Secret Weapon

by Matt Christopher

  To Tracy van Straaten

  Copyright

  Text copyright © 2000 by Catherine M. Christopher

  Illustrations copyright © 2000 by Daniel Vasconcellos

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  First eBook Edition: December 2009

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  ISBN: 978-0-316-09431-3

  Soccer ’Cats Team Roster

  Lou Barnes Striker

  Jerry Dinh Striker

  Stookie Norris Striker

  Dewey London Halfback

  Bundy Neel Halfback

  Amanda Caler Halfback

  Brant Davis Fullback

  Lisa Gaddy Fullback

  Ted Gaddy Fullback

  Alan Minter Fullback

  Bucky Pinter Goalie

  Subs:

  Jason Shearer

  Dale Tuget

  Roy Boswick

  Edith “Eddie” Sweeny

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 1

  Lisa Gaddy glanced at the scoreboard. 4–0. That would be a great score—if it were in favor of the Soccer ’Cats. But it wasn’t. The Panthers were ahead and there were only ten minutes left in the game.

  Lisa was miserable. At least one of those goals was her fault. As a fullback, she usually took the throw-ins after an opponent sent the ball over the side touchline near her. But Lisa wasn’t very tall, and her throw-ins often fell short of their mark. One time, the Panther center striker had easily snagged the ball and sent it rocketing past Bucky Pinter into the goal. Now, anytime Lisa got ready for a throw-in, the Panther striker yelled to his teammates to crowd around her as close as they could.

  For the moment, she was safe. The ball was at the other end of the field. She tried to concentrate on what was happening.

  “Come on, Jerry! Come on, Lou!” she yelled to the ’Cats strikers. “Send it into the net!”

  But neither Jerry Dinh nor Lou Barnes did that. Instead, a Panther fullback kicked the ball long and high, sending it back to midfield.

  Halfback Dewey London charged forward to meet it. So did a tall Panther striker. The two battled for the ball. The striker won. With a swift kick she sent it to a teammate, who dribbled quickly down the sideline.

  Bundy Neel tried to steal the ball away, but the Panther dodged him and headed straight toward the goal.

  “Okay, let’s stop ‘em!” shouted Brant Davis, another fullback. He rushed the ball handler. The Panther panicked and made a lousy kick across the field. Lisa and another Panther tried to stop the ball, but it bounced harmlessly over the sideline.

  “Lisa, take the throw-in!” Ted called to his sister. Lisa started toward the ball.

  “No, let Alan take it!” a voice interrupted. Lisa stopped short. It was Stookie Norris, the third ’Cats striker. “Go on, Alan!”

  “But Lisa’s closest —,” Alan started to say.

  “Just take it, Alan!” Stookie shouted. Alan gave Lisa an apologetic look, then hurried to the sideline to accept the ball from the referee. With a swift over-the-head throw, he hurled the ball as far as he could. Stookie caught it cleanly against his chest and dribbled furiously toward the Panthers’ goal.

  Lisa took a few steps down the field, then stopped. Alan stopped alongside her.

  “Uh, sorry about that, Lisa,” Alan said, pushing his glasses higher up on his nose.

  Lisa forced a grin. “Don’t worry about it.” Without another word, she ran back into position as play shifted away from the Panthers’ goal.

  Darn that Stookie! she thought. Just because my throw-ins don’t go as far as Alan’s, that’s no reason for me not to take them!

  Or was it? How would she have felt if her throw-in had been captured by a Panther instead of a ’Cat? Though she was quick and wiry, she was a few inches shorter than most of her teammates, even her twin brother, Ted. Unless she could add two inches to her height overnight, her throw-ins would never go very far.

  And suddenly that seemed to be a very big problem.

  Chapter 2

  The game ended a few minutes later. Weary and disappointed at the loss, the ’Cats were quiet as they gathered their gear. All Coach Bradley said was that they had a lot to work on at practice the next afternoon.

  Ted and Lisa walked home together. Lisa was silent until Ted jabbed her in the ribs.

  “Give you a dollar if you tell me what you’re thinking about,” Ted said.

  Lisa snorted. “As if you didn’t know.”

  She was right. Most of the time, her twin brother knew exactly what she was thinking.

  “Okay,” Ted said, “so a couple of your throw-ins weren’t that good. Big deal. You weren’t the only one who made mistakes today.”

  Lisa kicked a pebble. “I know. But what if the other teams learn I’m lousy at throw-ins?” She kicked the pebble again. “Maybe I should just stop taking them. Stookie sure thinks I should.”

  Ted shook his head. “Stookie’s wrong. If you’re nearest to the ball when the other team sends it over the touchline, it’s up to you to take the throw-in. Otherwise, the referee might think we’re trying to delay the game for some reason.”

  Lisa knew Ted was right. In soccer, unlike most other sports, the time clock was never stopped, not even when the ball went out of bounds. When the ball did go over the side boundary, it had to be put back into play as soon as possible, or else time was wasted. The person taking the throw-in had to move fast.

  That wasn’t all. There were rules about how the ball was thrown. The player had to face the field when throwing, and his or her feet couldn’t cross the touchline. At least part of each foot had to be planted on the ground when the ball was being thrown —no jumping up or running back and forth. And the ball had to be thrown with both hands from behind and over the head. You couldn’t chuck it one-handed like a baseball, or toss it up underhanded.

  Sometimes, Lisa worried that she wasn’t going to do the throw-in right. That’s when her throw-ins were the weakest. But how could she help that?

  Once again, Ted seemed to read her mind.

  “Coach Bradley said we’ve got a lot to work on tomorrow. Maybe throw-ins will be on the list. We’ll probably do them over and over until we know just where and how to position ourselves perfectly.” He grinned at his sister. “So quit your worrying and get ready to race me home! On your mark, get set, GO!”

  With a peal of laughter, Ted took off. Lisa pounded after him. All thoughts left her mind except one: winning!

  Chapter 3

  Dinner that night was lasagna with buttered bread and crunchy salad. Lisa and Ted devoured everything on their plates, then helped their parents clean the kitchen. Since it was summer, they were allowed to either play outside for an hour or watch television until bedtime.

  Unless it was raining out, they always played outside. At the start of summer, their father had brought home a big surprise—a huge trampoline! When Mrs. Gaddy raised her eyebrows, Mr. Gaddy had just shrugged.

  “I
always wanted one when I was a kid,” he confessed. “And Lisa is so good at gymnastics I bet she’ll love it.” He was right about that. Lisa had been taking tumbling and gymnastics since she was four.

  Mr. Gaddy showed Ted and Lisa how to use the trampoline safely. Soon all three were taking turns bouncing up and down, doing the splits, and landing on their backsides. They looked like they were having so much fun that their mother tried it, too. When she came off laughing, the twins knew the tramp was there to stay.

  Ted was taking a turn first tonight. He stepped into the middle and started to bounce.

  “I’m going to try a three-sixty!” he called. Lisa watched her brother bounce high and spin like a top, trying to make it all the way around before he touched down. As usual, he lost his balance and collapsed in a heap.

  Lisa laughed.

  “Oh, sure, laugh all you want,” Ted grumbled good-naturedly. “But I’d like to see you do it!”

  “I will, when it’s my turn,” Lisa replied, eyes twinkling. Thanks to her gymnastics classes, she had better balance on the trampoline. Both she and Ted knew it.

  “Yeah, well …” Ted bounced some more, flailing his arms and legs in such a crazy way that Lisa couldn’t stop laughing.

  “Okay, your turn,” Ted said, carefully lowering himself over the side.

  Lisa stepped to the center. On her third bounce, she did a perfect three-sixty. Before Ted could say a word, she was up doing another, this time in the opposite direction.

  “Show-off!” Ted yelled. Lisa knew he didn’t mean it. She just kept doing three-sixties, first one way, then the other so she wouldn’t get dizzy. She did the splits, too, and a couple of pikes, with her legs ramrod straight out in front of her and her fingers reaching for her toes.

  While she was taking her turn, their father joined them. He watched Lisa for a moment, then called, “Have you ever done a somersault?”

  “Not yet!” she yelled back.

  “Aw, no way you’ve got the guts to do one of those!” Ted jeered.

  “Oh, yeah?” Lisa retorted. She bounced a few more times. Then, taking a deep breath, she launched herself into the air, tucked into a ball, and flipped over. She didn’t land on her feet, but she didn’t care. She had done a somersault on her first try, and that was more than Ted could do!

  “What do you think of that?” she crowed as she slid down off the trampoline.

  Ted huffed. “Huh, bet if I spent all my free time tumbling around on gym mats, I’d be able to do one, too.”

  Mr. Gaddy laid a hand on Ted’s shoulder. “Son,” he said gravely, “until you can do a three-sixty without landing on your backside, stick to doing the splits. Now step aside, kids, and let a pro show you how things are done! Yee-ha!”

  The fun on the trampoline had taken Lisa’s mind off her soccer worries for a while. But when she crawled into bed that night, they all came crashing back.

  How can I improve? she thought over and over. But she couldn’t come up with any ideas. She could only hope that Coach Bradley would know what to do.

  Chapter 4

  Practice started at three o’clock sharp the next day. First drill of the day, Coach Bradley had them work on throw-ins.

  “I need five players to spread out on the field.” Lou Barnes, Jerry Dinh, Dale Tuget, Edith “Eddie” Sweeny, and Dewey London volunteered. “The rest of you get behind the touchline. You’ll be taking turns doing throw-ins. I’m going to call the name of one of the players on the field. I want you to try your hardest to get the ball to that player.”

  Brant Davis was up first. The coach handed him the ball and called out, “Eddie!”

  Eddie was about ten feet away from Brant. Brant fired the ball from behind his head directly to her. She caught it against her chest and let it fall to the ground. At a motion from the coach, she booted the ball back to him.

  “Not bad, Brant. Next!” Alan Minter stepped forward.

  “Dale!”

  Dale was a good twenty feet away. Alan took a few steps back, paused, then trotted forward, lunged, and threw two-handed from behind his head. The ball landed near Dale’s feet.

  “Okay, good aim, but look down,” Coach Bradley said. Alan did—and blushed. One foot was completely inside the touchline.

  “If this had been a game, the ball would have been handed to the other side,” Coach Bradley reminded Alan and the others. “Be sure to watch that.”

  Now it was Lisa’s turn. Nervous about what had just happened to Alan, she decided not to run toward the line but to take the throw standing still.

  Coach Bradley seemed to guess what she meant to do.

  “Lou!” he called. Lou was standing the farthest away!

  Lisa tried her best, but the ball fell far short of its goal. Lou hurried forward to retrieve it.

  “Oh, brother,” Lisa heard Stookie Norris mutter.

  Miserable, Lisa waited for the coach to point out her mistake.

  Instead, all he said was “Good try.” For some reason, that made Lisa feel even worse.

  Isn’t he going to help me get better? she wondered unhappily.

  Lisa did her best during the rest of the drill. Sometimes she hit her mark, other times she goofed up. Each time she messed up, Stookie had something to say. He was careful not to let the coach hear him, but Lisa was sure the other ’Cats could. No one said anything, though—not even Ted.

  “Let’s gather ‘round,” Coach Bradley called at the end of practice. “Good efforts by everyone today. Friday, we play a game against the Tadpoles. See you then!”

  The ’Cats all cheered, then broke to head for home. Ted and Lisa started off together.

  “Let’s see if any of the ’Cats want to use the trampoline with us tomorrow,” Ted suggested. Brant Davis was walking with the coach right in front of them.

  “Hey, Brant, want to come by our house and check out our trampoline tomorrow?” Ted called.

  “I’ll show you which Gaddy twin can do a somersault,” Lisa added.

  Brant gave them the thumbs up, then hurried off to where his father was waiting. Coach Bradley turned around and stared thoughtfully at Lisa.

  “You can do a somersault?” he asked. “You’re not afraid?”

  Lisa shook her head. “I do that sort of stuff in gymnastics a lot—you know, flips and things. Want to see me do one?”

  The coach nodded. Lisa handed Ted her gym bag. She took a few quick steps, then launched herself forward and planted her hands on the ground. Seconds later, she had pushed herself up and over and was standing on her feet again.

  Coach Bradley clapped. “Beautiful!” he cried.

  Lisa shrugged. “That was a front handspring. Learning to do that was much scarier than trying a somersault on the trampoline.”

  “Really? That’s very interesting,” the coach replied. He stroked his chin.

  Lisa shot Ted a look. What’s going on? the look said. Ted raised his eyebrows, as puzzled by the coach’s sudden interest in Lisa’s gymnastics as Lisa was.

  Chapter 5

  That night, Lisa and Ted were cleaning up the kitchen after dinner when there came a knock at the door. It was Coach Bradley. He was carrying a thin book under his arm. When he, Lisa, Ted, and their parents were all sitting at the kitchen table, he showed them the book. The tattered cover had a picture of a soccer player on it.

  “I haven’t used this rule book in a while because most of what I need to know is up here.” Coach Bradley tapped his forehead. “But when you talked about doing flips today, it reminded me of something I’d read.”

  He thumbed through the pages until he found the one he wanted. “Here, read this part.” He handed the book to Lisa.

  Lisa read out loud. “‘As long as the person taking the throw-in follows all the rules, there’s no reason why he or she can’t do a flip throw rather than a standing throw. But coaches should be sure the throw-in is okay with the referees before letting players attempt such a move.’ ” Lisa looked up at the coach.

  “W
hat does this mean?” she asked in puzzlement.

  Coach Bradley took the book from her. “What it means,” he said with a smile, “is that if you can learn to do a flip while holding a soccer ball, your throw-in problems are solved—and the Soccer ’Cats could have a new secret weapon!”

  Ted frowned. “I don’t get it, Coach,” he said.

  The coach laughed. “Picture this: Lisa retrieves the ball after it goes over the touchline. She takes a running start, then at just the right distance from the line, she flips herself over, still holding the ball. Just as she lands —her feet and body in proper position, of course—she releases the ball from behind her head and catapults it over the defense! The speed of her spinning body adds momentum to the ball and zoom! it goes higher, farther, and faster than she, or just about anyone, could ever throw it from a standing position.”

  “But if that’s true,” Mr. Gaddy said, “why doesn’t everybody do flip throw-ins?”

  Coach Bradley nodded. “Good question. Ted, name two other ’Cats who know how to do flips like Lisa.”

  Ted shook his head. “No one can.”

  “There’s your answer. Not everyone does it because not everyone can do it.” The coach laid a hand on Lisa’s shoulder. “And Lisa won’t do it either, unless she wants to. It’s up to her.”

  Lisa swallowed. Doing a somersault on the trampoline or a regular front handspring on the ground was one thing. But doing a handspring while holding a soccer ball, with everybody watching her …?

  Then she imagined herself lobbing the ball over her amazed defenders’ heads. They’d be powerless to stop her! It would be just like the coach said—her throw-in would be the Soccer ‘Cats’ secret weapon.

  She grinned at the coach. “I’ll give it a try,” she said. “Just tell me what to do!”