Kickoff!

by Tiki Barber

  Uh-oh . . .

  • • •

  It was nearly ten o’clock at night when the front door opened and closed.

  “Ma?” Tiki called from the living room sofa where he and Ronde were sitting, watching the NFL report on TV.

  Nobody answered.

  “Ma, is that you?” Ronde called.

  She appeared in the doorway, frowning. “Well!” she said, coming slowly into the room and dropping down in her favorite armchair. “Did I ever get an earful tonight!”

  “What do you mean, Ma?” Ronde asked innocently. But he knew what was coming.

  “I found out that most of your teachers don’t even know who you are!” she said. “Apparently, you never raise your hands in class, you seem not to be paying attention, and you show no interest in learning anything. Both of you!”

  “That’s not true, Mom!” Tiki protested.

  “We were just distracted,” Ronde explained.

  “Oh, really? By what?”

  “By the football team,” Tiki said. “But that’s all over now, Ma, so you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

  “‘All over’? What do you mean, ‘all over’?”

  Tiki and Ronde told their mom the awful truth: They were losers. Big-time losers—third-stringers, while their friends were starters! Their big dream of starring in the Super Bowl together was dead and buried. They’d never even make it to the Eagles’ starting lineup, let alone the NFL!

  “Now, boys,” said their mother, “you need to start paying attention—in and out of class. When people tell you to wait for your chance, and to be ready when it comes, you ought to listen! When teachers share their knowledge with you, you ought to be grateful and interested. Maybe you don’t think what they’re teaching is important, but you’re still too young to determine that.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tiki and Ronde whispered softly.

  Their mother never raised her voice once, but she still got her point across loud and clear. “I don’t ever want to get another report like I got tonight, understand?”

  “Yes, Ma.”

  “If riding the bench in football means you won’t be distracted in class, maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Maybe that’s why they don’t let most seventh graders start—did you ever think of that?”

  Tiki hadn’t, he had to admit.

  “Now I realize football’s important to you boys, but remember, your classes come first.”

  “Yes, Ma,” the boys both said.

  “I know if you pay attention in class, you boys will do just fine. You’re smart kids, always were. But when you know the answers, you’ve got to raise your hands. You need to speak up.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tiki and Ronde said again, although they weren’t happy about it. Not a bit.

  “And from now on, I want you boys to do your homework together. Just because you don’t have the same classes, it doesn’t mean you can’t help each other. Tiki, you’re good in English and history. Ronde, you’re good at math and science. If your brother has a hard time with a subject, you help him—and I don’t mean do his homework for him, understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You’ll both get stronger if you work as a team,” she said. “In class, and in football, too.”

  Funny, thought Tiki. She sounded just like Matt Clayton—he’d said almost the same thing. But how could you work as a team if your job was just to warm the bench?

  “Look at me and Mrs. Pendergast,” Mrs. Barber said. “We’re a team. She’s got the passion and the drive, and she’s not afraid to knock on strangers’ doors. And I guess I’ve got a way with words. But we all have our weak spots, boys. That’s why it’s good to be part of a team.”

  “Ma, the way you raised your hand and stood right up there at that meeting?” Tiki said. “I could never do that.”

  “Me neither,” Ronde said.

  “I know it takes courage to raise your hand and stand up, boys. You think it was easy for me? You think it was easy to ask people at Back to School Night to sign their names on a petition?”

  “Ma, you didn’t!” Ronde said. “Not at school!”

  “Yes, I most certainly did.” She held out her clipboard and smiled. “And I couldn’t have gotten all those teachers and parents to sign, if I hadn’t stood up and spoken out. But I believe this issue is important enough to risk a little embarrassment. And to give it my time and all my effort.”

  “Wow, Ma!” Tiki said, flipping page after page.

  “How many names did you get?” Ronde asked excitedly.

  “Over a hundred, just tonight,” Mrs. Barber said proudly. “That’s what a person can do when they’re not afraid to speak out. Now, you boys need to show a little confidence by raising your hands in class, and calling out the answers nice and loud, so everybody can hear you.”

  Tiki looked at the page . . . all those names!

  “Just like me and Mrs. Pendergast,” said their mom, “if you two work together as a team, you’ll be stronger than you are alone. Next time I see your teachers, I want to hear nothing but good things. Understood?”

  “Yes, Ma,” Ronde said.

  Tiki nodded. “Yes, Ma!”

  If his mom and Mrs. Pendergast could do it, so could he and Ronde.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  RIDING THE BENCH

  * * *

  THE DAY DAWNED BRIGHT AND CHILLY, WITH THE wind whipping down from the north. The flags on the flagpoles outside the school and on the field were snapping in the stiff breeze.

  On the field, the Eagles kept dancing and hopping and rubbing their hands to stay warm. Across the fifty-yard line, the East Side Mountaineers were doing the same.

  Ronde was actually shivering in his uniform as the teams got ready for the first game of the new football season.

  The coin toss was won by the Eagles, and they chose to kick off. Coach Spangler had told the team captains he wanted the other team to have to deal with the wind first.

  Adam kicked off with the wind behind his back, and the ball went straight out of the end zone! The home team Eagles whooped and hollered, exchanging high fives and waving to their excited fans in the stands.

  The Mountaineers tried to run the ball straight up the middle on their first two tries, but the Eagles’ defensive line stopped it cold.

  The Mountaineers’ quarterback tried passing on third and ten, but the wind held the ball up, making it fall way short of the receiver. The wind affected the fourth-down punt, too. That set the Eagles up at midfield for their first possession of the season.

  The Eagles’ second-team quarterback was an eighth grader named Cody Hansen. Last year, he’d been the backup for Matt Clayton. This season, though—at least until Matt came back—Cody Hansen was the man.

  Except that he wasn’t. He’d really done well in practice, but as the game got started, Ronde could see that Cody was acting like a totally different player. He nearly dropped the ball handing it off on first down. Then, on the next play, he threw a pass that sailed way over the receiver’s head.

  “Maybe he’s nervous,” Ronde said to himself. He could understand that—he figured he would be too, in Cody’s shoes.

  On third down, Cody completely missed the snap from the center! The ball sat on the ground, spinning in place, while linemen from both teams piled up all around it, wrestling each other to get hold of it.

  The refs blew their whistles, separated the players, then signaled the bad news—the Mountaineers had recovered the fumble!

  “Aw, man!” Ronde and some of the other kids moaned out loud, but one look from Coach Spangler shut them up.

  This is a team, his look said. We stick up for each other—we don’t show each other up.

  Still, as he watched from the bench, Ronde couldn’t help thinking that Cody Hansen was messing up, big-time. He felt bad for Cody, sure—but man, the kid was getting his big chance, and he was stinking up the joint! Why didn’t Coach just pull him, and give the third-string quarterback a try?


  Because the third-stringer’s just a seventh grader, that’s why, thought Ronde.

  Tiki sat down next to him and saw the look on his twin’s face. “Hey, we don’t have to like it,” he said. “But we do have to listen to what Coach says.”

  “I know,” Ronde said. “It’s just hard, that’s all.”

  The Mountaineers were in Eagles’ territory now. Their quarterback snapped the ball, dropped back to pass, then let it fly.

  As the ball was released, the wind suddenly calmed down for a moment. The ball flew straight and true. Ronde looked downfield and saw that Justin Aiello, the Eagles’ left cornerback, had been badly beaten by the receiver he was supposed to be covering.

  “Nooo!” Ronde shouted, but it was way too late. The receiver reached out, grabbed the ball, and ran it easily into the end zone!

  The extra point was good, and the Mountaineers led the Eagles, 7–0.

  “Hey! Hey!” Coach Spangler barked at the disappointed players coming off the field. “It happens sometimes. Don’t let it get you down—good teams get behind, but they find a way to come back.”

  True, thought Ronde, but not if their quarterback has a stomach full of butterflies.

  On the Eagles’ next possession, starting on their own fifteen-yard line, they ran a couple of plays for Jesse Fowle, last season’s star running back. He managed a pair of short gains, mostly by going around end, because the Mountaineers defensive line was so humongous it was scary.

  Then, on third down, Cody Hansen dropped back to pass. But the Mountaineers were ready for it. They blitzed, and Cody, under pressure, threw up a lob pass that floated for what seemed like forever. It finally came down—right into the arms of a Mountaineer defensive back—a killer interception, right in the Eagles’ own red zone!

  Luckily, the Eagles’ defense held this time, allowing only a chip shot field goal. Still, the score was now 10–0, and it was only the first quarter!

  By the time halftime rolled around, things were looking up, at least a little. The Eagles’ defense had kept them in the game, holding the Mountaineers scoreless all through the second quarter.

  Still, the way the offense was playing, things didn’t look too good—especially after Jesse Fowle twisted his ankle late in the first half.

  He’d kept playing on it, but he obviously wasn’t the same runner he’d been last season. Ronde remembered seeing him back then, juking and jiving his way to more than one touchdown.

  Not this year—not this game, anyway.

  The score was now 10–6. The only points the Eagles had in the first half were courtesy of Tiki’s and Ronde’s old pal Adam. Not only could he kick the ball a mile, but it turned out he could put it straight between the uprights, too!

  “So far,” Ronde muttered, “he’s our MVP.”

  “I know,” Tiki agreed. “Unbelievable.”

  Neither boy would say it out loud, but it was hard having to sit on the bench while their team was getting creamed.

  Well, maybe not creamed, exactly. But they would have to come from behind in the second half to win.

  The Eagles had been behind only three times all of last season, and they’d managed to win one of those games. But then, that had been with Matt Clayton at quarterback and a healthy Jesse Fowle at running back.

  “Listen up, team!” Coach Spangler told them in the locker room between halves. “We’re going to have the wind with us this quarter, and their D-line is really big—so I want us to change the game plan and go to the passing game, understand?”

  Everyone nodded, understanding the real reason—Jesse Fowle couldn’t run, and Coach didn’t trust his backups.

  “Now get out there and let’s get this game back!”

  With a fierce roar, the team headed for the tunnel that led back onto the field.

  • • •

  “Man, I hope they put somebody else in at running back,” Tiki muttered softly as the Mountaineers ran the opening kickoff all the way back to midfield—a bad start to the second half. “I don’t care who it is, me or John Berra. Just find somebody who can make a play!”

  Ronde felt the same way. He just knew that if he’d been in there back in the first quarter, the Mountaineers would never have completed that long touchdown pass. He was much faster than Justin Aiello, the Eagles’ cornerback who’d been beaten on the play. He just knew it.

  Ronde was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he wasn’t paying attention to the game. But suddenly, there was a commotion out on the field. The refs were signaling that it was Eagles’ ball—there must have been a fumble!

  Everyone on the Eagles’ sideline cheered and whooped it up, and the offense ran back onto the field.

  Suddenly, the momentum seemed to have shifted. Cody Hansen, looking much more confident, completed three straight passes to three different receivers—the last one a perfectly thrown bomb down the sideline all the way to the Mountaineers’ twenty yard line.

  Then, on first down, Cody dropped back to pass. But he must have seen an opening, because suddenly, he dashed through the middle on a quarterback draw, catching the Mountaineers off guard. Cody made a quick move to his left, dodged the middle linebacker, and dove into the end zone for a touchdown!

  Before the visiting Mountaineers knew what had hit them, they found themselves trailing, 13–10.

  Ronde and Tiki got more into the game now. If you had to ride the bench, it sure was more fun to do it when your team was winning!

  The game settled in now, with both sides’ defenses digging in. The two teams’ punters took turns kicking the ball back and forth, but the score remained the same. The big question was, which side would crack first under the building pressure?

  In the fourth quarter, the Eagles’ defense pressured the Mountaineers into making a pair of costly mistakes. First, their running back had the ball stripped from his hands by Eagles’ linebacker Ira Gutzel. That led to another Eagles TD, with Cody connecting on a long bomb to wide receiver Curt Schoenig.

  “Man,” said Ronde under his breath. He wished it had been him on the field, catching that touchdown pass!

  The game quickly turned into a rout as the Mountaineers’ quarterback threw an interception. Again, Ronde was torn as he watched Jeff Jacobsen, the Eagles’ starting safety, run it back for another TD. Another extra point by Adam (the kid never missed!) and the Eagles’ lead stood at a commanding 27-10!

  With less than two minutes left, and just when Tiki and Ronde had given up hope of ever getting in the game, Coach Ontkos, who handled the offense, called Tiki’s name. Tiki grabbed a helmet and trotted over to him, while Ronde watched and listened.

  “Just plow right into the line and hold on to the ball,” Ontkos told Tiki. “Don’t worry about breaking a big play—we’ve already got enough points. We just don’t want to make any mistakes.”

  Ronde didn’t like hearing that. He knew you could never have enough points. But he understood that the coach didn’t want Tiki to risk fumbling the ball by trying too hard to get an extra yard or two.

  Ronde sat back down and watched as Tiki ran the ball straight into the line, three times in a row. He gained a total of maybe two yards, but forced the Mountaineers to use up their last two time-outs.

  After an Eagles punt, Coach Pellugi called Ronde’s name.

  “Finally!” Ronde muttered angrily. With only a minute left, the game was basically over anyway. But he was still happy to be in the game.

  “You’re in at cornerback,” Pellugi said, patting Ronde on the shoulder. “Give the receiver lots of room—we don’t want any TDs connecting.”

  Ronde played the next two downs, but they didn’t throw to his man, so he never got the chance to make a play. Then the final gun sounded, and the game was over.

  The Eagles all jumped up and down, cheering their first win of the season. Everyone chest bumped, high-fived, and gave each other crazy handshakes. Then they lined up to shake the Mountaineers’ hands.

  When they got back to the locker roo
m, Coach Spangler gathered the team together. “Well, that was a pretty sloppy performance,” he said, shaking his head as the team members fell silent.

  Then a smile played on the coach’s face. “But I’ll take a win any way we can get it! A W is a W.”

  That brought a big cheer from the Eagles. But Tiki and Ronde just stood there watching. Ronde didn’t feel part of it, and he knew his brother didn’t either.

  “We made lots of mistakes today,” Coach Spangler said, “and we’re gonna work all this week on our Xs and Os, to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again. Because next week we’ve got the Bears, and they’re not gonna give the game away like these guys did. We’ve gotta play better, or we’re gonna go down. Understand?”

  Ronde understood, all right. He understood that it didn’t matter how well he and Tiki knew the Xs and Os. If they had to sit on the bench the whole time, what difference would it make?

  • • •

  Later that afternoon the twins decided to take a break from their home football sessions and go bike riding instead. “Let’s head all the way up Mill Mountain,” Tiki suggested.

  Ronde knew it was a tough ride—uphill all the way. But you could see the whole city from up there, and he thought their mountain bikes could handle it. Besides, making it all the way to the top would be a real challenge—and it would be downhill all the way home.

  “Yeah, man, let’s do it!” he said.

  Riding toward Mill Mountain Drive, they passed Jason jogging the other way. He was wearing a Hidden Valley Track T-shirt, and waved to them, smiling.

  “Hey!” he said. “Check this out!” He stuck out his chest, so they could see the T-shirt if they hadn’t already.

  “Yo, man, you’re on the track team now?” Tiki asked.

  “That’s awesome,” Ronde said, as the boys all shook hands. “How’d you get on the team so fast?”

  “Are you kidding?” Jason said, still smiling. “It was a breeze. Only about fifteen kids showed up. I’m gonna be the new quarter-miler, starting next weekend.”

  “Quarter mile, huh?” Tiki said thoughtfully. “I’ll bet I could beat you in a quarter-mile race.”