Sidetracked Read Online Free Page B

more important those friendships are than the actual award you win. Because that’s what’s important in the long run, right?”
    We nod like puppets controlled by strings. Because that’s exactly what we know he expects us to do.
    â€œYeah, that’s what I thought,” Coach Reeves says. “So how is it that during practice Saturday morning, when you’re with friends and teammates you supposedly trust, how is it that a smartphone and an iPod can disappear from a couple of backpacks?” Coach Chapman and the assistant coaches look as pissed as Coach Reeves.
    It’s as if someone cracked an egg over my head and something slimy and gross is dripping down me. I review Saturday morning in my mind. Everyone left their backpacks, with water bottles and energy bars, in a heap under the goalpost. Kids wandered over now and then to grab something from their backpack, and nobody thought anything of it.
    I feel sick when I glance at Zenia. She’s staring at the ground. It’s all starting to come together. Zenia must know who ripped off the backpacks during practice. Which is why she got pushed around on Saturday. Whoever did it wants her to keep her mouth shut about it.
    â€œWe aren’t going to blame anyone or point any fingers,” Coach Reeves adds. “You know who you are, and it’s up to you to make this right. Got it, everyone?”
    â€œGot it, Coach,” we murmur .
    I glance around uneasily at the solemn faces to see if I can figure out who did it. If only I could get Zenia to tell me. But her mouth is a tight line. She won’t be letting that information out anytime soon.
    My thoughts are spinning faster and faster. I can’t stop thinking about the new iPod Matt has and all his other new stuff. How he’s been out so much lately. How he skips track practices and comes up with weird excuses for getting home late. But he wouldn’t have, would he? Surely not my brother.
    Kat is standing beside me, wide-eyed. “Isn’t it brutal,” she says. “Who the heck did it, Maddy? That’s what I want to know!”
    â€œMe too,” I say, as my gut begins to churn. I quicken my pace. It makes me sick to think about any of it anymore.

chapter nine
    It’s hard to concentrate during class. I can’t help glancing at my classmates on the track team. It seems as if everyone who got lectured by Coach Reeves this morning is distracted. Who got ripped off? And who did it? And please don’t let it be Matt!
    Kids from the team that I pass in the hallways all have the same glum faces. When our eyes meet, we each know what the other is thinking. Our eyebrows raise in question. No one knows who to trust now. How can a team function properly with that going on? It’s like an ugly mark has been tattooed on all of us. And it’s marred everything teamwork is supposed to stand for. I’m furious and worried at the same time. All sorts of nasty thoughts won’t stop doing laps in my mind.
    We’re all solemn at practice after school. When something like this happens, you can’t stop thinking somebody out there thinks you could be the guilty one. If you babble too much, it makes you look like you’re covering up. If you’re too quiet, it makes it look as if you’re hiding something. But someone is hiding something!
    No one leaves their backpacks in the change room, as we usually do. Not after what happened on Saturday. We line them up alongside the track, where they’re in plain view.
    I start running the track to get rid of the jitters I’ve had ever since Coach Reeves’s nasty announcement this morning.
    Kat, Paige and Isabel are out running already. They seem to be having some sort of serious conversation as they jog. No doubt it’s about what happened, and I don’t feel like talking about it with them.
    Zenia runs on her own, lost in thought. Every once in a while, her eyes meet mine and she