The week leading up to the tournament went by at a snail’s pace.
Jordan spent every break boasting about how many times he’d visited Edinburgh. Apparently, his dad was arranging for scouts from Hearts and Hibs to come and watch him play. Only his crew of Lewis, Ravi and Ryan pretended to believe him.
In the hallway of his house, Calum’s mum was busy stuffing Mr Aziz’s boots into his bag.
“Mum, why do I need to take those scaffy old boots too?” Calum whined. “They’re ripped anyway.”
“Just in case you get blisters in your fancy new ones,” she replied, zipping up his bag. “I’ve taped the right boot up now too. They’re as good as new.”
“I doubt it. And anyway, I’ve been wearing my new astros all week,” Calum protested. In fact, he couldn’t stop scoring in them. He felt like a new player.
“Better safe than sorry, Cal,” his dad said. “Mum knows best, ok?”
Calum sighed.
“Have a good time Calum,” his mum said, looking like she might cry. “Edinburgh’s a great place. It’s where I met your dad. Remember to look out for the castle.”
“Can I go now?” Calum sighed. “You’re making me late… again.”
***
“Punctual as ever, Mr Ferguson,” Mr McKlop said as Calum ran towards the bus.
“Sorry Mr McKlop,” Calum said, “it was my mum’s fault.”
“Now, now, Calum.” Mr McKlop smiled. “Don’t be a tell-tale.”
It smelt like a damp attic on board the bus and the seats were a sickly orange-and-brown pattern.
“We’re lucky,” Leo said, moving his bag off the seat he’d been saving for Calum. “Manchester United weren’t using their tour bus this weekend so they said we could borrow it.”
Calum laughed.
“By the way,” Leo yawned, “I’ll probably fall asleep. I always fall asleep on buses.”
Leo wasn’t joking. The bus had hardly got to the end of the street before the rumble of its engine had him snoring into the window.
Up the back, Jordan was making everyone listen to a playlist he’d made especially for the trip. He had persuaded the driver to put it on through the bus’s speakers, and was now trying to show off by rapping along to one of the tunes.
“Jordan, please stop,” said Erika’s friend Sally. “You’re making me travel sick!”
With no one to speak to, Calum couldn’t keep his mind off Brandon Cramond, Castle Rock’s scary midfielder. What if the rest of the players at the tournament were that good?
He spotted Erika’s reddish-brown hair in the gap between the seats in front. She was sitting on her own and had her head buried in a book.
“What are you reading?” Calum asked, squeezing his face between the seats.
Erika jerked up from her trance.
“I was reading Dragonring,” she smirked, carefully folding her book around her bookmark. “Have you heard of it?”
Calum was shaking his head when, from the back of the bus, Jordan shouted, “I think we’ve got a hurler!”
He was teasing Lewis, whose pale skin was going green from travel sickness.
“It’s your rapping that’s making him ill,” Sally said.
The girls’ team all laughed. Calum wondered why Erika wasn’t sitting with them.
“Well, you just wait for this next one,” Jordan boasted, flipping his collar up.
However the track Jordan was expecting didn’t come on. In fact, he didn’t even need to sing. His own voice suddenly filled the bus through the speakers anyway.
Oh my loooooove, don’t break my hea-ah-ah-art!
“Wha— what’s this?!” Jordan yelped.
“It—sounds—like—your—next—single!” Sally managed to say as she gasped for air between huge belly laughs.
Like a mob of meerkats, everyone’s heads started to pop up above their seats to listen better to Jordan’s home recording. Everyone apart from Lewis, who looked like he might be sick at any moment.
“I don’t feel so good,” he moaned.
If you leave me, ba-BY,
I would just break down and cry-ay-ay-ay
“Skip to the next track!” Jordan shouted to Mr McKlop, Coach Brown and the driver, but they were too busy talking about whatever it is that grown-ups talk about.
Lewis whined, “I’m gonnae puke.”
As Mr McKlop passed back a bag for Lewis, the singing was interrupted by Jordan’s mum on the recording…
“Jordi, my lamb! Your bubble bath’s ready!”
“Coming Mummy!”
On hearing this, Sally and the girls fell on top of each other laughing so hard it looked like they might injure themselves.
“Oh no,” Lewis whimpered, and saved Jordan from his embarrassment by throwing up into a shopping bag.
“HEUGHAAAAAAYYYYYY!”
“Yuck!”
“Mingin’!”
“Gross!”
“Look Jordan! Your singing made Lewis puke!” Sally hooted.
Mr McKlop rushed up the aisle to help Lewis, and the bus filled with the smell of sick.
Calum pulled his school jumper over his nose and looked out of the window. They had arrived in Edinburgh. There were tourists milling about taking selfies in front of a huge castle, which sat proudly on top of a massive rock.
“So that’s why they’re called Castle Rock Primary,” Calum said quietly.
“Obvs.” Leo smiled a cheeky smile and prised his eyelids apart. His afro was all dented on one side. “What’d I miss?” he yawned.
