placed the balloon on the floor right underneath one of those giant boots The boot came down The balloon popped making a pathetic squeaking sound Nooooooooo nearly everyone in the cafeteria screamed Hey Why’d you Gemma began until she looked up at the face belonging to those boots He was huge and round and thick His skin was gray and calloused as if he’d spent his childhood hauling bricks and shoveling ice But then she saw his eyes You’re human she said Lobelian the boy said That’s not possible Gemma said I’d recognize a human face anywhere You’re from Earth aren’t you Don’t worry about my sister Jones Estrella said helping Gemma up I’m Jones Jedidiah the boy grunted He nodded at another giant kid sitting across from him My baby brother Cojo 8
Baby brother Gemma said He looks full-grown to me Jedidiah just breathed slowly out his nose You want to play keep-it-up with us Jones asked Jedidiah raised an eyebrow Leave us alone Cojo grunted Come on sis Jones said to Gemma We’ll see them tomorrow At the face-off 10
Chapter 2 Goon Alert Coach Yanos stood at the front of the video room showing the team footage of the Lobelians in action The Lobelians were all as massive as Jedidiah and Cojo and from the look of it they played a bruising game They seemed to prefer high-sticking cross-checking boarding spearing and brawling over touch passes and skillful puck handling They’re a bunch of goons Felix shouted Where’s the skill and grace That was rich coming from Felix Rip He was Team Earth’s enforcer and last anyone checked he had little interest in puck-handling Only body checking They’re goons all right Coach Yanos said But they’ve perfected their goonish game He clicked his remote and a picture of the starting line showed on the screen Under each of their 11
