Missing! (2 page)

‘Come on, Abs, Jason!' shouted Miss Rice. ‘It's easy!'

Abs complained, but got up and we started again. Then Mr Turner blew his whistle once more. This time I started to go backwards, but Abs didn't realize that we'd changed and we let go of each other's shoulders.

‘Come on, lads!' Mr James said to us. ‘Coordination . . .'

After a while we began to get it right.

‘We're dancing,' Abs said to me. ‘Like girls.'

‘Just concentrate,' I told him.

‘Skirts,' he said. ‘I'm telling you!'

I was about to say something to him but he fell over again. I tried not to laugh, but I couldn't help it. Everyone else joined in too.

MY MUM GAVE
me a lift to the game at Langton Blues and when I got there Dal, Chris and both their dads were already there. Langton's home ground was at a school called Brookside High which was on the other side of the city. It was cold and wet and the rain was getting down the back of my hooded top. I walked over to my mates and asked them if anyone else from our team had arrived. Dal shook his head.

‘The girls are coming with Miss Rice,' he told me. ‘I don't know about the rest of the lads . . .'

‘Where's Abs?' I asked.

‘His brother is bringing him,' replied Chris.

‘I hope he stops moaning,' I said. ‘He was going on and on at training . . .'

Chris nodded. ‘He's like a baby,' he joked. ‘I might get him some nappies.'

‘I bet he'd even moan about them,' added Dal.

‘I wonder if you can get Man U nappies,' continued Chris. ‘We could get him some for his birthday.'

Abs is a Manchester United fan whereas I support Chelsea. Chris and Dal both like Liverpool. All four of us are always taking the mickey out of each other and Abs is the biggest culprit.

‘What teams do the girls support?' I asked.

We had five girls in our squad – Lily, Parvy, Emma, Penny and Gem – and I didn't know too much about them. Lily was the loudest, followed by Parvy, but the rest of them were quite shy. Or that's what it seemed like to me.

‘Lily likes Arsenal,' Dal told us.

‘You
would
know that!' laughed Chris.

‘What does that mean?' asked Dal, looking confused.

Chris smirked. ‘Well, she
is
your girlfriend,' he said.

‘No she
isn't
!' protested Dal. ‘That's just her being stupid . . .'

‘Well, I don't know who she supports,' I added, joining in with Chris. ‘She doesn't tell
me
her secrets . . .'

Dal went red. ‘She doesn't tell me any secrets,' he protested. ‘She just told me who she supports at training last week . . .'

Chris looked at me and winked. ‘You
mean, when you were both alone together?'

Dal went even redder. ‘We were not alone together!' he shouted, loud enough for our parents, who were standing having a boring adult conversation, to hear.

‘Everything OK, lads?' asked Chris's dad.

‘Yeah, Dad,' said Chris, looking put out.

‘OK,' replied his dad before turning back to my mum.

Everyone else turned up about ten minutes later and we went to get changed. When we got back out to the pitch the rain had got heavier. Within five minutes I was soaked.
And
worried about the outcome of the match. The coaches had decided to stick with the same team that had been beaten in our last game. We were standing in a huddle by the touchline and some of the players were complaining.

‘I can't believe we are playing the same
team,' moaned Byron, one of our midfielders.

‘Relax, lads,' Mr James told us. ‘We only lost our first two games because of missed chances. Overall our play was great. We need to work on that today . . .'

‘Yeah,'
said Abs, who was usually the biggest moaner of the lot. ‘Let's be positive, people!'

Mr James looked at Abs and smiled. ‘Yes,' he agreed, ‘let's be positive. Remember – pass and move – look for each other. Get the tackles in . . .'

We had Gurinder in goal with a back four of Leon, Dal, Steven, who was our captain, and Parvy. I was in the midfield with Byron and Lily to my right and Corky to the left. Up front were Abs and Chris. 4-4-2. Exactly the same team that had played our first two games.

On the bench were Gem, who is our other
goalkeeper, Ant, Pete, Ben and Emma. The only player in the squad not here today was a girl called Penny. She was away with her parents.

The girls went off to talk to Miss Rice as the rest of us took up position. Then the girls rejoined us and we were ready. I looked at the lads from Langton and some of them were wearing smirks. As soon as Abs touched the ball to Chris and the game began, their central midfielder started teasing me.

‘You're getting stuffed!' he said to me. He was about my height with a piggy nose and freckles.

‘Yeah, yeah!' I replied.

‘You lot are rubbish,' the lad continued. ‘Don't you feel ashamed playing with girls?'

‘Oh, get lost!' I shouted at him as the ball made its way out to Parvy. She tried to
control it but it slipped under her foot and went out for a throw-in.

‘See?' said the lad.

I started to get really angry with him and before the throw-in was taken by Corky, I ran over to get ready to take the ball. I was going to show him!

Corky saw me and threw me the ball. I turned with it and looked up. There was space down the left wing so I ran down the channel with the ball. From my right I could see the mouthy lad coming in to tackle me so I waited until he was close and then switched inside. My move left him flat on his feet and I was bearing down towards the goal.

I heard Abs shout, ‘Jason, one-two!' I looked up, saw him to my right and passed him the ball just before one of Langton's defenders reached me. Then, instead of standing still, I moved into the box, at an angle from Abs – just like our coaches had shown us. Abs waited and then side-footed the ball into my path. Suddenly I was free – one on one with the keeper! In my head I could hear the lad teasing me . . .

I waited for their keeper to move and then I smashed the ball with my left foot. It flew like an arrow and nearly burst the net!

1-0!

The rest of the Rushton Reds jumped on me as I yelled ‘GOAAAAALLLL!' at the top of my voice.

When I'd calmed down I heard Miss Rice shouting at me. ‘Get back in position!' she told me. Concentrate . . .'

I jogged back to midfield and waited for the restart. Immediately the mouthy lad with the freckles picked up the ball and slipped past Corky and Lily with a drop of his left shoulder. He was good. The ball seemed to stick to his feet and as I moved in to make a
tackle, he spun round and played the ball out to the right wing.

The boy who took the ball was tall with really skinny legs and bright-red hair. He looked up and saw Parvy. Then he ran right at her. I looked at Corky and shouted at him to back her up. Then I spotted another Langton midfielder making his way towards our penalty area.

Danger!

I sprinted to catch up with him. As I did that, the red-haired winger dribbled the ball past Parvy and Corky and was into our box. I saw Dal move across to challenge him but the Langton striker played the ball in behind our defenders and the player I was tracking turned it into the net just a split second before I could reach him.

It was 1-1.

‘NO!!!!!!!!!!!!' I heard Abs and Chris shout together.

The game wasn't even five minutes old and we'd scored one and let one in. On the touchline Mr James wore a face like thunder and Mr Turner was bright-red with anger. Only Miss Rice seemed relaxed. As we retook our positions for the kickoff, she said a few words to Byron and Lily. I don't know what she said to them, but from the moment the ball was kicked, Byron went and man-marked the mouthy lad with the freckles. That left me with the fast player who had scored the equalizer. He was short and stocky with fat legs and his whole body looked like a rectangle. But he was quick. As he moved to receive the ball again, I ran across to him and he quickly passed the ball on.

‘You look like SpongeBob SquarePants,' I said to him.

He turned to me and grinned. At least I'm not playing with the Bratz team,' he replied.
‘Who's your substitute – Barbie?'

I wanted to say something back to him, but I didn't get a chance. Instead, I saw Byron beat the freckled lad and pass the ball out to Lily. She took it in her stride and then did about three step-overs as she ran at Langton's left back. I hate to admit it but Lily was really good at step-overs. Instead of taking their back on, though, she passed the ball into the centre where Abs took it up. He took on two defenders and created an opening.

I could see Chris running, unmarked, into space. He was screaming for the ball but Abs only had one thing on his mind. He turned back inside the defenders he had already beaten and tried to slot the ball into the net. But their keeper was alert to the danger and he scooped the ball up and held it safely to his chest.

‘Abs!' shouted Chris. ‘I was totally unmarked . . . !'

‘Sorry,' Abs replied, holding up his hands and looking sheepish.

I watched the Blues' keeper throw the ball to his right back. The player passed it on to the red-haired winger, who went on another run. This time, though, he tried to be too clever. As Parvy came in, he attempted to flick the ball over her but didn't succeed. Parvy saw what he was trying and she won the ball and passed it square to Corky.

Langton's winger looked gutted and he said something to Parvy.

Parvy turned to him and smiled. ‘Tackled by a girl,' she joked.

‘Get lost, you stupid
girlie!
' the lad replied.

Suddenly the whistle was blown and the ref went over to the lad.

‘No more of that, son!' he warned.

‘Yessir . . .' replied the lad, looking really embarrassed.

From the sidelines I heard my mum screaming.

‘YOU GO, GIRL!' she shouted.

I could feel myself going red, but then Dal's and Chris's dads joined in too.

‘COME ON, YOU REDS! COME ON, YOU REDS!'

AT HALF-TIME THE
score was still 1-1 and Mr Turner told us that he was pleased with us, despite the fact that we'd conceded such a quick equalizer.

‘I keep telling you,' he said. ‘All teams are at their most vulnerable when they've just scored. That's why you've
got
to concentrate
twice
as hard when you score – got it?'

We nodded at him.

‘And let's get the ball moving too, y'all,' added Miss Rice. ‘Little triangles. Pass the
ball and then move. Don't stand still. Give your team-mates an option . . .'

Again everyone nodded.

‘Right, let's get out there and get our first points of the season,' said Mr James. ‘Teamwork, effort, commitment. Come on, Reds!'