The All-Star Joker by David A. Kelly

Author:David A. Kelly [Kelly, David A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780375899676
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2012-06-12T07:00:00+00:00

Mike’s tongue hung out. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He shook his head slowly. “Hot. Hot. Hot,” he panted.

“What’s the matter?” Andy asked. “You okay?”

Mike caught his breath. “I’m fine,” he said. “But that gum isn’t. The Rocket just gave me a handful of red-pepper gum!”

Kate took out her piece of gum and pointed to the red wrapper. “Picante means spicy in Spanish!” she told him. Kate was learning Spanish from her dad.

Mike sighed. “Why didn’t I listen to you?”

Kate knuckled him on the head. “I wonder that all the time!”

Andy smiled. “Don’t you see what this means?” he said. “The Rocket knew it was pepper gum! We should tell Sparky. It will prove the Rocket’s the joker, not my father.”

They rushed to the edge of the dugout, but Sparky had already started the team meeting. There was no way to interrupt. Mike, Kate, and Andy stood off to the side, listening. After ten minutes, Sparky stopped talking to take a drink. He picked up a large paper cup and filled it with red PowerPunch from a plastic jug at the end of the bench.

A few seconds later, one of the players snickered and pointed at the coach. A line of red PowerPunch dribbled down from a small hole in the bottom of the paper cup. It turned almost the entire front of Sparky’s white uniform red!

Sparky finally noticed everyone laughing. “What’s so funny?” he shot out.

The players instantly went quiet. Someone pointed to the front of his shirt.

Sparky looked down and saw the long red stain on his shirt. Without another word, he crumpled the paper cup and threw it into the trash can. Then he turned to face Josh.

“That’s your final practical joke, Robinson!” he bellowed. “Don’t practice any more, because you’re benched!”

One of the outfielders jumped up. “Hey, Coach, you can’t take Josh out! He’s one of our best players,” he pleaded. “We need him on the field tonight!”

“If we’re going to beat the National League, we can’t have jokers fooling around,” Sparky snapped. “We need to focus on winning, not having fun! End of story. Everyone back out for more practice! Josh, stay here. If anything else happens, you won’t even suit up for tonight’s game!”

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