“What … wow … WHOA!”

Blackness swallowed Frankie. He felt his body toss from side to side. The others cried out in alarm. Louise’s fingers clutched his tightly as he turned upside down. Colors swirled all around. Frankie found himself hurtling down a rainbow-colored chute feetfirst. He’d been on plenty of roller coasters in his life, but this was something else. He lost his grip on Louise as he spun around, headfirst, on his back, on his stomach, on his side. It was like a waterslide, but without any water, and much, much quicker.

Frankie managed to steady himself as he looped around a bend. In a flash, he saw the others shooting along behind him, limbs flailing.

“Uh-oh!” called Louise, her eyes staring past Frankie.

He turned and faced the way he was traveling. His heart thumped in panic. Ahead, the tunnel seemed to disappear as it turned downward. Frankie scrambled against the walls, but they were more slippery than wet grass. He couldn’t slow himself down.

“SORRRYY!” he cried as he plummeted over the ledge.

The chute was bottomless, and he tumbled down, wind rushing in his hair. Then he saw something. Wooden boards, rushing toward him. This is it, he thought, bracing himself. This is the end….

The impact never came. All was dark, until Frankie realized he had his eyes closed. He was on his back, lying on a hard surface. The world seemed to rock beneath him and something wet touched his face. When he opened his eyes, he saw Max’s furry face close to his, tongue lolling. Above him was a clear blue sky. A flag with a skull-and-crossbones design flew from a mast. A seagull screeched overhead.

A seagull? But we’re nowhere near the ocean….

Frankie sat up and gasped. He was sitting on the deck of some sort of old ship. There were wooden boards and poles everywhere. Huge, thick ropes trailed from the sails into big coils below. Beyond the rails, at the edges of the deck, dark blue water stretched in every direction. A salty smell filled his nostrils.

The others were picking themselves up, too, and looking around in wonder. Frankie was glad to see no one was hurt, but they definitely looked strange. Louise was dressed in a black skirt cut off just above her knees and a purple shirt. Charlie wore red shorts, a salt-stained blue jacket, and a polka-dotted bandanna. Frankie looked down at himself and saw similar clothing: dirty blue shorts and a striped sailor’s top. He reached up to his head and pulled off a crushed-velvet hat with gold trim.

“We’re at sea!” said Charlie. As he took a step back, there was a crunch, and he looked down. Frankie saw Louise’s video game under his foot.

“No!” cried Louise. She crouched beside him. There was a huge crack across the screen. “It’s broken!”

“I didn’t mean to,” said Charlie.

Louise shook her head. “My dad will be so mad. He’s always telling me not to take it out of the house.”

Frankie put a hand on her shoulder. “It might still work,” he said.

Louise pressed a switch on the side of the player. Sparks shot out of the device, and she dropped it back onto the deck. “Oh!” she cried.

The player twitched on the ship’s deck and the screen glowed. Rays of light shot out of the screen, then spread out into the hologram of a man. He wore a tight-fitting white T-shirt and shorts like a soccer referee. A whistle dangled around his neck. He turned to Frankie, and his image flickered.

“Greetings!” he said. “Welcome to the fantasy league. What is your team’s name?”

“What?” said Frankie. He thought the man looked familiar.

The referee checked his watch. “No time for warming up. You have been selected to play in the fantasy league. Team name, please.”

“Frankie’s FC!” said Louise. “Like the professional teams. Soccer is called ‘football’ in some other countries. The really famous teams are called ‘football clubs.’ FC, get it?”

“Hang on….” said Frankie.

“Your ball, your team,” said Charlie.

“So be it,” said the Ref. Frankie felt a slight buzzing on his chest. When he looked down, an emblem had appeared there, with “FFC” written in an upside-down triangle.

“Cool!” he muttered.

“Frankie’s FC,” said the Ref. “Your first match is against the Pirate Pillagers.”

“Pirates?” said Frankie. So that’s what the skull and crossbones meant.

“Right ye are, me hearties,” said a voice.

Frankie and his friends spun around. A man wearing a tattered red jacket stood before them. In place of one of his legs was a wooden peg. His straggly brown hair looked like it needed a lot of shampooing, and he had a thick patch of stubble on his chin. At his side, he wore a cutlass.

“Who are you?” asked Louise.

The pirate limped forward, his wooden leg knocking on the deck. Frankie noticed that the buttons on his jacket were the shape of miniature soccer balls. “I be Captain Cropper, owner of this vessel, The Jolly Striker, and I think ye stowaways have come to steal my treasure.”

“Actually, we just came to get our ball back,” said Charlie.

The captain scowled. “Yer ball, ye say! Well, what about that, Rolf?”

The deck creaked as a huge man emerged wearing an open leather shirt. He must have been seven feet tall, with tattoos covering his barrel chest, and a hook for a hand. In his other hand, he gripped the magic soccer ball. “Looking for this, are ye?”

Frankie gulped and nodded.

A flash of color caught his eye as a parrot with red-and-yellow wings and a blue breast landed on the ship’s wheel. It opened its beak and squawked, “This’ll be easy! They’re just kids.”

“Did that bird just talk?” said Charlie.

“What’s so weird about that?” said a gruff voice at Frankie’s feet.

He looked down and saw Max staring at him.

“Did you just …”

“Sure did,” said Max.

Frankie was still staring at his pet dog when a figure came swinging down on a rope. It was a girl, maybe a year older than them, with bright red hair and baggy turquoise pants. She landed lightly on the deck and bowed low to Frankie. “Scarlet’s the name, and this ’ere parrot is Tito.”

Captain Cropper sneered, revealing a couple of gold teeth. “So, landlubbers! Ready to face the finest team on the seven seas?”