Team Play Read Online Free PDF

said, handing him the bike.
    “Stevie, phone for you!” her older brother Chad called out the upstairs window. “Some guy named Phil. That’s the one you’re trying to dump, isn’t it? Should I tell him you’re on a date or something?”
    Since Chad was yelling loud enough for all of downtown Willow Creek to hear what he was saying, Stevie figured that Phil had probably heard him, too. One of the nice things about Phil was that he understood when things like this happened, because he had as many sisters as she had brothers.
    Stevie was glad now that she’d rushed home. Otherwise, she might have missed Phil’s call. She wanted to tell him about everything that was going to happen. She reached for the phone and paused. On second thought, she decided, she didn’t have to tell him everything. Phil probably didn’t need to know how good-looking the Italian boys were.

S TEVIE GOT AN early start for school the next morning.
After all
, she told herself,
a person who is turning over a new leaf shouldn’t be following a lot of bad habits
. She also knew that she wouldn’t get away with being late two mornings in a row!
    It was a lovely spring morning. The forsythia was in bloom and the fruit trees in people’s yards were beginning to bud. The air was clean and fresh. A cool breeze brushed through Stevie’s hair. She took a deep breath and gazed up at the clear blue sky. It was a wonderful morning to be alive. Even the fact that she was going to school couldn’t ruin it.
    Stevie sighed happily. The sky was beautiful. The pale green leaves beginning to appear on the trees were beautiful.The busy birds, flitting from branch to branch, were beautiful. The roofs of the houses, the windows, the porches, were beautiful.
Everything is beautiful
, she thought,
even the telephone pole with the
—Stevie stopped abruptly.
    There it was again, the poster with the girl on it. There was something very familiar about the girl, too. Stevie squinted and walked over to it. The first thing that became clear to her were the words: FOR PRESIDENT. The next thing that became very clear was that somebody had made a bad mistake. There, in front of her, in black and white, was a picture of her. The poster proclaimed that she, Stevie Lake, was running for president of Fenton Hall Middle School.
    “No way,” she told her likeness on the telephone pole. The picture didn’t answer.
    Stevie felt a sudden chill, and it wasn’t from the morning air. Something very peculiar was going on. She’d decided to turn over a new leaf, not an entire tree! She took a deep breath and read the entire poster from beginning to end.
    FOR PRESIDENT
    [then came her picture]
STEVIE LAKE
of
Fenton Hall Middle School
A Young Girl with a Big Heart!
Voluntary Chairman of Children’s Hospital Festival
Elected Chairman of Fenton Hall Spring Fair
Go with the Best
A Vote for Stevie Is a Vote for Students!
Debates: Saturday the 28th
Election: Monday the 30th
    Stevie could hardly believe what she was reading. The office of the President of the Middle School usually went to somebody with really terrific grades who spent a lot of time in the principal’s office talking about school projects. Stevie didn’t have terrific grades and, although she spent a lot of time in the principal’s office, most of it had to do with things she had to promise never to do again!
    The President of the Middle School was a person who dedicated his or her time to good projects. The President was the kind of person who cared when somebody whispered in assembly. The President was the kind of person who was always ready to help somebody else, whether it was collecting canned goods for the homeless or giving a student advice on how to get along with a teacher or arranging with the phys. ed. department to have basketballs available for games after lunch.
    Stevie, on the other hand, was the kind of person who would bring in cans of food for the homeless—two weeksafter the drive was over. She could