Over the Wall

by Michael Panckridge

  ‘Imagine how you’d feel if it was you. He must feel like he’s walked out on you. Cheated you. And then yesterday, he had to come back and stand up to you. Added to all of that is the complication of his scoring a goal against us. Not long ago, he was a part of “us”, Mitch. What do you think he would have done if you had been the goalie?’

  It was a good question. I thought back to our tennis game.

  ‘I think he would have been just as keen to score a goal.’

  ‘Why? You’re his best mate,’ said Becky.

  ‘I was his best mate,’ I replied. ‘No, he knows what it means to play for a team. He was playing for Ascot. So he would have wanted them to win.’

  ‘Well, let’s ask him.’ Bubba was getting impatient. Maybe he was afraid of forgetting the address. But that was no problem – it turned out Ascot email addresses used the same formula as ours.

  ‘It’s jack dot crossly at ascot college, that’s one word, dot edu, dot au.’ Luci typed in the address and started the email. We watched the screen.

  To: jack.crossly@ascotcollege.edu.au

  CC:

  From: luci.rankin@sandhurst.edu.au

  Subject: Hi

  Hi Jack,

  We were all really excited to see you yesterday. Really. That was a great goal you scored. Travis Fisk is still angry about it, so you’ve made everyone happy here!

  How are you? Please write back to us and tell us what happened and everything. We miss you heaps. Bubba wants to let you know that he scored two goals and thinks that the contract from Melbourne Victory will be coming through any day now. (Bubba is an idiot!) Am not! (That was Bubba.) Hey, guess what? Bryce made it into the secret room in the library. Remember? If you write back we’ll tell you how he did it. Please email us, Jack. From your friends, Luci, Becky, Mitch, Bubba and Bryce. P.S. Good luck with your last two matches.

  For a moment after Luci hit the send button, we all just stared at the screen.

  ‘I wonder if that’s as close as we’re ever going to get to Jack,’ Bryce said.

  The bell went and we ambled out of the library.

  ‘What about another look in the secret room – all of us this time?’ asked Bubba.

  ‘Not yet, Bubbs. I’m gathering together a couple of items. I’ll make the next journey. After that we’ll increase the party.’

  Bubba looked a bit disappointed.

  ‘Besides,’ Bryce continued. ‘I need you in the library to help out if things go wrong.’

  Bubba looked cheerful again.

  Our next practice session, the following Tuesday, was in cold, wet, and miserable weather, but this time Mr Zucker and Miss Lan thought we needed the practice. The soccer competition was really tough, so the more training we could squeeze in, the better.

  We did a lot of running, passing and dribbling. We practised our throws and our long kicking, too. In fact, we did just about everything you could possibly do on a soccer field. We even tried some slide tackles. Luckily, I avoided Fisk in that particular drill.

  Mr Zucker liked to change our positions, saying we should be skilled in both attacking and defending. We all got to put the gloves on and have a go in goals, as well. In one of the drills, I played goalie while three strikers tried to score with a four-man wall in place. Fisk was the designated striker. His style was to blast the ball as hard as he could straight at the wall. He thought it was quite funny to watch the kids in the wall cringing and cowering in front of him as they wondered who he would aim his shot at next.

  Finally, Franko had had enough.

  ‘It looks like you don’t have the skill to curl your shot, Fisk,’ he said to him. ‘All you can do is the obvious.’

  ‘Whaddya mean, curl, idiot?’

  ‘Bend your shot around the edge of the wall.’

  ‘Yeah, right. As if!’

  If anyone could do it, Franko probably could.

  ‘Come on then, Franko, have a go!’ Mr Zucker called out, picking up on the conversation.

  Fisk took his place in the wall. The kids beside him looked a bit more relaxed. Franko ran in and thumped the ball. It curled, but not enough to miss Fisk at the end of the wall. It caught him on the thigh and made a huge slapping noise. Fisk roared in anger and booted the ball away into the car park.

  ‘You’re gone!’ he bellowed at Franko.

  ‘He can give it, but he can’t take it,’ Chaz whispered to me.

  ‘Tell me about it,’ I replied.

  We’d trained together with the Red squad, but Mr Zucker always liked to finish with a penalty shootout. Miss Lan’s players remained at the other end of the pitch doing dribbling relays across the ground.

  ‘Okay, let me see now . . . Real Madrid against, umm . . . Manchester United.’ Mr Zucker’s all-time favourite moment was naming the two teams for any comps we did.

  ‘Right!’ He clapped for attention. ‘UEFA final. Two all after extra time. Game goes to a shootout. Fifty-seven thousand screaming fans. Shane Corelli, Man United goalie, and Mitchell Grady for Real Madrid.’

  The remaining players organised themselves into two teams. I watched Fisk and Paisley skulk about so they could both be on the Manchester United team. Sometimes I wished Mr Zucker would take more notice of the things going on around him.

  After two shots from each team the scores were still two all. Then Becky put one high into the top right-hand corner to give Real Madrid the lead.

  3 – 2.

  Paisley took a shot at me and smashed the ball a metre wide of the left goalpost. I had gone the right way, though, watching his hips as he jogged in to take his kick.

  Still 3 – 2.

  Shane saved the next shot, then Katie curled a ball past me into the left corner.

  3 – 3.

  Again, though, I felt I’d known which way she was going to direct her kick. It was just that I couldn’t stretch that far.

  Jules belted a ball straight at Shane, who had unfortunately decided to take a big dive a split second before the kick was taken. If he’d stood his ground the ball would have smashed straight into his body.

  4 – 3.

  Travis Fisk strode up to the spot and placed the ball. I noticed that it was in front of the actual chalk mark. I didn’t say anything.

  ‘Gonna watch my hips, hey, Grady?’ he jeered.

  I smiled. ‘Better than looking at your face, Travis!’ I replied, all smiles and politeness. There were a few titters from behind him.

  His run-in was awkward. Maybe he knew I was right about the hip thing. He was all over the place. He struck the ball with the toe of his boot, sending it in low and hard. All the time, I sensed that his left hip was slightly forward, so I lunged to my right. I fended the ball down with my arms, centimetres from my face. It bounced back to Travis, who belted it back at me in anger. This time the ball found the net.

  Still 4 – 3.

  ‘No second chances next time, Grady,’ he called out.

  Yeah, right, I thought to myself.

  Shane and I got to take a kick, too. I tried to lob him, but he parried the ball over the crossbar. His shot curled into the corner for a goal.

  4 – 4.

  ‘Well, for the first time in UEFA cup history, we are all going to have to come back next week for a replay.’ Mr Zucker clapped cheerfully.

  The Red squad had come in and were watching our shootout, along with a few parents waiting to take their kids home.

  ‘Mitchell,’ Mr Zucker called to me as we moved towards the wheelie bins for the traditional round of throws to see who could lob the most soccer balls in. ‘I think I’ll play you in goals this Thursday, hmm?’

  ‘Sure, Mr Zucker. It’s Scornly, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes. At Scornly. Then Hoods, at Wetherhood.’

  Why did he have to remind me of that?

  ‘Before you go, everyone,’ Mr Zucker called. ‘You have been wanting to know what the skills test will entail. Well, go and write down everything you did in training tonight.’

  He laughed, an
d headed off into the driving rain, probably to retrieve the soccer balls that had gone behind the goals and down the embankment at the far end of the pitch.

  The teachers here sure loved their sport.

  When I got home that night I decided to take Mr Zucker’s advice, making a list of all the skills and drills we did at training. I rang Luci and told her, too. We compared notes. This was my list:

  • Dribbling

  - Running with the ball

  - Passing after dribbling

  - Receiving a pass then dribbling

  • Throwing

  • Kicking

  - Short and accurate

  - Long and accurate

  - Shooting

  • Goalie.

  I reckoned I was okay with most of the skills mentioned on the list, which was a start, but I sure wasn’t perfect at any of them.

  The next day, Wednesday, was the best day during Legend Sports. It was the day when all the venues – gym, playing fields, library, and cool places like that – were reserved for the kids who were doing the Legend sport. Nothing closed until five o’clock.

  Mr Zucker had sent all the Soccer Legends kids an email explaining how the quiz would work. Becoming the Legend of Soccer wasn’t just about how you did out on the pitch. Mr Zucker said that twenty out of the total hundred points for soccer would be the quiz.

  I had a printout of his email in my pocket, which I dragged out to show Luci, Becky and Bubba as we headed up to the library after lunch.

  Subject: Quiz

  Email from: Carl Zucker

  mail to: “Legend of Soccer Students”

  CC:

  7:24 a.m. 13/07

  Dear Legend of Soccer students,

  Please note that the following topics will be included in the 20-question quiz, which is to take place in the library on Wednesday of next week (2:30-3:30pm).

  Rules

  World Cup

  Past winners

  Recent competitions

  Famous players/incidents

  Australia’s World Cup history

  Australian local teams.

  Good luck with your research. Please email me or Miss Lan if you have any questions.

  Mr C Zucker

  (Teacher in Charge, Legend of Soccer)

  We settled down to some serious study, and for a while even Bubba was quiet. I looked over at what he was doing. He was making a monster list of dates, places, teams and final scores for each of the world cups.

  ‘Hey, Bubba,’ I whispered. ‘How much for a copy of that awesome list you’re making?’

  The girls looked up, too.

  ‘I was gonna make each of you a copy, anyway.’ He grinned.

  ‘No kidding?’ said Becky.

  ‘Of course!’

  And I’ll bet he actually was, too.

  Bryce appeared about half an hour later. While he’d participated in the cricket (and aced the quiz), he had only been really involved in the one Legend sport – tennis. He’d come second in the tennis, which was amazing given how little he seemed to care for all the other sports. But he had always taken an interest in how the rest of us had gone. And he was a very good tennis player.

  There was a rumour going around that he was a pretty good basketball shooter, too. I would have to ask him about that.

  ‘Good to see you all here,’ he said, settling in between Luci and me.

  He had a bag with him. He pushed his glasses back on his nose and grinned at us.

  ‘Well? Aren’t you going to ask me what’s in the bag?’

  ‘What’s in the bag?’ Becky obliged.

  ‘Glad you asked, Beck.’ He looked around, and then bent down to open it. ‘Okay. Torch.’ He pulled it out briefly, then shoved it back in again. ‘Candle, matches, drink bottle, notepad, pencil, first aid kit, mobile phone, helmet, chocolate–’

  ‘Tickets and a passport?’ Luci joked.

  ‘You may well joke, Luci, but I am prepared for any situation.’

  ‘I’m prepared, too,’ said Bubba. He pulled out a mini torch from his pocket.

  ‘You won’t be needing that, Bubba. Put it away,’ said Bryce. ‘Now, here’s the plan.’

  Bryce dived into his bag and pulled out some paper. He handed a sheet to each of us.

  ‘Instructions. The library’s pretty quiet after four o’clock. That’s when we make our move. We go down to the sports section, get the panels opened. You distract anyone who needs distracting and I go back into the secret room. This time I explore. We sync–’

  Bubba held up a hand. ‘Hang on a minute, Brycey.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Well, why can’t one of us go with you?’ he asked.

  ‘You forget. I am sacrificing myself to the unknown dangers that lurk in the deepest recesses of the secret room. I put myself before my friends. I–’

  ‘Bryce,’ Luci said, ‘shut up and get on with this plan so we can get back to studying.’

  There was a pause.

  ‘Right. Um, we synchronise our watches, and at exactly 4:45pm you reopen the panels and help me back out again.’

  I looked up at the wall clock. It was 2:50pm. There was a game of indoor soccer on from 3:15 till 4:00 that we were all pretty keen to play in.

  ‘What time do you want to head in?’ I asked.

  ‘Sometime after four, I reckon.’

  ‘That’ll be fine, Brycey.’

  ‘Great. No one’s heard from Jack?’

  I think Bryce knew that a few of us had Jack on our minds, maybe more than the secret room. We shook our heads.

  ‘Okay, well let me know the minute he replies,’ he said, looking at Luci. He grabbed his bag and shuffled off to a computer.

  When we got back after the indoor soccer game, Bryce was sitting on the floor of the library’s sports end, helmet on his head, while munching some of the chocolate and sifting through the boxes of year books and stuff.

  ‘Bryce, what’s with the helmet?’ Beck asked, trying to hide the grin on her face.

  Fortunately, except for Miss Javros at the front desk and a few kids down at the computers, the library was deserted.

  ‘Just getting used to the feel,’ he replied, smiling.

  ‘And getting used to the taste of the chockie, too, hey? You want a hand there with that tasting, Brycey?’ Bubba asked.

  Bryce held out the block of chocolate to him. There was something about Bryce you had to admire. He didn’t care what he looked like. Didn’t care what people thought of him. He just got on with life, doing what he wanted to do.

  ‘Bryce, you sure you’re going to be okay in there?’ I asked. I was feeling worried about him dropping his glasses and treading on them, or doing something equally dumb.

  ‘Yes, yes,’ he said. ‘Just be here at a quarter to five, all right?’

  We took out the folders. (Bubba insisted on telling us which ones to remove.) Becky went off to chat to Miss Javros, and Luci kept an eye on the two boys at the computers. In a moment, Bryce had disappeared into the darkness.

  We stayed close and silent, waiting to hear something, anything.

  ‘Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that that sliding piece of wood goes back to its original position on its own?’ I asked, after a moment.

  There was a moment of silence.

  ‘No,’ said Luci and Becky together, shaking their heads.

  ‘I mean, it’s like someone else knows about this secret place, and has maybe gone in there as well,’ I continued.

  ‘Well, didn’t you say Fisk overheard us talking about it?’ said Luci. ‘Maybe he knows something, too.’

  We headed back to our table. There were soccer books and notebooks scattered everywhere. The boys at the computers left a few minutes later.

  ‘Are you going to clean up that mess down by the sports books, or will they walk back onto the shelves of their own accord?’ Miss Javros asked us.

  ‘I’ll go, Miss Javros,’ said Becky.

 
; We all followed a few minutes later. Then we hung around for the next twenty minutes waiting for a noise, or anything else that might indicate that Bryce was back close to the entry point of the secret room. At 4:42 we had taken up our positions. Luci had gone back towards the tables at the front to fend off Miss Javros, in case she decided to head down our way.

  4:43.

  4:44.

  4:45.

  None of us moved. Bubba had his head down, backside up, listening for the slightest sound.

  4:46.

  4:47.

  ‘What time have you got, Becky?’ I asked.

  ‘Four forty-eight.’

  ‘Me too.’

  4:49.

  4:50.

  Luci headed back down, a ‘what-is-going-on?’ look on her face.

  I shrugged.

  4:51.

  ‘Okay, let’s ring. Bubba, make the call,’ I said. We all turned to Bubba.

  ‘I was really hoping it wouldn’t come to this,’ he said, looking very anxious. ‘You see, I was supposed to charge the battery, but–’

  4:52.

  ‘Stay here, Bubba. Keep listening. Mitch, have you got the number?’ Luci asked me.

  I handed her the slip of paper that Bryce had given me. Bubba was looking upset.

  ‘Don’t worry, Bubbs. Knowing Bryce, he won’t be far away.’

  ‘Luci, most of the school’s locked. Where will you make the call from?’ asked Beck.

  ‘Right here. I’ll just have to pretend it’s Mum I’m ringing. C’mon.’

  4:53.

  We went down to the front desk.

  ‘Miss Javros, can I please make a call to Mum? I can’t remember where she was picking me up from,’ Luci explained.

  ‘Well, you know you’re not really allowed to use the library phone. Have you got some coins for the call?’

  I scrounged around in my pocket for some money while Luci made the call.

  4:54.

  Why did Bryce keep doing this to us? What could possibly have happened? He was normally so precise and good at details. If he said 4:45 then he meant 4:45. Maybe there was another trap further into the room. Maybe this one was more lethal. I looked over at Luci’s worried face.

  4:55.

  Suddenly her face lit up. ‘Br – um, Mum? Is that you?’