Lucy on the Ball

by Ilene Cooper

  A new baby, Bobby thought. A brother or a sister. Wow. He couldn’t quite imagine what that would be like.

  He thought about the babies he knew. He didn’t know many. He remembered his cousins when they were babies. They could be cute. They could also be fussy and stinky.

  Bobby looked over at Lucy. She was very cute. She had her stinky moments, too.

  “I hope I like this baby as much as I like you, Lucy.”

  But he didn’t really think that was possible.

  Kick It!

  Bobby looked at himself in the mirror on his closet door.

  He was wearing his soccer uniform. Brown shirt, black shorts, long white socks, black sneakers.

  Lucy strolled over to him. She looked Bobby up and down. Then she walked away.

  “Yeah,” Bobby muttered. “I know what you mean.”

  The shirt was a little snug. The shorts were a little big. The socks looked weird. They went right up to his knees. The shin guards felt stiff and uncomfortable. Only the sneakers seemed okay.

  “Bobby!” Mrs. Quinn called from downstairs. “Shawn’s here.”

  Today was the first Saturday soccer practice. Each week there would be two practices, one after school and one on Saturday morning. Soon their team would start playing real games. They would play against other teams from nearby towns. Those games would be on Sunday afternoons.

  Bobby walked to his desk. His picture of Planet Man was there. He picked it up. He wanted to draw Planet Man in some new poses. Between soccer practice and homework, he probably wouldn’t have time today.

  “Bobby!” his mother called again. “Come on! You don’t want to be late on your first day.”

  Bobby put down the picture and grabbed his shin guards. He hadn’t tried them on yet. They didn’t look very comfortable.

  Shawn and his mother were in the kitchen. Mrs. Quinn had Lucy on her leash.

  Lucy pranced about. She knew being on her leash meant one thing. She was going outside. And she wanted to go now!

  On the way to the park, Bobby and Shawn were quiet.

  Bobby was pretty sure they were thinking about the same thing. They would know a few kids on their team, like Candy. But everyone else would be strangers.

  Bobby couldn’t remember the last time he had met a whole group of kids at one time. Even though he was sometimes shy with his classmates, they weren’t strangers. He had been with many of them since kindergarten.

  Lucy had helped Bobby become less shy. She had helped him make new friends. But he didn’t see how Lucy could help him make friends on the soccer field.

  As soon as Mrs. Quinn dropped the boys off in the park, they saw Candy. She ran over to them.

  “Hi, guys! I wondered where you were. The coach is about to start,” she told them.

  Before the boys could say anything, Candy went on. “There are seven boys and four girls here. Dexter from our class is one of them. In this league, we play with seven kids on the field.” Candy counted on her fingers. She wasn’t very good at math. “That means four kids will sit out at every game. Of course, that doesn’t mean for the whole game. The coach can take players in and out—”

  A shrill whistle blast stopped Candy in the middle of her sentence.

  “We better get going,” Bobby said.

  Shawn and Candy hurried toward the field. Bobby lagged behind.

  Coach Morris blew on his whistle once more. “Team! When you hear this whistle you stop what you’re doing. You look at me.”

  All the kids looked at him.

  “We are here to play soccer,” he told them. “We will practice hard. That will turn us into a good team. Then we will play hard.”

  Some of the kids were nodding. Shawn was one of them.

  “Now we are going to introduce ourselves. I’m Coach Morris.” He pointed at Candy. “Say your name.”

  “I’m Candy. I’ve never played soccer before but—”

  “Your name is enough,” the coach said in a firm voice. “Next.” He looked at Shawn.

  Shawn said his name so quietly Bobby could barely hear him.

  “Juan?” the coach asked.

  “No. Shawn,” he said more loudly.

  “All right, you’re Shawn,” Coach Morris said. “Let’s all try to speak up.”

  Bobby said his name. He tried to speak up.

  Pretty soon, everyone had given their names. Bobby tried to remember who was who, but only a few names stuck in his head.

  “The next thing we are going to do is pick a name for our team,” Coach Morris told the group. “We need something that goes with the color of our shirts. What’s brown?” he asked.

  “Mud’s brown,” Candy said.

  The coach frowned at Candy. “Do you think the Mud is a good name for our team?”

  Candy looked embarrassed.

  Bobby and Shawn glanced at each other. Candy almost never got embarrassed.

  A boy named Tim said, “Bear cubs are brown. Like the Chicago Cubs.”

  Tim must be a Cubs fan, too, Bobby thought.

  “Yes,” the coach agreed. “Cubs are brown, but they are not very fast, are they? In soccer you want to be fast. Anybody else?”

  Nobody said anything for a few minutes. Finally a girl named Jane said, “Maybe cubs aren’t fast, but some bears are. I did a report on them in school.”

  “Bears.” Coach Morris thought about that. “Well, bears at least seem tough. Let’s take a vote. How many of you like the name Bears?”

  The kids looked around at each other. Slowly, most of them raised their hands. Nobody seemed to have a better suggestion.

  “Okay, then. We are the Bears,” the coach said. “Now comes the most important question. How many of you have played soccer before?”

  Bobby was worried. He was afraid that he and Candy might be the only ones who had never played. It made him feel better when only about half the kids raised their hands.

  It didn’t seem to make Coach Morris feel better. He shook his head.

  “Okay, I guess I better start at the beginning,” the coach said. “Even though some of you know how to play, I want you to listen up anyway. There are some things you might have forgotten.”

  The coach took them over to the field. It was a large rectangle, with a circle in the middle and a goal at either end.

  “The most important skill you need to play soccer is good kicking,” Coach Morris said in a booming voice. “Kicking is what moves the ball from one player to the next. And kicking is how you score goals.”

  Coach Morris stood in the middle of the field and showed the group the proper way to kick. He picked up a soccer ball and kicked it hard. It went almost as far as the goal.

  “You’ve gotta practice your kicking,” he said. “Make a target and try to kick to it. Practice kicking the ball with your friends.”

  Bobby thought kicking the ball correctly looked plenty hard. But there was more. Much more.

  “You also have to learn how to pass the ball to another player. That’s how we move the ball down the field.” Coach Morris looked around at his team. “You,” he said, pointing to Shawn. “Come here. We’ll pass the ball back and forth between us.”

  Bobby was glad the coach hadn’t picked him to pass the ball. Shawn didn’t look nervous. Not very nervous, anyway.

  “This is how you pass a ball,” the coach said. He showed them how to use the flat, inside part of the foot. “You can control the ball this way.”

  Raising his foot and swinging it forward, the coach passed the ball to Shawn. When the ball came to him, Shawn used his foot to pass the ball back. They passed the ball between them a few times.

  “Not bad,” Coach Morris told Shawn. Shawn grinned.

  By the time Coach Morris had explained a few more rules and showed them what to do if they were protecting the goal, Bobby’s head was swimming.

  “I’ve got some booklets to hand out after practice,” Coach Morris said. “I want you to study them. They explain more about the rules of the game.
”

  Bobby looked over to the sidelines where his mother was waiting. Maybe it was time to go home.

  Mrs. Quinn was sitting on a park bench. She was talking to one of the other mothers. She didn’t seem to be paying much attention to Bobby’s soccer team.

  Lucy was very interested in what was happening on the field. She was tugging on her leash. When Bobby waved at her, Lucy gave several short barks.

  “Bobby!” Coach Morris was staring straight at him. “Can we have your attention, please?”

  Now it was Bobby’s turn to be embarrassed.

  “As I was saying,” Coach Morris went on, “we’re going to spend some time running up and down the field. We will divide into two teams. One team will try to kick the ball down the field. The other team will try to steal the ball. Then it will be their turn to kick it up the field.”

  Soon the players were ready. The black-and-white soccer ball was placed in the circle in the middle of the field. The coach blew his whistle.

  Kickoff!

  Dexter kicked the ball. Other kids kicked it, too. Bobby didn’t come close to putting his foot on the ball. But still he ran. Up the field. Down the field.

  Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Bobby saw something. Something running fast across the field. Something that could bark.

  “Lucy!” Bobby yelled. “Go back.”

  Lucy glanced at Bobby. Her leash was flapping behind her. That didn’t matter. She kept running.

  Now the other kids on the soccer team noticed Lucy. They kept kicking the ball. But they were laughing and pointing, too.

  Lucy gave a sharp bark. She had spotted the ball! Lucy loved to chase balls. She cut across the field in front of some of the kids. She got closer and closer to the ball. Then, when she was right on top of it, Lucy pushed the ball hard with her nose. She caught up with it, and pushed it again. Really hard. It went right past the goal line!

  “Hey, hey!” Coach Morris shouted. “Where did that dog come from?”

  The kids were laughing and cheering. Lucy finally stopped running. She sat on her haunches, panting. She looked very happy.

  Bobby was not happy. Uh-oh, he thought. Wait until the coach found out that Lucy belonged to him. “She’s mine,” he squeaked.

  Mrs. Quinn hurried up to the huddle. “I’m so sorry. Lucy is our dog. She got away from me.” She frowned at Lucy as she grabbed her leash.

  The coach shook his head. “She’s a wild one,” he said. “But she sure is fast.”

  “Hey,” Dexter said. “Lucy is brown. Why don’t we call our team the Beagles? You said we should name it after a fast animal.”

  For the first time all afternoon, Coach Morris cracked a smile. “The Beagles, huh? What do the rest of you think? Raise your hand if you like the name Beagles.”

  Everyone liked the idea. Dexter clapped Bobby on the shoulder. “We’re naming the team after your dog.”

  Bobby was happy now. It was always the same. Everyone loved Lucy.

  The Baby Lady

  Once again, Lucy was helping him make new friends. The boys and girls on the soccer team were excited about calling their team the Beagles. When practice was over, everyone wanted to pat Lucy.

  Lucy loved all the attention.

  That was the best part of practice. But Lucy wasn’t at the next practice. Bobby was on his own. His kicking wasn’t very good. Not very good at all. He was happy when practice was over. But soon he’d have to go back on the soccer field again. Was he looking forward to it? Absolutely not!

  There was something Bobby was excited about. Planet Man! He was eager to get home after practice and start drawing.

  When Bobby got home, however, he could see right away there wouldn’t be time for drawing.

  The first thing he smelled when he opened the door was furniture polish. The first thing he saw was a vase of flowers in the living room. The first thing he heard was the vacuum cleaner.

  Something was up. The house was never this clean unless company was coming.

  “Mom?” Bobby yelled. He tried to make his voice heard over the noisy machine.

  The noise stopped. Mrs. Quinn came into the living room. She looked frazzled.

  “What’s going on?” Bobby asked.

  “A woman from the adoption agency is coming over in a few minutes. She wants to see our home.”

  “Did you know she was coming?” Bobby asked.

  Mrs. Quinn shook her head. “The agency called about an hour ago. The visit is supposed to be a surprise. That way they can see how we really live.”

  “This looks better than how we really live,” Bobby noted.

  His mother finally smiled. “Well, just a little better, maybe. Now I’m going upstairs to comb my hair and put on some lipstick. If the agency worker arrives, let her in and talk to her until I come down.”

  Bobby sat on the couch. He waited nervously for the doorbell to ring. What was he supposed to say to this woman?

  Just then, something caught his eye. Lucy was creeping out of the front closet. She must have been hiding in there from the vacuum cleaner. She hated that noise.

  “Lucy, come here, girl,” Bobby called.

  Lucy slunk over to Bobby. She looked around. He could almost hear her thinking, Is that awful noise gone for good?

  “It’s okay,” Bobby said, patting her. Then the doorbell rang. Not once. Several times.

  The chimes of the bell set Lucy off. She began to bark. BARK!

  “Lucy, quiet!” Bobby yelled.

  That stopped Lucy for about two seconds. Then the bell rang again. The barking started again.

  Bobby ran to the door. Lucy ran behind him, still barking.

  He flung the door open. A lady with dark hair, wearing a blue raincoat and blue gloves, stood in the doorway.

  Lucy jumped on her.

  “Down, Lucy!” Bobby pulled her away from the visitor. “Hello,” he said.

  “Hello.” The lady said her name, but Bobby didn’t catch it. Lucy’s barking was too loud.

  “May I come in?” the woman said. “I think your mother is expecting me.”

  “Lucy, settle down!” Now Lucy added her prancy dance to her barking. “Yes, she is,” Bobby said, opening the door wider.

  Mrs. Quinn was hurrying down the stairs. “Oh, hello,” she greeted the woman. “I see you met my son, Bobby. And our dog, Lucy.”

  Lucy was finally quiet. She looked over the visitor with a curious expression.

  “Uh, yes.” The woman frowned. “We’ve met.”

  Mrs. Quinn said, “Let me take your coat. Then I’ll show you around. Bobby, why don’t you stay down here.” His mother gave him a look. “With Lucy.”

  Bobby knew what that look meant. He was supposed to keep Lucy quiet.

  “Come on, Lucy.” Bobby led her into the den. His mother kept paper and colored pencils for him there. Maybe he could do a few sketches of Planet Man.

  For a while Lucy sat near Bobby as he drew. Finally Lucy got bored and wandered off. Bobby didn’t notice.

  He was still hard at work when his mother and the adoption agency woman came downstairs. Since he hadn’t heard her name, Bobby thought of her as the Baby Lady.

  The Baby Lady and Mrs. Quinn walked into the den.

  “What are you drawing?” the Baby Lady asked.

  Bobby didn’t really like people looking at his artwork until he was finished. He pulled the paper closer to him. “A picture to help save the environment.”

  “My, that’s an ambitious project,” the Baby Lady said.

  “Yes, it is,” Bobby answered politely.

  “I take it you like to draw?” the Baby Lady asked.

  “Yes,” Bobby agreed.

  “He’s a very good artist,” Mrs. Quinn said.

  “What else do you like to do in your free time, Bobby?” the Baby Lady asked.

  Before Bobby could answer, Lucy trotted into the room. She had something in her mouth.

  “What have you got there, Lucy?” Mrs. Quinn asked.r />
  Mrs. Quinn tried to pull the thing from her mouth.

  Lucy pulled it right back. She thought it was a game!

  “Come on, Lucy,” Mrs. Quinn demanded.

  Lucy dropped a chewed-up ball of blue leather on the floor. Mrs. Quinn picked it up and examined it. “I think it’s a glove.”

  The Baby Lady took it from her. “I think it’s my glove.”

  All eyes turned to Lucy.

  “Lucy!” Mrs. Quinn said sharply.

  Lucy wasn’t just cute. She was smart. She knew she had done something wrong.

  “Oh, I’m so, so sorry,” Mrs. Quinn said to the Baby Lady.

  “I’m sorry, too,” Bobby whispered.

  Lucy hung her head. She seemed sorry as well.

  “We will replace your gloves, of course,” Mrs. Quinn added.

  The Baby Lady shook her head. “It’s all right. They didn’t cost much. Dogs will be dogs, I guess.”

  The Baby Lady didn’t seem to be mad. But she didn’t seem pleased, either.

  Mrs. Quinn walked the Baby Lady to the front door and said goodbye. Then she came back to the den. She sat down in a chair. She put her hand to her head.

  “Do you have a headache, Mom?” Bobby asked.

  “I’ve got one now.” Mrs. Quinn turned to Lucy. “How could you, Lucy?”

  Lucy tried to look busy rolling around on the floor.

  “Does this mean we won’t get a baby?” Bobby asked anxiously.

  He still wasn’t sure how he felt about a new baby coming, but he didn’t want his parents to miss out on one just because of Lucy.

  “I don’t think a chewed glove ruins our chances,” Mrs. Quinn said. “But it sure was embarrassing.”

  Bobby nodded. Even he had been embarrassed.

  “Lucy can’t be acting up like this when the new baby comes,” Mrs. Quinn said. “She has to settle down. She needs to go back to obedience school.”

  Bobby thought about all the things that came with babies. Diapers, booties, blankets, stuffed animals. Lots of things for Lucy to chew. Plus, babies liked to sleep. Lucy liked to bark.