Gym Candy

Shilshole plays Franklin High School. Mick is unstoppable. Carlson runs play after play for him, and by the time the game is over, Mick has scored several touchdowns and the team wins 48-0. Afterwards, Carlson tells him that he does not like to run up the score to embarrass a team, but he had wanted to use Mick to send a message to the rest of the league. When Mick gets home, he realizes that he played without steroids:

It wasn’t until I got home that I even thought about the steroids. I’d stopped using them, but weren’t they still in my blood and in my muscles? How much of what I’d done was me and how much them? I’d never know for sure. But there was one thing I did know—that with every tick of the clock I was moving closer to the day when I’d be entirely on my own. It was a good feeling, but it was a scary feeling, too (212). 

The next morning, there is an article in the high school sports section of the paper about Mick’s performance. Mick had broken the records for yard in a game, touchdowns in a game, and yards per carry.