Baller Boys Page 4

  Shay thought about it for a moment then shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. It will be a bit weird without him but I still want to go. I like the boys that I play with and I think it will be fun. Can I go on my computer?”

  “Yeah sure. Maybe we can all go out together another time? That might cheer Frankie up, what do you think?”

  Shay didn’t answer, the lunch invite already a distant memory. As he threw himself down into his dad’s gaming chair and logged on to his computer, he could see it was one of his teammates, Troy, inviting him into a game.

  *

  “Frankie, what’s up love, you’ve been a bit quiet since we left training, has something happened?” Tina asked.

  Frankie sighed. “It’s that Hassan. He’s trying to make Shay his best friend. He’s really getting on my nerves.”

  “What happened? What did he do?”

  “He invited Shay and everyone else on the team to his fancy restaurant and said it’s only for the main team, so I can’t go!” Frankie kicked his football bag and threw himself on to the sofa. He was well and truly fed up.

  Tina sat down next to her son on the sofa. “Look, maybe it’s something Hassan’s family usually does. They invite the players to celebrate making the team? I’m sure they haven’t arranged it to upset you or anyone else. It might not seem fair but don’t take it personally.”

  Frankie thought about it for a moment. He knew his mum could be right but he still felt left out and upset. He really wished he’d made the team then none of this would be happening. He wouldn’t be feeling like he was losing his best friend.

  Frankie went upstairs to his bedroom and noticed his computer flashing. As he got closer to the screen, he saw that it was Shay inviting him to join a game. Frankie smiled. Maybe their friendship was still okay.

  *

  The day of the lunch arrived and Hassan had asked everyone to arrive for midday. Hassan’s dad had sectioned off an area of the restaurant just for the team’s use. The restaurant was beautiful. It looked like it had just been renovated and there was an amazing waterfall at the front.

  Inside the staff were smartly dressed, with big smiles on their faces, which made everyone feel welcome. They escorted the team to an area of the restaurant that had been specially decorated with football balloons. The parents were taken by the waiters to a separate area, where they ordered food for themselves and the boys.

  Hassan saw Shay and waved him over to a seat next to him. He hurried over, high-fived him and sat down. As usual, Oscar arrived late with his two mums and baby sister, and rushed over to join the group.

  As the conversations started getting louder, Shay noticed that most of the main team were there, but the whole development squad was also there. Everyone except Frankie.

  “Err, Hassan, how come—”

  But the food arrived and Shay got drowned out by the boys cheering.

  The food was delicious with plenty of drinks. After the table was cleared, Troy shouted across the room, “Where’s your bestie, Shay?”

  Shay shrugged his shoulders and looked at Hassan who quickly turned away. Shay decided to try again to speak to him about it, but Hassan seemed to deliberately go into the office, where customers were not allowed.

  As the families started to say goodbye, Hassan seemed to be taking his time saying goodbye to everyone. Joanne was eager to get home so Shay didn’t have time to ask him about Frankie.

  In the car, Shay didn’t say a word.

  “What’s up Shay?” Joanne asked.

  “Hassan said the development squad couldn’t come, but they were all there, all except Frankie. Hassan didn’t invite him on purpose.”

  “Oh, that’s not nice. Maybe we should warn Frankie before he finds out. Let’s stop there on the way home,” she said.

  “No Mum, I can’t tell Frankie! It would only make things worse between us. Please, I don’t want to be the one to tell him.”

  “Shay, are you sure? As his friend, it might be better coming from you,” Joanne replied.

  “No Mum, I’m sure, let’s just go home.”

  Joanne looked at her son but didn’t say another word.

  CHAPTER 13

  Frankie Learns The Truth

  Several weeks later, with the evening air cooler than at the beginning of the season, Joanne took the boys to training. Rayne came too, dressed in his own football kit. He wanted to be just like his big brother Shay and was taking more interest in football. He had begun supporting his local team, and Danny had taken him and Shay to the club shop in Highbury, to buy his first real kit.

  Joanne had become a real football mum. She did most of the training runs with Shay and Frankie and was impressed with how well their skills were developing.

  “Thanks for bringing me, Aunty Joanne,” Frankie said, as he climbed out of the car.

  “You’re welcome Frankie, and it’s a pleasure to bring you. Shay, have you got your bag?” she called, watching Shay run over to his teammates.

  “Don’t worry Mum. I have it!” he called back over his shoulder without stopping.

  “See you later,” Frankie called, running along to catch Shay up.

  Shay had gone ahead to join Hassan and the others without waiting for him, and this had made Frankie feel even more left out. Since Shay had made the team, he had become very popular with the players. He was invited around to their homes, had gone to the cinema, played in the park. Frankie was never invited.

  By the time Frankie caught up with Shay and the others, they were already deep in conversation. None of them stopped chatting to even say hello to Frankie. With his head down, he walked on, deciding to leave Shay and the rest of them to it.

  Frankie loved football so much, but he couldn’t ignore that he was getting more and more distant with Shay, who spent so much time hanging out with the boys in the main team.

  Frankie wished he could join in with their conversations and understand all their inside jokes.

  Although he got on well with the boys from the development squad he couldn’t help but feel like they were second best and in his eyes all of them were a substitute for Shay.

  *

  The coaches made the boys from both the main team and development squad train hard, they also made sure it was fun, and today was no different. Coach Joe was making up lyrics and singing out loud as usual. He fancied himself as a bit of a rapper and was always making up songs, which made the players laugh.

  “You’re out of tune Coach!” laughed Oscar as he ran past Coach Joe.

  This made Coach Joe change his lyrics and rap even louder. “My mind’s elevated, I might need to make some changes, cheeky kids might need to take a back seat…”

  “No, no Coach, I’m just joking, I meant great tune.” Oscar said.

  The first half of training seemed to go quickly and it wasn’t long before it was time for a break. After the break, the main team and development squad played a training match against each other.

  Jamie’s mum, Kathy, who today had light blue hair, brought the tray of water bottles over to the boys who had all flung themselves down on the grass.

  “Help yourselves to water,” she said, not taking her eyes off Jamie for a minute.

  As the boys from the team and development squad sat on the grass together drinking their water, Blessing riffled through his bag, hoping he had something in there to munch on. He didn’t.

  “Guys, I’m starving, anyone got any snacks?” he asked hopefully.

  “Yeah, I’m hungry as well. Hassan can we come back to your restaurant for some more food?” asked one of the players from the development squad.

  “Yeah!” replied most of the boys.

  “Frankie, you really missed out the other week. The food at Hassan’s restaurant was so good. Why didn’t you come?” asked Blessing.

  “Yeah you were the only one that didn’t join us,” Oscar said. “Everyone was there.”

  As the boys turned to look at Frankie, he noticed both Shay and Hassan avoiding his eyes.

  Frankie was stunned. Why didn’t Shay say anything?

  “Come to the restaurant later,” Hassan said, still not looking at Frankie.

  “Well, any snacks, anyone? Blessing needs food now, not at the end of the season,” joked Oscar.

  Everyone laughed and continued chatting amongst themselves. No-one seemed to notice how upset Frankie was.

  Frankie turned his back and walked away, tears streaming down his face. He had been lied to. He didn’t care about Hassan, but he couldn’t believe that Shay, his best friend, would lie to him.

  He began to run as fast as he could, past the coaches and parents, past Joanne who was waiting to take him home. He ran all the way to the car park and stopped by the car. He didn’t want anyone to see him crying and at this moment he really hated Hassan and Shay.

  “Mum, have you seen Frankie?” asked Shay running towards her.

  “Yes, he just flew past me, running towards the car park I think. What’s going on?” she yelled, as Shay flew past.

  “He knows about the dinner,” Shay replied, running in the direction of the car park to look for his friend.

  As Shay approached the car park, he saw Frankie sitting in a heap on the ground next to the car, sobbing. Slowing down and walking towards him, he knew he had done the wrong thing by not telling him. He had wanted to spare Frankie’s feelings, but the secret had made things worse.

  “Frankie, are you alright? I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you about the dinner. Hassan lied to both of us when he said it was only for the main team. When I got there, I was shocked to see almost everyone there, then I didn’t know how to tell you.” Shay walked closer to Frankie and bent down on the floor beside him. “Frankie, I’m sorry, I was trying not to upset you.”

/>   Shay sat on the ground next to him. Frankie wiped his eyes.

  “If you’re my best friend, you shouldn’t keep things from me. I would never keep anything like that from you.”

  “Yeah, I know, and I am really sorry. I won’t do anything like that ever again, I promise. Come on man we’re the dream team. Can we be cool? Please?” Shay pleaded to Frankie, making silly faces, trying to make him smile.

  Joanne caught up with the boys, eyeing them cautiously. “Alright boys?” she asked hopefully.

  Shay looked at Frankie, who gave him a weak smile.

  “We’re cool Mum,” Shay said.

  CHAPTER 14

  The Mascot

  Shay and Frankie were sitting with some of their teammates listening to Oscar telling jokes.

  “You’re so funny. If you weren’t such a good player you could be our mascot,” said Shay.

  “You would be a good mascot,” Frankie chimed in.

  “What’s a mascot?” Hassan frowned.

  “Ahh, Hassan man, you’re such a dummy.” Troy laughed shaking his head. “Everyone knows what a mascot is!”

  “Well, I don’t,” Hassan snapped, standing to his feet. “I wasn’t asking you anyway!’

  “Who are you shouting at?” Troy retorted, jumping up.

  Shay quickly stood up so he was in-between Hassan and Troy. He pushed them back, away from each other.

  “A mascot is meant to bring good luck to the club. They usually appear at games and they’re kind of funny, they wear a costume and help to get the crowd excited,” Shay explained.

  “Oh, I know what you’re talking about,” Oscar said. “I’ve seen them at some of the matches on the TV. They’re usually big and colourful and do silly things to make people laugh.”

  “I know what you mean now. I didn’t know that’s what they were called,” Hassan said, sitting back down on the grass, but not before making a face at Troy.

  Shay was relieved to see that both boys had calmed down.

  “Hey, why don’t we get one for the club? It would be great. It could come to all of our matches and be our biggest fan,” Shay said.

  “He could be red and black like our club colour and he could give out sweets,” chipped in Troy.

  “So, where do we get mascots from? And how much do they cost?” Hassan asked.

  “Don’t worry, we can figure it out together, with some special help.” Shay winked.

  Hassan frowned. “Special help from who?”

  “Google!” said Shay.

  The boys fell back on to the grass, laughing. Sitting quietly but not joining in, Tandeep had a big grin on his face. Shay laughed so hard he began to cough and wheeze.

  “Do you need a puff on your inhaler?” Frankie asked, putting an arm around him.

  “Yeah, thanks mate.”

  Frankie tossed him his bag and Shay pulled out his inhaler. He took in some deep breaths, giving a thumbs-up to Frankie.

  “I have an idea!” Frankie said. “Why don’t we pay for it ourselves?”

  All at once the boys replied, “I don’t have any money!”

  “Why can’t the club pay for it? We could ask the coaches?” suggested Troy.

  “We could ask my dad. He’s got lots of money,” boasted Hassan.

  “What would be the fun in that? We can think of some cool ways to earn money and how much better would it be having a mascot that we got ourselves, as a team?” Shay said.

  “What things can we do to fundraise?” Frankie asked.

  “My mum and her friends do sponsored swims to raise money for a charity that helped my grandma when she wasn’t well.” said Shay.

  “Oh, I can’t swim very well,” said Troy.

  “Neither can I,” said Hassan.

  “We don’t have to swim. We could do a sponsored run and we can definitely all run,” Oscar said, sprinting in a circle around the group of boys to make his point.

  “What’s wrong with your grandma?” asked Hassan.

  “She has something wrong with her blood and it was making her really sick, it’s a funny word. Leu… something, I can’t remember.”

  “It’s Leukaemia, isn’t it?” Frankie said.

  “Oh, yeah that’s it,” Shay said. “My grandma has Leukaemia. My mum and her friends raised loads of money and my grandma was really happy. We could raise loads of money to get a mascot!”

  Not far from them, Jamie was dribbling a ball around. Shay noticed how fast and skilful he was; the ball never got away from him.

  “Guys, look at Jamie. Look how fast he can run and his control of the ball! Let’s ask him to help, actually, all the boys can help,” suggested Shay.

  “Sorry, not Jamie,” Troy said frowning at Jamie. “He’s weird and annoying.”

  “No, he’s—” but Shay was cut off by Coach Joe’s whistle.

  “Come on boys! Up you get!”

  They spent the rest of the session practicing penalties and Shay was counting down the minutes until they could speak to Coach Reece about the mascot idea.

  As soon as the whistle blew Shay, Frankie, Troy, Oscar and Hassan ran over to Coach Reece, with Tandeep slowly walking behind them.

  “Everything okay boys?” Coach Reece asked, as he picked up the cones from the pitch.

  “Coach we think it would be really cool if the club had a mascot,” Shay said.

  “Okay, tell me more,” replied Coach Reece. He put down the cones he’d been collecting to give them his full attention.

  “We think a mascot at our games would get everyone excited for the match. Plus, we want to work together to raise the money to buy the costume,” Frankie explained.

  “And who would be the mascot?” Coach Reece asked.

  “We haven’t thought about that bit yet. Oscar would be great but he’s on the team… we want someone just as funny as Oscar,” Shay said.

  “And we’re going to do a sponsored run,” Oscar added.

  “That sounds good boys. Mascots are usually an animal. Do you know what animal you’d like?”

  “What about a bear or a lion?” Troy said. “And he can wear our kit. He’ll look so cool!”

  “I do love your team spirit.” Coach Reece smiled. “I think it’s a great idea! I’ll talk to the other coaches and see what we can do. We would be more than happy to pay for the mascot.”

  “No thanks, we’ve got this. We’re doing the whole thing ourselves,” Hassan added proudly.

  Coach Reece laughed. “Okay, but we’re here if you need us.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Sounds Like A Plan

  At the next training session, just before they had to start practice, Shay, Frankie, Oscar, Troy, Tandeep and Hassan huddled together to discuss the sponsored run.

  “I can use my sister’s computer to make a sponsor form and my mum can help me print it,” said Oscar.

  “I’ll ask the other AC boys to help us,” Hassan said, wanting to help, but not wanting to get involved with anything that required him to try to read anything. Reading wasn’t one of his strong points.

  “We can make posters and stick them up so that everyone knows about it and maybe we can give some to Tandeep and his dad so they can give them to everyone who gets in their taxi. Is that okay Tandeep?” asked Frankie.

  The boys looked at Tandeep who shyly nodded. They were used to Tandeep being there but not contributing to the conversation. Tandeep was very shy. But he was a good footballer and that was all they cared about.

  Tandeep looked down at the ground wanting to say something—anything! But he was afraid to say anything in case it came out all wrong and muddled.

  “But where could we do the run?” Troy asked.

  “I’ll find somewhere,” replied Shay.

  “Okay cool and Hassan, remember, don’t ask Jamie,” said Troy.

  “I think we should all get involved including Jamie. It’s not up to you to decide who can and can’t do it Troy,” Hassan said.

  Troy glared at him.

  “That’s true. It’s our club so all of us should do it,” Oscar said. “Hands up if you think everyone should do it.”

  All the boys raised their hand and looked at Troy.

  ‘’Oh, shut up Oscar!” snarled Troy.

  “Troy, just stop,” Shay snapped.