Free Roller Hockey Rumble by Matt Christopher, Stephanie Peters Page A

Savannah. “Sorry, I forgot to tell you to keep your stick blade on the ground,” she said. “That way, you’ll be ready to stop the puck if it comes near you. Okay?” Savannah nodded, and Bizz skated back for the next face-off.
    This time, Jonas got control. Instead of passing, he took off like a shot toward the goal. Bizz chased him. Charlie streaked down next to her. Mark shifted nervously in front of the goal — and the fast-approaching Jonas.
    “Stop him! Stop him!” Bizz yelled.
    Mark’s eyes grew wide, but he skated forward and tried to put his body between Jonas and the goal. Moments before a collision, Jonas pulled up short and passed the puck to X. X deflected it into the goal. Mark spun to see what had happened, lost his balance, and fell.
    Bizz skated a wide circle behind the goal, then dug the puck out of the net. As she passed Mark, she reached a hand down to help him up. “Good job standing your ground against Jonas,” she said, adding with a grin, “Now if you could just stand your ground the rest of the game . . .”

    “Ha, ha,” Mark said. He took her hand and struggled to his feet.
    Bizz won the third face-off. She looked up to see Savannah standing close to the goal. “It’s all yours, amiga!” She slapped a hard pass to her friend. But instead of stopping on Savannah’s blade, the puck bounced off and skittered over the sideline.
    Bizz retrieved it, then skated up next to Savannah. “Sorry, my fault again,” she said. “I should have told you to keep your stick soft when you get a pass. You know, kind of cushion the puck a bit to control it. Next time, okay?”
    “Got it,” Savannah said. The girls slapped high fives and went back to their spots.
    For the next ten minutes, the two teams traded goals, joking and teasing one another the whole time. Bizz continued to offer Savannah pointers.
    “Will you stop helping the enemy?” Jonas said at one point.
    “Enemy-schnenemy,” Bizz retorted. “She’s a roller hockey newbie. I’m just cuttin’ her some slack.”
    “Speaking of slack, I gotta take a break,” Mark said. He took off his helmet. “Anybody want to hit the water fountain in the Community Center with me?”
    It turned out that everyone else was thirsty, too. Together, they skated to the center and drank big gulps of cold water.
    “All right,” Bizz said as they started back toward the rink. “Everybody ready for round two?” But when they reached the rink, it was no longer empty. A boy was there taking shots on goal.
    Bizz skated over to the newcomer. He looked a little older than she was.
    “Excuse me,” she said politely, “we’re in the middle of a game.”
    The boy slowly turned. “Excuse
me,
” he sneered. “When I got here, the rink was empty. And there weren’t any names on the sign-up sheet. Well,
now
there’s a name. Mine.”
    He turned away, raised his stick behind him, and slammed in another shot.

CHAPTER THREE
    Bubbles of fury rose inside Bizz. Some of her anger was at the boy’s rudeness — but the rest was at herself. She’d completely forgotten to sign up, even though Alison had reminded her to do it. The boy had every right to be there. More, since he’d signed up for the time.
    Then she had an idea. “Listen,” she said to the boy, “you wanna play with us? We’re going three-on-three, just goofing around and having fun. What do you say?”
    The boy glanced over at the others. “Pretty motley-lookin’ crew,” he said with a sniff. “I’ll have to tone down my game to play at your level.”
    Don’t do us any favors,
Bizz wanted to say. But instead, she gritted her teeth and replied, “I’m Bizz.”
    “Frank,” the boy snapped.
    X offered to give Frank his spot.
    “Fine, but I’ll take the face-off,” Frank said, shouldering Jonas aside. Jonas frowned, but skated back next to Savannah.
    This guy’s a real bully,
Bizz thought angrily as she readied herself for the face-off.
Well, he better not cause trouble.
    Her anger