Penalty Shot (6 page)

Sam laughed, too, then disappeared back into his own row of lockers. Jeff heard him humming the victory song.

J
eff loafed around for the rest of the weekend, enjoying the fact that his homework was already done. When Monday morning came,
he set off for school with a light heart. His composition was tucked neatly in his notebook. For once, he was looking forward
to English class.

But Ms. Collins wasn’t in class that day. A short, gray-haired man with wire-rimmed glasses was sitting behind her desk when
Jeff arrived.

“Ms. Collins is away at a teachers’ conference.
I’m substituting for the week,” explained the stranger.

“Oh, I have this composition to turn in,” said Jeff. “Maybe I could leave it on her desk?”

“Fine,” said the substitute. “I’ll add a little note to document when it was turned in. Just put it down there.”

Jeff did, then took his seat.

“Guess we’ll soon see how good a tutor my sister is, huh?” whispered Hayes across the aisle.

Jeff nodded. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was a little disappointed Ms. Collins wasn’t there to read the composition
right away. Then he smiled to himself.

Who would have thought I’d be anxious for someone to read something I’d written? he thought. As he listened to the substitute
drone on, he found himself wishing for another reason that Ms. Collins were there —
at least she made the material sound interesting!

At practice that afternoon, Coach Wallace sat the Blades down on the benches. He praised them for their solid victory against
the Clover Rovers. He was pointing out some of their mistakes when the sound of a door slamming made him stop.

Jeff turned with the rest of the team to see who was causing the commotion. It was Hayes Ledbetter.

“Nice of you to join us, Hayes,” the coach said sarcastically. Hayes mumbled something about being tied up with a teacher
unexpectedly.

The rest of practice was uneventful. The only exciting thing that happened was that Coach Wallace handed out the game schedule.
Their first league game was to take place on Saturday.

Jeff and Kevin talked about the practice and the upcoming game the whole walk home. They were only interrupted when Kevin’s
helmet fell out of his duffel bag.

“How’d that zipper get unzipped?” Kevin wondered. “I was sure I’d closed it tight.”

“Maybe it’s broken,” Jeff replied.

Kevin grimaced. “If it is, I’ll be in big trouble. This bag is practically brand new!”

“Here, let me see it,” Jeff said. He took the helmet from Kevin, shoved it into the bag, then fiddled with the zipper for
a moment until it worked again. “There you go. Nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you out of trouble!”

They parted laughing. Jeff hurried the rest of the way home, hungry for dinner.

He ate two helpings of spaghetti and three rolls. “No room for salad,” he said when his mother urged him to eat “some kind
of green thing.” But he managed to
polish off a bowl of ice cream ten minutes later.

“Okay, mister, time to earn your keep. Those recycling bins aren’t going to wait any longer,” his father said when the dishes
had been cleared.

Jeff groaned, but heaved himself up. He knew it wouldn’t take long to finish his chore. Then he could sack out on the couch
for a while.

Mr. Connors had built a number of collection bins onto the side of the garage. Jeff’s job was to separate the material for
recycling and the bottles and cans to be returned to the market from the rubbish. Once a month, he joined his father on the
trip to the recycling center, where they turned in all that they had collected. Jeff’s father paid him ten dollars each trip,
so Jeff couldn’t really complain.

He had just brought out a stack of magazines
that he’d tied up with a piece of string when he heard someone whistling a tune out in front of the house. He looked down
the driveway and saw Kevin passing by with Ranger on his usual long leash.

Jeff watched them for a moment or two. Ranger really did seem like a well-behaved, friendly dog. And he was on a leash. Jeff
decided now was as good a time as any to try to learn to like Ranger.

“Hey, Kev, how are you and the dog doing?” he called out as he walked toward them.

Kevin’s head snapped around. “A fat lot you care! You’d probably be happy if my dog dropped dead right in front of you, wouldn’t
you! Come on, Ranger, let’s get out of here!”

Jeff was stunned. Instinctively, he ran down the driveway after them.

He was too late. The darkness of the night had swallowed them up. Before long, he couldn’t even hear the sound of their footsteps.
But Kevin’s words continued to resound in his ears, loud and clear.

A
s soon as Jeff got back to the house, he picked up the telephone and called Kevin.

The line was busy.

He tried again five minutes later. This time the call went through.

“Hi, Mrs. Leach? This is Jeff. Is Kevin there?” he asked. He heard her muffle the phone and call out for Kevin. Then she got
back on the line.

“Kevin’s doing his homework right now, Jeff. He can’t come to the phone.”

“Oh,” said Jeff. “Well, could you tell
him… tell him that I called? Thanks.” He hung up the phone.

I’ll corner him at school tomorrow, he promised himself, and find out what the heck this is all about!

The next morning Jeff arrived at school earlier than usual. He found his way to Kevin’s locker and waited for him to show
up.

Kids came by, opened their lockers, put away their coats, took out books. But no Kevin.

Wonder if he’s home sick? Jeff thought.

Yet on his way to class, he spotted Kevin at the end of a long corridor. He was coming out of the administrative office.

Late, I guess, Jeff figured. He was just late, that’s all.

The two boys had one class together: history. Jeff was sure Kevin wouldn’t miss that. He decided to talk to him there.

But when he arrived, Kevin was up at the front of the room talking to Mr. Leone, their teacher. Jeff moved up closer, but
there was no way he could interrupt their conversation. Finally, everyone but the two boys was seated.

“Whatever it is, Jeff, it’ll have to wait until after class. Take your seats, please, boys,” said Mr. Leone.

Frustrated, Jeff moved to his desk. Kevin’s chair was across the room, so he didn’t stand a chance of talking to him all period.

When the bell rang, Kevin was off like a flash. But Jeff was in hot pursuit.

“Just a minute, Jeffrey. Wasn’t there something you wanted to talk to me about?” Mr. Leone asked. Jeff slowed down long enough
to say he’d figured it out on his own. But by the time he’d reached the hallway, Kevin was nowhere to be seen.

For the rest of the day, even at lunch, Kevin eluded him. It was only when they gathered for hockey practice that Jeff had
his chance to confront him.

Even then, Jeff could tell it wasn’t going to do any good.

“Will you just tell me if I heard you right last night?” Jeff demanded.

Kevin simply stared at the floor and shook his head. He laced on his skates furiously and stomped on his runners out of the
locker room without a word.

Jeff decided the only thing he could do was wait for Kevin to talk to him. For now, he’d just go through practice as usual.

But practice was anything but usual. Every time Coach Wallace teamed Jeff and Kevin up on the right side, Jeff felt as though
he were playing with someone he’d never met before.

“I’ll bet you didn’t connect on one pass the whole time you were out there,” said Coach Wallace to the two of them when they
were on the bench. “I suppose it had to happen sometime. I just hope that it’s not a permanent situation. I’d hate to have
to rethink my starting lineup again. But maybe I’ll have to do just that.”

Jeff’s face didn’t show it, but his heart sank. He had tried so hard to earn his place on the team. He decided then and there
that he wasn’t going to let some attitude of Kevin’s blow it for him.

When practice was over, Jeff was all set to make a beeline for Kevin. He was going to get to the bottom of things right away!

But on the way to the locker room, Bucky grabbed his arm. Jeff struggled to shake him loose, but Bucky held him tighter. “Listen,”
he said. “Keep away from Kevin in there. I’ll talk to you after he’s gone.”

Jeff looked at Bucky with surprise and nodded. Maybe Bucky knew something about it. It was worth checking out, anyway.

When the locker room had cleared out, Bucky came over and sat next to Jeff.

“All I can tell you is that you’d better back off for a while,” he said. “Kevin hasn’t said much except that he’s really steamed
about your note.”

“My note? What note?” Jeff demanded. “I don’t know anything about any note. What’s he talking about?”

“Search me,” Bucky said with a shrug. “I’m telling you everything I know. And giving you my advice to stay away from him until
he cools down.”

But Jeff just couldn’t leave it that way. He’d gone a whole day without speaking to his best friend. He was determined that
the next day would be different.

That night after dinner, he got permission
to go to Kevin’s house. Instead of going around back as he usually did, he rang the front doorbell. He didn’t want to give
Kevin a chance to hole up.

Kevin answered the door. Ranger was right behind him, swishing his tail and barking.

“Quiet, Ranger,” Kevin said. Then he looked at Jeff. “What do
you
want?”

Jeff drew a deep breath. The sight of Ranger had shaken him, but he knew he had to get by the dog in order to talk to Kevin.
So, while Kevin stood with his hand on the doorknob, Jeff barged right in and headed for Kevin’s room.

“Hey! Wait a minute!” Kevin called. “Ranger, come on!” He followed Jeff into his room and demanded, “What do you think you’re
doing?”

Jeff shut the door. “I don’t want anyone to interrupt us.”

Kevin hugged Ranger protectively. “If you lay one finger on my dog —”

“Why would you say something dumb like that?” Jeff asked, shocked.

“Why? Because you said yourself that if you ever got the chance, you’d see what you could do to get rid of him. Well, I’m
not going to give you that chance!”

“I never said anything like that!”

“Did too! You even put it in writing!” Kevin jumped up, tore open his desk drawer, and shoved a piece of paper in Jeff’s hands.
“Just try to deny it now!”

Jeff unfolded the paper and read:

There may be a lot of nice dogs in this world, but some are just plain mean. Kevin’s dog Ranger is one of those. I don’t know
why Kevin spends so much time with him since he’s such a dumb dog. In fact, he’d be better
off if he had Ranger put away so that he didn’t waste any more time on that rotten mutt.

Though there was something slightly familiar about it, Jeff knew he’d never written that paragraph. He’d never written — or
said — anything so awful.

Yet the handwriting looked just like his! Before he had a chance to examine it closely, however, Kevin had snatched it away
from him.

“You’re pretty quiet all of a sudden,” Kevin said accusingly.

“Kevin, I didn’t —”

“I know what your handwriting looks like.”

“But I never wrote that!” Jeff shouted. “Where did it come from? Where did you find it?”

“You know I found it in my duffel bag last night. I bet you put it there when you pretended to fix my zipper!”

Jeff shook his head. “But Kevin, why would I want to write something like that?”

“Who knows?” Kevin said, avoiding his eyes. “All I know is what I know. And I know that you don’t like dogs and that that’s
your handwriting on that piece of paper. So if you didn’t write it, tell me who did.” He walked to his door and opened it.
“If you can’t tell me that, then we have nothing to say to each other.”

T
he next day, Jeff had only one thing on his mind: to find out who had played such a dirty trick on him and his best buddy.
But no matter how much he puzzled over it, he couldn’t figure out who would do such a rotten thing. Or why.

He and Kevin played no better together than they had at Tuesday’s practice. Jeff had never realized before what a difference
good communication between teammates made. Now he felt the effects of bad communication every minute he was on the ice.

It was the same thing on Thursday. Kevin
avoided him at school and didn’t talk to him at all at practice. The other Blades were starting to notice. Jeff saw Sam Metcalf
talking to Kevin. The two glanced over at him and Kevin shook his head. Though he couldn’t hear what they were saying, Jeff
was sure they were talking about him.

By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, Jeff was sure he wasn’t going to be seeing his name on the starting lineup roster.

But he was wrong. When the list went up, he saw that Coach Wallace had stayed with the same six players. He could only hope
that Kevin would put aside his anger by game time Saturday.

If only I could figure out who the saboteur is! Kevin thought desperately. It seemed hopeless.

Jeff and Beth Ledbetter had continued to meet off and on throughout the week. On
Friday afternoon, Beth said Jeff seemed to be getting the hang of it, but that he should still consider coming by for his
Saturday-morning session. Jeff agreed. Now that he knew he was still in the starting lineup, he didn’t dare risk letting his
grades slip!

“By the way,” Beth asked. “What did Ms. Collins think of your composition?”

“She hasn’t been around to read it yet,” Jeff said.

“Well, I hope it’s in a safe place. It’d stink if all your hard work wound up missing or damaged!”

Saturday morning, Jeff awoke to see snow falling outside his window. He could smell scrambled eggs and English muffins cooking
in the kitchen. With a contented sigh, he rolled out of bed to start his day.

Half an hour later, his mother dropped him off at the Ledbetters’ house. He and Beth worked together for an hour and a
half. Then it was time to get ready for his game. He had left his duffel bag in the car, so when his mother picked him up,
they were set to head straight for the rink.