He wondered now if that could have caused this. Or maybe it was one thing on top of the other… ?

It hardly mattered now. Basketball tryouts were just twenty-four hours away! How was he going to recover in time?

“Mom!” he called out. “MOM!!”

She came running up the stairs. “What is it, old man? Are you okay?”

“I can’t move my neck!”

He proceeded to explain how he might have injured it.

She examined him closely. “You need to have the school nurse look at it—she’ll know better than I do—but it sounds like you pulled or strained a muscle, and now it’s seizing up with spasms.”

“Spasms?” It sounded terrible!

“Your dad and I have both had them before. They usually go away after a couple of days.”

“A couple of days?” Derek repeated. “It has to be better by tomorrow! I’ve got basketball tryouts!”

“Well, if it isn’t, you’ll have to explain to the coach.”

“Mom, no! He won’t understand—I’ll never get on the team if I can’t play!”

“Let’s just see what happens,” said his mom. “Maybe you’ll feel better by then.”

“I have to try out—no matter what!”

“Derek, if you play with an injury you might hurt yourself even worse. If it isn’t mostly gone by tomorrow morning, you’ll have to accept the reality of the situation and explain things to the coach.”

Derek started to slump but jerked back with a wince as the pain kicked in again.

“Look, let’s get you ready for school now. Otherwise you’ll be late.”

“School?! I can’t even move!”

“I’ll drive you there on my way to work. We’ll put some ointment on it—that should help. You’ll just have to take it slow and easy today. These things are usually at their worst in the morning.”

Derek couldn’t see how he could possibly be all better by tomorrow. He could try to play with some pain, but he knew it would affect his game—not to mention that he might wind up making his neck worse!

After all that dreaming with Dave… he was now facing the worst possible scenario: Dave making the team and him being left out—just because of a freak injury at the very last minute!

Why couldn’t this have happened next week—or next month? Why did it have to happen now—at the worst possible moment?

Chapter Ten DISASTER!

“What do you mean, you can’t move?!”

Derek didn’t answer right away. What could he say? What could he tell Vijay to make him not freak out?

“I just… it hurts if I turn my neck.”

“What are we going to do now? How can we practice?” Vijay looked forlorn and defeated.