This Is Our Song

A Threatening Letter

"Hi, Mom! I'm home!"
Quill slid his backpack off as he closed the front door. He tossed the bag onto the couch with his varsity jacket. Usually he wouldn't leave it lying around like that. Ever since his sixteenth birthday a few months ago, and his upgrade to the varsity basketball team, he treated the new letterman jacket as if it was the Holy Grail. But today he was too excited to take the time to hang it up before he went through the mail.
"Mom! Where are you?"
"Quill, I'm in the kitchen."
"Did you get the mail?" Quill asked as he rushed into the kitchen. Ms. Dawson pointed to the small stack of envelopes on the counter, and Quill's face lit up as he picked them up and began to sift through them.
His mom laughed at his enthusiasm. "What's got you so excited about the mail today?"
"This," he replied, holding up an envelope.
"Wilder - our team captain - told us that we were all getting letters that would tell us who the starters would be this season. This must be it." But, despite the previous excitement, he couldn't stem the nervousness twisting his gut. Being a starter was a huge honor, and it came with a lot of responsibility. But their was a lot more at stake this time. After everything he had risked to get this position, not getting it would mean that they had found out, and that would complicate things.
"I'm gonna go put my stuff in my room before I open this."
"Whatever you want," she said. "Let me know what it says later."
"Uh, yeah, sure," he promised, walking out with his eyes glued to the return address.
Quill grabbed his stuff off of the couch, then headed into his room with it and his letter. He dropped his stuff on the floor by his closet, then sat on his bed to read the letter.

"Dear Mr. Dawson,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been chosen to be one of the five in our starting line-up for the South County Pirates Varsity boys basketball team. We are excited for the beginning of this year's basketball season, and we look forward to having you on the team.

Sincerely,
               Coach James D. Scott
                  Pirates Basketball

He couldn't contain his excitement. He grabbed the letter and ran into the kitchen.
"Mom, guess what?"
"What? Did They choose you?"
"Yeah," he exclaimed. "I'm officially a South County Pirates Starter!"
"Oh my word, Quill! That's amazing! I'm so excited for you!"
"Thanks Mom," he replied.
Ms. Dawson took the letter from Quill and read it over at least three times.
"You know what? How about we go for pizza tonight?" she suggested.
"That sounds awesome! Can I invite some of the boys from the team?"
"Sure! But only a few. I only have so much money to spend."

             -----------------------------------------
Quill slid into his chair and dropped his backpack beside his desk. Buttoning up his jacket, he then crossed his arms over his chest and shivered internally. Why was it so cold in here today?
The bell rang and the kids who hadn't already been scattered about the classroom filed in and slid or dropped into their chairs. Some of them immediately began talking to someone in the room, a few people laid their arms across the desks in front of them and hid their faces in them. Whether they were actually hiding or trying to sleep was uncertain. Most of them just sat down with a bored expression, wishing they were anywhere else.
Mr. Sikener stood up from his desk and welcomed the class. He looked less sick of life than the rest of the class, but he was always one of the most chipper teachers they had.  For some reason he seemed to actually enjoy his job. This was the last class of the day, so when everyone came in they looked like all they wanted was to go home, but by the end of this class, they would all be laughing and skipping out of the classroom.
After a few minutes, Wilder walked in and apologized for being late. Said his English teacher stopped him in the hallway.
"Nothing to worry about, Mr. Ellis," Sikener assured him before returning to the lesson.
Wilder made his way to his desk, but dropped a crumpled up piece of paper into Quill's lap as he passed by. Looking over at him curiously, Quill grabbed the paper and began to smooth it out. It took some time, but he eventually got it open with minimal noise, and only a couple of tears in the paper. He glanced around the classroom to be sure no one was looking at him, and after grimacing at a girl who was chewing on her eraser, he looked down and read the note.
His face must have turned pale, because a couple of students were looking at him like he had just died. He felt like he had. Three sentences was all it took to ruin everything he had planned out so perfectly. But this was the end of it. No one could find out. It was bad enough that this part of his life was being taken from him, the last thing he needed was for his entire life to be ruined. So he unbuttoned his prized letterman jacket, and took it off.
Today his favorite class seemed to go on for too long, and when the bell finally rang, and Mr. Sikener dismissed the class, he kept his gaze glued to his desk until the only people left in the room were him, the teacher, and Wilder Ellis.
"Is there something I can do for you young men?" Mr. Sikener asked.
If only he could.
Quill stood up from his chair, picked up his backpack, and walked over to Wilder. He didn't look at him, he just placed his varsity jacket on Wilder's desk.
"You'll tell Coach I'm done?" he asked.
Wilder picked up the jacket. "Yeah," he responded. "I'll tell him."
Quill turned around, and walked out of the room. When he got into his Mom's car, he opened the piece of paper again.
"Hey, Mom?"
"What, Quill?"
"I'm off the basketball team. I quit."
"Why?" She asked. "You were so excited to play. What made you quit?"
"There- there was another kid who really wanted to play, and Coach said we had too many players already. So I quit and let him replace me."
"Well, that was a very mature, kind thing to do, Quill. I know how much you wanted to play on the team."
Quill looked down at the crumpled note in his hand and read it again:

I know what you did to get on the team. Amber told me. You quit today, and I stay quiet.

"Yeah," Quill said. "It was the right thing to do."