Soccer.  Basketball.  Baseball.  Fall.  Winter.  Spring.   Three sports.  Three seasons.  Three chances to get on a team so Julianne would notice him.

But he only had one summer to learn how to play all three sports.

So he spent that summer between sixth and seventh grade teaching himself how to play each of the sports.  He asked his foster parents to get him the equipment he needed to practice, but that was all the help he asked for.  He didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of anyone else and preferred to learn the skills on his own with books and YouTube videos.

Every morning, he would ride his horse Storm out to the field by the stream and practice kicking the soccer ball around.

Every afternoon, he would practice pitching to a target he set up in the barn.

Every evening, he would practice shooting baskets at the goal behind the house.

He would always eat meals with his foster folks and whatever foster kids were living at the ranch at the time.  He also went to church every Sunday, but meals and church were the only social outlets he had all summer.  When he wasn’t eating or in church, he was talking to Storm or practicing sports.

The practice didn’t pay off, however. 

Once seventh grade started, he got cut from the soccer team because he had no endurance.

He got cut from the basketball team because he couldn’t shoot with a defender in his face and had no clue how to play defense himself.

He got cut from the baseball team because he couldn’t catch or hit.

He could throw with the best of them, though, and that gave him an idea for the one sport he should focus on in order to get Julianne’s attention.