Anything You Want by Geoff Herbach

way,” Sharma said.
    â€œYeah,” Darius said.
    â€œI brought some meatballs and subs,” Brad said. “I’ll heat it all up in a bit. You want some of that?”
    â€œYeah. Thank you,” Darius said really quietly.
    Me? I didn’t say anything to that rat-bastard brother of mine. He didn’t get my eye bad enough to make it black. But I had a big bump on my forehead, and my damn nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. Mom would be so mad at him.
    She’d be so mad at me too.

Chapter 13
    Nancy Miskinis. That’s a pretty interesting name. The Miskinis part anyway.
    Dad showed up on Thanksgiving morning (not Wednesday like he said). He came in the door, said, “Hi, boys,” and then walked around the house, examining the state of things to make sure we weren’t doing any damage.
    He wasn’t alone. He arrived with a red-haired lady named Nancy Miskinis. She wore a giant pink puffy sleeping bag for a coat. That’s what it looked like—a sleeping bag with a hole cut in the bottom. And when she pulled that off, the sweetest perfume poured off of her. I liked her right away.
    â€œYou can call me Miz, boys,” she said.
    â€œOkay!” I said.
    â€œThat’s quite a bruise on your head, Taco,” Miz said.
    I nodded. I smiled. Darius made a fugly face if ever there was one. Me, I was very happy to meet this Miz because I’m a happy guy.
    You know what? I was happy. I’d had a pretty good couple of days. Everyone at school thought it was super fly that I was arrested for climbing my girlfriend’s house again. They were all like, “Awesome, man! That’s courageous. You’re a Taco Grande with special hot sauce!”
    Coach Johnson called me into his office and said I had better stop acting like such a phenomenal dumb ass or I’d find myself derailed for years. I appreciated that he cared.
    Actually, Mr. Edwards, Mrs. Mullen, Ms. Tindall, Mr. Lecroy, and Dr. Evans all took time to have private meetings with me and said pretty much the same thing Coach Johnson said. They were all looking out for my future. They wanted to make sure my tomorrows were as great as today, right? They’re all good people.
    I totally aced my calc quiz on Monday too. Brad and Sharma had come over on Sunday to study more. If you do the work, pal, anything is possible.
    The choir room was rife with kids singing Wizard of Oz songs, as auditions were the following week. Everyone was so nervous and excited about it all. I love the musical season! And Maggie was gone, so I joined right in.
    Tuesday night had been the first home basketball game.
    Because I was cut from freshman b-ball—a stroke of luck that allowed me to go out for a musical, which I love—I have been available to play the bass drum in the pep band during games. I’m not in band, but Ms. Carlson, the band director, says I have more pep in my step than anybody around. (That’s true.) And holding down the beat is a fine way to show my enthusiasm for the team.
    This home game was out of control too. Bluffton defeated Hazel Green by two points on a last-second three-pointer scored by Ryan Bennett. Everybody was falling over in the stands as the ball swooshed through the net. (I almost rolled over the bass drum.) Then we all rushed the court, and a bunch of people lifted Ryan over their heads. Hazel Green is like a tenth the size of Bluffton and only has six players, and we probably should’ve beat them by like a hundred points. But it was a wicked party at the end! Maggie wasn’t there, seeing as she was in Ohio at her grandmother’s, but that didn’t ruin our victory. What a great day.
    Wednesday, we didn’t do work—not even in calc.
    And then at eleven on Thanksgiving morning, Dad and Nancy Miskinis in her giant pink puffy sleeping bag walked in.
    A few minutes after they arrived, after Dad’s home inspection, Dad landed himself in the bathroom, which gave