The Ball Hogs (2 page)

The next morning, Ben looked for Erin at school. He found her near the door, talking to a girl with a long dark ponytail. The girl had been at the Bobcats’ practice.

“This is Shayna,” Erin said.

“Hi, Shayna,” Ben said. “How did you like soccer practice?”

“It was fun,” Shayna said. “I liked playing goalie.”

“Do you like our coach?” Ben asked.

Shayna giggled. “Yeah. She’s my mother!”

Ben blushed. “I didn’t know that.”

“What did you think of that kid Mark?” Shayna asked.

Ben shrugged. “He was a jerk.”

“He’s in my class,” Shayna said. “Nobody likes him.”

“He sure likes himself,” Ben said. “He thinks he’s a big star.”

“My mom will keep him in line,” Shayna said. “She won’t let him take over the team.”

“That’s good,” Ben said. “He could ruin everything.”

The school bell rang, so Ben and Erin waved to Shayna and walked toward their classroom.

“She’s nice,” Erin said.

“She’ll be a good teammate,” Ben said. “So we’ll have at least
one
good one.”

“Think we’ll win any games?” Erin asked.

“I hope so. I practiced by myself last night.”

Ben had loved soccer practice. When he got home, he had taken his ball into the yard and kicked it around for nearly an hour longer. He weaved around the swing set with it and pretended he was racing past players from another team. He kicked the ball against the garage door, and he learned to stop it with the inside of his foot.

After supper, Ben had written down some of
the things the coach had said at practice. He pinned the list to his bulletin board. He underlined the most important tip:
Always have fun!

“Coach Patty said we should dribble every day,” Erin said.

“I wish we had
practice
every day,” Ben said.

“I know. We only have three practices before our first game. How will we ever learn everything we need to know?”

Ben shrugged. “I guess we won’t. But most of the kids in the league are new, too. They won’t be any better than us.”

Ben took his seat in the classroom and looked around. Of all the other kids in the class, only Loop could beat him in a race. And only Tyler could jump as far. So he knew that he was a good athlete. Now he just needed to show that on the soccer field.

“Take out your spelling books,” said Ben’s teacher, Mrs. Soto.

Ben kept thinking about dribbling his soccer ball.

“Ben?” said Mrs. Soto. “Are you with us?”

So he took out his spelling book and tried to forget about soccer.

At recess, Ben usually played a game called four square with some kids from his class. He looked forward to it all morning. After reading and math and social studies, he was always ready to run around.

All four fourth-grade classes had recess at the same time. Other kids played tag or used the swings, and there were usually at least two games of four square going on.

Ben took his spot in the fourth square, where he’d been the previous day when recess ended. The fourth square was for the server—the place where each player wanted to be.
Reaching that square and holding on to it was the goal.

“Let’s get going!” said Loop from square number three. “I’m ready to move up!”

“Better get used to that square,” Ben said with a smile. “This one is mine.”

Loop’s real name was Luis Pineda. Ben bounced the ball in his square and then hit it toward Tyler. Tyler let it bounce once and then knocked it toward Nigel.

Ben stayed ready, his arms spread slightly and his knees bent, waiting for the ball to return to him. He loved the suspense.

The ball darted around the squares, with each player hitting it skillfully. Ben knew this group was good—they might keep the ball moving for more than a minute before anyone bobbled it or knocked it out of bounds.

But Loop fooled Ben by hitting a very soft volley into his square. Ben was ready for a
firmer shot and didn’t put much muscle into his return. The ball landed directly on the line, and Ben was out.

Loop jumped across the line into the fourth square, and the others moved up one space. Ben shook his head and stepped out, waiting
on the side as another player moved into the first square.

“Tough break,” said Ryan, who was next in line.

“Don’t worry about me,” Ben said. “I’ll have the fourth square back before recess ends.”

Ben looked around the playground. Kids were running around in the field next to the playground, playing tag or having races. A shout made Ben look back at the four-square game.

“That was in!” Tyler yelled.

“It was
out!”
Loop shouted back.

“You must be blind.” Tyler pointed at Ben. “In or out?” he asked.

Any player on the sideline was expected to act as a judge when there was a dispute. But Ben hadn’t been paying attention.

“I didn’t see it,” he said.

“How about it, Ryan?” Tyler asked.

“I thought it was out,” said Ryan.

“Then you’re blind, too,” Tyler responded.

“It’s two against one,” Ben said. “Loop and Ryan said it was out.”

Tyler glared at Ben, but he stepped out of the square to the sideline. Tyler was one of the bigger fourth graders. He was competitive, but he usually stayed calm. “That was in,” he said as the game started again.

“Get over it,” Ben replied. He frowned and watched the game more closely. He’d be the next one in.

“Loop’s always cheating,” Tyler said.

“No, he isn’t.”

“Easy for you to say,” Tyler said. He ran his hand through his curly brown hair and wiped some sweat on his shirt. “Loop cheats when he thinks he can get away with it. He thinks every close call should go his way.”

“I haven’t seen him cheat.”

“Well, he just did. The ball I hit was in.” Tyler looked down at the pavement, then
scowled at Ben. “I’m starting a new group. You can stay in this one if you want, but I’ve had it with Loop.”

Tyler walked away, but no one else wanted to start a new four-square group. He joined the other one instead. Nigel went with him, so that group now had seven players, and Ben’s group had just four.

With six or seven players, there was more pressure to hold on to a square. But with only four, no one was ever really “out.” They just kept moving from square to square.

“This stinks,” Ryan said after a few minutes. “I might join that other group tomorrow if we can’t get any more players.”

“Me too,” said Irvin.

“Then you’ll have too many,” Ben said. “Four square’s no fun with eight or nine players either. You spend half the time just standing on the side.”

“We need to make a deal,” Loop said. “Get
some of those players to switch to our game. We’ll see how much Tyler likes it when that group’s down to four.”

“It was fine the way it was,” Ben said. “We always had five or six, and so did they.”

“Maybe we can recruit somebody else,” Irvin said.

Ben looked around. He saw Mark from his soccer team out on the grass, yelling and running. He certainly didn’t want Mark in this game.

A few of the other kids on the playground had tried four square before, but Ben knew that the better players were already in one of the groups. Tyler was one of the best players—he was a sharp hitter and very quick—and Ben wanted him back, even if he was a complainer.

He glanced at Loop, another great player. Tyler and Loop had argued before, but usually the fights ended quickly. This time their feud
was spoiling things for everybody. Everybody in this group, at least. The other game was thriving.

“I’ll talk to Tyler later,” Ben said. “Let’s play.”

“I don’t feel like it,” Loop said. He walked over to a swing and sat down, pumping his legs to get going.

“Me either,” said Ryan.

Ben picked up the ball and bounced it hard. He caught it in one hand and shook his head. That was it for today. There was a spelling test right after recess, but Ben still wanted to play. He watched the other four-square game for a minute from several feet away, then leaned against the brick wall of the school and waited for recess to end.

“Who wants to play a game of soccer?” Coach Patty asked as the kids gathered on the sideline for a break.

“Me!” said Ben, raising his hand in excitement. All of the others did the same thing. The Bobcats were midway through their second practice and they hadn’t expected to scrimmage yet.

So far today, they’d worked on passing the
ball with the inside of their feet instead of their toes, and they’d done a lot of dribbling. Coach had shown them how to do a “throw-in,” tossing the ball onto the field to get the game restarted when it went out of bounds.

Coach set up some orange cones on both ends of the small field. Those would be the goals. She pointed to Erin, Ben, Shayna, and a boy named Jordan and said, “You’re one team.” She waved her hand at the other four players—Mark, Omar, Kim, and Darren. “And you’re the other. Four against four. Let’s see what you’ve got!”

Ben ran to the center of the field and jumped up and down. He couldn’t wait to kick that ball.

“Looks like you’re all set, Ben,” Coach said. “We’ll leave you at forward for the start.” She put Erin up front, too, and told Jordan to play defense and Shayna to start as goalie.

“But the defensive player should be part of the offense, too,” Coach said. “And the forwards have to help out on defense. All of the players on a side should work together. Pass the ball and let each other know you’re there to help.”

But when the game began, the players forgot right away about their teammates. They ran around in a swarm, kicking at the ball and chasing it and not even trying to pass.

Ben got his foot on the ball, but another player knocked it away. When Erin took possession, Ben and all the others ran toward her.

“Move away!” Erin shouted to Ben. “Get open for a pass.”

Ben moved away, but the swarm of opponents got to Erin before she could pass. They kicked the ball away and the entire group moved toward the goal, where Shayna was standing.