Team Player

By Jeffrey Pratt

When android teens join humans in high school, nothing will ever be the same.
After years of hard work, Danny is finally the starting quarterback for the Fitzgerald Flash. But his senior year takes a turn when an android—Alice—joins the football team. With her advanced physical skills and quick mind, Alice soon shows up nearly every player on the team. If the human players can't figure out how to work with Alice, they may lose their chance at the state championship. Can Danny find a way to bring his team together?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lerner Publishing
• Release date: Aug 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781541564657

Jeffrey Pratt

Jeffrey Pratt writes YA novels and lives in Ohio.

Book preview

1-46123-43498-12/11/2018

Six months ago, the US government officially recognized a group of androids with artificial intelligence as a race of living beings. These androids look exactly like humans—except for their glowing purple eyes. They have even been built to age like real humans. The first generation of adult androids have combined their programming to produce a second generation of androids: teenagers, kids, and even babies. They aren’t entirely machine or entirely human but somewhere in between.

Originally, androids lived in shacks on the outskirts of towns. Recently, the government offered them housing in sectioned-off neighborhoods. Humans are upset about being displaced from their homes, and androids are frustrated that human police officers are patrolling their new neighborhoods. Protests have turned violent. Riots have broken out in the streets.

In an effort to help androids and humans coexist, the government has launched a pilot program for android students in several high schools across the country. One of those high schools is Fitzgerald High School, nicknamed AI High.

Now, about eight hundred teen androids—almost one-fifth of the school population—attend Fitzgerald High. Android students take classes to learn about living in human society. Humans and androids also take classes together in hopes of building understanding and harmony. But many from both sides are reluctant about this new program.

With the teenage androids participating in a school system for the first time in their lives and the tension between the groups simmering, every day brings uncertainty.

1

Before the android showed up, everything was really good. Maybe even great.

All morning, the sky had been slightly overcast and the team had a rare, welcome break from the sun. Without it, practice seemed easier. The hill sprints went faster. The crunches weren’t as grueling. The pads were a little less heavy, and the hits seemed to sting just a little less. They’d made it through all the boiling summer practices and the first hot weeks of September. The whole team was actually having fun for the first time in weeks. Players were joking and laughing but still totally focused on the practice. It was a perfect combination.

Even Coach Williams was in a good mood. This morning, the head coach wasn’t on Danny’s case after every play. Most days, it seemed that no matter what decision Danny made as quarterback, there was always another one—a better one—he should have made. That was just Coach’s way. In his history class, Coach Williams was known for rarely ever giving As, as he always said those were saved for the truly exceptional. Today, every choice Danny made seemed to be the right call. At least on the football field, he was grabbing As left and right.

His reads of the defense were spot on. It was as if he knew what the linebackers and corners were going to do even before they did. These were his own teammates, guys he’d played with for four years now, and he recognized their tells. He could see by the way A. J. was leaning whether or not he was faking man-to-man or really in zone. He could see in Crabel’s eyes whether or not he was going to blitz.

And his passes were just about perfect this morning. Danny was hitting his receivers in stride with ease and with (mostly) perfect spirals every time. Whether they were long balls down the field or short little passes to the running backs out of the backfield, everything was dropping right into their hands.

Then she walked out onto the football field.

The android was dressed in pads and already wearing a helmet, but everyone knew who she was. The coach had told the team earlier in the week that this was going to happen. He also warned them not to make a big deal about it. The main reason androids had been invited to attend certain schools was so they could become more socialized. Sure, they were amazing at math and doing all sorts of difficult physical work, but they weren’t very good at dealing with humans yet. They were too cold and didn’t seem to know much about emotion, which meant they didn’t care about peoples’ emotions. The government hoped that if they experienced human society earlier in life, that might change.

The whole team just stood there staring.

Remembering what Coach had told them, Danny shook himself out of his distraction. He shouted for the team to huddle up, but no one seemed to care.

He was finally a senior, the clear first-string QB and co-captain of the team, and yet not one player was paying attention to him. Not even his friends.

Even the coaches had stopped what they were doing.

Finally, Coach Williams walked over the to the sideline where