to the Bald Eagles. They did a shoddy job, and by halfway through the season the ink began to run until the orange fingers took on a brownish hue.

The Eagles had twenty-five players on their roster including George. George dressed for every game. He sat on the bench, chewed his gum, and punched his glove. He sat next to Tony, another hopeful from the J.V. team. Tony was a decent ballplayer. George thought Tony was a better player compared to some of the regulars on the team. He had an unfortunate face, however, with one eye noticeably higher than his other eye. The coach told Tony he would start next year. The coach hadn’t told George anything, and George had stopped waiting for the nod.