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rest of the lads.
    ‘This is Leon,’ said Corky, introducing us to the player next to him. ‘He couldn’t make it the other night but Mr Turner let him come today anyway.’
    Leon was taller and he had his hair in small braids, tight against his head.
    ‘Easy,’ Leon said to all of us.
    ‘Easy yourself with your girlie haircut,’ Chris shouted back.
    I turned and gave my best mate a dirty look. What did he think he was doing? But Chris just grinned at me, and when I turned to look at Leon, instead of getting upset or angry, he was grinning too.
    ‘Chris is my cousin,’ Leon told us. ‘Although he comes from the ugly side of the family . . .’
    I laughed.
    ‘Let’s get some tactics sorted, lads,’ said Mr James as he came towards us. Behind him was a woman: a very pretty woman with long brown hair and a big smile.
    ‘This is Miss Rice,’ Mr James told us. ‘She coaches the girls’ team and helps out with ours too.’
    ‘Hey, boys,’ said Miss Rice. ‘We ready to play soccer?’
    Her accent was American. Steven nudged me in the back and then spoke up.
    ‘It’s football, miss.’
    ‘Football, soccer . . .’ replied Miss Rice. ‘Really – who cares? The question is, can you all play the game?’
    Some of the other lads shouted out ‘Woo!’ as Steven went a bit red.
    ‘Right, let’s be having you . . .’ said Mr James.

    He quickly read out the starting positions and names. I was in defence and I smiled when I saw that Steven was put in next to me. Corky got the position just in front of us, alongside Jason. Abs and Chris were up front with Leon on the right and Gurinder in goal. The rest of the lads filled in the other positions and we had four substitutes. As we took up positions Corky pulled me aside.
    ‘Watch out for that big lad, Adam,’ he told me.
    I nodded. ‘He’s good, isn’t he?’ I said.
    Corky shook his head. That wasn’t what he meant. ‘He trained for the Eagles yesterday too,’ he said. ‘My brother saw him. And he was going on about getting you and your mates – in the changing room earlier.’
    I nodded again. ‘Can he train for us
and
the Eagles?’ I asked.
    ‘Only if no one finds out about it,’ replied Corky, winking at me. ‘I did trials for Clarendon United too.’
    ‘Who are they?’ I asked. All I knew was that Clarendon was one of the areas next to ours. I didn’t know anything about their team.
    ‘They’re the best team in the league along with the Eagles,’ replied Corky.
    ‘So how come you’re training with us?’ I asked him, getting suspicious.
    He grinned at me. ‘They told me I wasn’t good enough to play for them,’ he admitted. ‘And now I’m going to join the Reds and prove them wrong! That’s who we’re playing on Saturday and I’m going to score against them!’
    I looked at him and wished I could be as determined as he was. But I was really, really nervous . . .

Chapter 7
    THE FIRST TEN minutes went OK. Neither team scored but ours had the best chances. We were passing the ball around well and I could tell that Mr James was happy with us. He was standing on the side with Miss Rice and he kept on pointing players out and nodding his head. The other team were just kicking the ball anywhere, but we were making sure that we passed accurately. Then we had a break on the left and Jason picked up the ball.
    One of their defenders closed him down but Jason just waited for him to get close and then slid the ball between his legs, the classic nutmeg move. He looked up and saw me in the middle of the pitch. He played the ball to me at speed. I took it with my right foot but didn’t control it properly. It shot out to my right and I had to stretch to get control of it. But when I did I saw Abs out of the corner of my eye. He was running into space, with nothing between him and the goal. I knew one of their players was closing in on me, but I waited a few moments before sliding the ball through to Abs.
    I didn’t have time to