As winners of the Divali tournament, Westgate had been invited to take part in the annual County Sevens. It was an honour for the school and the soccer practices were now being used to prepare the squad and work on their tactics.
“Touch and go!” cried Mr Blyton.
The players were training in small groups in the ten-metre square grids that had been marked out on the park. The teacher wanted to improve their quick-passing skills, allowing them only one or two touches before moving into new positions to get the ball back.
“Give it and go!” shouted Mr Blyton.
Josh gave it and went, picking up Matthew’s return pass and then knocking the ball on to Leela. They were playing three against one and were giving Jay the run-around. The trio’s movement and inter-passing was so good that he just couldn’t get the ball off any of them.
“Come on!” Jay moaned. “Give me a chance.”
Leela flicked the ball away from him towards Matthew and laughed. She, too, had been ‘piggy-in-the-middle’ and knew how it felt.
“Up to you, Jay,” she giggled. “Go and get it!”
Jay expected the ball to be switched to Josh, but Matthew wrong-footed him by sliding it back to Leela. Jay was becoming more and more frustrated and when Leela underhit her next pass to Josh, Jay seized his chance. He and Josh both met the ball at the same time, but Jay’s boot also made contact with Josh’s left ankle.
Josh yelped in pain and hobbled a few metres before crumpling to the ground.
“Sorry Josh,” Jay apologised. “Didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“Save those sorts of tackles for the opposition, not for teammates,” Leela told him crossly.
“I said I’m sorry,” Jay retorted. “I was just fed up chasing the ball.”
“Still no need to go crunching in like that.”
Matthew bent over Josh in concern. “How’s it feel?”
“Sore,” Josh grunted.
Mr Blyton pressed gently on the boy’s ankle, making him wince.
“Let’s see if you can stand up, Joshua/’ he said, holding his arm in support. “Take your weight on the other foot at first.”
Balancing on one leg, Josh gingerly put his left foot to the ground and then immediately pulled it back up.
“Rights go and sit over there on the bench and rest for a while/’ the teacher told him. “Help him, please, Matthew.”
“How b..bad is it?” said Matthew when they reached the bench.
Josh yanked off his boot and rolled down his sock, spilling the shin pad on to the grass. There was a long red graze across his ankle bone.
“Bad enough,” he said, rubbing it gingerly. “But I’ll live.”
“Good – so I’ll leave you here to suffer,” Matthew smiled. “I want to get b..back into the action.”
Leela was a little more sympathetic. “You’ll need some cream and a plaster on that,” she said. “It’s bleeding a bit.”
“You can kiss it better, if you like,” Josh grinned.
“You’ve got to be joking!” she retorted. “Not with your smelly feet!”
As the practice session carried on without him, Josh stood up a couple of times, but he still found it too painful to walk.
“Don’t much fancy hopping all the way back to school,” he muttered.
He wasn’t very keen on the alternative either, but when the session ended, Mr Blyton gave him no choice. Much to Josh’s embarrassment, and to the great amusement of the other players, he was given a lift, piggyback-style, through the streets on the teacher’s back.
It was only the following day that it became clear that Josh’s injury was no laughing matter. He hobbled into the school playground, his left ankle tightly strapped for support.
“Ma reckons I’ve twisted it or something,” he told Matthew as the bell rang. “It’s still really stiff and sore.”
“B..but what ab..bout the Area cross country?”
“Bad news for me, I guess, but good news for somebody else.”
“Who?”
“You! You’re reserve.”
The penny suddenly dropped. Matthew had been too concerned about Josh to realise what the injury might mean for himself.
“Oh, yes – right,” he murmured. “Well, I hope so. I m..mean, if you can’t m..make it, like.”
“C’mon, let’s go and tell Enid.”
Rajesh and Anil blocked their path into the school building.
“Here he comes!” Rajesh sneered. “The wounded hero!”
“No way you’re goin’ to be runnin’ on Sat’day,” Anil said, looking at the ankle strapping and sniggering.
“Dead right, Anil,” Josh replied, then grinned. “But Matt will be now – and he’ll beat you, too, just like I did. Cos Raj won’t be there this time to trip him up again.”
“Never touched him!” Rajesh snorted, but gave away the lie with a smirk.
That was all the proof Josh needed. Rajesh did not even see the punch coming, but he certainly felt it. Josh’s right fist smacked into his face and Rajesh sprawled on the ground, too stunned to get up again and try to hit back.
Anil was in no position to help either. As he made to move forward, Matthew grabbed hold of him from behind, pinning his arms to his side.
“Got anything else to say?” Josh demanded,
standing over Rajesh who made a feeble attempt to kick out at Josh’s bandaged foot. “No? Didn’t think so. C’mon, Matt, let’s go in.”Matthew pushed Anil roughly away and followed Josh into the school. “Wicked p..punch!” he grinned. “Thanks – b..but I can fight m..my own b..battles, y’know.”
“Sure you can,” Josh agreed, opening and closing his right hand to ease the ache. “But I don’t reckon either of us will be having any more bother from him.”
It had happened so quickly that hardly anyone else witnessed the playground drama. But there had been at least one spectator. Passing a second-floor window inside the school, Mr Blyton had spotted Josh’s arrival and paused to see how the boy was walking. He also saw more of the punch than Rajesh.
Right, it’s about time I took some action, he decided and went down the stairs towards his classroom.
Leela had already told him about Matthew’s trip during the race – and also who had done it. She wasn’t normally one to tell tales but she felt on this occasion that it was justified. She was fed up of Rajesh and his gang throwing their weight around.
“Good morning, lads,” the teacher greeted them when he met Josh and Matthew in the corridor. “An interesting way to start the day, I see.”
The boys glanced at each other.
“How do you mean, Mr Blyton?” said Josh, trying to look innocent.
“Are you thinking of taking up boxing as well, Joshua?”
Josh gave up the pretence and looked guilty instead.
“I don’t believe that’s the right way to settle arguments,” said the teacher.
“Sorry, sir,” Josh mumbled.
“I know what was behind all that nonsense in the playground so we’ll say no more about it – as long as that’s the end of it,” Mr Blyton said sternly.
Joshua nodded.
“Good,” said the teacher and then turned to Matthew. “Joshua is clearly unfit to run in the Area Championships, so you will take his place. It seems that you deserve to be in the team, anyway, Matthew, and I’m sure you’ll do well.”
Mr Blyton spoke to Rajesh in private, warning him about his future behaviour. He also carried out his previous threat and stripped Rajesh of the soccer captaincy, which reduced the goalkeeper to tears.
“I’m sorry, Rajesh, but it has to be done, for the sake of the team. I can’t have the captain behaving like you have done.”
“But Josh thumped me!”
“Yes, and he knows that was wrong too. It won’t happen again.”
On the next Saturday morning Matthew ran the race of his life.
It was a hilly course, but he was extra determined to do well – for himself, for the team and for his friend. He suspected that Josh was perhaps not as badly injured as it seemed, especially when Josh kept popping up at several different vantage points to cheer him on. Gone, too, he noticed, was the strapping on his foot.
Another incentive for him was the fact that his mother was watching.
Matthew had been amazed – and delighted – by her sudden decision to travel to the Championships with the party from the school
“Are you sure you want to go, M..mam?” he said. “I m..mean, it’s not like a football m..match. Just a load of kids running around.”
“That’s all football is to me, too, boy,” she told him and then smiled. “I just want to see how good you really are.”
His mother cheered and clapped as she watched Matthew go by on the second circuit of the course, well placed behind the leading group.
“Go on, Matthew!” she screamed. “You show ’em, boy!”
Matthew heard her voice and it spurred him on even more. He tackled the uphill sections with great spirit and energy, overtaking anyone who was beginning to flag. He’d already left Westgate’s other best runners, Joe and Anil, well behind.
“You can do it, Matt!” cried Josh as the leaders splashed through a muddy patch. “Keep it up!”
Matthew flashed him a mud-stained grin and was gone.
In the end, despite a lung-bursting sprint towards the finishing-line, he wasn’t quite able to catch the front two, but Matthew was good enough to claim third place and earn his mother’s congratulations.
“Well done, boy!” she praised him when he showed his medal to her after the presentation ceremony. “I’m real proud of you!”
