Free Secret Weapon by Matt Christopher Page B

father joined them. He watched Lisa for a moment, then called, “Have you ever done a
     somersault?”
    “Not yet!” she yelled back.
    “Aw, no way you’ve got the guts to do one of those!” Ted jeered.
    “Oh, yeah?” Lisa retorted. She bounced a few more times. Then, taking a deep breath, she launched herself into the air, tucked
     into a ball, and flipped over. She didn’t land on her feet, but she didn’t care. She had done a somersault on her first try,
     and that was more than Ted could do!
    “What do you think of that?” she crowed as she slid down off the trampoline.
    Ted huffed. “Huh, bet if I spent all my free time tumbling around on gym mats, I’d be able to do one, too.”

    Mr. Gaddy laid a hand on Ted’s shoulder. “Son,” he said gravely, “until you can do a three-sixty without landing on your backside,
     stick to doing the splits. Now step aside, kids, and let a pro show you how things are done! Yee-ha!”
    The fun on the trampoline had taken Lisa’s mind off her soccer worries for a while. But when she crawled into bed that night,
     they all came crashing back.
    How can I improve
? she thought over and over. But she couldn’t come up with any ideas. She could only hope that Coach Bradley would know what
     to do.

Chapter 4

    P ractice started at three o’clock sharp the next day. First drill of the day, Coach Bradley had them work on throw-ins.
    “I need five players to spread out on the field.” Lou Barnes, Jerry Dinh, Dale Tuget, Edith “Eddie” Sweeny, and Dewey London
     volunteered. “The rest of you get behind the touchline. You’ll be taking turns doing throw-ins. I’m going to call the name
     of one of the players on the field. I want you to try your hardest to get the ball to that player.”
    Brant Davis was up first. The coach handed him the ball and called out, “Eddie!”
    Eddie was about ten feet away from Brant. Brant fired the ball from behind his head directly to her. She caught it against
     her chest and let it fall to the ground. At a motion from the coach, she booted the ball back to him.
    “Not bad, Brant. Next!” Alan Minter stepped forward.
    “Dale!”
    Dale was a good twenty feet away. Alan took a few steps back, paused, then trotted forward, lunged, and threw two-handed from
     behind his head. The ball landed near Dale’s feet.
    “Okay, good aim, but look down,” Coach Bradley said. Alan did—and blushed. One foot was completely inside the touchline.
    “If this had been a game, the ball would have been handed to the other side,” Coach Bradley reminded Alan and the others.
     “Be sure to watch that.”
    Now it was Lisa’s turn. Nervous about what had just happened to Alan, she decided not to run toward the line but to take the
     throw standing still.
    Coach Bradley seemed to guess what she meant to do.
    “Lou!” he called. Lou was standing the farthest away!
    Lisa tried her best, but the ball fell far short of its goal. Lou hurried forward to retrieve it.
    “Oh, brother,” Lisa heard Stookie Norris mutter.
    Miserable, Lisa waited for the coach to point out her mistake.
    Instead, all he said was “Good try.” For some reason, that made Lisa feel even worse.
    Isn’t he going to help me get better
? she wondered unhappily.
    Lisa did her best during the rest of the drill. Sometimes she hit her mark, other times she goofed up. Each time she messed
     up, Stookie had something to say. He was careful not tolet the coach hear him, but Lisa was sure the other ’Cats could. No one said anything, though—not even Ted.

    “Let’s gather ‘round,” Coach Bradley called at the end of practice. “Good efforts by everyone today. Friday, we play a game
     against the Tadpoles. See you then!”
    The ’Cats all cheered, then broke to head for home. Ted and Lisa started off together.
    “Let’s see if any of the ’Cats want to use the trampoline with us tomorrow,” Ted suggested. Brant Davis was walking with the
     coach right in front of