T.J. and the Hat-trick (3 page)

Joey laughed. ‘Or you could be a juggler, doing stuff like that. Come on, Dad’s home. It’s time to eat.’

They went inside and found their dad dishing out curry. ‘Hey, TJ,’ he said. ‘How did it go?’

‘It was great,’ said TJ. ‘I made friends. And my teacher is brilliant.’

‘You don’t have to pretend, TJ. You know we wouldn’t have sent you to Parkview if
Hillside
had had room.’

‘Honest, Dad, I liked it.’

‘Well, you make sure you tell us if you have any problems, OK? If there’s trouble I’ll be in there like a shot.’

‘It’s fine, Dad, really.’ TJ suddenly remembered how close he’d been to trouble that day and felt a little shaky.

‘TJ’s started playing football,’ Joey said, changing the subject. TJ looked at him gratefully.

‘Yeah?’ said his dad. ‘Excellent! We’ll go out back after we’ve eaten and I’ll show you a few moves.’

Joey groaned and raised his eyebrows at TJ. They had both seen their dad’s moves before. ‘I don’t think so,’ Mrs Wilson said. ‘You have to finish Lou’s bedroom, remember?’ Lou was TJ’s sister. She was fifteen. ‘And when you’ve done that, there’s all these boxes.’

*

TJ unpacked boxes for a while after they’d eaten, but when they’d all had enough, and were sitting on the sofa watching TV, TJ slipped out into the back garden again. He’d remembered that first pass that Tulsi had hit to him on the playground that morning. How had she made it curve like that? She’d somehow used the outside of her foot to make the ball spin and move in the air. He kicked hard, trying to just catch the edge of the ball, but it spun away uselessly into the flower bed and TJ found himself lying flat on his back. He stood up and tried again. This time the ball flew straight at the wall, bounced off and smacked him in the face.

‘Third time lucky,’ he told himself, wiping the mud from his cheek. He placed the ball carefully and worked out exactly where he wanted to strike it. This time, his
foot
connected perfectly. He watched the ball swerve through the air, and trapped it neatly as it returned to his feet. That was good, he thought, but it was just one time. He needed to be able to do it
every
time.

He began to practise.

C
HAPTER
5

‘WELL, NOW,’ SAID
Mr Wood the following morning. ‘I’ve noticed that some of you are very keen on football. I think it’s about time this school had a football team, don’t you?’

Tulsi put her hand up. ‘But Mr Wood, we haven’t got anywhere to play. How can we have a team?’

‘We’re going to have to think about that,’ Mr Wood said. ‘I’ve got a few ideas, but meanwhile I want to start training. We’ll have to use the playground for now. It’s not ideal, and we won’t be able to practise tackling, but at least we can make a start.
We’ll
have our first training session tomorrow night after school. Sign up here if you’re coming. And there’s a letter for you to take home.’

He pinned a piece of paper to the wall.

There was a knock on the door and a teacher TJ hadn’t seen before came in. She was young, with straight, dark hair and a lopsided smile. ‘Hello, Mr Wood,’ she said. ‘I’ve come for Rob and Shahnaz.’

‘Who’s that,’ TJ whispered to Jamie, as Rob and one of the girls stood up to leave.

‘Miss Berry. She does stuff with kids who need extra help. You know, reading and stuff.’

‘But Rob’s clever. I saw—’

‘Be quiet over there. We’re ready to begin.’

TJ bent over his book. He remembered what his dad had said. He needed to keep out of trouble.

At the end of the day there were only five names on Mr Wood’s list. Tulsi, Jamie, Rafi, TJ and Danny. ‘Why did Danny have to go and put his name down?’ asked Jamie disgustedly.

‘It’s a good thing he did,’ Rafi said. ‘We need everyone we can get. And anyway, he might be good.’

‘Good at kicking people,’ replied Jamie.

‘You see,’ said Tulsi. ‘It’s pointless. I knew it would be. If you want to play football, you should join a team like mine.’

‘There must be other people,’ TJ said. ‘Hey, Tommy,’ he called to the red-headed boy who was just leaving. ‘Don’t you want to come?’

‘Nah,’ said Tommy. ‘Concrete’s for skateboards, not footie. And you won’t have much of a team with five people. Especially if one of them’s Danny.’

‘What about you, Rodrigo?’ TJ asked. ‘You’re from Portugal. Portugal’s good at football.’ He didn’t expect Rodrigo to reply, because Rodrigo hadn’t spoken a word all day. TJ felt sorry for him. It was bad enough being new. It must be a whole lot worse if you couldn’t even speak English.

But Rodrigo’s face broke into a smile when TJ said ‘football’. ‘Football,’ Rodrigo repeated. ‘Football good.’

‘Hey,’ said Jamie. ‘You
can
talk, Rodrigo. Great!’

Mr Wood came back into the classroom.

‘Hmmm,’ he said, looking at the list.

‘Rodrigo might come,’ Rafi said, ‘only I don’t think he understands.’

Mr Wood waved a piece of paper. ‘I
know
,’ he said. ‘That’s why I’ve just had this translated into Portuguese. Here, Rodrigo, give this to your mum.’ He showed Rodrigo what he had written, and Rodrigo nodded happily. ‘Now, you lot. Get off home. And make sure you tell people to come to training.’

Rob was waiting for TJ outside. ‘Sorry, Rob,’ TJ said. ‘I can’t walk home with you. We’re going to the park.’

TJ had asked Mum and Dad at breakfast. His dad had offered to come along to show them his moves. TJ hoped he’d been joking.

‘I’ll come and watch,’ Rob said.

‘Great,’ said TJ, but Tulsi groaned.

‘We don’t want him hanging around,’ she muttered to Jamie, but Jamie shrugged.

‘I don’t see why he can’t come if he wants,’ he said. ‘It’s a free country.’

‘I’ll go in goal,’ TJ said, when they reached the park. They piled up their bags for one
goalpost
. The other was a bench. Rob sat down close to TJ and pulled out his notebook.

‘We’ll play three and in, OK?’ said Rafi. ‘All against all.’ He put the ball down and hit the ball at TJ, who instinctively volleyed it away over the heads of the others, just as he’d been practising in the back garden. They all raced off into the distance.

‘Pretty good,’ Rob said, making a note in his book. ‘Nice technique. You might need to get your knee over the ball a little more if you were shooting, of course, but excellent for a clearance.’

Rafi had reached the ball first and he was now dribbling it off among some trees near the park entrance. Jamie had given up chasing him, but Tulsi was running after him and yelling that the ball was out of play.

‘Why don’t you come to training?’ TJ asked Rob, but Rob shook his head.

‘I’m going to do the stats,’ he said. ‘If Mr Wood manages to get a team together, you’ll need someone to analyse the performances. I might even write the match reports.’

TJ was about to argue when two boys and a girl rode up on bikes and stopped in front of them. One of the boys was very short, about Rob’s height, but much wider, with braided hair.

‘Do you want a game?’ the boy asked, as Tulsi and Jamie got back, both of them out of breath.

‘OK,’ Tulsi said, ‘but there’s only three of you.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ said the girl. ‘We’ll have a rush goalie. We’ll thrash you anyway.’

TJ couldn’t help noticing that they all had expensive trainers on their feet. ‘Where are they from?’ he asked.

‘Hillside,’ said Jamie. ‘They really think they’re something, don’t they?

TJ nodded. He’d been to visit Hillside with his mum and dad, before they’d found out that he couldn’t go there. It was on the edge of town, with big grassy fields and modern buildings. He looked at his new friends and realized that he was glad that he had gone to Parkview instead.

‘Look out,’ said Rob. ‘Here they come.’

C
HAPTER
6

IT DIDN’T TAKE
TJ long to learn the names of the kids from Hillside. The little round one was Kelvin, the tall skinny boy was Slim, and the girl was Krissy. They shouted to each other all the time. Krissy passed to Slim, and Tulsi and Rafi both ran to tackle him.

‘No!’ Tulsi yelled at Rafi. ‘Get over there and mark the other one.’

It was far too late. Slim controlled the ball neatly and passed to Kelvin. He simply clipped it to one side of Jamie where Krissy was running at top speed. She took the ball in her stride, touched it once, and blasted it
past
TJ, who didn’t even have time to move.

‘Goal!’ said Rob, scribbling fast in his notebook. ‘Right-footed drive to the top right-hand corner. Assist from Kelvin. Bad luck, TJ. You had no chance.’

TJ rolled the ball to Jamie. ‘Give it here,’ said Rafi, running up to him. ‘Come on, Jamie.’

‘Get rid of it!’ yelled Tulsi, who had raced to the other end and was waiting by the Hillside goal. ‘Clear it, Jamie!’

Jamie panicked as Kelvin raced towards him. He whacked the ball as hard as he could and it rocketed away towards the gate. Then it hit a lamppost and rebounded to land at Krissy’s feet. She passed to Slim, who passed to Kelvin, who shot the ball past TJ.

Tulsi, Rafi and Jamie were all shouting at each other now.