T.J. and the Hat-trick (10 page)

‘Absolutely.’

‘But . . . someone else would have to go in goal. I mean, you’d have to drop someone.’

‘It’s always like that, TJ. Even for someone like Marshall. Young Dexter Gordon has taken his place in the team at the moment. But it’s good for Wanderers to have two great players fighting to play in the same position. And anyway, for this game you stay
in
goal, OK? It wouldn’t be fair on the others to change it now.’

Rob was waiting for TJ in the street. ‘What did Mr Wood say?’ he asked.

‘It was just about the goalkeeping,’

TJ replied, hugging his secret to himself. One day soon, he’d get his chance. ‘I messed up today. I won’t do that tomorrow.’

‘We can win,’ Rob said, his eyes shining. ‘I’m sure we can. I counted sixty-three successful passes, and the movement was excellent.’

‘You’re right,’ TJ agreed. ‘And I’m going home to practise. See you in the morning.’

After school the following day, the Parkview School football team changed into their football kit. Cameron’s dad had done a great job of mending it. ‘I can hardly see the holes at all,’ Jamie said.

‘Yeah, but that shirt is a bit tight, isn’t it?’ Tommy laughed. ‘Have you been growing, Jamie?’

‘A bit,’ said Jamie. ‘I can’t help it. I have to eat.’

Jamie looked as if his shirt might burst apart at any moment, but there was nothing they could do about that. They ran out onto the field just as the Hillside minibus arrived.

There was nothing old or tatty about the Hillside kit. Their boots clattered on the playground as they walked over to the pitch in gleaming red shirts and green shorts. Their teacher, Mrs Singh, stopped them at the edge of the pitch.

‘Is this it?’ she said to Mr Wood. ‘Are you seriously expecting us to play on this?’

‘It may look a bit strange,’ Mr Wood said, ‘but it’s perfectly playable.’

‘Looks like it’s had chicken pox,’ said Krissy.

‘Or plague,’ replied Kelvin.

‘Why do we have to play against them?’ Krissy demanded. ‘We already know they’re rubbish.’

‘Well, let’s prove it, shall we?’ Mrs Singh said. ‘Over there, please. Start your warm-ups.’

‘Well?’ said Mr Wood, walking over to the Parkview team. ‘What are you all staring at?’

Mrs Singh had laid out cones on the pitch and the Hillside team were already dribbling balls in and out of them in a well-practised routine. ‘They’re really good,’ gulped Rafi.

‘And their kit hasn’t got holes in,’ said Tulsi, frowning.

‘And it fits them,’ added Jamie gloomily, as his shirt threatened to split.

TJ pulled on his goalkeeping gloves. He was determined that, whatever else happened, he wasn’t going to make a single mistake today. After all, it might be his last ever appearance in goal.

C
HAPTER
18

‘YOU CAN STOP
feeling sorry for yourselves,’ Mr Wood told them. ‘There’s nothing special about that lot. I’ve watched them play. That teacher has trained them to play like robots. You guys, you’re much better than you think you are, and you’re definitely better than
they
think you are. Besides, you’ve got your supporters to think about. Look!’

People were pouring out of the school and onto the playground. There were mums, dads, grandparents and just about every child in the school. All the dinner ladies were there, waving pink pom-poms in the
air
. The school cook was there, and even Mr Coggins, the caretaker. Janice and the dinner ladies started chanting: ‘PARKVIEW . . . PARKVIEW.’ They’d worked out a whole routine with the pom-poms and the rest of the crowd joined in with the singing. It made TJ feel excited and nervous at the same time.

‘They won’t mind if you lose,’ Mr Wood said. ‘They know it’s your first match. They just want to see you play good football. They want to be proud of the school, so let’s get on with it.’

‘Mr Wood?’ asked Tulsi. ‘Who’s going to be ref?’

‘Mrs Singh. Rodrigo, you’re captain. You toss up. Go on.’

Rodrigo gave Mr Wood a huge grin and jogged over to the centre circle.

‘Heads or tails,’ demanded Mrs Singh.

‘
Sim
,’ said Rodrigo, looking confused.

‘I said, do you want heads or tails?’

‘
Que?
’

Mrs Singh sighed and showed Rodrigo the coin. He pointed to heads and she tossed. Parkview would kick off.

Standing in goal, TJ remembered what Marshall had said at the Wanderers match – how he hated not being able to make things happen on the pitch. That was exactly how TJ felt. He forced himself to concentrate as Kelvin tackled Rafi and won the ball. Kelvin played it out to the wing, but suddenly Tommy was snapping at the heels of the startled Hillside winger, forcing him into a mistake. The ball spun out for a throw-in. TJ smiled. Tommy reminded him of Gary Devlin, the City player.

From the throw, Rodrigo controlled the ball quickly and passed it back to Danny. Rafi yelled for the ball and ran into space. Just for a second, TJ thought that Rafi was
going
to start on one of his crazy dribbles, but instead he spotted Tommy racing down the wing. It would have been a great pass if Rafi had kept his eye on the ball. Instead, he kicked thin air and fell flat on his back.

As the crowd groaned and Rafi picked himself up, Krissy was onto the ball in a flash, running straight at Jamie.

‘You can do it, Jamie,’ TJ shouted.

Krissy laughed. ‘Just you try, fat boy,’ she said and she ran straight past him. But Jamie was angry. He wasn’t going to let her get away with calling him names. And anyway, he wasn’t fat. He moved fast. His right leg snaked out and blocked the ball as solidly as a tree trunk. Krissy went tumbling to the ground and Jamie cleared the ball to Rodrigo as the crowd cheered.

Then the whistle blew. ‘Foul,’ Mrs Singh pronounced. ‘Free kick to Hillside.’

TJ wasn’t sure if he should get the others to make a wall, but anyway, it was too late. Krissy smashed the ball towards TJ’s goal and he flung himself into the air in a desperate attempt to stop it. He felt something sting his fingertips and heard a crash as the ball thudded into the crossbar, then he was rolling on the ground. He heard Rob’s voice yelling, ‘Great save, TJ,’ and started to pull himself to his feet. Danny got his head to the ball and it flew straight up into the air. Everyone was yelling.

‘Clear it, Jamie,’ TJ yelled. ‘Anywhere!’

Jamie swung his boot. TJ realized, too late, what was going to happen, and he could only stand and watch as the ball cannoned off Jamie’s shin, and into the net. Jamie put his head in his hands.

‘Idiot!’ hissed Danny.

‘You shut up,’ said Tulsi. ‘It wasn’t his fault. If you’d been working harder it wouldn’t
have
happened.’

‘Come on,’ Rafi said, grabbing the ball. ‘We can still beat them.’

But by half time even Rafi had stopped believing. TJ had watched two more unstoppable shots fly past him, and even Tommy and Rodrigo had stopped smiling. Mr Wood called them together. ‘You started off really well,’ he said. ‘That was very bad luck, that own goal, and it’s wrecked your confidence.’

He glanced up and they saw Mr Burrows and Mrs Logan approaching. ‘It’s a shame,’ Mr Burrows told them. ‘You were doing jolly well too. I really thought something good was going to happen for once.’

‘Well, you know, Mr Burrows,’ Mrs Logan said to him as they walked away again, ‘perhaps something good
will
happen. Perhaps we shall get back to basics.
Reading
, writing, arithmetic . . .’

‘Or perhaps we can beat them,’ Mr Wood said, turning back to the team. ‘TJ, I’d like you to come out of goal and play up front. Danny, you go in goal and Tommy can be a defender. How about it, everyone?’

C
HAPTER
19

THERE WAS A
chorus of protest, and Danny’s voice was loudest of all. ‘Why me?’ he said. ‘I don’t even
like
being in goal.’

‘TJ’s never played except in goal,’ Tulsi said doubtfully.

‘Yeah,’ said Rafi. ‘We don’t actually know if he’s any good.’

But Rodrigo was grinning. ‘TJ,’ he said. ‘Mr Burrows. Bam!’ He punched the air in front of him.’

‘See?’ said Mr Wood. ‘Rodrigo understands. TJ knocked over a head teacher from twenty-five metres! We’re three–nil down
and
we have to change something. OK, everyone? OK, TJ?’

TJ nodded. He peeled off the gloves and handed them to Danny.

‘Go on, Danny,’ Mr Wood said. ‘It’s for the team.’

‘It’s for TJ, more like,’ grumbled Danny as he pulled the gloves on. ‘You’d better be good,’ he said to TJ.

They walked out onto the pitch. TJ’s legs felt like jelly.

‘He’s your goalie,’ Krissy said to Tulsi. ‘Are you desperate, or what?’

‘You’ll see,’ Tulsi said.

‘Hey, TJ, you’re on the pitch!’ TJ looked round and saw his whole family standing on the touchline close by. ‘And about time too,’ said Joey. ‘You show them, little brother!’

TJ didn’t
feel
as if he was going to show anyone anything, except, maybe, how bad he was. He watched as Hillside kicked off
and
the ball zipped around the pitch from player to player. The little bunch of Hillside supporters began to shout ‘
Olé
’ with every pass, and TJ began to think he wasn’t even going to touch the ball.

The barrel-shaped Kelvin was raising his foot to shoot when Tommy darted in and stole the ball. Tommy passed to Jamie who took a wild swing at it and watched in amazement as it flew straight to Tulsi. She called out, ‘Here, TJ,’ and slid a pass towards him.

TJ froze. He had the ball at his feet but he didn’t know what to do. He heard shouts from behind him.

‘Get rid of it, TJ!’

‘Pass it, TJ!’

Then one voice rose above the others. ‘Remember Dexter! You know what he did.’

Suddenly TJ’s mind was clear. He played the ball back to Rodrigo, wrong-footing the
player
who was sliding in to tackle him, and he raced away down the touchline. He just had to hope that Rodrigo was watching and knew what to do. Too late, the defender realized where TJ was going and turned to chase him, but TJ was fast. And there was the ball! Rodrigo had spotted his run and chipped it into the space behind the defenders. It bounced once and sat up perfectly for TJ to volley, left-footed, past the goalkeeper.

TJ couldn’t believe he had done it. He’d scored! And it had been brilliant! He hardly heard the crowd cheering at first. He turned and there was Rodrigo.

‘Bam!’ Rodrigo grinned, punching the air with his fist.

‘Thanks, Rodrigo,’ TJ said. ‘Excellent pass!’ Then he turned to look at the spectators. All the Parkview supporters were going mad, but TJ just had one thing on his mind. Who had shouted?