Black and White

by Rob Childs

  BLACK & WHITE

  For all young footballers

  BLACK & WHITE

  Rob Childs

  Illustrated by John Williams

  Black and White copyright © Frances Lincoln Limited 2008

  Text copyright © Rob Childs 2008

  Illustrations copyright © John Williams 2008

  The right of Rob Childs to be identified as the Author of this book has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  First published in Great Britain in 2008 by

  Frances Lincoln Children’s Books,

  4 Torriano Mews, Torriano Avenue, London NW5 2RZ

  www.franceslincoln.com

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the United Kingdom such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available on request

  epub ISBN: 978-1-90766-645-2

  Contents

  New Boy

  Rivals

  Welcome Home

  Team Trials

  Fire and Water

  Group Games

  Final Touch

  On the Run

  Touch and Go

  County Cup

  Ups and Downs

  New Boy

  “Right, this way, Joshua. Follow me.”

  Josh didn’t really need any help from the teacher. He heard his new classmates well before he saw them. Their noise gushed out of the open doorway and washed along the school corridor like a tidal wave.

  As Mr Blyton led him into the room, the loud conversations subsided and even a minor scuffle in the book corner eventually resolved itself.

  “I leave you alone for two minutes and come back to find a mini riot,” he remarked. “That’s a nice welcome for our new boy, I must say.”

  Josh felt the full force of thirty pairs of eyes burning into him. He hugged his football against his red tracksuit top, trying to resist the urge to bounce it on the floor.

  “This is Joshua. He’s a very keen soccer player, so I’m sure he will soon feel at home here at Westgate.”

  “You any good?”

  The question was shot at Josh by a boy in the front row and was answered by another nearby.

  “Good enough to score past you, Raj, I bet.”

  “Shut up, Anil.”

  “I expect we’ll all find out soon enough just how good he is,” said Mr Blyton, showing Josh to a table against the far wall. “Right, Joshua, this is your place next to Matthew. He’s going to help you settle in with us.”

  Matthew responded by scraping his chair a little further away, as if to make more space, but then turned over the page in his book and pretended to be absorbed in the story.

  Josh put the ball under the chair and fished into his bag for a book. The picture on the front cover showed a footballer scoring a goal and he made sure that Matthew could see it.

  “You know who that is?”

  Matthew shook his head.

  “Don’t you like football?”

  Matthew nodded.

  “Then you should know his name. He’s the best player in Britain.”

  “This is m..meant to b..be silent reading time,” Matthew replied.

  Josh shrugged and then banged the book on the table, making the two girls opposite them jump.

  Mr Blyton looked their way. “Anything the matter, Joshua?”

  “Sorry, just dropped my book,” Josh said and held it up in the air.

  The teacher peered at the cover. “Isn’t that Ossie Williams?”

  “He’s my uncle!” Josh announced proudly.

  “Really? Well I hope that you take after him, Joshua,” smiled Mr Blyton. “We could do with some of that Ossie magic in the school team.”

  At morning break, Matthew started the tour of the school in the playground so that he could eat a packet of crisps.

  “Want one?” he said, spluttering a few bits of crisps on to his jumper.

  Josh shook his head. “They make you fat.”

  “Don’t care,” Matthew shrugged. “I’m hungry.”

  “Uncle Ossie says footballers have to watch what they eat.”

  “I am watching – all the way into my m..mouth,” Matthew grinned, stuffing a few more in to prove it.

  “Where’s the footie pitch?” asked Josh.

  “Ain’t got one.”

  Josh could hardly believe what he’d just heard. “So where do we play our matches?” he demanded.

  “On the p..park,” Matthew said.

  “We had enough space for three pitches at my last school in Wales.”

  “What you come to this dump for, then?”

  Josh sighed. “Parents split up. My mother wanted to move back to the city to be near her own family.”

  “I ain’t got a dad, neither,” Matthew confessed. “You get used to it.”

  Josh changed the subject. “So what’s the team like?”

  “Rubbish! They ain’t won a m..match yet.”

  “Aren’t you in it?”

  Matthew gave a shrug. “Can’t b..be b..bothered.”

  “Why not?”

  “Dunno really,” he began. “Well, some of the kids like to m..make fun of m..me. Y’know...”

  Josh nodded, guessing the reason. “You just have to ignore ’em.”

  “I do.”

  “Good,” Josh said, giving Matthew a grin to show that he was on his side.

  “Enid keeps asking m..me to go to one of their p..practices.”

  “Enid?”

  “Enid B..Blyton. That’s what we call him.”

  They both laughed.

  “Well, anyway,” said Josh, “I’ll be going to the next practice, so why don’t you come with me?”

  “M..might do.”

  “Right, let’s see how good you are,” said Josh, taking a tennis ball out of his pocket. “We can have a game with this.”

  “Rather p..play with that footb..ball of yours.”

  “Uncle Ossie always played with a tennis ball as a kid. He says if you can control a small ball, it makes a big one dead easy.”

  Josh flicked the ball up into the air and began to juggle it from foot to foot. Suddenly, he lashed it away on the volley and scored a direct hit. The ball smashed into Matthew’s packet of crisps, sending what was left of the contents all over the tarmac. He never even saw it coming.

  “Goal!” Josh cried.

  Matthew was furious. “I’ll get you for that.”

  Josh sprinted away with Matthew hot on his heels. The chase took them right across the playground, but by the time Matthew caught him up they were both laughing too much to fight.

  “Well, at least I’ve found out how fast you are,” Josh panted. “Better to be fit than fat!”

  “C’mon, let’s go b..back inside and get that b..ball.”

  “OK, sure – no problem.”

  But there was a problem, however. When they returned to their places in the classroom, Josh’s

  football had gone.

  “Where is it?”

  Josh’s demand startled the two girls in the far corner of the room. They had been allowed to stay in during break to continue work on their costumes for the Divali celebrations next week.

  “Where’s what?” said Panna.

  “My football.”

  “How should we know?” said Leela.

  “You’re the only people in here.”

  “So?”
<
br />   “So you might’ve seen who took it,” said Josh, angrily.

  Leela stood up to fetch a piece of material from the craft cupboard. “Oh dear! Poor little Joshie has lost his precious ball!” she teased. “What will his famous uncle say?”

  Josh pulled a face at her and then stormed out of the room, leaving Matthew trailing in his wake.

  “Who was that?” he demanded when Matthew joined him in the corridor.

  “Leela. She’s OK really – m..most of the time.”

  Josh stared out of a window across the playground. “There’s my ball!” he cried, pointing.

  Matthew looked out and spotted the group of boys kicking the football about. “That’s Rajesh and his gang,” he groaned. “You’ve lost it now. You won’t get it back off them.”

  “Just you watch me!” Josh told him. “Come on.”

  Matthew sighed and reluctantly followed him outside. “Huh! B..bet he wants m..me to do m..more than just watch,” he muttered to himself.

  By the time Matthew crossed the playground, Josh was already being given the run around by the footballers who were switching the ball between them to keep it out of his reach. In frustration, Josh launched himself at Rajesh as the gang leader knocked the ball away again and they wrestled each other to the ground.

  “Fight! Fight!” cried the other boys and Matthew could not even get close enough to see because of the number of bodies in the way.

  He was about to go and fetch the teacher on playground duty when Mr Blyton appeared on the scene, sloshing tea from his mug in his haste.

  “Break it up!” he shouted above the noise. “C’mon, finish it – NOW!”

  The wrestlers either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore the command and Mr Blyton had to step in and separate them himself. His mug ended up the main casualty, smashed to pieces when it dropped to the ground, but both the boys looked a little the worse for wear too. They were breathing raggedly, their clothing dirty and dishevelled, and a few areas of bare skin were scraped and bleeding.

  “Inside, you two,” Mr Blyton ordered crossly. “Go and get cleaned up. A fine start, Joshua, I must say.”

  As the teacher escorted them into school to ensure that Round 2 of the fight did not start, Matthew scooped up the stray ball from where it had rolled into a grate and ran off into the building to keep it safe.

  Rivals

  The playground fight earned Josh instant respect from the other boys, especially as it was agreed that the taller Rajesh had come off worse. He was the school goalkeeper and captain, an honour that Mr Blyton threatened to take away from him if there was any further trouble.

  It was not wise to get on the wrong side of Rajesh. He held a grudge against anyone who showed him up in front of his gang – and Josh had gone straight to the top of his hate list.

  “B..better watch your b..back, Josh,” Matthew warned him. “He’ll b..be out to get you.”

  “Don’t worry. I can look after myself,” Josh replied.

  “Everyb..body knows that now – including Raj,” Matthew said with a grin.

  Over the next couple of days, however, Rajesh had few opportunities for revenge. Apart from the odd snide remark and sly kick in the corridor, the best he could manage was to tip dirty water over Josh’s painting in an art and craft session. Even that backfired. Josh refused to blame him when Mr Blyton asked what had happened, enhancing his reputation further.

  Rajesh was not pleased either when Josh joined the group of footballers lining up in the playground to be led round to the nearby park after school for the weekly soccer practice.

  “What you doing here?” he snapped.

  Josh looked down at his football kit. “Cricket practice?” he suggested with a grin.

  Rajesh quelled an outbreak of chuckles from those nearby with a fierce glare.

  “Who said you could come?”

  “Enid.”

  “He must be desperate,” Rajesh grunted. “He hasn’t even seen you play.”

  “And nor have we,” said Anil, one of the team’s defenders.

  Josh gave a casual shrug. “Well, you soon will.”

  Mr Blyton arrived on the scene at that point, preventing any further argument.

  “Good – all ready?” he said. “Leela?”

  Leela checked round the queue to make sure the other four girls in the squad were all there. “Nobody else was in the cloakroom,” she said.

  “Right, let’s go,” the teacher told them after counting everybody. “Don’t dawdle at the back. Keep up.”

  Josh had managed to persuade Matthew to come with him to the practice session and Mr Blyton was pleased to see them both there.

  “Glad to have you with us at last, Matthew,” he said as the children trooped through the park gates. “If you make the team, that left foot of yours will help to give us a better balance. Nobody else is naturally left-footed.”

  “A good team needs one or two lefties in it,” Josh chipped in. “That’s what my Uncle Ossie always says.”

  “So he’s left-footed as well, is he?” Matthew remarked.

  “How do you know that?” asked Josh.

  “Just guessing,” said Matthew.

  After the usual warm-up period, Mr Blyton had the players practising their ball skills. It was clear how comfortable Josh was, using either foot. He ran at speed with the ball under close control, perfectly balanced and confident.

  Not bad – not bad at all, the teacher thought.Not quite Ossie Williams yet, but you can see the influence.

  He was pleased with Matthew too. In contrast to Josh, Matthew was almost entirely one-footed, but the boy moved well and his passing was crisp and accurate.

  Mr Blyton organised the squad into groups for a series of short games against each other, making sure that Josh and Matthew were on the same side. He wanted to see how well they teamed up on the pitch.

  He didn’t have long to wait. Only a couple of minutes after the start, they linked up along the left touchline, exchanging passes, until Matthew steered a left-footed drive beyond the reach of the sprawling keeper. The goal boosted his confidence, and he created more chances for himself and others.

  Only Leela, however, was able to beat the keeper again. She accepted Matthew’s pass, jinked her way through two challenges and then slipped the ball past the keeper too.

  “Great goal!” praised Matthew, slapping her raised hand in celebration.

  “Thanks,” she grinned. “Just wanted to show your new pal that girls can play football too. He hasn’t passed to me yet.”

  “He will now, don’t worry,” Matthew grinned.

  Josh made up for his lack of goals in that first match by scoring twice in the next.

  Rajesh’s team had won both their games, too, and the players had a brief break for drinks before their sides met one another.

  “You won’t score against me, kid,” the goalkeeper boasted, splashing water into Josh’s face as he strolled by.

  Josh forced himself not to react to the taunt. He knew his best chance of revenge was on the pitch itself. “We’ll see,” was all he said.

  “We sure will,” laughed Rajesh.

  Josh was determined to have the last laugh and did everything he could to put the ball past Rajesh. Unfortunately, this worked against the best interests of his own side. He shot at goal from all angles, often with little or no chance of scoring, when a pass to a teammate would have been a better option.

  Every time Josh missed, Rajesh laughed at him and even Matthew lost patience.

  “Come on, Josh,” he complained after another wild attempt. “That’s just b..being greedy. Leela was unm..marked there.”

  Leela wasn’t slow to make her own feelings known too – after checking that the teacher could not hear her swear. Josh scowled, knowing that they were right and he was wrong. But Rajesh had got under his skin and he had lost his cool.

  “Sorry,” he muttered in apology to Matthew. “Just can’t help it.”

  Josh was saved further embarr
assment by

  Mr Blyton blowing the whistle for the end of the session.

  “Ah, well, at least they didn’t b..beat us,” Matthew said as they pulled on their coats after the goalless draw.

  “We should’ve won, though, and it was my fault,” Josh admitted.

  Rajesh enjoyed the walk back to school far more than they did. The captain managed to get right behind Matthew and Josh in the line. He put on a false stutter and kept trying to trip them up.

  “What a p..p..pity!” Rajesh chortled. “B..b..bet old Uncle Ossie wouldn’t have b..b..been b..b..best p..p..pleased. B..b..bet he would’ve smacked p..p..poor little Joshie’s b..b..bottom!”

  Welcome Home

  “Ma won’t be home yet,” Josh told Matthew as they left the school building in the fading light after the soccer practice. Neither had bothered to change and had simply pulled a coat over their kit. “Said she was going to see her sister.”

  Matthew failed to respond in the way that Josh had hoped. He just grunted and slung his bag on to his back.

  “Er.. any chance of me coming round to your place for a bit?” Josh prompted. “Y’know, kill a bit of time, like.”

  Matthew hesitated. “M..my m..mam ain’t in, neither. She’s at work.”

  “So? Even better if we’ve got the place to ourselves.”

  “She don’t like m..me b..bringing anyb..body b..back.”

  “Why not?”

  “She just don’t, that’s all,” Matthew said with a shrug.

  “C’mon, Matt,” Josh urged. “I won’t stay long. She won’t even know.”

  Matthew heaved a sigh. “Well, OK, then.”

  Josh grinned, pleased with his little victory, and led the way out of the school gate. “Where do you live, anyway? Is it far?”

  “Not exactly,” Matthew muttered, turning right. “Just a long way up.”

  “Up?”

  “Yeah, up. Tenth floor.”

  “Wow! Must be a big place.”

  “Sure is,” Matthew replied, nodding towards a block of flats ahead of them. “We’re halfway up that thing there.”