Boy21 by Matthew Quick

are not using Earthling calendars anymore, since they no longer reside in this solar system. Your calendar is based solely on the Earth’s rotation around the sun. Once you pass Pluto, your Earth calendars are meaningless.”
    “But you’re still not going to talk about outer space with our teammates, right?”
    “They’ll know I’m not human when they see me play basketball,” he says. “I won’t be able to keep it a secret, because my skills are…
otherworldly.
”
    I nod slowly, waiting for Boy21 to start laughing, for Coach to come running in with the rest of the team, pointing at me and howling at the elaborate practical joke, but that doesn’t happen.
    These words coming out of any other boy’s mouth would sound like hyperbole or plain old trash talk, but Boy21 is dead serious. It’s not even like he’s proud of his skills. He’s willing to hide his ability as if it were something to be ashamed of.
    “You believe me, right, Finley? You believe I’m going back up into the cosmos with my parents. You of all people,” he says.
    I nod. “Do you mind if I talk to Coach alone?”
    “Okay.”
    He leaves and Coach shuts the door behind him.
    “I’m sorry I doubted you, Finley,” Coach says. “The situation has been hard on me. His father was a good friend of mine, so I feel a certain sense of—”
    When Coach doesn’t finish his sentence, I swallow once and wait.
    Coach says, “You gave Russ your number?”
    I nod.
    “You’re a good kid, Finley.
A real good kid.
I’m making you and Terrell captains. I wasn’t going to tell you until later, but considering the circumstances, I—”
    “Coach, he really believes his parents are coming for him in a spaceship.”
    “I’m not so sure about that.”
    “He needs help.”
    “He’s getting it. Russ sees a psychologist twice a week. You want to know what Russ told his grandparents two weeks ago?”
    I don’t think Coach should be telling me what Boy21 says to his grandparents in confidence, but he keeps talking.
    “Russ said his parents were going to pick him up in October—in their spaceship—but he sent a message using his mind or something like that. He asked his parents if he could stay on Earth for a few more weeks because he’d made a friend named Finley and Finley has a ‘calming presence.’ He said he was enjoying your company.”
    I swallow again.
    “He’s on the edge, Finley. I don’t think I have to tell you what that means, because you’re a smart kid. When you see him play—really play ball—everything will make sense to you. Trust me on this one.”
    When I leave the coaches’ office the rest of my squad is long gone. The second-string girls’ team is going over a zone defense, soErin’s back is against the wall; she’s hugging her legs and resting her chin on her knees. Her eyes are on me, which is when I realize I’m shirtless. I see concern on her face, but I can’t think about Erin now so I just turn my head and go change in the locker room.
    I find Boy21 outside and he follows me to the town library.
    In the young-adult section two copies of
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
are available, so I check out both and hand a copy to Boy21.
    “Wes was taking heat for reading this. He told Terrell it was required reading for AP English,” I explain.
    Boy21 nods.
    Wes is our teammate, so we get his back.
    Boy21 follows me home, where I make sandwiches and we eat with Pop, who is sober enough to mind his manners and ask us questions about practice, all of which I answer vaguely, and then Boy21 and I hang in my room and read
Harry Potter
until it’s time to go back to the gym.
    The book’s about a kid who has an awful life but gets a chance to escape it when he finds out his dead parents were wizards. Reading it makes me wonder if I’ll ever escape Bellmont, and, if so, what sort of life I might have somewhere else.
    We arrive to the second session early so we continue to read in the bleachers while the girls