Takes place in the fall of 1995, Lucas and Nathan are 7 years old.
Nathan nearly stumbles down the steps, gripping tightly onto the railing. He glances back at the window, but the curtain hasn't moved. If his mom sees that he nearly fell, she might change her mind about him walking by himself to Karen and Lucas' apartment. Despite it being right next door, up until today, his mom has always accompanied him. Nathan's not a baby anymore, though. He's 7! He can walk the 15 steps (of course he's counted) from his door to Lucas' on his own. His mom has always argued.
Today, however, she's busy going over a bunch of boring papers. She warned him that Karen probably is too. Nathan doesn't understand why there's so much writing involved when opening the café. They seem to spend most of the day writing their names over and over again. While the papers seem boring, at the very least it allows him prove he's big enough now.
Basketball under his arm, he bounces down the last step. Karen may be too busy to take them to the River Court but they can probably use the hoop on Lucas' door. Nathan makes it up the identical steps next to his own apartment and knocks three times.
"Come in," Karen calls out.
Nathan obliges, kicking off his shoes as soon as he enters the door. He quickly waves to Karen who sits in the den, looking over her own pile of papers. Down the hall and to his right, Nathan finds Lucas' door. He walks in without knocking, ready to throw the ball at his head…only to stop when he sees his brother isn't alone. Next to him on the floor is Haley. Nathan's seen her on the playground but they're not in the same class. She's always sitting on a bench, reading. Today she's got a book with her too. Frogs are on the open page with magnifying glasses on top of them.
Lucas looks up with a huge grin on his face. "Hey Nate. We're reading about frogs."
"Why is she here?"
"My mom and dad both had to work," Haley says. "And my sisters were too busy to watch me. I think Vivian had a date." She makes a face.
"Oh. Ew." Nathan wrinkles his nose. "Well, come on. We can play basketball."
"I don't like basketball."
"Have you even ever tried to play?"
"In gym. It's stupid."
Nathan narrows his eyes. "You're stupid."
Haley gasps and Lucas puts a hand on her back. He frowns at his younger brother, making Nathan confused. They love basketball. If their moms would let them, they'd play it all day, every day. How can he hang out with someone who thinks it's stupid?
"That's not nice."
"Well, it's true."
"You can read with us."
Nathan frowns and plops to the floor in front of them. His face scrunches up as he tries to make out the words. As usual, it's making his head hurt to look at. He guesses that the first word of the sentence has to be "frogs", given the pictures. The rest is a jumble to him.
"Frogs…" he blinks, trying to make out the next word. "Frogs…can…found…mold?"
Haley shakes her head, putting her finger underneath the words as she reads. "Frogs can be found all over the world."
"Nuh uh. There's no way that's what it says! That's a m."
"No, it's a w."
Lucas peers over Haley's shoulder. "She's right, Nate. That says world."
Nathan's cheeks feel hot, just like they do every time he looks at a book. This is why he stopped trying to read aloud at school. Every time he tries, Miss Johnson always corrects him. Now, every time she asks, he makes a joke. It gets her to roll her eyes, shake her head and move onto Brooke beside him.
"This book is dumb. I don't wanna read it anymore. I'm going home."
Lucas' smile disappears. "But I thought we were gonna play."
"We can play later, when she's not here."
Nathan get up, grabbing his ball and storming out of the room. He doesn't even try to be careful as he runs down the steps and back to his apartment. When his mom calls out for him, he goes to his room and shuts the door. Nathan throws the ball into his own small hoop a fe times, but it's no fun to do it alone.
"Stupid Haley," he mumbles.
If Haley wasn't there, he and Lucas could've played basketball. He wouldn't have had to look at that book and then he wouldn't have looked so stupid. Why did she have to be there anyway? Didn't she have other friends she could hang out with?
Nathan thinks about calling someone else, but his mom is too busy to take him and there's no way she's going to let him walk anywhere else. He throws himself down on the floor and starts throwing his ball against the wall, over and over again.
"Nathan!" His mom calls from the living room. "What have I told you about that?"
He doesn't say anything and continues, watching closely as a picture of him, his mom, Lucas, Karen and Keith on the wall bounces with each throw. His mom continues to yell for him and once again, he ignores her. A few moments later, footsteps can be heard across the hall. Nathan manages to throw the ball one last time before his door bursts open. It falls gracefully right below the picture and begins to roll back to him. His mom holds out her foot, stopping the ball in place.
"Nathan Cooper Scott," she says. Nathan sinks down a bit in place. "I have told you a million times, if you want to throw the ball inside, you use the hoop. Not the wall."
"It was an accident."
"An accident you kept repeating?" She raises an eyebrow and Nathan stares at the floor. Deb sighs. "I thought you were going to play at Karen's for a little bit. Why did you come home?"
"Lucas had a friend over," he mumbles.
"Which friend?" Nathan doesn't say anything. "You love Marvin, Anton and Jimmy. Why wouldn't you stay?"
"They weren't there. It was Haley."
Deb tilts her head. "Haley?"
"She's in Luke's class."
"Well, why can't all of you play together?"
Nathan rolls his eyes. "Haley doesn't like basketball."
Deb shakes her head. "There is more to life than basketball, Nathan. I'm sure the three of you could've found something to do."
"We looked at some dumb book and Haley kept telling me I got the words wrong. Luke said she was right. I didn't want to play with her anymore."
It's Deb's turn to be quiet for a moment. She lowers herself onto the floor next to Nathan and places her hand on his back. Nathan tilts his head. Normally, she'd talk to him about not throwing the ball and give him something else to do.
"Sweetie…I wanted to talk to you about this. I planned to, tonight, actually."
"About what?"
"Well, yesterday I had a meeting with Miss Johnson," she says softly. "We were talking about how you're doing in school. And she mentioned that you've been struggling a lot with math and reading."
Nathan makes a face. "No, I haven't."
"She told me that you've avoided reading out loud and that you sometimes mix up words."
"The books are just stupid. Same with math. The numbers keep changing up on me."
"I know." Nathan looks up at her. "When your uncle Cooper was around your age, he went through the same thing. He also got into trouble a lot because he'd act out whenever he didn't understand something in class."
"Uncle Coop is cool, though. He drives race cars."
"He does and he's doing a lot better now. At the time, everyone thought maybe he was lazy or didn't want to understand. Recently, though, there's been a lot of new stuff that's come out. Including something called dyslexia."
"What's that?"
"It means that for people who have it, they struggle with reading. They mix up words and letters that may look like other ones." Deb pauses. "Sweetie…when you do read, what happens?"
Nathan gnaws on his lip. "Nothing."
"Nathan, come on. This is important. Tell me what happens when you try to read?"
Nathan stares at the ball that's now discarded. He doesn't even like to look at books anymore. Lucas loves them and when they were younger, he would read when Nathan couldn't. Everyone thought it was cute. Then after kindergarten, they got put in different classes. Miss Johnson kept saying he just needed to find "the right book". But after countless ones, Nathan gave up.
"They make my head hurt," he mumbles.
"What was that?"
"They make my head hurt, okay? And I always mix up the words. I think it looks like something and then everyone's saying I'm wrong."
"And with math?"
"Miss Johnson says that my 5s look like 2s, but I know how to write them."
Deb frowns and Nathan shrinks into himself a bit. He and Lucas talk a lot about how worried their moms get. They're always getting sad about something. They don't want to make them sad either, so they agreed they wouldn't tell them things that would. For Lucas, it's that he feels funny whenever he plays basketball. Nathan's is how hard it is for him to read or look at numbers in his math workbook.
"I'm sorry," he mumbles.
"Oh sweetheart," Deb wraps an arm around him, kissing the top of his head. "Don't be sorry. I understand how hard this is for you. It's not your fault and we're going to get you some help. So when you look at a book or numbers, it'll be easier to understand."
"How?"
"Miss Johnson says that she's going to talk to another teacher. They'll do a test to make sure you really have dyslexia and then from there, we'll see what we can do. Does that sound good?"
"I guess…I could just never read."
Deb laughs, shaking her head. "Reading is important."
"I won't have to read if I become a famous basketball player."
"Oh, yes you will. You know some of those things I'm signing right now? Those are contracts. And almost every job has them, including basketball players. You'll want to read it so you can get the most money you can."
Nathan thinks about it for a minute. "I guess."
"Exactly." She kisses the top of his head. "I love you, sweetie."
"I love you too, Mommy."
"Do you want to go back to your brother's? Maybe the two of you and Haley could do something that's not basketball or looking at books."
Nathan does want to play with Lucas. At the same time, Haley knows now that he can't read. She'll probably make fun of him and wouldn't want him around anyway. Nathan doesn't want to embarrass himself all over again.
"No. Can I stay here and watch TV instead?"
"Are you sure that's what you really want to do?"
"I'll go to Lucas' when Haley goes home."
Deb's frown returns and Nathan isn't sure why.
