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considered him a moment before he said, “Ten years ago, you made those plays. But that’s neither here nor there. Peele suspects something, and we have to deal with it. What I want to do is keep this under wraps as long as we can. We need to figure out a way to get Troy’s input during the game without him being on the sideline.”
    “That’s easy,” Seth said. “We did that before, when we played the Raiders.”
    “Yes, you did,” Mr. Langan said, “but no one was looking for Troy then. This will be different. Peele’s not dumb.”
    “But Peele thinks we’re somehow stealing the plays from the other team,” Troy’s mom said. “He thinks Troy is just the way we get the message to Coach Mora, not how we get the message about what to do .”
    “So if we take Troy out of the equation,” the owner said, “Peele will have to find evidence that we’re stealing the other teams’ plays. Since we’re not doing that, he’s out of luck. If we keep Troy out of Peele’s way, he’ll never figure out what we’re doing.”
    “But Mr. Langan,” Troy said, his voice bursting with frustration, “we’re not doing anything wrong. ”
    “But we’re doing something different,” Mr. Langan said, “something people are going to have a hard time explaining, and, believe it or not, doing something different scares people and gets them a lot more riled up than doing something wrong . People do the wrong thing every day.
    “As long as we can keep Peele from finding out that you are our football genius, we can just keep marching toward the playoffs.”
    “What if he does find out?” Troy said, unable to keep from asking the question. He couldn’t help thinking of Nathan’s words about Peele doing a big spread on him in the newspaper—about fame and pop stars and the nice cars that famous people drive. Tate’s voice came into his mind as well, talking about their lives being train wrecks, but that wasn’t true about everyone famous. Some famous people had it all, and lots of famous people were loved by everyone, even people they didn’t know.
    Maybe even a father they didn’t know.
    Mr. Langan returned the steeple of fingers to his mouth for a minute before he looked at Troy and said, “If Peele can prove you’re helping us call the plays, then we’ll go to the NFL and see what they think.”
    “That’s not so bad,” Troy’s mom said.
    Mr. Langan gave a painful smile and said, “It’s not good, either, though. First of all, we would have to stop using Troy while the league figures out how they wantto handle it, and second, while they might not say we’ve done anything wrong, I know my fellow owners pretty well. If we’ve got something that helps us win, something that they don’t have? Even if it’s not against the rules? They might make up some new rules.”
    “So we’re okay as long as Troy doesn’t get caught?” Seth asked.
    “That’s right,” Mr. Langan said. “Just don’t get caught.”

CHAPTER NINE
    TROY’S SEMIFINAL GAME on Saturday came fast. Seth worked the Tigers extra hard the remaining nights that week. The rest of the team picked up on the new calls Troy would be making at the line so that if the Dragons really did have the team’s playbook, the Tigers would be ready. And still, Troy wished he had even more time to prepare. This would be the biggest game he’d ever played in, and the need to win it crept through his bones like the ache from a fever.
    “These guys can’t be seventh graders,” Nathan said, peering across the field at the Dunwoody Dragons in their all-red uniforms.
    “They look like a high school team,” Tate said, removing her helmet and shaking loose her long dark hair.
    Troy didn’t say anything. He just stared and blinked,thinking that maybe the bright sunshine gleaming off their bloodred helmets might somehow be creating an optical illusion, making the Dragons look twice the size they really were.
    “Don’t worry,” Seth said, stepping into their