1 The Pirates of Doom Charlie Bumpers my mom yelled What I turned back to the car to look at her I was in a hurry to get to my first soccer practice with my new team the Pirates Your water bottle she called holding it out of the car window I ran over grabbed it and turned to run I didn’t want to be late And your soccer ball she said I ran over and got that too See you I said I turned back and ran Wait she called again Dad will pick you
Hector and Tommy up at 5:30 Okay I said You’re welcome she said Thank you I yelled back over my shoulder I was eager to find my team It was my first year in the ten-and-under league and by some miracle my two best friends Hector Adélia and Tommy Kasten were on my team They were both excellent players And my mom said that our coach Mr Carmody had been a college soccer coach so I figured he knew everything The Pirates were going to rule the soccer season We would score a million goals Or at least fifty Even though we don’t keep score in this league At least the adults say they don’t keep score They say they want us to have fun and work on our skills and not worry about winning and losing But I think they do keep score I know I do It seemed like there were a thousand kids at the fields behind the high school all searching for
