Atrous Orb

Gabe Gomez is in a kickball game from hell.

The dreadful Mr. Banabieger brings in a new cool black kickball... but something's wrong with it. Gabe is not a good player but he's an emerging voice in third-grade kickball analytics.. will his intellect and capacity for paranoia be enough to figure out the black kickball?

Gabe wants to win, but he also wants to live. Childhood is full of inexplicable events that are merely survived rather than explained— that will have to be enough in the hatefully dark world of the Atrous Orb.

Matthew Atkinson brings you a quirky, freaky SHORT STORY from his collection Final First that like so many things kids go through, looks like it's for kids but really isn't. Step up to the plate— it's rolling right toward you whether you're ready or not.