Julian the Mighty by Joachim Masannek

Author:Joachim Masannek [MASANNEK, JOACHIM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9844257-7-8
Publisher: Sole Books
Published: 2012-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

A Thief in the Devil’s Pit

“No worries, we’ll meet again, loser.” I could still hear the ominous echo of Mickey the bulldozer in my head.

I had locked myself in the boys’ bathroom at school and stared at the piece of paper in my hand. Barely legible, badly spelled handwriting threatened me:

Fear crept down my spine. What should I do? There wouldn’t always be a principal to show up at the right place at the right time to save us from the Unbeatables. And I sure couldn’t drag the Wild Soccer Bunch into this. This had nothing to do with soccer. They had their stadium, their Devil’s Pit, their real life floodlights and they were proud of them all. And tomorrow they’d have their first game. I couldn’t steal this from them.

But at the same time, I felt outside of it all, like I wasn’t a part of the team anymore. I felt outside of everything. I was alone. And all I could think about was my brother. I had to protect him. I had to keep Josh out of this. This was all my fault. I’m the one who went to the Graffiti Towers. I’m the one who made a pact with Mickey the bulldozer. My mom always said I have to keep my promises. Besides, what I was thinking and what I was about to do – maybe this was where I belonged now; maybe I was not being good enough to hang with the Wild Soccer Bunch any more. I went to the Graffiti Towers looking for my father. If he really lived there, then maybe that was where I belonged too.

The first bell rang. Class would start soon. I threw the note into the toilet, flushed it, and then ran out into the hallway as if nothing had happened.

In class I played good old Julian Fort Knox. But in reality I was looking for the slightest chance to escape from this life forever. I was thinking crazy, I knew it, but I didn’t see a way out.

Nothing was easy. When I was a little kid, everything was easy. So when did everything turn so hard? My friends took good care of me, especially Zoe, Tyler, and Fabio. I was never alone, not even for a second, and it was a miracle that I was able to hide my cleats under my desk without them noticing.

The final bell rang so loud in my head, I jumped a mile. Everyone grabbed their bags and ran into the playground. Practice time! This would be our last training at the Devil’s Pit before the big game. The bike racks were crowded when I got there.

“Oh shoot!” I said. “I left my cleats at home!” I said, desperately putting on my best performance.

The others looked at me as if I had left my head at home.

“I know, what a pain,” I said, pretending to be embarrassed. “I’ll just go home and get them. Meet you at the Devil’s Pit in 20 minutes. Promise!”

No one said a word.

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