A Different Game

by Sylvia Olsen

  “I can’t think of anything.”

  “You’re as bad as Danny.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “Okay, but think of it this way. The whole thing sucks, but there is something we can do. We can’t make it go away, but we can make it better.”

  Murphy curls his shoulders up to his ears. Molly is so optimistic. Maybe she’s got a point, but right now he doesn’t think there’s much a couple of kids can do to improve the situation.

  “First of all we need to get excited about the team.

  You guys should be happy. Right?” Molly pokes Murphy in the shoulder. “Right? Come on, Murphy, agree with me. You know I’m right.”

  “Okay, okay, you’re right,” he protests. “We have to get excited about the team.”

  “Then we have to get some money together so that Albert’s family can afford to get back and forth to Vancouver and have a good Christmas.” She stops and waits for Murphy to respond.

  “Okay, okay, you’re right again. We have to raise some money.”

  “Then we have to encourage Albert so that he becomes the best cancer patient in the whole world.

  People get better from leukemia, you know. But Dad says people heal better when they are happy. And from the sounds of it, Albert is not very happy right now.”

  The bell rings before Murphy has time to say anything else, but he knows Molly’s right. It seems like Albert has given up, and that’s not going to help anything.

  Maybe I’ve given up too, he thinks. Maybe Molly’s right: everything doesn’t have to be completely hopeless.

  In fact, once Murphy starts thinking about Molly’s plans, he starts feeling better.

  Chapter Twelve

  After school the boys are at the field when Molly arrives.

  “Come on, you guys,” she says when she gets close to where they are standing. “Play like you’re playing for Albert. Get ’er done.”

  The words sound funny coming from Molly. Jeff throws her a sideways look, and Danny scowls.

  Murphy puts his hand on Danny’s shoulder and says without very much enthusiasm, “Yeah, guys, let’s go and get ’er done.”

  Danny pushes Murphy’s hand away and heads onto the field.

  “We’re the Riverside Strikers,” Jeff says, trying to sound excited. “Let’s get out there and play like a team.”

  “Way to go,” Molly says. “You’re not the Formidable Four. You’re the starting lineup for the Strikers.”

  She’s right, Murphy thinks. We’re not the Formidable Four anymore. We’re the Riverside Strikers. We’re part of the team. And that’s a good thing.

  He looks at the boys on his team one by one. Up until then, he hadn’t really thought much about any of them other than how they kicked or ran or passed the ball.

  “Way to go, Danny!” Murphy shouts when Danny takes a great shot and almost scores.

  “Good goal, Reza!”

  “You show ’em, Walker!”

  When Murphy cheers for the other boys, he feels good. He’s not one of the Formidable Four. He is a Riverside Striker. They are a team.

  It’s an easy game for him. Jeff and the other Striker defenders play so well, there aren’t many serious Tempo shots on goal. Murphy only makes a few great saves and a couple of blocks, and he gets a shutout.

  The Strikers take down the Tempo Lake Tigers handily, 3–0.

  “You guys are great. You guys are great,” Molly cheers when the game is over. “The Riverside Strikers sure showed those guys who’s the best. Good team, good team, good team.”

  She jumps up and down and throws a high five at Murphy and Jeff, but Danny turns to go before she can congratulate him.

  “Hold on, Danny, I need a word with you,” Coach Kennedy calls to him as he walks away. “Wait a minute,” he says as an afterthought, “I’d like to talk to Jeff and Murphy as well. Can you fellows hold on a minute?”

  The other players head toward the school, leaving the three boys and Molly behind with Coach Kennedy. He tosses each one of them a few balls and water bottles that have been left on the field.

  “How’s it going with you boys?” he asks.

  “Not bad,” Jeff says.

  “How do you like playing for the Strikers?”

  “Good,” Jeff says. He nods his head. “Yeah, it’s good.”

  “I’m surprised that you boys aren’t more enthusiastic. I had heard good things about the effort you put in this summer for the team. I heard we were going to get some mighty excited players from the tribal school.”

  “So what are you saying?” Danny snaps. “That we’re not playing good enough for you?”

  “Hey, buddy, not so fast,” Coach Kennedy says. “I’m the coach, and my job is to take care of my players. I’m just wondering if you’re making the transition to Riverside okay. I know it can be hard for some kids. You guys look a little down, that’s all.”

  “Nothing wrong,” Danny mumbles with his head down.

  “We’re fine,” Jeff says. “We’re all good.”

  Molly, who has been standing off to the side, joins the boys.

  “That’s good,” Coach Kennedy says. “Because if you have any concerns, you can come and talk to me anytime.”

  “They have a concern,” Molly pipes in.

  Danny straightens up and says, “Who are you to be talking for me?”

  “I’m your friend,” she says. “And I’m Albert’s friend too.”

  “Albert?” Coach Kennedy frowns.

  “He’s the guy that didn’t make the team,” Danny snarls. “The guy you overlooked. The guy who wasn’t good enough for you.”

  Coach Kennedy looks confused.

  “Danny,” Jeff says, trying to calm him down. “Lay off, bro.”

  “Albert? You wanna know about Albert? He’s the best player of us all.” Danny glares at the coach. “He’s just a guy from the reserve who happens to be better than any other player on this dumb team.” Danny squints to hold back his tears. “He’s the reason I play soccer. He’s the one who showed me all my moves, ever since I was a little kid. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be on this team.”

  “I know who you are talking about,” Coach Kennedy says. “But…”

  “Oh, now you remember him.” Danny’s almost shouting by now. “Maybe if you didn’t keep him off the team, maybe he wouldn’t have quit school and maybe he wouldn’t be sick right now.”

  Danny chucks the soccer ball he is holding at Coach Kennedy, catching him off guard and hitting him on his shoulder. He turns and races toward the school.

  Molly kicks the ball to Jeff.

  “Coach,” she says. “I’m so sorry. He didn’t mean to do it. Really, he didn’t.”

  Coach Kennedy stumbles a bit and then sits down on the bag of balls. He motions with his hands for the boys to sit beside him.

  “You too,” he says to Molly. He tosses her a ball to sit on.

  “I think I’m missing something here,” he says.

  “Please, someone tell me what is going on.”

  If Murphy thought things couldn’t get any worse, he just found out he was mistaken. He can’t believe his eyes. His best friend shouted at the coach and hit him with a ball. Jeff’s mouth hangs open, and Murphy’s knees are shaking.

  “You see, Coach Kennedy…,” Molly begins before either boy speaks. She tells him how hard the boys practiced all summer, how they called themselves the Formidable Four and how Albert was the head of the gang, the best player, the inspiration, the soccer hero for all the younger boys at the tribal school.

  She tells him that his playing got worse and worse until he didn’t make the team. She tells him that Danny got mad, Murphy got worried and Jeff got scared. No one knew what to do. She says it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that they found out that Albert has leukemia, and most of the teachers don’t even know yet. Now, for some reason, Danny blames the coach. Finally Molly stops talking and takes a big breath.

  “Nothing has gone right, Coach Kennedy
. It was so good at the start, and then things started to go wrong. Now it’s just one big disaster,” Murphy says.

  “I hear you,” he says. “I wish someone had told me earlier. I would have brought Albert onside and used him on the sidelines even if he couldn’t play.”

  “Well, we only just found out that he’s sick,” Jeff says. “And no one really likes to talk about it.”

  They all stand up and start walking back to the school.

  “I’ll talk to Danny,” Coach says. “But you kids are going to have to help me. It looks like he thinks I’m the bad guy.”

  “And maybe you could help us,” Molly says. “In a few weeks, Albert has to start going to Vancouver for treatment. His mom can’t go with him all the time.

  She has to work, and she has two other little kids.

  We need to raise money to help her travel to be with him and so his grandma can stay with him and to help them out with Christmas. We need to show him that we care about him. We need to get him back to school.

  There are SO many things we need to do. We have to get started.”

  “I’ll do whatever I can,” Coach says.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Murphy feels better when he thinks about Molly’s plan. He figures she’s probably right when she says they won’t be able to fix some of the major problems, but they can make a difference with other stuff.

  Murphy thinks that Molly is one of the most unusual friends he has ever had. It’s not because she’s a girl. It’s because she doesn’t ever quit. Nothing stops her. At first that part of Molly was a little hard to take. Jeff and Danny aren’t used to her yet. They think she’s weird. And Albert doesn’t have a clue what to think of her. But now that Murphy’s gotten to know her, he likes it that she never gives up. He likes it when she talks. Most of the time, she talks about interesting things. And he likes it that she is so positive—especially right now, because positive is the last thing Murphy has been feeling lately.

  In fact, Murphy comes to the conclusion that Molly really is a lot like his mom—she’s always coming up with stuff. If there’s a problem, Molly has a solution, just like Mom. She’s got a positive way of looking at things. She doesn’t let trouble get her down—not completely down. That’s another thing Murphy likes about her. Maybe it is because Molly and Mom are both girls. Murphy thinks for a few seconds that he likes that about Molly too.

  “Hey there, MT,” Murphy says when he gets home from school. “We won the game. The Riverside Strikers are awesome—the best team in the league— soon to be the best team on the Island.”

  Mousetrap fluffs up his tail and rubs against Murphy’s leg while Murphy pours himself a glass of milk and makes a cheese sandwich.

  “Remember when I told you how excited I was about the team?” Murphy drops his cat a piece of bread. “Well, today is the first day that I realized I’m really on the team. I’m not one of the Formidable Four anymore, MT. I’m a Riverside Striker. I’m the keeper of the Riverside Strikers.”

  Mousetrap always seems to appreciate Murphy’s stories. He curls up on his lap and purrs. He keeps one eye open, and that way Murphy knows he’s still listening.

  Murphy describes the game play by play. By the time he gets to the part where he gets a shutout, Murphy starts to feel the same old excitement coming back— just like he felt in the summer when the Formidable Four were dreaming about being on the team.

  “Bobby plays center. He’s good, but not as good as Albert. Walker plays defense with Jeff and Taylor in center back…”

  “You talking to your cat again, Murphy?” Mom says when she comes in from work.

  “Yep,” Murphy says. “And he agrees with me. MT says I’m completely right.”

  “That Mousetrap is a smart cat.” Mom throws her jacket and purse on the sofa.

  “He’s as smart as me,” Murphy says. “But he doesn’t come up with so many good ideas.”

  “What good idea did you come up with today?” Mom asks.

  “It wasn’t exactly me who came up with the ideas,” he says. “But I was the first one to agree with them.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well, there’s this girl at school,” Murphy says.

  “Have I told you about her?”

  “How would I know?” Mom says, laughing. “You haven’t told me what girl you are talking about.”

  “Molly.”

  “No, you haven’t told me about Molly.”

  Murphy wonders for a second or two why he hasn’t told Mom about Molly before. And then for another second, he wishes he hadn’t mentioned her, but now he doesn’t have any choice. He needs to tell Mom about the plans. And anyway, it’s not like Molly is a secret—she’s his friend.

  “Well, Molly’s a girl in my math class.”

  “Okay.”

  “And Molly says you and her dad were an item when you were in high school,” Murphy says. He wishes right away that he had left out the part about Molly’s dad.

  “An item?” Mom laughs again.

  “Yeah, you know, like going out.”

  “Oh, I see. An item means we were going out.

  Well, that narrows it down to about three guys. So what is Molly’s last name?”

  “Jacobs.”

  “Ooohhh. Yes. I do remember her dad. You could say we were an item. Or you could say he was my first love.”

  “Let’s not talk about your first love, okay?” Jeez, Murphy thinks to himself, the last thing I want to be talking to Mom about is love. “I’m just trying to tell you about Molly.”

  “I heard that Richard lives in town, but I haven’t seen him since we got back.”

  “Mom, I said I was talking about Molly.”

  “Right. Sorry, Murph. What about Molly?”

  “Do you even remember what we were talking about?”

  “Sure, we were talking about Molly.”

  “No, we were talking about Molly’s good idea.”

  “Right. Now tell me about the good idea.”

  Murphy fills Mom in about everything, and once they stop talking about love and Molly’s dad, it feels good. He hasn’t really talked to her for days. He tells her that Albert hasn’t been to school and all the boys have been feeling miserable. He tells her that Danny’s been downright angry and blames Coach Kennedy for everything, and that up until this afternoon no one cared one bit about the team. He tells her that the whole soccer thing and school thing were turning out bad—really bad.

  “That’s where Molly comes in,” Murphy says, and then he describes how Molly became his friend, how she talked to Coach Kennedy and how she came up with a plan.

  “Wow,” Mom says. “I like Molly already. You let me know what kind of help I can be. I’ll do whatever I can.”

  “I was talking to my dad last night,” Molly says the next morning. “He helped me put together a plan. You guys tell me if you think it will work.”

  “A plan for what?” Danny says. “A plan to mess things up worse than they already are?”

  “Danny,” she pleads, “don’t be so negative.”

  “And I guess you are going to tell me things aren’t negative.”

  “No, I’m not, but it’s nobody’s fault. Albert is sick.

  It’s not his fault, and it sure as heck isn’t my fault.”

  “If Coach Kennedy had picked him for the team, Albert would be here at school,” Danny insists. “The Formidable Four would still be together. Now look where we’re at. We’re nothing.”

  “Coach Kennedy couldn’t pick Albert. Not the way he was playing. And even if he had, Albert would still be sick and unable to play,” she says.

  “He can play,” Danny argues. “He’s just too embarrassed to come to school because he didn’t make the team.”

  Molly looks at Murphy and then Jeff. They both shrug their shoulders as if to say, What can we do?

  “Mom says in a few weeks Albert will be going to Vancouver to get his cancer treated,” Murphy says.

  “He doesn�
�t have cancer,” Danny snaps. “He’s got leukevia.”

  “Leukemia,” Molly corrects him. “It’s a type of cancer.”

  “No way,” Danny cries. “That’s not true. That’s not what my mom says.”

  “Danny,” Murphy shouts. “Stop it. Stop denying it. None of the rest of us like it either, but Albert’s got cancer, and we can’t do anything about that.”

  Jeff butts in, “Yeah, Danny, but we can do something to help him out. If you hate thinking about Albert being sick, can you imagine how he feels?”

  Danny turns and looks at Jeff. “What do you mean we can do something about it?”

  Molly says, “That’s what Dad and I were talking about. There’s a few things that really suck for Albert right now. First, he isn’t coming to school. Second, he’s not getting to the soccer games. Third, his family doesn’t have enough money to travel to Vancouver to be with him while he’s in treatment. With Christmas coming, that’s double bad. And fourth, he doesn’t have any friends anymore, because we’ve all ditched him.”

  “We haven’t ditched him,” Danny says. “He ditched us.”

  “I know, but no one’s been to see him,” Molly says. “He’s ditching us because he’s afraid. And we’re letting him ditch us because we’re afraid. That’s what Dad says is happening.”

  “Whatever you say,” Danny shrugs. “I’m listening.”

  Molly says, “We should convince him to come back to school, even if he doesn’t feel very well.

  At least for the soccer games. He can hang out with Coach Kennedy. Maybe Albert can help him coach.”

  “And Mom agrees that we should do a fundraiser to help the family,” Murphy says. “She says she’ll help.”

  “Awesome,” Molly says. “’Cause that’s what Dad says as well.”

  Danny puckers his brow and says, “I got a question here. What’s Albert got to do with you and your dad, anyway?”

  “I’m Murphy’s friend, and Albert’s Murphy’s friend, so I’m Albert’s friend,” she says. “That’s how it works. That means I’m your friend too. Even if you don’t know it.”

  Danny frowns and shakes his head. “I guess,” he says.