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The Galactic Goal (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #4)

Page 5

by Geronimo Stilton


  She passed the ball to Bugsy, who

  immediately spun around and passed to

  Benjamin, successfully avoiding the alien

  defenders! My nephew was right in front of

  the ZOMBORG goal. Without pausing,

  he gave the ball an amazing kick . . .

  G o o o o o o o o a a a a a a a l!

  1-0 for the spacemice!

  After our goal, the zomborgs were even

  more aggressive. Two of them began

  to run in front of the robot-ref to keep it

  from SEEING what was happening on the

  field!

  Immediately, Brax took advantage of the

  situation and bolted up to me, then

  pushed me down and stole the ball. He was

  right in front of our goal — and Whiskerkicks

  wasn’t ready for him!

  Just as Brax was about to

  kick

  the ball

  into the goal, the two zomborgs moved away

  from the robot-ref. Now that the ref could

  see again, it watched the ball sail into the

  net. RATS! It was official — 1-1!

  Trap was furious. He waved a paw in

  Brax’s face and yelled, “That’s not fair!

  You’re cheating!”

  The alien began to laugh. “That’s right,

  rat! This is how we have fun!”

  The game started back up. We all played

  hard, but no one scored again . . .

  With just a minute to go before the end of

  the game, Lionel got the ball from Trap.

  He passed one zomborg, then a second one.

  Right as he was about to take a shot that

  would have been impossible to block . . .

  BAM!

  Brax tripped him, and Lionel fell flat on

  his snout, twisting his leg on the way!

  Tweeeeeeeeet

  !

  Brax was taken out of the

  game — and we got to take a

  penalty kick!*

  This was our big

  moment. We could win

  the tournament, but our

  best player was on the

  ground with an injury!

  The robot-medic examined Lionel and

  carried him off the field. Luckily, his injury

  was not serious. But we had a big problem:

  Who would kick the penalty shot?!

  *

  A penalty kick is a direct free kick on the goal granted to a team

  when a foul is committed against them in their own penalty area.

  KICK IT,

  GERONIMO!

  Starry space dust, taking a PENALTY

  SHOT in soccer during an intergalactic

  championship is no joke. I certainly had no

  intention of doing it!

  But then Trap said, “You need to take it,

  Geronimo!”

  “

  M-m-me?

  ” I stammered. “But it’s

  too important! I couldn’t possibly —”

  Sally jumped in, “You’re our captain! You

  should take the penalty shot!”

  Even Benjamin insisted, “Uncle, remember

  what I explained in practice — if you kick

  the

  BALL

  on the red dot, it’s impossible to

  defend! You can do it!”

  I didn’t know if I could do it

  ,

  but I knew that a real captain had to be

  able to take charge. I guessed this was my

  moment to do that!

  Gulp! I took a deep breath and stepped up

  to the ball. My whiskers were wobbling!

  I stared down at the red dot that I was

  supposed to kick. Then I looked at the

  ZOMBORG goalie. He stood right in

  the center of the goal . . .

  Tweeeeeeet!

  Galactic Gouda! I had to

  kick — and now! But I

  hadn’t decided what

  side of the goal to aim

  for. THE RIGHT?

  THE LEFT? OR

  MAYBE THE

  MIDDLE?

  I tried not to think too much. Instead, I

  ran up, closed my eyes, and kicked the

  ball as hard as I could . . .

  SWOOOOSH!

  The ball transformed into a bright red

  streak. Like a

  missile

  , it flew into

  the goal! The zomborg goalie stood with his

  mouth hanging open in shock.

  It was a galactic goal!

  I had done it! I had hit the red dot and

  activated the super-turbo force!

  We had won

  the game!

  The Winning Goal!

  2. . . . kicked the

  ball with my

  eyes closed . . .

  3. . . . and got a

  galactic goal!

  1. I ran up . . .

  RAISE THE CUP,

  CAPTAIN!

  Not surprisingly, the ZOMBORGS

  were terrible losers!

  As we were leaving the field, Brax

  blocked my path and hissed in my face,

  “You won this time, rat, but we will meet

  again!”

  I held my breath

  so I wouldn’t faint from

  the pu t r i d stink.

  Then I responded

  cordially, “It will be

  our pleasure to

  play a rematch

  one day!”

  Brax stormed off with the other zomborgs,

  and we got ready to take the stage for the

  Award Ceremony. Our snouts were projected

  on mega-screens around the stadium:

  spacemice in Universalvision!

  Diego Goalor, president of the

  Intergalactic Federation of Soccerix,

  announced, “I declare the spacemice team

  the intergalactic champions of soccerix!”

  The spectators roared as Diego handed

  me the Great Intergalactic Cup.

  Everyone watched me as if I was supposed

  to do something with it . . . but what?

  Grandfather bellowed, “Hey, Cheesebrain,

  LIFT IT UP OVER YOUR HEAD

  !”

  I grinned. “Oh, right!”

  As soon as I lifted the cup,

  fireworks

  went off over the stadium! They made my

  fur stand on end.

  In my

  fright

  , I lost my balance. The

  cup slipped from my paws and .. . oops!

  It fell right on the president’s foot, making

  everyone around the galaxies laugh!

  My snout turned red with embarrassment.

  Maybe it was time to return to

  MouseStar 1 . . .

  WELCOME BACK,

  CHAMPIONS!

  Thea came in her ship to transport us to

  MOUSESTAR 1. As we were traveling,

  she said, “I imagine you must be tired, so I

  prepared your cabins for you and have given

  the orders for you not to be disturbed once

  you get home.”

  But as she spoke, it almost seemed like she

  was going to laugh. And was she winking

  at Grandfather William?

  I shrugged and thanked her. I really

  couldn’t wait to have a nice long rest!

  When we arrived at MouseStar 1, we

  were ready to say good-bye to one another

  and head to our cabins when . . . the hangar

  door opened and a huge group of spacemice

  and aliens greeted us with CHEERS and

  applause!

  Together, they all shouted, “Welcome

  bac
k, Champions!”

  I looked at Thea in shock. She winked.

  She had prepared the surprise!

  My rest and relaxation could wait. I

  joined the festivities. After all, it isn’t

  every day that you get to be a champion

  captain

  !

  Don’t miss any

  adventures of

  the spacemice!

  He is a cavemouse — Geronimo Stilton’s

  ancient ancestor! He runs the stone

  newspaper in the prehistoric village

  of Old Mouse City. From dealing with

  dinosaurs to dodging meteorites,

  his life in the Stone Age is full

  of adventure!

  Meet

  GERONIMO STILTONOOT

  MouseStar 1

  (exterior view)

  1. Control room

  2. Gigantic telescope

  3.

  Greenhouse to grow plants and flowers

  4. Library and reading room

  5. Astral

  Park, an amousement park

  6. Space

  Yum Café

  7. Kitchen

  8.

  Liftrix,

  the special elevator that moves between

  all floors of the spaceship

  9. Computer

  room

  10.

  Crew cabins

  11. Theater for space shows

  12. Warp-speed engines

  13. Tennis court and swimming pool

  14. Multipurpose technogym

  15. Space pods for exploration

  16. Cargo hold for food supply

  17. Natural biosphere

  Dear mouse friends,

  thanks for reading,

  and good-bye until the next book.

  See you in outer space!

  APPEALS TO

  READING LEVEL

  2

  ND

  -4

  TH

  GRADERS

  GRADE 4

  More leveling information for this book:

  www.scholastic.com/readinglevel

  www.scholastic.com/geronimostilton

  www.geronimostilton.com

  The spacemice have received an invitation to participate

  in the intergalactic soccerix championship. It’s a

  tournament for the most popular sport in space! But

  Geronimo doesn’t even know how

  to play soccerix, let alone lead

  a team to victory against aliens

  with bizarre skills (like flying)!

  Can the spacemice team prevail?

  He is a spacemouse — the Geronimo

  Stilton of a parallel universe! He is

  captain of the spaceship MouseStar 1.

  While flying through the cosmos, he visits

  distant planets and meets crazy aliens.

  His adventures are out of this world!

  Meet

  Geronimo Stiltonix

  The Galactic Goal

 

 

 


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