Free Soccer Crazy by Shey Kettle

CHAPTER 1
    The Weekend at Last!

    Mai and Carly are walking home from school together. They’re both really excited because it’s Friday. And everyone knows that Friday means two things—the school week has finished and the weekend has started.

    Mai “I love weekends.”
    Carly “Yeah, so do I.”
    Mai “So, what are we going to do?”
    Carly (kicking an empty drink can) “Let’s practise our soccer skills.”
    Mai “Why?”
    Carly “’Cause I watched the school soccer team train today and I want to be on the team.”
    Mai “But there are only boys on the school soccer team.”
    Carly “So? I think we’re as good as them, and I think we should be on the team too!”
    Mai “Yeah, but they probably won’t let us be on the team.”
    Carly “Well, I reckon if we’re good enough, they’ll just have to let us.”

    Mai (laughing) “I think we’d need to be better than all of them, maybe even as good as Beckham.”
    Carly “Come on Mai, we should try. I know that I’m as good as they are—maybe even better!”
    Mai “Okay! If you’re game to try out for the team, then so am I.”
    Carly “Right. Let’s start now. We can practise our passing with this can.”
    Carly and Mai take it in turns to kick the empty drink can. They kick it to each other, as if they are passing a soccer ball. The girls stop when they come to the park.
    Carly “Hey! This is where we should come and practise.”

    Mai “What about the Hoover boys next door?”
    Carly “You mean Joel and Jarred Hoover Vacuum-Cleaner? What about ’em?”
    Mai “Well, we don’t want them to come and play while we’re here.”
    Carly “I’ll just tell them that we’ve come to give them a big fat kiss—that’ll soon scare them off.”
    Mai and Carly laugh.
    Mai “What’ll we wear?
    Carly “Let’s borrow some gear from our brothers. They’re not playing a game tomorrow.”
    Mai “Great idea. Let’s not tell them though, or they might laugh at us.”
    The girls agree to meet the next morning.

CHAPTER 2
    Looking Good

    Mai and Carly arrive at the park at nine o’clock the next morning. Both girls are dressed in soccer gear they’ve secretly taken from their brothers’ wardrobes.
    Mai “Wow! You look just like a professional player.”
    Carly “So do you!”
    Mai “If the school coach could see us he’d put us on the team right now.”
    Carly (laughing) “I think that he’d want to see us play first.”
    Mai “Well, we should start training.”
    Carly “Great idea, but we’re missing something.”
    Mai “What?”
    Carly “A soccer ball.”

    Mai “I thought you had one.”
    Carly “Well, I thought you had one.”
    Mai “So, we look like real players, we talk like real players—but we haven’t got a soccer ball.”
    Mai “Maybe we can pretend that we’re kicking and head-butting a ball.”
    Carly “I think we need to train with a proper ball if we’re going to be good enough to get on the school team.”
    Mai “Yeah, you’re right.”
    Carly “Any ideas?”
    Mai “I know what we can do.”
    Carly “What?”
    Mai “We can go next door and ask the Hoover boys if we can use their soccer ball.”
    Carly “But if we do that, then they’ll know we’re playing here, and what’s worse, they might want to play.”

    Carly and Mai sit on the ground looking at each other, until Mai jumps up.
    Mai “I’ve got a plan!”
    Carly “What? What’s your plan?”
    Mai “Well, first I’ve got to run home and get something. You wait here.”
    Mai runs home as fast as she can.

CHAPTER 3
    Trust Me!

    In a couple of minutes Mai returns holding