Everybody's Favorite by Maureen Holohan

Author:Maureen Holohan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Published: 2001-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

After the introduction, Rita stepped up and called out our station assignments. Within five minutes hundreds of girls raced around trying to find six different places at once.

“See ya!” I called out to the Ballplayers.

When I jogged up to my station, I did not recognize any of the players. Rita stood in front of our group. “Hi, Penny!” she yelled.

I looked around and smiled nervously, surprised that Rita knew my name.

“Come on up here, Penny, and demonstrate this drill,” she said.

Do I have to?I stared at the ground and wished she would pick somebody else.

“Kara,” Rita called out. “You, too!”

I kept my cleats in the grass below me.

“Penny!” Rita screamed. “Let’s go or we’re all doing push-ups!”

Everyone turned to me with wide eyes and a painful expression.

“Get up there!” a girl said. “You know she’s serious!”

I huffed and jogged to the front of the crowd. A thin girl with long stringy blond hair and a tiny round mouth stopped alongside of me.

“Go ahead, Kara,” Rita said. “Penny, you’ll catch on quick.”

When the whistle shrieked, Kara followed every move Rita made. It was as if the soccer ball was on a string and attached to her feet. She did one fancy move, and I tried to do the same. I screwed up the first few times.

“You’ve got it!” a girl called out.

I took a deep breath, and within seconds I caught on as I watched Kara out of the corner of my eye. I picked up my speed, and so did she. When I kicked the ball harder, sharper, she did, too. We matched each other grunt for grunt.

“Let the games begin,” I whispered with a smile.

Kara’s intense blue eyes did not flinch. We battled at every station—throw-ins, corner kicks, fast break drills, and even the goalie drills. I tried to joke around with her a few times, but she was all business.

“Where are you from?” I asked.

“Maplewood,” she mumbled.

Then she jogged away.

“All right, Ms. Thing,” I said to myself. “We’re just getting started.”

In the next drill Kara and I played each other one-against-one. I zipped around her and she elbowed me in the side. When Rita blew the whistle and gave me the ball, Kara glared at me. On the next play I scored. Kara scowled and angrily stomped away.

By the time the last whistle blew, the muscles in my legs were burning. I walked over to the cafeteria not wanting to talk to anyone until I reached the water cooler. Two girls came up to my side.

“Hey, Penny,” one said. She wore baby pigtails on the top of her head. “You’re good.”

I smiled and mumbled “Thanks” as I reached down and grabbed a paper cup.

“Where are you sitting for dinner?” the other asked. She had blond hair in tons of little braids and pink wire-rimmed glasses.

“I’m waiting for my friends,” I said.

“We’re waiting for one of our friends, too. Do you know Crazy Candi?”

I shook my head. Then a girl with bleached yellow hair and a tie-dye shirt skipped up to us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.