by Danny Scott
It took Malcolm forever to come back. Calum tried to distract himself by looking at shin pads but all he could think about were those yellow boots.
“You’re in luck!” Malcolm said when he finally returned. “There was only one pair left, and it was in your size! Give them a go, pfft.”
Calum slid them on. It was like sliding a pair of gloves onto his feet.
“How do they feel, Cal?” his dad asked.
“They’re perfect!” Calum said to his feet.
“Are you absolutely sure now?” his dad asked cautiously. “I’m not coming all the way back here to change them.”
“Pfft,” Macolm blew the hair out of his eyes and looked around the empty shop. “Listen wee man… pfft, we don’t normally do this but would you like to try them out with a football to make sure?” The shop assistant winked under his fringe.
He picked up a ball and tossed it to Calum. In his new boots, Calum didn’t even bother to catch it first. He brought the ball under his spell straight away and did a few keepy-uppies.
“Hey, you’re pretty good wee man, here, pfft, gimme a shot before my manager gets back.” Malcolm grinned like they were raiding the biscuit tin together.
Calum passed the ball through the air to the shop assistant.
Malcolm had a good touch but his balance wasn’t great. Plus, his hair kept falling into his eyes.
“Careful…” Calum’s dad said with his arms outstretched as Malcolm started to lose control.
It was too late.
Malcolm hoofed the ball towards the tower of water bottles in the middle of the shop…and… CRASH!
The tower collapsed like a house of cards.
The shop assistant’s face turned white as his boss appeared from the storeroom, roaring “MALCOLM!”
Calum’s dad quickly took the boots to the till and paid. Calum could tell that he was trying his hardest not to burst out laughing.
6
That’s Why They Call Them Castle Rock
The week leading up to the tournament went by at a snail’s pace.
Jordan spent every break boasting about how many times he’d visited Edinburgh. Apparently, his dad was arranging for scouts from Hearts and Hibs to come and watch him play. Only his crew of Lewis, Ravi and Ryan pretended to believe him.
In the hallway of his house, Calum’s mum was busy stuffing Mr Aziz’s boots into his bag.
“Mum, why do I need to take those scaffy old boots too?” Calum whined. “They’re ripped anyway.”
“Just in case you get blisters in your fancy new ones,” she replied, zipping up his bag. “I’ve taped the right boot up now too. They’re as good as new.”
“I doubt it. And anyway, I’ve been wearing my new astros all week,” Calum protested. In fact, he couldn’t stop scoring in them. He felt like a new player.
“Better safe than sorry, Cal,” his dad said. “Mum knows best, ok?”
Calum sighed.
“Have a good time Calum,” his mum said, looking like she might cry. “Edinburgh’s a great place. It’s where I met your dad. Remember to look out for the castle.”
“Can I go now?” Calum sighed. “You’re making me late… again.”
***
“Punctual as ever, Mr Ferguson,” Mr McKlop said as Calum ran towards the bus.
“Sorry Mr McKlop,” Calum said, “it was my mum’s fault.”
“Now, now, Calum.” Mr McKlop smiled. “Don’t be a tell-tale.”
It smelt like a damp attic on board the bus and the seats were a sickly orange-and-brown pattern.
“We’re lucky,” Leo said, moving his bag off the seat he’d been saving for Calum. “Manchester United weren’t using their tour bus this weekend so they said we could borrow it.”
Calum laughed.
“By the way,” Leo yawned, “I’ll probably fall asleep. I always fall asleep on buses.”
Leo wasn’t joking. The bus had hardly got to the end of the street before the rumble of its engine had him snoring into the window.
Up the back, Jordan was making everyone listen to a playlist he’d made especially for the trip. He had persuaded the driver to put it on through the bus’s speakers, and was now trying to show off by rapping along to one of the tunes.
“Jordan, please stop,” said Erika’s friend Sally. “You’re making me travel sick!”
With no one to speak to, Calum couldn’t keep his mind off Brandon Cramond, Castle Rock’s scary midfielder. What if the rest of the players at the tournament were that good?
He spotted Erika’s reddish-brown hair in the gap between the seats in front. She was sitting on her own and had her head buried in a book.
“What are you reading?” Calum asked, squeezing his face between the seats.
Erika jerked up from her trance.
“I was reading Dragonring,” she smirked, carefully folding her book around her bookmark. “Have you heard of it?”
Calum was shaking his head when, from the back of the bus, Jordan shouted, “I think we’ve got a hurler!”
He was teasing Lewis, whose pale skin was going green from travel sickness.
“It’s your rapping that’s making him ill,” Sally said.
The girls’ team all laughed. Calum wondered why Erika wasn’t sitting with them.
“Well, you just wait for this next one,” Jordan boasted, flipping his collar up.
However the track Jordan was expecting didn’t come on. In fact, he didn’t even need to sing. His own voice suddenly filled the bus through the speakers anyway.
Oh my loooooove, don’t break my hea-ah-ah-art!
“Wha— what’s this?!” Jordan yelped.
“It—sounds—like—your—next—single!” Sally managed to say as she gasped for air between huge belly laughs.
Like a mob of meerkats, everyone’s heads started to pop up above their seats to listen better to Jordan’s home recording. Everyone apart from Lewis, who looked like he might be sick at any moment.
“I don’t feel so good,” he moaned.
If you leave me, ba-BY,
I would just break down and cry-ay-ay-ay
“Skip to the next track!” Jordan shouted to Mr McKlop, Coach Brown and the driver, but they were too busy talking about whatever it is that grown-ups talk about.
Lewis whined, “I’m gonnae puke.”
As Mr McKlop passed back a bag for Lewis, the singing was interrupted by Jordan’s mum on the recording…
“Jordi, my lamb! Your bubble bath’s ready!”
“Coming Mummy!”
On hearing this, Sally and the girls fell on top of each other laughing so hard it looked like they might injure themselves.
“Oh no,” Lewis whimpered, and saved Jordan from his embarrassment by throwing up into a shopping bag.
“HEUGHAAAAAAYYYYYY!”
“Yuck!”
“Mingin’!”
“Gross!”
“Look Jordan! Your singing made Lewis puke!” Sally hooted.
Mr McKlop rushed up the aisle to help Lewis, and the bus filled with the smell of sick.
Calum pulled his school jumper over his nose and looked out of the window. They had arrived in Edinburgh. There were tourists milling about taking selfies in front of a huge castle, which sat proudly on top of a massive rock.
“So that’s why they’re called Castle Rock Primary,” Calum said quietly.
“Obvs.” Leo smiled a cheeky smile and prised his eyelids apart. His afro was all dented on one side. “What’d I miss?” he yawned.
7
Caleytown and the Lion’s Bottom
The bus started rumbling like thunder as it drove down a cobbled street. The buildings on either side looked like ancient skyscrapers all crammed together. Calum glanced up at a sign: The Royal Mile.
“Feeling worried, Caleytown’s gifted number nine?” Leo asked, punching Calum’s arm.
Calum tried to laugh through his nerves.
After a brief tour of the city, the bus fina
lly pulled up in a car park, stopped and sighed like Calum’s dad when he flopped down on the settee. All the players stretched and yawned as they stood up to get off the smelly bus.
Jordan snatched his music mix back off the startled driver, just as Lewis barrelled past him to be sick again on the tarmac.
While Coach Brown went to check on Lewis, Mr McKlop shouted, “Welcome to Holyrood Park, ladies and gentlemen.” He pointed to the big, rocky hill behind him. “That’s Arthur’s Seat over there. It’s an extinct volcano.”
Calum remembered from an old lesson that Arthur’s Seat was supposed to look like a resting lion. From the park he could make out the outlines of a bunch of people perched on what must be its rocky head. There was a small loch across the road. The lion’s water bowl, Calum thought.
***
“Caleytown! You made it. Welcome to the annual Castle Rock Primary tournament!” A friendly woman spread her arms in front of them. Her name badge said: ‘Mrs Tait’.
She busied herself with Mr McKlop and Coach Brown, getting them to sign piles and piles of forms. While the teams waited, Calum nervously scanned the crowds of players, teachers and parents.
Off to the side, there were two big white tents: one for boys to change in and one for girls. There were also a couple of portable toilets, an ice-cream van and, of course, two back-to-back pitches all set up, ready for action. The corner flags flapped in the wind.
Next to one of the flags, Calum spotted a few kids wearing Scotland Stars t-shirts. He recognised Reiss Robertson from the interview they’d watched in training. He was talking to a player who had shades on and jet-black hair fixed with gel into a side parting. He was wearing a full Hibs tracksuit. Brandon Cramond, Calum thought. It had to be him.
***
“Right guys, let’s do this thing!” Coach Brown said as she led the girls’ team to their tent. Calum, Leo and Jordan walked together with Mr McKlop. Janek, Ryan, a sickly Lewis and the rest of the squad followed them towards the boys’ tent.
Out the corner of his eye, Calum thought he saw a fast-moving green shape coming towards them like a cat. Of course it’s not a cat, he thought to himself. There are no such things as green cats.
When he turned back around, Brandon Cramond was standing in front of Mr McKlop, with his shades on and his hand outstretched.
“You must be Coach Iain McKlop,” Brandon said, “formerly of West Lamont Primary? I’m Brandon Cramond.”
Mr McKlop stared at Brandon Cramond for a while, as if to make sure he was real.
“It’s Mister McKlop to you, Mr Cramond. Pleased to meet you.”
They shook hands slowly.
Calum and Leo stood there with their mouths hanging open. The rest of the squad looked on.
Brandon stared at Calum over his shades.
“You must be Calum Ferguson. I read that you scored a couple of good goals against Muckleton. I’m looking forward to seeing if you’re as ‘gifted’ as Scotland Stars F.C. says you are.”
Calum had never heard anyone his age speak like Brandon before. He had no idea how to respond.
“We can’t wait,” Leo said for him.
“Me too, Leo Nkwanu, me too,” Brandon said without missing a beat. Leo was taken aback but before he could respond, Brandon Cramond was off.
“See lads, he’s been preparing, just like you have,” Mr McKlop said.
Calum felt like someone inside his stomach had turned the dial marked ‘nerves’ up to ten.
“Wow,” Leo said, “if leopards could walk, talk, play football and wear bright green tracksuits, then that’s what they’d be like.”
8
First up, Burvie
“Great save, Erika!” Calum and Leo shouted from behind their friend’s goal as she made another vital stop.
Caleytown’s girls’ team were desperately trying to hold on to a 2–1 lead against Burvie in their first match.
Mr McKlop had told the boys to show their support for the girls’ team while he watched the boys from Castle Rock play Minch on the other pitch. But, when they heard a player scream out in pain, Leo and Calum couldn’t help but turn their attention to the boys’ match.
A tall Minch player was hobbling off with one arm around his coach and the other around a teammate. A couple of the Minch players were pointing angrily at Brandon Cramond but he was shaking his head.
“That’s Minch’s star player who Cramond’s taken out,” Leo said. “The one we read about online.”
Calum shivered. If Brandon Cramond had been reading Scotland Stars, perhaps Leo and ‘Caleytown’s gifted number nine’ were next.
Raised voices in the girls’ game brought the boys’ eyes back to Erika’s match. A Burvie player was lining up a free kick within shooting range.
Calum took one look at the situation and called to Erika, “Watch out for the runner on your left.”
Sure enough, the free-kick taker pretended she was going to shoot but slyly passed the ball through to her teammate instead. Thanks to Calum, Erika was ready for her!
***
Five minutes later, Calum and Leo were standing over the ball ready to kick off against Burvie. Leo’s hair still had a dent in it from his snooze on the bus, and Lewis wasn’t looking any less green after his travel sickness.
But in defence, Jordan was fired up and ready. The fact that Brandon Cramond hadn’t mentioned him by name meant he had a point to prove. Plus, he wanted to impress the girls’ team after his embarrassing singing earlier. “COME ON CALEYTOWN!” he screeched so loudly that the referee dropped his whistle. Janek sighed and shook his head at his defensive partner.
The Burvie players were as big in real life as they had been in their team photo. It took their tall striker no time at all to waltz through the sleepy and queasy Caleytown team and thump a grass-cutter into the bottom corner to make it 1–0. It was an awful start but back on the halfway line, in his new boots, Calum felt strangely calm.
From the restart, Jordan screamed for a pass. Calum duly obliged and set off up the pitch.
“Pass it, Jordan!” Mr McKlop shouted from the sideline before Jordan could attempt a dribble.
Full of confidence in his new boots, Calum felt time slow down. He brought Jordan’s long pass under control and jinked sideways, taking him past his marker in one movement.
Burvie’s barrel-chested keeper edged forward to narrow the angle but, to Calum, the goal was the size of a house.
He bulleted a shot into the top corner to level the score. The goalie didn’t even move.
“YASS!” Jordan said, running forward and punching the air. “What a pass!”
Calum shook his head and smiled down at his new boots.
***
Midway through the second half, a healthier-looking Lewis had a long-range shot blocked by the keeper. As it bounced back into Calum’s path, he saw the keeper was still out of position. Without breaking his stride, Calum hit a dipping volley over the sprawling keeper and into the back of the net to give Caleytown the lead at 2–1.
“What a screamer!” yelled Lewis as they celebrated the goal.
“Nice one.” Leo slapped Calum’s shoulder, his afro now back to its normal shape.
Calum laughed. In his new boots he felt like he could score every time he got the ball.
As the clock wound down, Calum rounded off the victory with a simple tap-in from the wingback Ryan’s cross. It was his first-ever hat-trick, and it felt fantastic.
Leo ran over from the left wing with a grin on his face. “That’s it, I’m buying us triple-scoop ice creams to celebrate.”
Calum never said no to ice cream, but he also didn’t want to stop playing. The next game couldn’t come soon enough.
9
Brandon Shows His Teeth
“Ice cream tastes even sweeter after a victory!”
Erika and Calum laughed as Leo held his massive three-scoop ice cream above his head like a trophy. They were watching Castle Rock’s boys’ team take on Burvie, the team Cale
ytown had just defeated.
Castle Rock had already beaten Caleytown’s next opponents, Minch, and Mr McKlop admitted that Brandon Cramond had injured their star player.
Calum watched Cramond prowling about the pitch. Leo’s leopard comment was spot on. “Does Brandon Cramond even have a weakness?” Calum asked, as impressed as he was irritated by Cramond’s abilities.
Erika nodded and stared off into the distance. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
Calum and Leo just stared at her blankly.
“Michael Jordan said that,” she told them.
Leo and Calum continued to stare blankly.
“Michael Jordan, you dorks,” Erika repeated. “One of the greatest basketball players of all time? What… nothing?” She looked from Calum to Leo for any sign that they knew who she was talking about, and sighed. “What I’m saying is Brandon’s a great player but his teammates aren’t all that. Plus, they’re all scared of him. Watch…”
Calum watched. Erika was right. Every time a Castle Rock player got the ball they looked for Brandon straight away. They would panic and pass it to him even when it wasn’t the best option. Then, whenever their passes didn’t reach him, they looked like Calum’s dog Leighton when he knew he’d done something bad.
“I see what you mean,” Leo said, scoffing the end of his ice-cream cone. “Mind you, I’d pass to him too. He is very, very good at football.”
***
Burvie were making things difficult for Brandon and his teammates at 0–0. In a rare attack, one of their midfielders played a one-two and ran past Brandon Cramond.