Kickoff! (5 page)

Tiki and Ronde looked at each other, to see who was going to answer first. Neither one wanted to. “It went okay, I guess,” Ronde said.

“Not too bad,” Tiki agreed.

Mrs. Barber frowned. “Well, that's not exactly a ringing thumbs-up,” she said. “Come on inside and have dinner, and you can tell me all about it.”

She had their dinner waiting for them. While they ate, they told her all about their different classes—leaving out the most embarrassing parts, of course.

“And how were tryouts for the team?” she asked.

“Oh—they went good,” Tiki said.

“They went
well,”
Mrs. Barber corrected him.

“Yes, ma'am.”

“I'm glad to hear that.”

“Ma,” Ronde said, “after we eat, can we go out and play football with the guys?”

“After you eat
and
do your
homework,”
said their mom. “You do have homework, don't you?”

Tiki wished he could have said he didn't, but that would have been a lie. Holding back the truth from his mom was bad enough—but lying to her face would have been much worse.

•   •   •

By the time their homework was done, it was almost seven o'clock. Still, it was only early September, and the sun hadn't set yet. So, the boys grabbed their football and headed outside. Adam, Chris, and Jason were already there, sitting on the curb. “Where've you guys been?” Jason asked. “It's gonna be dark pretty soon.”

“We had to do our homework first,” Ronde explained.

“Why couldn't you just do it later?” Jason asked.

“You know Mom won't let us,” Tiki said.

“Man,” Jason said. “That's harsh.”

“We know there's no use in trying to get around it,” Tiki said. “And anyway, maybe there's something to it—we get As and Bs, and you get Cs.”

“Shut up,” Jason said, frowning.

Tiki blinked in surprise. He'd only been joking about the Cs, but Jason had taken him seriously. Tiki could see his friend was in a seriously bad mood.

“I stunk it up today,” Jason said. “I'm not gonna make the team.”

“Sure you are!” Tiki said. “We
all
are!”

“I don't know,” Chris said. “I kind of stunk too.”

“Hey, everybody made mistakes today,” Ronde said. “We were all nervous. I was—and so was Tiki.”

“Speak for yourself, yo,” Tiki said, grinning and poking Ronde in the arm.

“Come on, you know you were shaking in your shoes,” Ronde shot back.

Suddenly, all of them stopped talking at once. Mrs. Pendergast was coming down the street toward them.

Mrs. Pendergast was a lady who dressed in clothes from the distant past. At least, they looked that way. Her wild gray hair was piled up on top of her head, and some of it kept trying to escape in all directions.

Mrs. Pendergast talked to herself a lot. All the kids on the block were scared of her, even though she was nice to them, always giving them a smile and a big “Hello!”

Tiki and Ronde both thought she was one of the weirdest people they'd ever met. But their mother always said, “She's a little different from most people, but she has a heart of gold.”

“Hello, boys!” Mrs. Pendergast said as she passed by.

“Hi, Mrs. Pendergast,” Tiki and Ronde said.

Their friends said nothing—they just watched as Mrs. Pendergast continued down the street, mumbling to herself. Then she made a sharp left turn—and headed straight for the Barbers' front door!

Tiki and Ronde looked at each other, wide-eyed. Mrs. Pendergast was ringing their doorbell—
and their mom was letting her in!

Mrs. Pendergast loved to talk. Whenever they met her on the street, Tiki and Ronde had to wait forever while she talked to their mom about this and that.

Still, she had never been
inside their house
before. Tiki
wondered what she wanted, and why it was so important that she had to come over to talk about it.

Paco showed up, having finished his homework too. The boys played some more football, and spent some time going back over what they'd done well or poorly at tryouts. More than anything, they wanted to get it right.

After about half an hour Mrs. Pendergast came out of the Barber house and headed home, just down the block.

“Hello again!” she chirped as she passed the boys.

“Hi,” Tiki and Ronde said, while their friends just stared.

They played ball for another few minutes. It was still light out, but now the other boys had to go home and get their homework done. “If you would have done it first, like Paco and us, we could still be playing!” Tiki pointed out to them—but none of them wanted to hear it.

“Save it, Tiki,” Jason said. “You sound just like a grown-up.”

•   •   •

Later Tiki noticed that his mom seemed distracted, staring into space a lot. “What did Mrs. Pendergast want, Ma?” he asked her.

“I'm glad you asked, Tiki,” she said. “It's so disturbing, I can't stop thinking about it.”

“What is it?” Tiki asked.

“Mrs. Pendergast is weird,” Ronde said.

“Well, thank goodness for people like her, is all I can say,” their mom said. “And you two should be grateful she lives around here. Do you know what she told me today? There's a big corporation that wants to build a factory right at the end of Mews Hill Drive—that's only six blocks from here!”

“So?” Ronde said. “What's wrong with that? Won't it give people jobs?”

“Well, yes,” their mom said. “But this factory will also pollute the air and water in our neighborhood. The corporation says it'll be within safe levels, but Mrs. Pendergast showed me articles that say it isn't going to be safe at all!”

“Ma,” said Tiki, “they wouldn't let them
build
a factory around here if it was going to hurt people.”

“Tiki,” she said, “I wish that were always true. Sometimes, money becomes more important than people. But people don't have to let things happen to them—it's a free country, and we can always speak our minds.”

“What are you going to do, Ma?” Ronde asked.

“Mrs. Pendergast told me that the district council has to approve the factory. She's going to go to the open council meeting and complain. And I'm going with her!”

“Ma, don't!” Tiki said. “People will think you're weird.”

“Why? Because I'm with Mrs. Pendergast?”

“Yes!” Ronde said. “And because . . . because . . .”

“Because why, Ronde?”

“Because if you stand up and say stuff in front of all those people, they'll all know what you
think.”

“Yeah,” Tiki agreed. “Let Mrs. Pendergast do it. Everybody already thinks
she's
weird.”

“Boys,” said their mom, “sometimes we all have to stand up and be counted, even speak our minds. I hope that when you're older, you'll do the same. I'm going to stand up and speak my mind. And you're both coming with me.”

“
What?”
the boys both jumped up from the table at the same instant.

“Bring your homework along in case it goes long,” she added, smiling slyly.

“Aw, Ma!”

The last thing Tiki wanted was to be shown off with his twin to a room full of grown-ups. He and Ronde were way too old for that—they were in junior high school now!

But he also knew that when his mom made up her mind about something, nothing could change it. If she wanted them to attend some boring council meeting, the boys would just have to grit their teeth and go.

•   •   •

Tiki barely slept, but when the alarm went off, he was out of bed and into his clothes and shoes in less than thirty seconds.

He couldn't wait to see whether he'd made the team!

He didn't even want to think about not being on that list—it would be a total disaster! And though he thought he'd done okay at tryouts, he certainly hadn't shown them his best.

The list had been haunting his dreams all night. Three times, he'd woken up in a sweat when his name or Ronde's wasn't on it. He had looked over to see his brother tossing and turning too.

And now it was morning and they were on their way to school to read the list
for real.

Neither Tiki nor Ronde said much as they walked slowly up the steps to the main entrance. They might as well have been walking to final exams.

Tiki was practically shaking with fear. He knew Ronde was going through the same thing. That should have made things easier, but instead it made it twice as hard.

There it was! Tiki saw the list posted on the wall in front of the main office, just as Coach Spangler had promised. A crowd of boys was already stationed in front of it, each one looking frantically for his own name. Some yelled “Yes!” and jumped in the air when they found they were on the list. Others muttered angrily, or just looked down at the floor and walked away, their hearts broken.

Tiki and Ronde bulled their way to the front, using what felt like every ounce of their strength to break through the crowd. Tiki could see Jason, Adam, Paco,
and Chris, all grouped in the front row, staring upward.

“Hey, Jason, there you are!” Paco shouted, pointing.

“Yeah, baby!” Jason said, pumping his fist and high-fiving Paco. “You and me, dude! I knew we'd make it!”

Tiki panicked for a second. Why hadn't they mentioned him or Ronde?

At that moment, Paco saw them. “Yo, dudes, we're in!” he said, his hands raised for high-fiving.

Tiki felt a huge weight fall from his shoulders. He could breathe again! Still, he looked up and down the list, just to make sure Paco was right.

Yes, there he and Ronde were—
whew!

“I made it too, and so did Jason!” Paco said, throwing his arms around the Barbers. “Man, we are gonna rock this conference!”

“Did you guys make it?” Tiki asked Adam and Chris.

Jason replied for them. “Adam's in—check this out!” He pointed to the bottom right corner of the list, where Adam was listed under “kicker.”

“Incredible, man!” Tiki said, giving Adam the Mews Hill handshake. “I saw you out there, kicking the hide off that ball. That's awesome!”

“Yeah,” Adam said with a shy grin. “Coach told me to concentrate on special teams. He said I had a golden leg.” He laughed softly. “He even asked me if it was bionic!”

“And what about you?” Ronde asked Chris.

Chris shook his head. “Nah.”

“Aw, man, that really
hurts,”
Paco said. “I mean, all of us makin' it, but not you? Sorry, man.”

“It's okay,” Chris said, shrugging. “I really don't care about it that much.”

“Yeah, right,” Jason said. “It's okay to feel bad, dude. Sometimes things just don't go the right way.”

“No, I'm serious,” said Chris. He pulled a bunch of flyers out of his book bag. “I'm already joining the debating team, and Model U.N., and I'm in Scouts, too. Tell you the truth, I wasn't sure I was going to have time for this anyway.”

Tiki felt better knowing Chris wasn't too down about not making the team. All the rest of that day, he was floating on a cloud, and he knew the others must be feeling the same way. He couldn't wait for practice that afternoon!

A couple of times Mr. Wheeler called on him when he wasn't paying attention, and the whole class laughed when he got drilled with the crumpled paper ball again. Tiki winced, knowing he was probably getting a reputation as a space cadet.

Still, the thought of football practice kept him happy and excited. When the final bell rang, he raced for the locker room, dodging kids in the hallway left and right.

It was only when he sat down in front of his locker that he remembered—today was supposed to have been Beat the Seventh Graders Day! The whole day had gone by, and Tiki hadn't even realized it! He couldn't help laughing, to think how scared he'd been.

Ronde showed up just then, and said, “What's so funny?”

Tiki told him, and both boys laughed together. When Paco arrived, they gave him a hard time about it, too. “Yo, man, what happened to the big, bad ninth graders?” Ronde asked him.

Paco was steaming. “Man, I'm gonna beat James up so bad,” he said, his hands balling into fists.

“Yeah, right,” Ronde said. “Like that'll ever happen.”

“What, you think I couldn't take him?” Paco challenged.

“Paco,” said Tiki, “James is like fifty pounds heavier than you, and it's all muscle. If I were you, I'd let it go.”

Paco pounded his locker with his fist, but Tiki knew he'd never pick a fight with James. Paco wasn't the brightest kid in the world, but he wasn't
that
stupid.

Matt Clayton limped into the locker room on his crutches. He was wearing his number twenty-one Eagles jersey, but without any padding. “Yo, wuzzup?” he called out. Everyone let out a whoop, welcoming last year's hero back to the team.

Bryce and Boomer walked in together. “Yo, rookies!” they called out, coming over to Tiki, Ronde, and the other seventh graders. “Give it up!” They high-fived and chest bumped everyone, making funny comments as they went.

“Don't worry, Shrimpy and Wimpy—we've got your backs.”

“Yo, you looked good on that long bomb yesterday, Ronde. You a wide receiver?” Boomer asked.

“I don't know,” Ronde answered. “Maybe.”

“You're James's brother, right?” Bryce asked Paco. “What's your name again?”

“Paco.”

“Paco? You're some sack of cement, dude. Welcome to the offensive line.”

“Welcome to the once and future champions!” Boomer boomed, true to his name.

Tiki tried to chest bump Bryce, but he had to jump pretty high, because Bryce was six inches taller.