Jasper Zammit Soccer Legend 1 by Deborah Abela

Author:Deborah Abela
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2005-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

JOHNNY SAYS:

Always play with confidence, despite the odds. Play as if you can still win – because you probably can! Soccer scores are often low, so one or two goals at the last minute can make all the difference.

Jasper had been avoiding Lil for days, but when she saw him on her way to school hiding behind a rubbish bin just as a council truck arrived to empty it, she decided she’d had enough.

‘Okay. Why are you avoiding me?’

Jasper jumped away from the rising bin and landed squarely up against a prickly hedge. As multiple thorns poked into his back, he knew he looked like a thief caught red-handed. No matter how hard he tried to get out of it, he was sprung.

But that didn’t stop him giving it a go.

‘I wasn’t avoiding you.’ He tried to pull himself away from the bush and felt the thorns snag at his shirt.

‘So what’s with the hat and glasses?’

A banana peel from the emptying bin flew into the air and landed smack on his dad’s large terry towelling sun hat.

‘Ummmm …’ He tried to work out how to explain the hat and the oversized sunglasses he’d borrowed from his mother’s dressing table.

The garbage truck had finished with the bin and slammed it to the ground before growling its way down the street.

Jasper paused, hoping his brain would kick in and finally understand that this was an emergency and it needed to be very smart, very quickly.

‘The sun … it hurts my eyes and I don’t want them getting old before their time.’

Lil gave Jasper a look that told him the last few seconds of brain activity had been a total waste of time. Then her face softened.

‘I thought we were friends.’

Jasper suddenly imagined himself with a giant sign above his head that said

‘LOSER’

in bright, flashing neon.

His decision to stay away from Lil out of loyalty for his dad had seemed like the right thing to do, but now, seeing Lil’s sad face, he wasn’t so sure.

He took off the banana peel, the hat and the glasses and decided to tell Lil the truth.

‘My dad quit his job because he said your dad wasn’t letting him spend enough time with his family, which has made my grandad really angry because he thinks it’s more important to have a job than actually like it, so they’re not talking anymore and we may be facing living on the street and possibly starvation and everything was going just fine until my mum said you were pretty and smart and it all started going downhill from there.’

It spilled out as one giant avalanche of words collapsing everywhere and hopefully, Jasper thought, making some kind of sense.

‘So that’s why you didn’t want my dad coming to the game?’ she asked quietly. Then she scowled. ‘Why didn’t you just tell me?’

‘Ah … because … it was just …’ Come on, brain! Just this once do what you’re supposed to do.

But it was no good. Jasper’s brain had conked out completely.

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