Goal Line (5 page)

On third down Coach Wheeler had called for a quick dump pass to Tiki in the flat. But they were in the red zone now, and the middle of the field would be crowded with defenders. So Wheeler sent the fullback, Luke Frazier, in with a different play—a handoff to Tiki right up the middle.

Tiki took the ball and headed straight for Paco. The beefy center was a true wide-body, and strong, too. He simply pushed the East Side nose tackle straight backward, and Tiki followed right behind.

After a slight fake to the left, Tiki darted right, catching the linebackers off guard. Before they could recover,
he cut left again. With a last, desperate lunge, he leapt across the goal line and into the end zone!

It was the Eagles' first score of the year. Tiki roared and jumped for joy, spiking the ball as hard as he could. His teammates raced to his side, and they all hugged and danced around, so much so that the referee blew his whistle and called a penalty on them for excessive celebration!

When they got back to the sidelines, Coach Wheeler was furious. “You guys just cost us fifteen yards!” he barked. “Use your heads, will you?”

Tiki knew Coach was right. There was no point in rubbing the other team's noses in it. It only made them mad, and got them to play harder. The smart thing to do was just keep playing your game and let the fans do the celebrating for you.

Still, there was no arguing that the first score of the season was a big one. It set the stage for lots more. And the fact that Tiki was the one who'd scored seemed to announce that this year he would shine as the team's biggest, brightest star.

The second quarter started with the score 7–0, Eagles, but the Mountaineers were driving into field goal range. Tiki watched as Ronde covered East Side's best receiver like a blanket.

But the Mountaineers had learned from last year. They knew all about Ronde, and when they passed, it
was always to the side of the field where he
wasn't
.

The Eagles' other starting corner, Justin Landzberg, was an eighth grader who hadn't seen much action last season. Though taller than Ronde, he wasn't nearly as fast, or as quick reacting to the other guys' moves. The Mountaineers now took advantage of that, scoring a touchdown of their own with a long bomb over Justin's head.

Now the game was tied, and it stayed that way until late in the quarter, when Ronde ran a Mountaineer punt all the way back to the East Side twenty-five. Then it was Tiki's turn to take over.

Since the Eagles' wide receivers were inexperienced—and in the case of the Amadou twins, rookies—Coach Wheeler had geared the Eagles offense toward the run and short pass—both of which featured Manny and Tiki.

Manny hadn't been a starter very much in the previous season, but he'd had enough experience to learn a lot. Besides, he was a talented natural athlete. Twice, breakdowns on the offensive line let blitzing pass rushers through. But Manny managed to dodge them long enough to find Tiki in the flat or at the sideline, or else he managed to run circles around the defenders until he turned a potential sack into a decent gain.

Now Manny's scrambling ability and Tiki's savvy and smarts combined to punish the Mountaineers. Once again the blitz got through the Eagles' line. Once more,
Manny avoided the first hit, then the second. He faked out a third blitzer by pretending to launch a long bomb, then ducked and darted to his right, looking for Tiki.

Tiki had gone out on a short pattern, which was partly why the blitz had gotten through. He hadn't been there to block them. Now, seeing that Manny was in trouble, he doubled back, giving his quarterback a target at the ten yard line. Manny spotted him, and threw a strike right to Tiki's chest.

The safety got to him almost immediately. Last season Tiki would've been dragged to the turf. But not this year. He was bigger and stronger, and he just kept himself upright, trudging foot after foot toward the end zone, dragging the safety on his back, then the other safety around his ankles, until he finally collapsed under the weight of three East Side defenders—at the one yard line!

On the next play Luke slammed it in for the touchdown. He, too, had grown over the summer and was now a perfect size for a fullback—big, muscular, and bulky. John Berra had been like that, and Tiki knew he was lucky to have another great blocker to work with this year.

The gun sounded the end of the first half with the Eagles on top, 14–7. In the locker room Coach Wheeler pumped them up. “Come on, you guys!” he yelled. “You should be up by twenty, not seven! You think those guys are just gonna lie down for you? You beat them last year by three points! Three!”

By the end of his speech, the Eagles were angry. They took that anger back out onto the field with them, and immediately took over the game. Ronde began the rout with a kickoff return for a touchdown.

“Woo-hoo!” he shouted as he ran back to the sideline. “Give it up for the little guy! I
told
you good things come in small packages!”

Tiki had to laugh. Ronde had gone from being insulted about it to using it as fuel to stoke his game. “Proud of you, Bro,” he told Ronde.

“That's right, that's right,” said Ronde, nodding and flashing a big smile.

By the end of the third quarter, the Eagles led by a score of 35–10, thanks to two eighty-yard drives featuring Tiki and Luke. The two of them took turns pounding out yards, showing no mercy to the tired Mountaineer defense, who had been on the field for most of the game and were clearly wilting in the heat.

The fourth quarter was almost scoreless, with the Eagles finally running out of energy themselves, but in the last two minutes the Mountaineers ran off ten straight points to make the final score a respectable 35–17, but it really wasn't as close as that.

The party went on long after the game, the Eagles' field swarming with fans dancing, barbecuing, and singing the team song. As soon as they'd changed into street clothes, Tiki, Ronde, and the rest of the Eagles came out
to join the fun. They were in a great mood, and it showed in the way they talked.

“Oh, yeah,” said Paco, jiggling his big body to the beat of the school band as they played a salsa number. “We are goin' … un-de-fea-ted … nhh … nhh-nhh … oh, yeah…”

Tiki laughed. “Take it easy, yo,” he said. “It's only one game.”

“Oh, yeah,” Paco sang, nodding happily at Tiki. “And we win, we win…”

Tiki knew how he felt. It
was
only one game, but the easy victory sure felt a whole lot better than last year's opening loss. In fact, they'd spent that whole season trying to dig out of the hole they'd dug themselves by losing their first two games to lesser teams.

This year looked to be completely different. They'd beaten the lowly Mountaineers, just as expected. He and Manny had a great feel for each other's game. Luke had become a true bruiser, and the rookie class was looking like a bunch of future all-stars.

“You know, Paco,” Tiki said, “I don't want to jinx anything, but I can really see us going undefeated.”

“Oh, yeah,” Paco sang in reply. “Oh-oh-oh-yeahhhh!!”

Just then Ronde came up to them. Tiki was dancing along with the others now. But Ronde wasn't.

“Cheer up, Shorty!” Paco told him. “You look like we lost the game.”

Ronde shook his head. “No, man, but we could've. We didn't play like we should. At least not in the fourth quarter.”

“Aw, come on, Ronde,” Tiki said. “Paco's right. Let's celebrate, at least for today.”

“Those guys were easy,” Ronde pointed out. “We've got much tougher fish to fry starting next week. If we play like this against the Rockets, we're gonna lose. And that's no lie.”

Tiki stopped jiggling, and even Paco slowed it down a little. “You are a downer, man,” he told Ronde. “Why don't you just chill?”

“I'll celebrate when the season's over and we're the undefeated champs,” Ronde replied. “And that's the way we all should play it.”

“Aw, man,” Paco said, frowning.

“No, he's right, Paco,” Tiki said, putting a hand on the big guy's shoulder. “Let's not get ahead of ourselves.”

“That's what I'm saying,” Ronde agreed. “We've got to keep our minds sharp and focused. We haven't won anything yet, except a game we were supposed to win. We've got a lot of football still, and we need to win one game at a time.”

At lunch in the cafeteria on Monday, Paco was out sick—too many hot dogs had given him a stomach problem—but all the other guys from the team were at their usual
long table, kidding around with one another and talking about how great the team was.

“We're gonna stomp this whole league,” said Justin.

“It's already over, baby,” Luke agreed.

“Done deal,” Manny chimed in.

“Hey. Guys,” Tiki interrupted them. “Cut out the baloney.”

“Huh?” They all looked at him, puzzled.

“You shouldn't be talkin' trash like that,” he said. “It's dangerous.”

Tiki told them what Ronde had said about not getting ahead of themselves—about staying focused, not taking anything for granted, playing one game at a time. He could see how they listened to him, with respect and admiration, as if he were their coach, not just another player. That's what it meant to be the team captain.

Yes, he told them everything Ronde had said, except he didn't tell them that it was Ronde who'd said it first.

Ronde wasn't there. He'd stayed late in study hall to finish writing his essay, which was due the next morning. Had he heard Tiki's words, he surely would have taken credit for them.

Now he came in, and after getting his food, he sat down across from Tiki, shoving himself into a tight space between Justin and Manny.

“What's up, guys?” he asked.

Tiki felt the blood pounding in his ears. He sure hoped
nobody would say anything about his little lecture.

Sure enough, somebody did. “Tiki was just telling us not to get ahead of ourselves,” Manny piped up.

“Yeah, and how we've got to take it one game at a time,” Justin added.

“Really good advice, dude,” Luke put in.

“He said all that, huh?” Ronde turned to Tiki with a hurt look in his eyes. “You come up with that all by yourself, big man?” he asked pointedly.

Tiki was silent, embarrassed. He almost wished Ronde would tell them the truth, but Ronde said nothing. He just started eating, never taking his eyes off Tiki.

After a few minutes Tiki couldn't take the silent treatment anymore. “I'm going to study hall,” he told them all, getting up with his tray in one hand and his book bag slung over one shoulder. “I've got to go write my essay.”

“You're not done with that?” Manny asked.

“I haven't even started.” Tiki left, not daring to look at his brother.

Why had he acted so stupidly? He felt like kicking himself. It was bad enough he was bigger than his twin. Did he have to go stealing credit for things too? Tiki made his mind up that the next time he saw any of them, he would give Ronde full credit, first thing.

He sat at his desk in study hall and sighed. Not only did he feel awful, but the gray goo he'd eaten for lunch was now rolling over and over in his stomach.

Tiki stared at the blank page. “Play proud,” he said to himself. “Now, what can I say about that?”

He thought for a long moment, and then began to write:

My mother always tells me and my twin, Ronde, to play proud. She's talking about our football games, but her words mean so much more than that.…

He went on writing until the bell rang. He was concentrating so hard, and writing so fast, that he barely noticed the bell. Mr. Hickey had to shake him by the shoulder to remind him that if he didn't move, he'd be late for fifth period.

Tiki wasn't finished, but close enough. He could put the finishing touches on it that night before bed. More important, he liked what he'd written. Even if he got an F on it, he didn't care. He'd given it his very best, and if that wasn't good enough, so be it.

After all, wasn't that the real meaning of the saying “Play proud”?

The next morning Tiki handed in his finished essay along with everyone else. “Thank goodness that's over with,” he muttered as he went back to his desk.

Little did he know how wrong he was.…

On Thursday, the day before the Eagles' big game against the mighty Rockets of North Side Junior High, Tiki was heading to the locker room for practice when he heard Dr. Anand calling him.

“Tiki! Tiki Barber!” she said, waving to him from the door of her office. “Will you come here for a moment, please?”

“Me?”

She smiled. “Do you know any other Tiki Barbers around here?”

“At least she isn't mad at me,” Tiki said to himself. Going to the principal's office wasn't something a kid normally looked forward to.

“Come in and sit down,” she told him, shutting the door behind them and taking a seat behind her desk.

Tiki sat, and then, to his horror, he saw his essay sitting right there on her desk.

Oh, no! Was it something he'd written? Had he used a bad word, or somehow written something stupid?

“Tiki,” Dr. Anand began, “your essay was fascinating to read. I must say I didn't expect this from you.”

He felt the blood rushing to his face, and he could hear his heart pounding in his ears. Was she about to punish him?

“We received a lot of very good essays this week. In fact, your brother Ronde's was one of three that won honorable mention, but
yours
, Tiki—yours was the best in the whole school. You've won first prize. Congratulations!”

“Say
what
?” Tiki's jaw dropped. He must have looked silly, because she broke out into a pleased laugh.

“I'm amazed you've never shown us this talent of
yours before, young man,” she said. “We all knew you were terrific at sports, and a good student, but this—this is truly magnificent.”