Three days later, Frank and Joe were sitting in the examination room in Dr. Bate's office. Joe received the okay to remove the sling. With that out of the way, the boys moved on to blowing into a machine that measured their lung capacity.

"See, I told you Joe that a few days with the inhaler would make a world of difference," the doctor said as he examined the results. "Joe, you can start with limited football practice and work up. You should be fine in time for the game. I think you two are all ready to go back to school. Do you think the school will be open tomorrow?"

"They are planning on being able to open the school tomorrow," Frank said, "but it will be a long time before we can use the auditorium again."

As the boys left the office, Joe said, "That just means that I have to get all my makeup work finished tonight. I've been working on the math lab work forever and I'm still not done. That reminds me, next time you get my makeup work, ask someone more reliable. You didn't even tell me I had this lab to do."

"Joe, I talked to your teacher – who is more reliable than that? She never said anything about a lab assignment. Who told you this?" Frank asked.

Joe thought for a second, "Alan…" and the realization finally hit him. "He lied to me!"

"He also tried to kill you," Frank said.

"Never mind that, he lied to me about homework! I've wasted three days off of school doing work that wasn't even assigned!" Joe practically shouted.

Frank just smiled and shook his head, "I can't believe you actually believed him."

"It must have been all the fumes doing things to my head," Joe said his face reddening slightly.

"I'm sure that was it Joe," Frank said with a smile.

Two weeks later, Frank saw Joe down the field and he knew Joe saw the opening too. He let the football leave his hands knowing it was heading directly where he wanted it to go. It was up to Joe now.

Joe saw it coming. He jumped into the pass, caught it and pulled it into his body. And then he took off for the end zone. He felt a pull on his shirt, but he put on an extra burst of speed and made it into the end zone just ahead of the other team. As the roar of the crowd drowned out all other noise, he chanced a look at the scoreboard seeing the six point lead with less than a minute left in the game. He smiled and thought, "Finally, things are going my way."