The second half starts out pretty well. We’re all pumped after Ted’s half-time pep talk and go out onto the pitch full of determination. When Dylan scores a goal in the first five minutes, the Knights spectators go crazy. It’s such a great goal and totally unexpected. Dylan, Chelsea and Archie did some sensational quick-fire passing down the pitch until Dylan eventually booted it straight into the corner of the net, just managing to dodge an Avengers player at the last second. It’s so exciting that I do a backflip right there in the middle of the pitch.

  But sadly, that’s my last backflip for the whole match. In the final few minutes, one of the Avengers heads the ball straight into the back of their goal net and it’s game over. The whistle blows and we’ve lost. We smile and shake hands with the other team, but all of us feel flat and miserable as we trudge slowly off the pitch.

  Ted greets us with a big smile. ‘Well done, team,’ he says as we sink onto the grass in a circle around him. ‘You played a great game and they just got the better of us in the end. But don’t worry. We still have another chance at making the finals. It’s not over yet!’

  Ted’s optimism makes me feel a bit better, but only a tiny bit. I start running through the game in my head and thinking about all the things I could have done differently. If only I’d swerved left instead of right that Avengers player wouldn’t have been able to intercept it like he did. And maybe I should have just shot for goal that time I was running towards it instead of passing to Chelsea. Then again, I know there was no way I could have made that shot. I had to pass.

  These thoughts bounce around my brain as I suck on my water bottle and listen to my teammates mumbling about how we should have won that game. Finally, I have to admit to myself that thinking this way isn’t doing any good. The game is over, and we lost. Simple as that.

  And Ted’s right. We still have another chance so it’s not the end of the world.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  MY ROOM

  SUNDAY

  10.15 am

  ‘These ideas are awesome!’ Maddi says. ‘And you came up with all these yourself?’

  For a moment I think about lying to Maddi and Levi so they’ll think I’m some kind of creative genius, but then decide to come clean.

  ‘No, Indi helped me,’ I confess. ‘Like, a lot.’

  ‘I love it!’ Maddi cries, flipping through a bunch of different party decoration images I’ve printed out. ‘Mum will love the balloon arch and photo wall, and Dad will flip his lid over the footy-shaped lights. Good work, Sammy!’

  ‘Thanks,’ I say, my face flushing at hearing my big sister praise me.

  Maddi, Levi and I have secretly gathered in Maddi’s VERY neat bedroom so we can talk about the party without Mum and Dad hearing us. It smells nice in here. No stinky soccer socks or mud-caked soccer balls in the corner, only fairy lights, Destiny’s Child posters and the smell of some kind of flowery perfume.

  Maddi turns her attention to our brother who is rolling around on her Moroccan rug with Penny.

  ‘What have you organised, Levi?’ she asks. ‘LEVI?’

  ‘Huh?’ Levi peeks out from under Penny’s giant brown head. ‘Oh, um… I spoke to Dave at the deli down the road and he’s gonna do up some antipasto platters and quiches and stuff.’

  Maddi nods approvingly. ‘Okay, good. Did you ask about vegetarian options?’

  Levi frowns. ‘No!’

  Maddi rolls her eyes. ‘Well make sure you do,’ she says, pointing one perfectly manicured pink fingernail at him.

  Levi gently pushes Penny off him, sits up and salutes our sister. ‘Yes, Boss!’ he barks.

  ‘Maddi?’

  Our heads whip around in panic at the sound of Mum’s voice close outside the bedroom door.

  Maddi nods at the printed pages at my feet. ‘Quick, put them under the bed!’

  I manage to get them out of sight just as Mum opens Maddi’s door.

  ‘Have you seen my…?’

  She stops when she sees the three of us (four including Penny) sitting on Maddi’s floor, with giant, guilty smiles frozen onto our faces.

  Mum frowns. ‘What are you three doing?’

  ‘Nothing,’ we all say in unison.

  Mum raises one eyebrow. ‘Since when do you all hang out in Maddi’s room?’ She nods at Levi and me. ‘I didn’t think either of you was even allowed in here.’

  ‘We’re… um… we’re…’ Maddi stammers.

  ‘… teaching Maddi the rules of soccer!’

  Three human heads, and one canine head, turn to look at me.

  ‘Really?’ Mum says. Both eyebrows are way up near her hairline now.

  ‘Yep,’ Maddi says, nodding like a maniac. ‘I… um… asked Sam to teach me the rules so I can… um… know what to shout out when I go to her game on the weekend.’

  ‘Riiiiight… and what was that you shoved under the bed then?’ Mum asks.

  ‘Game plans!’ Levi adds.

  Mum clearly doesn’t believe a word of any of this. But she just looks at each of us in turn and sighs. ‘Okay, I’ll let you get back to it,’ she says. ‘I just wanted to know if you’ve seen the good pen and notepad I keep next to the phone?’

  We all know that the objects in question are behind Maddi’s back, covered in party plans, but we just shake our heads.

  ‘Nope, haven’t seen them,’ Maddi says.

  ‘Okaaaaay,’ she says slowly. ‘Just make sure you’re all ready to leave for the footy in an hour, okay?’

  ‘Yep!’ I say.

  The West Coast Eagles are playing Hawthorn at Subiaco today so the whole Kerr family is heading off to watch the game. Mum shoots us one final quizzical look and backs out of the room.

  As soon as the door shuts behind her, we all let out a collective sigh of relief.

  Maddi throws her hands in the air. ‘Teaching me about soccer?’ she whispers. ‘Really, Sam? That’s the best you could come up with?’

  ‘At least I came up with something!’ I shoot back. ‘You two didn’t say a word!’

  Levi shrugs. ‘I thought it was genius.’

  ‘Sorry, but I’ve got soccer on the brain,’ I say.

  ‘What’s new?’ Maddi sighs.

  I shake my head. ‘No, I mean more than usual.’

  ‘Why?’ Levi asks. ‘What’s up?’

  I tell them both about the deal I have with Miss McLeish, the soccer petition and my classmates’ total lack of interest in signing it. When I finish talking, Maddi shrugs as if it’s a no-brainer.

  ‘You just have to approach it with a sales brain,’ she says.

  ‘What does that mean?’ I ask.

  ‘You’ve gotta SELL soccer to them,’ Maddi explains. ‘Make them want to buy it. Like when we want to sell a certain dress or top in the shop, we put it in the window and put pretty flowers and cool scarves and stuff around it, so it gets customers’ attention.’

  ‘But how do I do that?’ I ask. ‘I can’t really put pretty flowers around a petition.’

  ‘Have you heard of David Beckham?’ Maddi says.

  ‘Der!’ I cry. ‘Of course I have! He’s only the best soccer player in the world!’

  ‘He’s also the cutest!’ Maddi says. ‘If you add a photo of cute Beckham in action to your sign-up sheet, then everyone will want to sign it because they’ll either be in love with him, or they’ll want to BE him.’

  ‘She’s right,’ Levi says, flopping backwards to wrestle with Penny again. ‘People love an action pic.’

  ‘That’s an awesome idea!’ I squeal. ‘Thanks!’

  ‘Levi! You’re vacuuming all that dog hair out of my rug,’ Maddi says as she watches Penny rolling around and shedding bucketloads of hair. ‘Gross!’

  I jump up and head for the door.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Maddi says.

  ‘To the print shop before they close! I’m gonna print out a full A4 glossy action shot of Beckham and take it to school on Monday!’

  I grab my wallet out of my room, tell Mum I’ll be back in time to go to the footy and feel full of a new hope as I leave the house.

  This soccer team might just happen after all!

  CHAPTER NINE

  MY SCHOOL

  MONDAY

  10.55 am

  ‘I’m Peter Pan!’

  Indi looks like she’s about to burst with excitement.

  ‘YAY!’ I throw my arms around her and the two of us jump up and down in the middle of the school oval.

  ‘You’re going to be a magnificent Peter!’ Dylan says, high-fiving her. ‘I can just see you flying across the stage, totally rocking those green tights!’

  ‘Thanks guys,’ Indi says, blushing. ‘And guess what? That’s not the only good news today…’

  ‘What?’ I ask. ‘Did you win an Oscar or something as well?’

  ‘Follow me,’ she says with a sly grin.

  Two minutes later, Dylan and I are standing in front of the noticeboard in the school corridor, staring up at my petition in amazement.

  ‘It’s almost full!’ I cry.

  ‘I know!’ Indi squeals. ‘I ran to check it as soon as I came out of the hall. Can you believe it? Maddi’s idea worked.’

  It sure did. Underneath the super glossy action shot of David Beckham playing in the 2002 World Cup there are now nine more signatures.

  ‘WOAH!’ Dylan says. ‘That’s sensational! And we still have till Thursday to get the last five signatures we need!’

  Now I’m the one feeling so happy I could burst, until I scan the names on the sheet and realise that one person is still missing.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE KNIGHTS’ HOME GROUND

  TUESDAY

  4.40 pm

  ‘Why won’t you sign the petition?’ I narrow my eyes at Chelsea as we kick the ball back and forth to each other. Ted has paired us up for passing drills at training today and for the first time ever, I wasn’t upset at being stuck with her. She can’t just walk away this time, and with Nikita not around, there’s more of a chance she’ll talk to me. I’m going to find out once and for all why she won’t sign the petition.

  ‘I’ve got it in my bag if you want to sign it now,’ I say. ‘I thought you, more than anyone, would want Sports Day to include soccer.’

  ‘Nope,’ Chelsea shrugs, dribbling the ball around the cones and then kicking it across the dewy grass to me. ‘I’m thinking about signing up for netball.’

  I stop the ball under my foot and stare at her. ‘Netball? Okay, but can’t you do both? I thought you’d want to play soccer, too. You’re a great player and we need people like you to fill out the teams.’

  I pass her the ball and she traps it under her right foot, holding it there for a moment. I watch her face closely and I can tell she’s thinking about it.

  Suddenly Chelsea lets out a huge sigh. ‘Fine!’ she says, rolling her eyes and starting to dribble the ball around her cones. ‘I’ll sign your stupid sheet. But I’m only doing it because I don’t want soccer getting a bad rep if you fill the teams with bad players.’

  ‘Great, thanks,’ I say, trying not to look too excited in case she takes it back. ‘I’ll give it to you after training.’

  ‘Whatever,’ Chelsea shrugs.

  She kicks the ball back to me with such force that it whizzes past me and hits Cooper square in the back of the head.

  ‘Hey!’ he shouts from behind me where he’s doing the same drill with Dylan.

  ‘Sorry,’ Chelsea smiles sweetly.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  JOE’S PIZZA PLACE

  TUESDAY

  5.30 pm

  ‘To the Knights!’ Ted cries, raising his lemonade.

  ‘THE KNIGHTS!’ we all echo, raising our soft drinks and clinking them against each other’s. It feels like every single person in the restaurant turns to glare at us for being too noisy, but we’re all having too much fun to care.

  Ted has brought us out to Joe’s Pizza Place, straight from training at the Bruce Lee Oval. I never get a chance to talk to my teammates at trainings or games, other than to shout at them to pass me the ball or to yell ‘Great goal!’, but tonight I’ve learnt heaps more about them.

  Archie is a gun swimmer and has to get up at five am three mornings a week to train before going to school. Ugh! I can’t think of anything WORSE than having to get up that early! I also found out that Jai’s dad used to play AFL at the same club where my dad played, and that James has three dogs, all Labradors.

  Dylan is sitting across from me and we ended up sharing a large Margherita with pepperoni. It was so delicious that we finished the whole thing, but now I’m so full that I can’t imagine ever being hungry again.

  ‘Who wants ice-cream?’ Ted asks.

  On second thoughts, I could probably squeeze a teeny tiny bit more in…

  ‘Me please!’ I shout, along with everyone else.

  Ten minutes later, I’m scooping the last bit of chocolate ice-creamy goodness from my bowl when Ted leans over and taps Dylan on the arm.

  ‘How’s the ankle feeling, Dylan?’ he asks.

  Dylan sprained his ankle last term during a game, and we were all worried he wouldn’t be able to play for ages. But it healed really well and now he’s back in action.

  All heads turn to look at Dylan.

  ‘Splendid, thanks,’ he says softly.

  Ted’s eyebrows shoot up. ‘Splendid!’ he repeats. ‘Good word!’

  ‘Yeah, he does that,’ I say proudly. ‘Comes out with good words.’

  Dylan’s neck starts doing its blotchy, red thing and I wonder if I shouldn’t have drawn more attention to him when I can tell he’s already embarrassed with everyone looking.

  ‘Yeah, my ankle is fine, Ted,’ Dylan says, looking down into his bowl of choc-chip ice-cream.

  ‘I thought it must be,’ Ted grins. ‘You’re playing really well out there. Thank goodness it healed so quickly.’

  ‘And we’ve got Sports Day at school coming up, too,’ Dylan says. ‘I would have hated missing out on that.’

  Ted leans forward with interest. He loves talking about sport. Any sport.

  ‘Oh yeah?’ he says. ‘When’s that?’

  ‘Not for a few weeks,’ Dylan says, then nods at me. ‘Sam is trying to get the school to let us have a soccer match on the day, too. They’ve never included soccer on Sports Day before so it’s a pretty big deal.’

  ‘That’s fantastic!’ Ted says, turning to look at me. ‘Good work, Sam. We need more people getting the word out about how awesome soccer is.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I say, feeling my own face flushing red as everyone turns to look at me. ‘We don’t have enough signatures yet, though, so it might not happen.’

  Ted frowns, confused. ‘What do you mean?’

  I explain the deal I have with Miss McLeish. ‘We got a couple more signatures today,’ I say, glancing at Chelsea down the other end of the table, ‘but we still need three more, and if we don’t get them by Thursday, it’s all over. No soccer game.’

  ‘Well, that would be a shame,’ Ted says, looking genuinely disappointed for us. ‘I hope you get them in time.’

  He turns to look at Chelsea. ‘You didn’t tell me about this, Chels,’ he says, then grins at the rest of us. ‘Probably worried her uncle will come down to the school and embarrass her on the sidelines. Chelsea would have been the first person to sign that sheet, I’m guessing?’

  Chelsea blushes. ‘Um… well…’

  ‘She was!’ I say, glancing at Chelsea.

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ Ted beams. ‘I’m proud of you three for getting the word out about our fantastic sport. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble getting the last few signatures and I’ll definitely come down to cheer you all on!’

  I sneak a look at Chelsea at the other end of the table, and she is as red as the little squares on the tablecloth under her hands. As I’m looking, she glances up and gives me the teensiest tiniest smile of gratitude in the world.

  I’ll take it!

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  MY SCHOOL

  THURSDAY

  1.10 pm

  ‘Okay, you go to the log playground and ask Lenny and his mates,’ I tell Dylan, ‘and Indi and I will go to the green steps and ask Finn and her group. Meet back here in ten, got it?’

  ‘Copy that!’ Dylan says, then races off towards the playground, as Indi and I bolt in the opposite direction.

  It’s the start of lunchtime on Thursday and we have just twenty minutes to get the fully signed petition to Miss McLeish or our soccer dream will be over. We’ve got twenty-one signatures now, so need just one more to seal the deal. You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to get one measly signature, but it feels like the universe is against us today.

  We had ZERO chance of getting our last signature in class this morning. Mr Morton was on the warpath – he was grumpier than I’ve ever seen him before, and I’ve seen him REALLY grumpy. He made us do fraction worksheets in ‘COMPLETE AND TOTAL SILENCE’ and looked straight at me when he said it. How rude!

  At recess all of Grade Six had to go straight to the hall to practise our school song for assembly. Then we had assembly and Mr Morton would have seen it for sure if I’d tried to smuggle the form in. With the mood he’s in today, I don’t even want to think about what he would have done if he’d caught me.

  So now the three of us are in a frantic panic to get that last signature.

  I thrust the sheet in front of Finn and from the look on her face I know straight away that our luck isn’t about to change.

  ‘Yeah-nah, I don’t know anything about soccer,’ Finn says.

  ‘You could learn!’ I say, desperately. ‘I’ve seen you playing down ball and you’ve got awesome hand–eye coordination skills.’

  Finn frowns. ‘But you’re not allowed to use your hands in soccer, are you?’

  She’s got a point there. ‘Well, no, but…’

  ‘… you have to have quick feet!’ Indi quickly jumps in to save me. ‘And you definitely have that in down ball.’