Football Champ by Tim Green

practice. We still got that.”
    Troy remembered Tate’s harsh words and her dire prediction that Seth would no longer help them.
    “You mean, you’ll coach us?” Troy asked. “After I made this mess?”
    “Hey, it’s the state championship,” Seth said, putting an arm around Troy’s mom and giving her a smile and a quick hug. “Not a bad way for me to start my next career. I always wanted to get into coaching.”
    Seth’s cell phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket, checked the number, and looked at Troy’s mom. “That didn’t take long.”
    “Who is it?” she asked.
    Seth didn’t answer her. He snapped open the phone and said, “Hello? Yes…Yes, I did…All right. I’ll be right there.”
    Seth closed the phone and stuffed it back into his pocket.
    “On second thought,” Seth said to Troy’s mom, “why don’t you take Troy to school and I’ll just meet you later on, maybe for lunch.”
    “Who was it?”
    “Coach McFadden,” Seth said. “He and Mr. Langan want to see me in his office. Now.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
    TROY WENT INTO THE school office and signed in late. The third-period bell rang, and he ran through the busy hallways toward Tate’s locker. He found her slamming it shut and turning with her books toward Nathan, who was waiting to walk with her to science class.
    “Hey,” Troy said, grabbing her arm and spinning her around.
    Tate scowled at him, as did Nathan.
    “It’s okay,” Troy said, out of breath. “Seth’s still coaching the team. He’s mad, but mad at Peele, not me.”
    Tate’s angry look melted. “He is?”
    “What about that nasty article and all that crap you said?” Nathan asked.
    “Seth understands,” Troy said, frowning. “I didn’tsay that stuff like that. Peele twisted it around. Seth knows.”
    “Cool,” Nathan said. “Valdosta, watch out. You’re looking at the next state champs!”
    They all grinned and slapped high-fives.
    Rusty Howell walked up and heard the good news, then asked, “Is our championship game really gonna be on TV?”
    Troy nodded.
    “Sweet,” Rusty said, the freckles on his face glowing. “I’m going to get my dad to tape it. I hope they’ll have replays. You connecting with me in the end zone for the state title? I can’t wait.”
    “Sheesh, I gotta get a trim,” Nathan said, running a hand over his bristles. “Who knows? Somebody from the Disney Channel sitting there, watching this game, they see me and next thing you know I’m on TV datin’ Hannah Montana.”
    The bell rang, and Tate and Nathan hurried off. Troy dashed to his own locker for his books before arriving late to science class. In the hallways between classes, it seemed that every other person stopped to talk to him about the newspaper article. For those who didn’t actually read the paper, word had spread through the school like wildfire, spawning rumors of Troy going to jail for his involvement in the scandal.
    The crazy talk would have been enough to occupyhis mind, freeing him from the usual boredom of math vectors, the Boer War, plant cell structures, and Shakespeare’s plays—which his teacher claimed were written in English. But what mostly kept Troy busy was the thought of the championship against Valdosta. By the end of the day, he’d filled his notebook with diagrams of pass patterns and defensive coverages he planned to discuss with Seth.
    If the Tigers could win that game and Troy could become a championship quarterback, he knew everyone would forget about the nasty newspaper article. Also, if he couldn’t use his football genius now, for the Falcons, Troy knew the other way to use it would be when he played in the NFL himself. Winning a state championship as the quarterback for the Duluth Tigers would put him well on his way to achieving that goal.
    Everyone knew that the best high schools—football powerhouses like Norcross and Parkview and Valdosta’s own varsity team—would recruit players from the junior league state