Missing! Read Free Page A

said Mr James. ‘Teamwork, effort, commitment. Come on, Reds!’
    We walked back out onto the muddy pitch as the clouds broke again and it began to pour down. I looked over to the sidelines and saw my mum standing there, totally drenched but smiling with it. She blew me a kiss. Parents can be
so
embarrassing. I kind of nodded back and then took up my position. Lily came and stood next to me.
    â€˜Your mum is really pretty,’ she told me.
    â€˜Shut up,’ I said, because I didn’t know what else to say.
    â€˜I mean it, Jason,’ she insisted. ‘She always wears really nice clothes. How come your dad never comes too?’
    I shrugged. ‘There’s just me and Mum,’ I told her.
    Lily’s face dropped. Oh,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to . . .’
    â€˜â€™S OK,’I told her. ‘I know . . .’
    She smiled at me. ‘Pass me the ball more this half,’ she said.
    â€˜Why?’ I asked jokingly. ‘You going to score the winner?’
    Lily nodded as Abs and Chris walked over.
    â€˜I’m going to
ninja
their left back,’ she told us, before making a squealing sound.
‘YEEEEAHI’
    â€˜What’s up with you?’ asked Abs. ‘You feeling
ill
or something?’
    â€˜Just showing Jason what I’m going to do to their left back,’ she said with a grin.
    Dal joined us too.
    â€˜Hello, my dear,’ Lily said to him, making him squirm. ‘I was just telling your friends about how lovely you are . . .’
    â€˜Er . . .’began Dal.
    â€˜She said she was going to
ninja
their player,’ I said to him.
    â€˜What does
that
mean?’ asked Chris, getting confused, as Parvy walked up too.
    â€˜It means she’s going to teach him to respect the
skills,
’ said Parvy.
    â€˜Eh???’ I asked.
    Just watch and learn, mere mortal,’ replied Parvy. ‘They only teach the way of the soccer
ninja
to
girls.
’
    I looked at Chris, who shrugged. ‘Must be some sort of USA thing,’ he said. ‘Because I do not have a clue what she just said to us. She might as well have spoken in
Teletubbese . . .
’
    â€˜Man – you lot are just
weird,
’ said Abs. ‘All of you!’
    Thankfully the referee told us to get ready for kickoff at that precise moment. Before Lily and Parvy could talk more nonsense anChris could attempt to explain what
‘Teletubbese’
actually meant!
    Langton got hold of the ball straight away and for the next ten minutes we seemed to be chasing shadows. Every time one of our players tried to get the ball they passed it on. After a while I started to get really frustrated and I decided that I was going to get hold of the ball.
    I got my chance almost immediately when the lad with the freckles, who was called Luke, tried to run past me with the ball. Remembering what Mr James had said to me about timing my tackles, I watched and waited and then, just as Luke went to shimmy past, I stuck out my left foot and the ball broke free. I gathered it with my right foot and played it across the middle of the pitch to Corky. Corky stopped the ball and then played it on to Abs, who turned and ran at the goal. There were two defenders infront of him and this time he wasn’t greedy. Instead of shooting at goal, he slipped the ball inside to Chris.
    Chris saw a chance and tried to hit a low shot into the net, but one of Langton’s defenders got in the way and the ball hit his left shin. I watched as it bounced out to Lily. I was running for the box now, ready to take the ball.
    â€˜LILY-SQUARE IT!’I shouted.
    But she didn’t listen. Instead she faced up to her defender and waited for him to go for the ball. When he did, she stepped across the ball and lifted it up into the air in one movement. From the sidelines I heard our parents and coaches cheering. Lily controlled the ball with her left foot and