Philip and the Girl Who Couldn't Lose (9781619501072) (3 page)

“
I didn’t tackle you. She smashed me
into you.”

“
You were supposed to smash into
her.”

“
I tried. She didn’t let
me.”

“
What do you mean she wouldn’t let
you?”

Emery looked around. “Where’s the ball?”

“
Hey, you two,” came Jeanne’s
voice.

The boys turned and saw Jeanne standing at
her goal line, fists on her hips, one foot on the football.

“
Touchdown.”

Philip scrambled angrily to his feet.

“
What do you mean touchdown? It’s our
ball. How’d you get it?”

“
Emily fumbled, and I grabbed it before
it hit the ground. That means I can run with it and
so…
touchdown,
” she crowed.
“You and Emily don’t have another friend you can get, do
you?”

Philip and Emery looked at each other,
flabbergasted.

“
Don’t call me Emily,” Emery shouted.
“I’m—”

Mrs. Moriarty interrupted, “Come on in for
lunch, kids. Oh, Emery. Hello. You come, too.”

Jeanne skipped toward the back door, and
after she flipped Philip his ball, she said, “You lose again.”

Silently, Philip and Emery followed her into
Mrs. Moriarty’s kitchen.

After school Monday, Philip sat with Emery in Emery’s
backyard.

“I still can’t figure out why you tackled me
yesterday,” Emery complained.

“Why do you keep saying I tackled you? I told you a
million times yesterday and a million times today. I didn’t tackle
you. Why would I tackle you?
She
knocked me into you.”

“Why’d you let her?”

“Let her? Who let her? She just did.”

The boys sat quietly for a moment before Emery said,
“Did you see her playing ball at lunch today?”

“Some.”

Emery went on. “Ryan didn’t want her to play at all
because she’s a girl. Then he let her play and picked her last. At
least I wasn’t picked last for once. Did you see what she did?”

“Some.”

“She hit two home runs. Ryan only hit one. I’m glad.
Ryan always thinks he’s so big. I don’t think she ever loses at
anything. If you didn’t tackle me, though, we could have beaten her
at football.”

Philip glared at Emery, but gave up on explaining how
he hadn’t tackled him.

Emery noticed Philip wasn’t doing much
talking. He asked, “Where did you go at lunch today? First, you
were next to me, then you weren’t. I thought you wanted to play
punch ball.”

Philip didn’t know what to say.
He
had
planned to play punch
ball until he saw Jeanne join the crowd. She noticed him and gave
him a look that made him feel miserable. Philip was afraid Jeanne
would mention yesterday’s football game, and he’d much rather the
game be forgotten. So he’d quietly moved off with another group of
children he didn’t even know to get away from the children he did
know. He stood at the far end of the schoolyard and watched the
game. He’d seen Jeanne’s performance, and he’d seen Jeanne’s two
home runs, which were two more than he had ever hit during
lunchtime games.

“
You’re not any fun today,” said Emery.
“And you weren’t yesterday. You want to play a game or
something?”

“
I’ll play a game if you can think of
one we can beat Jeanne at.”

“
She’s not here.”

“
It’s no fun beating you.”

“
Beating me? Who says you can beat me?
Tell me the last time you beat me at something.”

Philip racked his brain, but couldn’t
remember the last time.

“
Philip, if you’re not going to talk to
me, why did you come over here?”

“
I’ll talk to you,” said
Philip.

“
Well?” said Emery. “What’ll we talk
about?”

“
Let’s talk about something we can beat
that girl at.”

Emery frowned. “She’s better at football and
punch ball. She runs faster than us. She keeps calling me Emily. I
don’t want to talk about her. I’m going in to watch cartoons.
You’re no fun.”

Emery got up and walked away. Philip watched
him climb the three steps to his back door, expecting Emery to
invite him inside. Emery turned to him, and Philip rose to follow
him, but all Emery said was, “I’ll see you for school tomorrow.”
Emery went inside his house, and Philip walked slowly home.

One evening later in the week, Philip’s father came
up to his room after dinner. Philip had finished his homework and
lay in bed wondering how to fill up the rest of his night. It had
rained the past two days so there were no schoolyard games during
lunch, and Jeanne had mostly faded from his mind.

“
Hey, Flipper, want to take a ride with
me?”

“
Where to, Dad?”

“
Down to the mall. I have to get some
paint for the basement walls. I have an exciting weekend planned
for myself.”

“
Can I play a few of the video games in
the arcade?”

“
I don’t see why not. Four quarters
enough?”

“
And buy some candy at the Chocolate
Shop?”

“
How many more conditions are you going
to set before you accompany your beloved father on an
excursion?”

Philip smiled.

His father sighed. “I suppose we can stop at
the Chocolate Shop.”

Philip hopped down from his bed. “What are
you waiting for?”

On the short drive to the mall, Philip’s father told
him what he’d done at work that day. Philip didn’t understand all
of it, but he liked it when his father talked to him as if he were
a grown-up.

“
Tell me about your day,” his father
said at last.

Philip didn’t want to talk much about it.
Emery had beaten him in the spelling test by one word—ninety-five
per cent to ninety percent—and all because he’d lost his lucky
green pencil—the one he’d gotten a hundred with on the math
test—and had to use an orange pencil.

“
I lost my pencil today. Can I buy
another one? A green one.”

“
Green? It has to be
green?”

“
It
has
to be green.”

“
Sure. Sure.” His father found a space
in the giant parking lot, and the two of them walked to the
mall.

“
Can you find your way to the arcade
on your own, Flipper?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out
his change. “You’re lucky. Five quarters.”

Philip took the quarters from his father.
“Pencils,” he said.

Philip’s father looked at his watch. “Okay,
let’s get them. Then I’ll go get my paint and meet you in the
arcade.”

“
And we can stop at the Chocolate Shop
on the way out, right? You said.”

“
You don’t forget a thing, do
you?”

Philip led his father to the stationery store
and bought five green pencils, already sharp and ready to use.

“
I’ll hold onto the pencils for you and
meet you in the arcade in about fifteen minutes,” his father said,
and he walked off to the paint store.

“Okay, Dad. Take your time.” Philip wanted to visit
the fountain with the dancing colored water before he went to the
arcade. People threw money into the water from the second floor,
and sometimes they missed. Philip often found a nickel or dime in a
corner near the fountain.

As Philip walked through the mall
toward the fountain, he let his eyes roam through all the store
windows. There were two toy stores in the mall and two book shops,
one with a
Going Out Of Business
sign plastered in its big front window. These were the only
places, outside of the arcade, the candy store, and the fountain
Philip had any interest in. He walked slowly past the toy store,
inspecting the window displays, but didn’t linger. He wanted to be
sure he had time to play his five quarters.

Philip paused near the fountain until,
suddenly, water shot up lit by a red light. He watched as the water
turned blue, then yellow, then green, and back to red. Philip liked
it, but he had to hurry. He walked around the fountain, head down,
looking for money. He pushed aside the plants that grew in a long
box of dirt next to the fountain and found two pennies. He put them
into his pocket. A little farther on in the plant box he found
nickel. Seven cents. Not bad. He’d take the money home and put it
in his shoe box. When he collected enough, he’d buy a candy bar
with it.

Philip rode the escalator to the second
floor and the arcade. Next to the arcade stood a shoe store. He
liked the name of the store. Walk-Mor. Philip liked being smart
enough to get the little joke of the missing
e.
A colorful poster hung in the window of the
store.

CONTEST.

Kids,

Enter the Walk-Mor poster contest.

Design a poster for our upcoming winter
advertising campaign.

First prize--$25.00

Second prize--$15.00

Third prize--$10.00

Bring your poster to this store by November
15.

And good luck, kids.

Philip thought about it. A poster to sell shoes. It
didn’t sound like much fun. As he turned toward the arcade, he
heard, “Hi, Philip,” and turned to see Jeanne approaching.

“
Oh, hi.” Philip didn’t know what to
say. He hadn’t spoken to Jeanne since the disaster of a football
game.

“
I’m shopping with my mother. She’s in
the shoe store. Did you see about the contest?”

“
No, what contest?” Philip
lied.

“
There, look. It’s right in front of
you.”

Philip had no choice but to look.

“
I’m going to enter it. Are
you?”

Philip made believe he was reading the poster
for the first time. He shrugged his shoulders. “Sure. It sounds
easy.”

Jeanne smiled. “I already have a good
idea.”

Knowing Jeanne, she probably had an idea
worth first prize. This made Philip angry.

Why did some people always do things that
made them win, but he only did things that made him lose?

“
I can’t tell you what it is,” Jeanne
added with another smile.

“
I don’t care about your idea. I have
my own idea. Who needs yours?”

“
You got an idea so fast? What is
it?”

“
Oh, no. You didn’t tell me yours. I’m
not going to tell you mine. You might steal it and win first
prize.”

“
Your idea is going to win first
prize?” said Jeanne in disbelief. “Yeah, like you and Emily were
going to score a touchdown. I’ll bet my idea is way better than
your idea.”

“
No way,” said Philip, feeling anger
creep over him. “And his name is Emery.”

“
Whatever.” Jeanne smirked confidently
at Philip. “Hey, I’ll bet you, I’ll really bet you my poster is
better than yours.”

“
You’ll lose. My poster will be a
genius poster.”

“
Right, like you’re a genius football
player.”

Philip thought of how Jeanne sent him flying
through the air and glared at her. “What do you want to bet?”

“
Bet,” Jeanne scoffed. “You don’t have
anything to bet.”

“
You said you’d bet. Now you’re scared
to.”

“
Scared? Of you? Ha!”

Philip blurted out his challenge. “I’ll bet
you five candy bars, any kind.”

Jeanne considered. “Five candy bars?” She did
the math to see how much money it would cost. “Yeah, I can bet you
five candy bars. Whoever’s poster wins first prize gets five candy
bars from the other. You swear?”

“
I swear.” Philip had a thought. “What
if neither of us wins first prize? How will we know whose is
better?”

Jeanne smiled sarcastically. “There,
see. You know why I’m going to win? Because I don’t think
like,
what if I don’t win
.
Mine
will
win first prize.
Period. And you better pay off the candy bars because I’m going to
tell people at school about the bet.” Jeanne turned and walked into
the shoe store to join her mother.

Philip stood still, shocked at what
he’d done. Then he thought about what Jeanne had said about him.
Why
did
he think neither of
them would win? She was right. It wasn’t how to go into a contest.
Well, he wouldn’t think that way anymore. No, sir. He planned to
make the cleverest, smartest, most wonderful poster in the whole
history of posters and win this contest
and
the five candy bars. All he needed was the
cleverest, smartest, most wonderful idea he’d ever had. Suddenly,
Philip’s confidence sagged. What had he done, making a bet with a
girl who never lost? But it was too late to back out now. Philip
walked into the arcade and looked for an empty machine. One idea,
he repeated to himself as he slid his first quarter into the coin
slot, one good idea. How hard could it be to come up with one good
idea?

Philip’s one good idea didn’t come to
him that day or the next, but he knew it would come eventually
because he planned to take Jeanne’s advice and stop thinking like a
loser. He’d think like a winner. He’d think like a winner about
everything. He would make a contest out of everything he did and
try to win every time. He would make his whole
life
a contest.