Striking Out by Ian Wright

Author:Ian Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Published: 2021-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

13

JAY-JAY

It wasn’t until two weeks later, when Jerome was in a local shop on a Sunday afternoon, that he understood just how far his name was spreading. He was standing in the queue with his schoolfriend Darius, about to pay for a pack of biscuits, when he heard a girl behind them ask: ‘Is that Jay-Jay?’

He turned around. There were two girls, about five metres behind them, looking down at one of their phones and then looking up at him.

‘Told you!’ said one of them and walked towards him.

‘Lisa, you are so embarrassing,’ said the other girl, who stayed back.

‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘that’s me. I play football at St Joseph’s.’

‘Me and Jessica were watching your goal,’ said Lisa. ‘The one you scored against Hawkwell.’ She showed Jerome and Darius her phone. There, on her screen, was a thirty-second video of his goal from the previous week. The video showed Jerome running towards the edge of Hawkwell’s penalty area, the ball flying towards Jerome’s waist, and then Jerome jumping off the ground to hit it. He smashed the ball so hard with his left foot that the ball flew into the top-left corner of the net before the goalkeeper could even move. As Jerome’s team screamed in celebration, Hawkwell’s goalkeeper just stood there blinking sadly, like a cat who had been locked outside in the rain.

‘Someone at your school uploaded it to Instagram,’ said Jessica. ‘We were trying to copy it at training.’

‘Wow,’ said Darius. ‘This video has eighty thousand views! Jerome, you are getting famous!’

‘I’m not famous,’ Jerome said, but he was enjoying this now. What if he was famous?

‘Someone even started an account of your skills and goals,’ said Lisa. ‘It’s called jayjayfifteen.’ She showed him again. ‘It’s already got three videos up there.’

‘Oh my gosh,’ said Darius. ‘Jay-Jay Fifteen. What a great name for a brand. We need to turn this into a business!’

‘Who are you?’ asked Lisa, smiling. ‘His agent?’

‘Yes, absolutely.’ Darius scowled and stood in front of Jerome, as if Jerome were a building and he was a security guard.

‘He’s being silly,’ said Jerome. ‘Darius, you are being silly.’

‘Maybe he is,’ said Lisa. ‘But only a little. We saw you playing against Isambard – you were really good. Her brother –’ she pointed at Jessica – ‘is at your school; he plays for the senior team. He says they are already talking about you as one of the best at St Joseph’s.’

‘Wow,’ said Jerome. He felt stunned. Could this be true?

‘Yes, mad, eh?’ Lisa said. ‘Erm … you’d better pay for your biscuits.’

Jerome turned towards the till to see a very unimpressed shopkeeper.

‘Did you want to wait some more?’ the shopkeeper asked.

‘No, sorry,’ said Jerome, and paid quickly. ‘See you around,’ he said to Lisa and Jessica.

‘Lisa Stornoway,’ she said. ‘That’s my full name. You can find me online. I mean, if you like.’

As the boys walked back to school, Darius nudged Jerome with his elbow.

‘Girls are noticing you now,’ he said.

‘Shut up,’ said Jerome.

‘Jay-Jay Fifteen,’ said Darius.

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.