T.J. and the Hat-trick (2 page)

They were all speechless. Mr Wood turned and walked away to speak to Janice, the
head
dinner lady. Halfway there, he paused. ‘No more football in the classroom, OK?’ he said. They all nodded.

‘I don’t believe it,’ Rafi said.

‘We’ve
never
had our own bit of the playground,’ said Tulsi. ‘Who’s going in goal? Headers and volleys, OK?’

‘Me,’ said TJ. ‘I’ve always wanted to be a goalie.’

Tulsi and Rafi were attackers and Jamie was the defender. Tulsi lifted the ball into the air with one foot and tried to knock it over Jamie’s head to where Rafi was waiting. Jamie jumped and the ball cannoned off the back of his head straight at TJ’s goal. TJ moved quickly to one side and plucked the ball out of the air.

‘Hey!’ said Tulsi. ‘That was good. Maybe you really
are
a goalkeeper.’

TJ was enjoying himself. He stopped almost everything they headed or volleyed
at
him. Then Tulsi missed with a volley.

‘Go on, TJ,’ she said. ‘My turn in goal.’

TJ glanced over at Rob, who was writing something in his notebook. TJ wondered what it was.

‘Have you played this game before?’ Jamie asked him.

TJ shook his head. ‘Not exactly like this.’

‘It’s dead simple. It’s me and you attacking. We’re only allowed to score with headers or volleys. If you miss, like Tulsi just did, then you go in goal. Or if you score five. That’s the way we play, anyway. Here, I’ll cross it for you.’

‘I hate headers,’ TJ began, but the ball was already flying towards him. Oh, well, he thought. I might as well try. He squeezed his eyes shut and felt a stinging thud as the ball collided with his nose. It always happened.

‘Nice one,’ called Jamie. ‘Oh!’

TJ opened his eyes and saw the ball ballooning high over the wall and into the garden beyond. They all stood, listening.

‘I don’t think it broke anything,’ Tulsi said at last.

Rafi looked around the playground. Janice was busy with a little girl who’d cut her knee and all the other dinner ladies were laughing together. No one was watching. ‘We can get it if we’re quick,’ Rafi said.

‘Jamie should go,’ said Tulsi. ‘It was a terrible cross.’

TJ looked at the wall. He could climb it easily. ‘I headed it,’ he said. ‘I’ll go.’ And before they could argue he had pulled himself up onto the top of the wall and dropped into the garden below.

C
HAPTER
3

TJ HAD LANDED
in the middle of some very prickly bushes. His heart was beating fast. What if there was a fierce dog? What if there was someone actually in the garden?

He peered out from between the bushes. He could see a narrow strip of grass, and flower beds, and some garden chairs. He could see the windows staring down at him like eyes, but he couldn’t see the football. The shouts from the playground on the other side of the wall seemed a long way away. Then he heard Tulsi’s voice as her head popped over the wall.

‘It’s down there,’ she hissed, pointing. ‘By that chair. Quick!’

TJ ran out from the bushes, dashed across the grass and picked up the ball. When he turned back, Tulsi’s face had gone. He ran to the foot of the wall, chucked the ball over, and began to climb. ‘It was easy,’ he said, as he reached the top. ‘I—’

He stopped. There wasn’t a sound from the playground. He looked down and saw Janice and the other dinner ladies, all standing there looking up at him.

But that wasn’t all. A woman teacher with a long skirt and a little black jacket was walking across the playground towards them. She had short grey hair and enormous glasses that made her eyes look huge. ‘You, boy!’ she yelled at TJ, waving her hand at him. ‘Get down from there at once.’

Danny was walking by her side. ‘I told you, Mrs Logan,’ he said. ‘Mr Wood confiscated
that
ball this morning. I bet they nicked it from the classroom.’

‘No, we didn’t,’ Tulsi said. ‘Mr Wood brought us the ball himself. And he said we could play here.’

‘Be quiet, Tulsi,’ Mrs Logan snapped. ‘Give me that football, Rafi, and go and stand by the wall. And the rest of you too. No, not you,’ she said to TJ. ‘You can have a word with Mr Burrows. I haven’t met you before, have I?’

‘No, miss,’ TJ said. ‘I’m new. This is my first day.’

‘Wait,’ called Mr Wood, hurrying across the playground. ‘Is there a problem, Mrs Logan?’

‘I should jolly well think there is, Mr Wood. The children in your class have been causing havoc with this football, which they took from your classroom without permission.’

‘I think there’s been a misunderstanding,’ Mr Wood said with a smile. ‘I gave them the ball. And I asked these lovely ladies to clear a space for them to practise in. Isn’t that right, ladies?’

Janice laughed. ‘It’s true, Mrs Logan. Rafi and his friends were playing nicely too.’

Mrs Logan started to go red. She gave Danny a very nasty look. ‘Well,’ she said finally. ‘That doesn’t alter the fact that this boy was caught red-handed climbing over the wall. He’s in serious trouble.’

‘Well, it is his first day,’ Mr Wood said. ‘Do you mind if I deal with him, Mrs Logan?’

‘Fine,’ Mrs Logan said, after a long pause. ‘But I shall be keeping an eye on you, young man.’

‘Did you cause any damage?’ Mr Wood asked TJ as Mrs Logan walked away with her nose in the air.

‘No, Mr Wood.’

‘Well, even so, it wasn’t a sensible thing to do. Don’t do it again.’

‘I won’t. Sorry, Mr Wood.’

TJ
tried
to look sorry, but it was hard, because he could see that there was a glint in Mr Wood’s eye as he gazed after Mrs Logan.

‘What you kids need is a football pitch,’ he said, looking at the brown grass.

‘It’s a shame,’ said Janice, the dinner lady. ‘There’s nothing for the kids to do at break times. You can’t blame them if they get a bit wild sometimes.’

‘Well, why don’t we give them something to play with?’ said Mr Wood. ‘We could get some more balls out. And skipping ropes. How about that?’

‘You’ll be lucky,’ Janice said. ‘The PE cupboard is locked and most of the stuff in there is about a million years old.’

‘I’ll have a word with Mr Burrows. And
meanwhile
, TJ, no more rock-climbing, OK?’ TJ nodded.

‘The rest of you, you’d better practise,’ Mr Wood said, chucking the ball to Rafi. ‘You’re going to need it!’

‘What did he mean?’ asked Rafi.

‘No idea,’ Tulsi said. ‘Come on, TJ. Perhaps it’ll be safer if you go back in goal.’

C
HAPTER
4

‘WE GO TO
the park after school, most nights,’ Jamie said at the end of the day. ‘Are you coming, TJ?’

‘Maybe tomorrow,’ TJ said. ‘I’d better not be late home.’

He watched Jamie, Rafi and Tulsi run off down the street, Rafi dribbling his football. TJ wondered if he took it to bed with him at night. Then he heard a shout and saw Rob running towards him. Danny and his friend Carl were chasing him. They stopped and walked off when they saw TJ. ‘Yeah, go on, you cowards,’ Rob yelled after them. ‘Run away!’

‘Hey,’ said TJ. ‘There’s no need to wind them up.’

‘Well, they
are
cowards,’ Rob said. ‘They only pick on me ’cause I’m small.’

‘Where do you live?’ TJ asked.

‘Churchill Road.’

‘That’s on the way to my house, I think. Come on. We can go together.’

They walked a short way. ‘Hey, Rob,’ asked TJ. ‘What do you write in that notebook of yours?’

‘You’ll laugh,’ Rob said.

‘No, I won’t.’

‘OK, then,’ said Rob after a moment. He stopped and took the notebook out of his bag. ‘I collect stats,’ he said. ‘Like, this is Wanderers v Arsenal last weekend, see? Goal attempts, passes completed, corners, goal kicks. It’s not as accurate as I’d like it to be,’ he went on very seriously, ‘because you can’t see everything on the TV. The clubs use computers and video cameras.’

TJ stared at the pages of numbers and the clever little diagrams Rob had drawn. ‘These are amazing,’ he said. ‘But what were you doing at lunch time?’

‘I’ll show you. Look, this is you in goal. Twelve saves to your right. Five to your left. Not bad.’

‘Thanks,’ said TJ.

‘That header was rubbish though,’ Rob continued.

TJ laughed. ‘I hate heading the ball. It always smacks me in the face.’

‘That’s because you shut your eyes. You need to practise.’

‘So how come you don’t play if you know all this stuff?’

‘I’m no good. I’m too small and my glasses might fall off and get broken. This is my street. Bye.’

‘See you tomorrow,’ TJ called after him. Rob was the oddest boy he had ever met, but he couldn’t help liking him. He jogged the rest of the way home, squeezed past the piles of boxes in the hallway and found his mum in the kitchen. They had only moved in three days before.

‘How was your first day?’ she asked. ‘There’s no food in the house, I’m afraid. Dad’s picking up a takeaway on his way home. He won’t be long. You can start unpacking the stuff in your room.’

‘Actually, Mum,’ TJ said, ‘I was wondering if you knew which box had the football in it?’

‘Football?’

‘They’re all crazy about it at school. I want to practise. And I need to learn to do headers properly.’

‘Try the box with the garden stuff. And change out of those clothes. The washing machine won’t be working till tomorrow.’

TJ found the ball and took it into the back garden. There was a brick wall at the end. He threw the ball against it and headed it back again, trying to keep his eyes wide open, like Rob had told him. It wasn’t as hard as he’d expected, although he still wasn’t sure he’d want to head one of Jamie’s crosses.

He headed the ball a few more times, just to make sure he’d got the hang of it. Then he started kicking it, trying to keep it bouncing. That was easy, so he began to use both feet,
left
then right. He was so absorbed that he didn’t notice his big brother, Joey, come into the garden. He jumped when Joey spoke.

‘Hey, pretty impressive, little brother. I didn’t know you could do stuff like that.’

‘Me neither,’ said TJ. ‘I played football at school today. I went in goal. I saved’ – he paused, trying to remember Rob’s stats – ‘seventeen shots. I’ve decided to be a goalie. It’s cool.’