8. When I was 13, my only purpose was to become the star on our football team. That meant beating out Miller King, who was the best (1) at our school.
Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out. I carried my football everywhere for (2) .
Just before September, Miller was struck by a car and lost his right arm. I went to see him after he came back from (3) . He looked very pale, but he didn't cry.
That season, I (4) all of Miller's records (记录) while he watched the whole games from the bench (板凳). We went 10 — 1 and I was named most valuable (有价值的) player, but I often had crazy dreams in which I was to blame (因……受责备) for Miller's accident.
One afternoon, I was crossing the field to go home and saw Miller tried going over a fence (围栏) which wasn't hard to climb if you had (5) arms. I'm sure I was the last person in the world he wanted to accept assistance from. But when I asked if he needed any help, he said yes. So I helped him move slowly over the fence. When we were finally (6) , on the other side, he said to me, "You know, I didn't tell you this during the season, but you did (7) . Thank you for filling in for me."
His words (8) me from my bad dreams. I thought to myself, how even without an arm he was more of a leader. Damaged but not defeated, he was still ahead of me. I was right to have admired (欣赏) him. From that day on, I grew bigger and a little more real.