Free T.J. and the Hat-trick by Theo Walcott

touch the ball.
    The barrel-shaped Kelvin was raising his foot to shoot when Tommy darted in and stole the ball. Tommy passed to Jamie who took a wild swing at it and watched in amazement as it flew straight to Tulsi. She called out, ‘Here, TJ,’ and slid a pass towards him.
    TJ froze. He had the ball at his feet but he didn’t know what to do. He heard shouts from behind him.
    ‘Get rid of it, TJ!’
    ‘Pass it, TJ!’
    Then one voice rose above the others. ‘Remember Dexter! You know what he did.’
    Suddenly TJ’s mind was clear. He played the ball back to Rodrigo, wrong-footing the player who was sliding in to tackle him, and he raced away down the touchline. He just had to hope that Rodrigo was watching and knew what to do. Too late, the defender realized where TJ was going and turned to chase him, but TJ was fast. And there was the ball! Rodrigo had spotted his run and chipped it into the space behind the defenders. It bounced once and sat up perfectly for TJ to volley, left-footed, past the goalkeeper.
    TJ couldn’t believe he had done it. He’d scored! And it had been brilliant! He hardly heard the crowd cheering at first. He turned and there was Rodrigo.
    ‘Bam!’ Rodrigo grinned, punching the air with his fist.
    ‘Thanks, Rodrigo,’ TJ said. ‘Excellent pass!’ Then he turned to look at the spectators. All the Parkview supporters were going mad, but TJ just had one thing on his mind. Who had shouted?

    The dinner ladies were waving their pom-poms again, and TJ saw his family jumping around and cheering, and then finally he spotted the tall figure in the black beanie, standing a little behind the others and giving him a thumbs-up sign. It was Marshall Jones – in disguise! It wasn’t much of a disguise, but no one seemed to have recognized him yet.
    Hillside kicked off, and now TJ could sense that they weren’t quite so confident.
    Every time Kelvin got the ball he looked around nervously for Tommy, and most of the time Tommy was there, scrapping away and winning the tackles. Meanwhile, Jamie seemed to have got the measure of Krissy, and when she tried to go past him it was like watching someone running into a brick wall. TJ almost felt sorry for her.
    The game was much more even now, but Slim still somehow managed to keep winning the ball back, no matter how hard Rafi and Rodrigo chased around after him. TJ could see that they needed help. When Jamie made yet another tackle on Krissy and the ball rebounded towards Slim, TJ raced back, controlled the ball on his thigh, hooked it over Slim’s head and then nipped round him to touch the ball into Rodrigo’s path. Rodrigo gave it back to him, and TJ was away, running at the last defender.
    There was no need for tricks. He knew he was faster than the defender so he simply pushed the ball to one side and ran after it. The goalkeeper had come out to the edge of his penalty area, spreading himself as wide as he could. TJ passed the ball, right-footed, between his legs and into the empty net.
    The Hillside players were hanging their heads. The big defender TJ had just skinned was bent double, gasping for breath.
    ‘We can do it,’ TJ said to Tulsi, as they waited for Hillside to restart the game. ‘Look at them! They’ve had it.’
    He realized that Tulsi was staring at him.
    ‘You said you’d never played before,’ she accused him.
    ‘I haven’t. Only messing around in the garden and that time in the park, kickarounds in the playground. I never played a match in my life.’
    ‘You must have done. No one could—’
    ‘Look out,’ yelled Rafi. ‘They’ve kicked off.’
    Slim had the ball at his feet, and he definitely hadn’t given up. He dodged past Rodrigo and sidestepped a clumsy challenge from Jamie, then unleashed a shot at Danny’s goal. Slim was already celebrating when Danny dived full-length and the ball thudded into his body. He stood up holding it and looking a little surprised, but not as surprised as Slim.
    ‘Give it to