The wind dropped and the clouds overhead knitted together to cut out the sun. The referee invited the two closest players, Calum and Brandon, to come forward for the coin toss.
Brandon had been glaring at Calum the whole time. The juice that Calum’s shot had sprayed all over him had stained his luminous green laces a murky brown colour.
“Where did you get those boots, Ferguson?” he asked. “Did you make them yourself?”
Anger fizzed through Calum’s veins but one look at Brandon’s dark eyes stopped the words in his throat.
“Come on, Cal, ignore Bran Flakes, let’s just enjoy this,” said Leo.
Brandon ignored Leo and kept his eyes fixed on Calum. “Looks like you can’t even tie your laces!”
“That’s enough now, lads,” the referee said cautiously before Calum or Leo could respond. Even he seemed a little wary of Brandon. “But your lace really is untied, number nine.”
Calum looked down at his old boots, sighed, and bent down to sort them out, but the dry old lace snapped in his hand. He only just managed to make a tiny, tight knot before the ref started the match.
***
Still, Caleytown began pretty well. Lewis kept finding Leo in space and only some last-ditch tackling from Castle Rock stopped Calum’s best friend from scoring.
Keeping to Mr McKlop’s strategy, Calum was doing his best to double up with Lewis against Brandon whenever Castle Rock had possession. It was hard work in his old boots, and if the pain in his feet wasn’t enough, Brandon kept jabbing at Calum’s ribs with his elbow, standing on his toes or pinching him whenever he got the chance.
After some hard running back and forth, Calum finally had the ball at his feet – but not for long. Brandon barged him off the ball and slunk up the pitch like a cat with its prey.
A pumped-up Jordan charged out to tackle but Brandon weaved past him as if he was just some minor nuisance.
Ravi’s quiff wobbled as he spread himself wide in goals…
THWOP!
Brandon bulleted the ball into the bottom corner. The big crowd cheered and this time Castle Rock’s star did celebrate. He made sure to run right past Calum on his way back to his half.
Feeling hopeless, Calum buried his face in his strip.
“Cheer up,” an unfamiliar voice murmured. “At least you don’t have to play with him every week.”
Calum pulled his shirt back down so he could see who had spoken. A Castle Rock player shrugged and gave him a weak smile.
Even his teammates hate him, thought Calum.
Leo slapped Calum on the shoulder. “Don’t give up yet, Cal! We can still win this!”
As if to prove his point Leo ran straight forward from the restart. Calum ran as fast as his old boots would let him, just to keep up. Leo drifted out wide before squaring the ball back to Lewis, who picked out Calum in the box with a first-time pass.
The crowd held its breath.
Calum took an extra touch in his old boots to control the ball, drew his leg back to shoot and…
BANG!
A bump on his shoulder sent him spinning to the ground.
“Penalty, ref!” Calum heard Lewis shout as he pushed himself up onto all fours.
The referee blew his whistle.
Yes! Calum thought. I’ll show you, Brandon!
“That’s half-time, lads,” the referee said.
Calum shook his head in disbelief, got up and made his way over to Mr McKlop. He looked over his shoulder and caught Brandon’s eye. He was laughing.
“Did you see that foul, Mr McKlop?” Calum complained to his coach. “He totally took me out! That should have been a penalty!”
“Now, now, Calum. You’ve got to respect the ref’s decision – even if you disagree with it,” said Mr McKlop with a frown.
Calum angrily shook his head. “It’s not right though. The ref’s scared of a nine year old!”
Mr McKlop scratched his chin. “Hey, Calum, why don’t you take some time out.”
The fire that was burning in Calum’s stomach went out as Mr McKlop handed him a bib.