"Beware the short terminal guy with nothing to lose."

Yep, that's right, I finished Deadline from Chris Crutcher. As far as Crutcher books go, this one wasn't my favorite, but it still was pretty good.
Ben Wolf, an 18-year-old cross country runner with everything going for him, finds out from his doctor that he has a terminal disease and only about a year left to live. He has two choices: Start treatment that will leave him bald and puking, but prolong his death for a little while, or live his life normally up until the last moment. Guess what he chooses. He also chooses not to tell anyone, but to live each day like it may be his last-- because it just might be.
Throughout the book he signs up to play football and becomes a star, asks out the girl of his dreams, Dallas Suzuki, and finds out she's in love with him, and helps the town drunk clean up his act. He also makes some mistakes: the town drunk, Rudy, may not get better from Ben's "help," and not telling his loved ones may have dire consequences.
The cover art's really interesting on this book. I'm going to see if I can find the back cover, too.
Yeah, so I can't find the back cover, but it has the kid on the front cover falling into the sky in the same pose, only he's transparent and there's two of him. It's really cool, I wish I could post it on here.
Aside from trying to live his short life to the fullest, Ben also starts having weird dreams, dreams about a man named Hey-Soos. (That name, when spelled the traditional Hispanic way, is Jesus.) Hey-Soos tries to help Ben through life, and Ben's therapist thinks he might be a part of Ben's unconscious mind. Ben disagress, because Hey-Soos says stuff Ben never dreamed of knowing.
I think the reason I didn't like this book as much as his other ones was that it was a football book in a lot of parts. So nonjocks, BE WARNED.
There were some good messages about life, too. I especially liked the one Ben's therapist used:

"My favorite professor at the university said he gets his best piece of therapeutic information every time he boards an airplane. The flight attendant says if the oxygen mask drops down, be sure to put on your own before helping anyone else with theirs."
(pg. 140)

Can't we all learn something from that message?