“Maybe you should talk to your dad,” Nancy said. “Tell him how it makes you feel when he yells like that.”
Melissa nodded slowly. “Do you have to tell Coach Santos I was the one who played the tricks?”
“No,” Nancy said. “I’m not going to tell on you. You should talk to the coach yourself.”
Just then the referee blew the whistle. The second half was starting. Nancy wasn’t playing in the beginning of the second half, but Melissa was. She had to hurry to get onto the field.
Nancy watched happily from the sidelines. The Tigers played really well together, especially Carrie and George. They passed the ball back and forth. The Lions scored three times, making it 3-1. But then, in the last few minutes, Carrie scored a goal. The final score was Lions 3-Tigers 2.
“We almost beat the Lions!” Carrie announced happily, skipping off the field.
“But they’re your best friends,” George said. “Did you really want to beat them?”
“Of course,” Carrie said. “I’m on the Tigers team now.”
George gave Nancy a small smile as Carrie walked away to change her shoes.
“Carrie’s okay,” George said when Carrie was gone.
“I think she was just trying to be friends with us,” Nancy said. “And she didn’t know how. That’s why she was so pushy. She was trying to show us that she knew a lot about soccer so we’d like her.”
George looked down at her feet. “I guess you’re right,” George said. “I feel bad. We didn’t give her much of a chance.”
“I know,” Nancy said. “But maybe we can make up for it now.”
“At the pizza party?” George asked.
“The pizza party!” Nancy said. “I almost forgot!”
Coach Santos was taking the whole team out for pizza. They were celebrating the end of the season.
“Great!” Nancy said. “Let’s ask Carrie to sit with us.”
George nodded. Then she and Nancy walked over to their backpacks and sat down on the ground.
A minute later Melissa and her father walked by. Mr. Adams had his hand on Melissa’s shoulder.
“I brought a plastic bag full of salt to the game, too,” Melissa was saying. “I pretended to get a drink of water, and I put the salt in the cooler. I put jelly in Amara’s shoe, and I let the air out of Julia’s soccer ball.”
“I’m sorry,” said Melissa’s father. “I shouldn’t have yelled so much. I’m proud of how you played today. Winning isn’t everything, Melissa. I just want you to have fun.”
Melissa looked up at her father. “I had to sneak around a lot. I didn’t like what I did.”
Her father nodded. He leaned over and hugged Melissa.
“Will you help me tell Coach Santos about what I did?” Melissa asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Adams said. “We’ll go talk to her right now.”
He held out his hand. Melissa put her hand in her father’s hand. The two of them began to walk across the soccer field toward Coach Santos.
Just then Lindsay Mitchell came over and joined them.
“I just heard Melissa say she had something important to tell her father,” said Lindsay. “But I couldn’t hear what it was.”
George and Nancy giggled. Lindsay was such a gossip.
“Did you hear what she said?” asked Lindsay.
“Her father told Melissa that he was proud of the way she played today,” said Nancy.
“Oh,” said Lindsay. She sounded disappointed.
George stood up. “I’m hungry!” she said.
“Me, too,” said Lindsay.
“I’m hungry, too,” Nancy said. “But there’s only one problem.”
“What?” George asked.
“I can’t find my shoes,” Nancy said.
“Not again!” George cried.
George looked around on the grass. She looked under all the backpacks, especially her own. But Nancy’s shoes weren’t anywhere.
“Hey,” Nancy said to George. “Your backpack is bulging. Let me see it.”
Nancy opened George’s backpack—and found her sneakers inside.
“No!” George shouted, laughing. “I didn’t do it! I’m not the shoe thief again!”
“Yes, you are,” Nancy said. “But not really. I just remembered. I didn’t have room in my backpack this morning. So I stuffed my sneakers in your backpack.”
It took Nancy only a minute to change into her sneakers. Then it was time to go get pizza with her friends. All of them! Even her newest friend—Carrie Rodis.
But first Nancy took out her notebook and opened it to the most recent page. At the bottom of the page she wrote:
Today I solved the soccer mystery and learned something about the game.
I found out that it doesn’t matter what the score is—there’s only one good way to win. Be a real friend to everyone on your team!
Case closed.
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The Soccer Shoe Clue Page 4