Sabotage Season (8 page)

“Nooooo!” Emma wailed.

The Roses had scored two goals in ten minutes. After
the second goal Coach switched out Anna for Gabriela, one of the eighth grade players, and that helped for a little bit. But then when the midfielders passed the ball up to the forwards, things got confusing. At one point Alandra sent the ball skidding across the grass up the middle of the field, and Jessi and I charged toward it at the same time. At the last second I remembered the Zoe-Brianna crash and I stopped short—and Jessi did the same. One of the Roses forwards swooped in and got control of the ball for their team.

Maya got the ball a couple of times, but while she was petite and full of energy like Zoe, she had more stamina than speed. She couldn't zigzag her way through the Roses midfielders the way Zoe could. At one point one of the Roses midfielders got the ball and dribbled it all the way up the left flank, which was wide open because Gabriela couldn't get to her in time. The Roses midfielder kicked the ball hard and high past Frida on the defense line, and my heart sank as it looked like the ball would fly right into the goal. Then Emma jumped up and swatted it away—but still, it was a close call.

Coach Flores took advantage of the break and called Maya off the field.

“Olivia, play midfield!” I heard her yell, but Olivia must have gotten confused, because she thought she was supposed to replace Maya, so she ran up to the forward line. For the last five minutes of the first half, the Roses kept getting past the midfielders again and again.

Finally the first half ended. I ran up to Coach Flores, panting a little.

“So I guess that was a bad idea,” I admitted.

“Well, now we know,” Coach said with a sympathetic smile. “So let's try something different in the next half, okay?”

I nodded. “Definitely.”

I kind of felt bad about how the first half had gone down, so I stepped back a little and let Coach Flores run things. We went back to a pretty standard three-four-three formation (three defenders, four midfielders, three forwards). She put Maya back in the midfield with Anna, who'd sat out most of the first half and was pretty fresh; Jade, who normally played defense; and Taylor. Anjali, Sarah, and Giselle played defense, and Coach kept me, Jessi, and Brianna as forwards. Emma was exhausted from defending so many goals, so Coach put Zarine on the goal. This made me a little bit nervous until I remembered how well Zarine had performed during the shoot-out drill.

Frida marched up to me and saluted. “I failed in my mission, Colonel,” she said, hanging her head. “It's up to you now to keep the base safe. The fate of the world is in your hands.”

“You can count on me,” I said in my best serious voice, but I wasn't an actress like Frida, and I started cracking up.

It might have seemed like a small change to add one more player to the midfield, but it was exactly what we
needed to recover. The Roses had a much harder time getting past our midfielders, and we got a lot more passes from the midfielders than before.

The first one came from Maya to Jessi, who zipped past a Roses defender and sent the ball wailing over the goalie's head. We had scored—in the first minute of the half!

Maya and Jessi high-fived.

“Nice pass!” Jessi said.

Maya grinned. “Nice goal!”

Sometimes it amazed me how things could turn around when all seemed hopeless. Once you got momentum going, it raised the energy level of the whole team. Taylor intercepted a pass from one of the Roses midfielders and sent it my way. I had to chase it a little bit, but once I was on it, I kept the ball close. All three of the Roses defenders ran up to stop me, so I quickly looked to my right and saw I had a clear path to Jessi; I sent her a lateral pass, and luckily, she saw it coming. She stopped the ball and then charged forward as the Roses defenders scrambled to block her.

Whoosh!
She sent another ball sailing over the goalie's head.

I ran up and slapped her hand. “You are on fire!” I told her, and Jessi grinned.

I scored a goal after that, and Brianna scored one too, making it Kicks 4, Roses 2. During one weak moment in the Kicks' defense, a Roses midfielder made an amazing
drive down the side of the field and sent a ball whizzing into the corner of the goal, out of Zarine's reach. But that was the Roses' last point. We ended the game 4–3 and lined up to shake the hands of the Roses.

When I got to the end of the line, the captain smiled at me. She was a tall girl who wore her hair in a ponytail.

“Thanks for being nice about it,” she said. “When we played the Rams, they didn't even shake our hands. They pretended to, but then they pulled their hands away at the last second.”

“Really?” I asked.

She nodded. “I know. Rude, right? Their captain, Jamie, is the worst one. She fouled me, like, three times.”

I jogged back to the sideline, shaking my head. We still hadn't faced the Rams yet, and I wasn't looking forward to it.

“Great game, everybody!” Coach Flores called out.

“She means ‘great second half,' ” Emma said as we gathered up our equipment. “I thought we were going to lose this one.”

“You did an amazing job in the first half,” I told her. “You let only two goals past you. That made it easier for us to catch up.”

Emma grinned. “Thanks!”

After a brief talk from Coach we left the field. Cody and Steven were hanging out by the fence, so we had to walk past them, and I couldn't help wondering if they had put themselves there on purpose.

Steven smiled at me again. “Good game.”

“Thanks,” I replied, and suddenly all I could think about was Kara singing, “Devin and Steven.” I could feel my cheeks get warm.

“That was a little crazy there in the beginning,” Cody remarked. “Leaving your midfield open like that.”

I blushed even harder; the whole thing had been kind of embarrassing. “Well, Zoe's still out, and Grace and Megan were out today, so we were trying to compensate for losing some of our strongest players.”

“Guess that didn't work out so well,” Steven said with a grin, and there was nothing mean about the way he said it, so I laughed.

“No, I guess not.” Then I realized that both boys were in uniform. “Are you guys playing today?”

Steven nodded. “Our game's next.”

“Yeah, Devin and I were going to stay and watch,” Jessi said.

I looked at Jessi. “We were?” I asked, and she gave me a look.

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “We were. I just need to, um, check in with my parents.”

Jessi and I quickly walked to the stands, and I started giggling. “Why did you say that?”

“Come on. It'll be fun,” Jessi said. “They watched our game, so it's the nice thing to do.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And it has nothing to do with your crush on Cody?”

“Maybe . . . ,” Jessi said slowly. “Anyway, we won! So think of it as a celebration.”

“Definitely!” I agreed, and a wave of relief swept over me. Despite a terrible first half, we had recovered, which meant we were one step closer to the play-offs.

Jessi and I headed to the stands and found our parents, who were making their way to the exit together, talking and laughing. I guess they were starting to become friends since Jessi and I had become friends, which was kind of nice.

“It looks like the Kicks are on the Play-offs Express with no exits!” Dad joked when he saw me.

“I sure hope so!” I smiled. “Hey, do you think it would be okay if Jessi and I stayed to watch the boys' game?”

My mom and dad exchanged glances and nodded. “That should be fine, honey,” my mom answered. “We'll pick you up on our way back from getting Maisie. She's having a playdate at Riley's house.”

Then she turned to Mrs. Dukes. “We could give Jessi a ride home.”

“That would be great,” Jessi's mom replied. “I've got to bake a bunch of cookies for the bake sale tomorrow, and Jerry's got to go back to his office for a few hours.”

I gave Mom a hug. “Thanks! We'll see you later.”

Before we could step away, my mom handed me a water bottle. “You played hard; you need to replace the fluids you lost,” she said seriously.

“Mom, I have so many fluids in me, I could fill a swimming pool!” I said. “Seriously, I'm practically floating out on the field.”

“Then my work here is done,” Mom said smugly, but with a smile.

Jessi and I headed to the part of the stands where the kids always hung out, and we got ready to support our fellow Kangaroos. Emma and Zoe were already there and waved to us.

“You guys are staying too?” I asked.

“Sure, it should be a good game,” Emma replied. “The boys' team is awesome.”

“Well, most of the boys' team,” Jessi said, and we all knew what she meant. After we'd had our disastrous loss against Pinewood, some of the boys—led by the eighth grade captain, Trey Bishop—had completely embarrassed us in front of everybody at the school dance. They'd called us losers while Mirabelle, our own teammate at the time, had laughed. It had been the lowest of the low points for the Kicks.

“Well, maybe, but they made it up to us with that pizza
party,” Emma reminded us. “And they even apologized.”

“Well, I need something to take my mind off my wrist,” Zoe added. “It is such a pain! And it's so boring not to be able to play. I can't wait until I can get back on the field.”

“Me too,” I agreed. “Hey, where's Frida?”

“Some acting class thing,” Zoe replied. Then the boys' team ran onto the field, and everybody stood up and clapped.

“We're blue, we're white, we're ready to fight,” Emma cheered. “We're white, we're blue, we'll stomp all over you! Goooooo, Kangaroos!”

“Look! The game is starting!” Jessi interrupted. “I bet Cody is going to do great.”

I let that go by without a comment. I didn't want to tease Jessi anymore about her crush on Cody, because I didn't want to get teased in return. I still didn't really know how I felt about Steven; he was super nice and cute, but it was all so confusing.

It was much more fun to get into the game on the field, anyway. The Kangaroos were like an unstoppable blue-and-white wave, sweeping up and down the field and getting the first two goals of the game within minutes. Steven, a striker, made the second one.

“Way to go!” I gave an extra loud cheer. I couldn't help it. It just popped out! Jessi looked at me with an eyebrow raised, but I ignored her.

The Roses managed to get it together and pushed back, moving the ball fluidly and connecting passes. One of the
Roses stole the ball from a Kangaroos defender and fed it to a Roses striker, who passed it across the goal. The action was intense, and we all had our eyes glued to the field the entire time.

At the beginning of the second half the teams were tied up. The Kangaroos had control of the ball. Michael, a midfielder, swung back his leg, ready to give the ball a hard smack toward Cody. But when his foot connected, the ball exploded! The black inner lining oozed out of the top, making the ball look like a fat bowling pin.

Michael watched the ball as it rolled listlessly for a few short feet before stopping. He grabbed it and with a bemused smile threw it to the referee, who called time. While the players waited for a new ball and the game to resume, Jessi turned to me, Emma, and Zoe and motioned for us to get close.

“Sabotage!” she said in a loud whisper, her eyes wide. I felt her fingers digging into my skin.

“Ouch!” I said, shaking her hand off, before rubbing my arm. “Jessi, you've got to relax.”

She pointed a finger at me. “Mark my words. Something funny is going on. And I want to know what it is!”

“I think Jessi's right,” Emma agreed. “There are too many weird things happening.”

“Yeah, like who's ever heard of a soccer ball exploding?” Zoe asked.

“Soccer balls explode sometimes,” I said, although I really wasn't sure. To be honest, all the sabotage talk was
making me nervous. I didn't want the team to lose focus on our upcoming games.

“It can't just be a coincidence,” Jessi pressed on.

“Then who did it?” I asked. “If it's Mirabelle, why would she sabotage the boys' team? She doesn't care about them, does she?”

“Well, maybe she . . . ,” Jessi began, but her voice trailed off.

Then the crowd burst into a cheer and we turned our attention back to the field. Cody had control of the new ball and was furiously dribbling toward the goal. A Roses defender got in front of him, but Cody body-faked the defender, acting like he was crossing right for the ball, when in reality he let it roll to his left. That gave him space to send a hard shot to Steven. I held my breath as Steven kicked it hard and over the goalie's head . . . right into the goal!

We all leaped to our feet, clapping and shouting at the spectacular goal. The Roses lost momentum after that, and the Kangaroos won the game, 3–2. It looked like both the girls' and boys' Kangaroos were on the Play-offs Express!