Kickoff!

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One: The End of Summer

  Chapter Two: School Daze

  Chapter Three: Take the Field

  Chapter Four: Anticipation

  Chapter Five: Mom Rules

  Chapter Six: All Shook Up

  Chapter Seven: Riding the Bench

  Chapter Eight: Hands Up!

  Chapter Nine: Xs And 0s

  Chapter Ten: The Road Not Victory

  Chapter Eleven: Spectator Sports

  Chapter Twelve: Pressure

  Chapter Thirteen: The Big Game

  Chapter Fourteen: Better Days a Head

  Football Terms

  For AJ and Chason—T. B.

  For my three Roses—R. B.

  To my wife and partner, Avery,

  and my sons, Clay and Matt,

  for all their love and support—P. M.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The authors and publisher gratefully acknowledge Mark

  Lepselter for his help in making this book.

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE END OF SUMMER

  * * *

  “HUT! HUT! GO LONG, TIKI!”

  Ronde Barber gripped the football with both hands. He dropped back three steps—just like Joe Theismann of the Redskins, his favorite pro quarterback. Ronde’s fingers found the ball’s laces, and he cocked his arm back to make the pass.

  His identical twin, Tiki, sprinted down the sideline. Fast as lightning, Tiki blew right by the defender—their best friend, Paco, who was big and strong, but not fast. No one was as fast as Tiki, it seemed.

  Ronde threw the ball—a perfect spiral!

  But it landed ten feet short.

  “Oh, man!” Their teammate Jason threw both hands up in frustration. “Why can’t I be the quarterback, like always? Your hands are too small to get a good grip on the ball.”

  “They are not!” Ronde grabbed the football from Paco, who’d brought it back to the line of scrimmage—right in the middle of Mews Hill Drive—and spread his fingers over the laces. “See?”

  “Whatever,” Jason said, frowning. “I’m still a better quarterback than you.”

  Ronde had to admit it was true. Last spring their team, the Vikings, had won the Peewee League championship. And even though everyone on the team had a chance to play lots of different positions, Jason had done most of the quarterbacking.

  All three boys were still proud of that championship—in fact, they were all wearing their bright purple Vikings jerseys today.

  Jason had had his growth spurt when he was twelve. Now, at thirteen, he was tall and skinny, with big hands that could grip a football like it was nothing. He could throw a perfect spiral thirty, even forty yards.

  Ronde and Tiki were still small for twelve. But they’d get bigger sooner or later—at least, Ronde sure hoped so. They were identical twins, but their friends could tell them apart. Tiki was quieter and liked history. Ronde’s favorite subject was math. But one thing was for sure—they both loved football. They lived for it.

  “Car!” Adam yelled, and they all retreated to the curb until it passed by.

  They didn’t have to dodge cars too often. This block of Mews Hill Drive was an unpaved dead end, petering out into the driveway of a large empty lot. Once there had been an old mill there, but now it was just a crumbling chimney, surrounded by acres of weeds. Lately, though, there had been more traffic. People in suits came by every day to look at the empty lot.

  Whenever a car did come along, Adam was always the first to spot it. A tall kid with bad posture and thick glasses, he wasn’t strong, or fast, or much of an athlete. His one claim to fame was that he could kick the ball a mile.

  “Okay, third down,” Paco said, panting. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “Why? You tired?” Tiki teased.

  “Yeah, I’m tired—I’m tired of chasing after you. How come you’re not out of breath?”

  Tiki shrugged. “Beats me. I like running.”

  “Oh, man,” Paco said. “Give it a rest.”

  “What’s the matter?” Tiki asked, laughing. “You not having fun?”

  “Forty-nine to seven is not fun,” Paco said.

  “Not when you’re the seven.”

  “He’s right,” Adam said. “It’s no fair when you and Ronde are on the same team.”

  “Hey, man,” Ronde said, “we’re all gonna be on the same team from now on. Starting next week, we’ll be part of the Hidden Valley Eagles. Next thing you know, it’ll be high school, then college, and right on up to the Redskins, and the Super Bowl. Right, Tiki?”

  “No, man, not the Redskins—the Bears!” Tiki corrected him. “Walter Payton’s the man!”

  Tiki, Ronde, and Jason huddled up, while Chris, Paco, and Adam waited at the line of scrimmage.

  “Okay,” Ronde whispered to his teammates. “I’ll fake a handoff to Jason. Tiki, fake a screen, then go long again.”

  “I just went long,” Tiki said. “And you couldn’t reach me!”

  “Let me be quarterback this play, Ronde,” Jason pleaded.

  “Give it up, dude,” Ronde said. “I’m the quarterback today. We drew for it, remember?”

  “Just don’t go long again, okay?” Jason begged.

  “All right, all right,” Ronde said, frowning. “Fake to you, then handoff to Tiki.”

  They lined up at scrimmage. And right on cue, Chris started doing his sportscasting routine. True, they were only playing three-on-three touch football on an unpaved dead-end street—but Chris made it sound much bigger and more important.

  “And the Bears line up. The quarterback takes the snap, hands off to—no, wait, it’s a fake! And now he gives it to Payton! Payton cuts through the line! Uh-oh, Lawrence Taylor’s after him—but Payton somehow gets away! He’s at the twenty, the ten—touchdown! Touchdown, Bears! Walter Payton does it again! Yaaaay!”

  The way he got excited, you’d have thought Chris was on Tiki’s team instead of Paco’s. “And it’s fifty-six to seven, Bears!”

  “Oh, man, can we call this game on the mercy rule?” Paco begged. “Let’s choose up new teams.”

  “Nah, it’s almost dinnertime,” Chris said. “My mom wants me home early to eat, because we’re going out shopping tonight for school supplies.”

  “Ugh. Now you’re really depressing me,” Paco said. “Don’t remind me about school—it’s still summer.”

  “You mean it’s still summer till tomorrow,” Tiki said. “Hey, Paco, how come you hate school so much?”

  “I don’t hate it. I just like summer better. . . .”

  Ronde could tell there was more to it than that. Paco looked . . . well, almost scared to go to junior high.

  “Well, hey,” Ronde said, “we’re all gonna be on the Hidden Valley Eagles. That’ll be cool, right?”

  “That’ll be awesome,” Tiki agreed, and the kids all high-fived.

  As they headed back to their houses for dinner, Ronde put his arm around his brother’s shoulders. “You and me, Tiki—we’re gonna be the stars of the team.”

  Tiki grinned. “I can’t wait, can you?”

  “Nope. I wonder how soon tryouts are gonna be. . . .”

  The sun was setting. The giant neon star at the top of Mill Mountain flickered on. Soon it would light up the night over Roanoke, Virginia.

  Ronde wondered if he and Tiki would someday be stars, too . . . stars in the NFL.

  “Hey, you guys—wait up!” It was Paco, jogging after them, breathing hard, his face red and sweaty.

  “So what was that about before, Paco?” Ronde asked.

  “What was what about?”

  “You’re so down on going back to school, man.” Tiki said. “Even if you want it to, summer can’t last forever. And, hey, y
ou get As and Bs in everything, like we do.”

  “Everything except math,” Paco corrected him. “Besides, my brother James says the work in junior high is mad hard.”

  Tiki laughed. “Dude, you like homework, remember? You always do it right after school, before you play football or anything.”

  “I just do it that way to get it over with,” Paco said. “Besides, you guys do it right after school too.”

  “We have to,” Ronde said. “Our mom makes us.”

  “Yeah, it’s not ’cause we want to.” Tiki shook his head. “I could never think like you, Paco. You are truly bizarre.”

  Ronde gave Paco a playful shove. “Come on, dude, what are you scared of, anyway? It’s gonna be fun.”

  “That’s what you think,” Paco said.

  Tiki said, “I think going from class to class is gonna be awesome. Just think, if you don’t like your teacher, just wait an hour and you’re with a different one! And anyhow, after seven years I’m ready for a new school.”

  “It’s not that,” Paco said, stopping and looking down at the ground. “It’s . . . oh, never mind.”

  “Tell us, dude,” Tiki said, putting an arm around him. “Hey, we’re best buds, right? You can tell us anything.”

  Paco sighed heavily. “All right. But don’t go freaking out when I tell you.”

  He looked first at Tiki, then at Ronde. “My brother James? You know, he’s starting high school, but he went to Hidden Valley till last year. And he told me they have this day . . . it’s supposed to be the second day of school—that’s this Thursday. It’s called ‘Beat the Seventh Graders Day.’ And on that day, guess what happens? All the ninth graders hunt down the new kids and pound them.”

  “WHAT?” both Barber boys said at once.

  “That’s just crazy talk,” Tiki said, snorting.

  “Yeah. James is just goofing on you,” Ronde agreed.

  He and Tiki nodded at each other, but Ronde could tell that Tiki was just a little scared.

  In fact Ronde had to admit he was a little worried himself—even though it was probably all just a load of baloney.

  “James said, the year he was a seventh grader, two kids wound up in the hospital, and three got black eyes and bloody noses.”

  “Did he get one?” Tiki asked.

  “James? No, man!” Paco said. “You know my brother—he’s like six foot three, two-twenty. He was big back then, too—and they don’t pick on the big kids.”

  “Then what are you worried about?” Ronde asked.

  “Man, I’m not that big,” Paco said. “You should see some of those kids in junior high. The guys on the football team? If they ever tackle you, it’ll break your bones!”

  They’d reached Paco’s corner. “I’ll see you dudes at school tomorrow, huh?” he said. “But maybe you’d better both play hooky on Thursday—you know why.”

  The Barber boys ran the whole rest of the way up Mews Hill Drive to their home, tossing the football back and forth between them. They pretended they were on the field, dodging invisible defenders.

  It kept them from thinking about “Beat the Seventh Graders Day.”

  Ronde could smell his mom’s cooking as soon as they reached their corner.

  “Mmmm . . . macaroni and cheese!” Tiki said, grinning.

  Tiki and Ronde’s mom was a great cook. She was lots of fun, too—even though she had to work long hours at the local Girl Scout council office, where she was a secretary. On top of it all, she could throw a mean football. But most important, Ronde and Tiki knew they could always count on her to be there for them.

  Smelling their favorite dish, they stopped tossing the ball and flat-out raced the rest of the way home. They banged the screen door open so hard it sounded like an explosion.

  “Whoa!” their mother yelled, so surprised that she dropped her spatula. “You boys need to slow down! You could scare somebody to death.”

  “Sorry, Ma,” Tiki said.

  “Sorry,” said Ronde, retrieving the spatula for her.

  “Now please take off those muddy shoes and get cleaned up for dinner,” she said. “We’re having mac and cheese.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” said the boys, and raced each other to the bathroom sink, bumping, blocking, and laughing all the way.

  • • •

  After dinner, the boys cleared the table and helped their mom do the dishes. Only when everything was cleaned up did she hand each of them an envelope. “It’s your program cards from school,” she said.

  Ronde and Tiki had been waiting for this moment for weeks. They couldn’t wait to see which classes they had—and most important, who was in each class with them.

  “I’ve got math first period,” Tiki moaned. “At seven thirty in the morning!”

  “What’s wrong with that?” their mom asked.

  “I’m not even awake that early, and everyone says that math in junior high is hard!”

  “Well, you were bound to have some class first period,” their mom said, patting him on the shoulder. “It might as well be math.”

  “Hey,” Ronde said, comparing his own program card to his brother’s. “We don’t have any classes together!”

  “What?” Tiki gasped, looking for himself. “Not one single class? Hey, Ma, can we get these changed?”

  “Yeah, we’ve gotta get things switched around!” Ronde agreed. “They must have made a mistake!”

  Their mom folded her arms in front of her and frowned. “There’s no mistake. You boys have got to learn how to get by on your own. All your lives you’ve been a pair, and that’s a beautiful thing. But you’re starting to grow up now, and you’ve got to learn what it’s going to be like when you’re grown-ups.”

  “Ma,” Ronde said, a choking feeling in his throat, “did you ask for it to be this way?”

  Their mom’s face softened. “I won’t lie to you boys. Yes, I did ask that you be in separate classes. I want you to be close all your lives, but I think it’s better if you start spending time on your own with other kids. Stand up for yourselves, and make new friends to go with the old.”

  “Aw, Ma,” Ronde complained, “we’ve already got plenty of friends!”

  “I know it—but I don’t want them to think of you boys as half of something. Once you’re out on your own a little, you’ll see what I mean.”

  “Can’t we have just one class together?” Tiki begged.

  “You can see each other every day at lunch,” she pointed out. “And of course, there are your after-school activities, like the football team. . . .”

  That was true, Ronde thought. But it didn’t make up for all the hours and hours he’d be sitting in school alone, without his brother.

  He looked over at Tiki, and Tiki stared back at him.

  True identical twins, at certain moments, they thought exactly the same things. This was one of those moments.

  Only an hour ago, they’d been totally excited about going to Hidden Valley Junior High. Now, they both wished the day would never come.

  CHAPTER TWO

  SCHOOL DAZE

  * * *

  AS SHE DID EVERY YEAR ON THE FIRST MORNING of school, the twins’ mom fixed each boy a special breakfast, including some of their all-time favorites. For Ronde, it was bacon and eggs with one pancake and OJ. For Tiki, three pancakes, ham, and a glass of milk. Their mom also made sure their book bags held everything the twins needed—pens, pencils, rulers, calculators, notebooks, and lunch money.

  One thing was different this year, though—Ronde and Tiki could choose their own clothes. Mrs. Barber wanted to make sure that they were as different as could be, so the other kids—the ones they’d be meeting for the first time—could tell them apart. So they made sure they never matched.

  When she hugged them and kissed them each on the cheek and sent them off to the bus, the hugs were extra tight, and there was an extra kiss or two for each boy, as if to say, This is a big day for you both. Good luck.

  As the boys rode off to scho
ol, they were unusually silent. Neither Tiki nor Ronde were big talkers anyway, but today they were even quieter than usual. Instead of talking, each boy was deep in his own thoughts.

  Tiki wondered what it would be like, being in class without his twin. He was used to new kids staring at them because they looked so alike. Would they still stare at him, now that he was alone?

  And what would it be like having so many different teachers? Would they each give a ton of homework, not realizing that all the other teachers were doing the same thing?

  Why did their mom have to insist that they not have even one single class together? Tiki was so upset about it, he felt like crying—but he couldn’t let himself—no way. He didn’t want anyone—least of all Ronde—knowing how he was feeling right then. Afraid.

  Hidden Valley Junior High School was a boxy, gigantic building—much bigger than their elementary school. Tiki knew that was because kids from other elementaries went there, too. He wondered if he’d know anybody in his classes.

  “Well, I guess this is it,” he said as they climbed the front steps and the early bell sounded. “See you at lunch?”

  “I guess,” Ronde said. His voice sounded strange to Tiki—thicker than usual, somehow. Tiki wondered if Ronde was trying to hide his feelings too.

  Probably, he figured. After all, they were identical twins, and that meant they often thought—and felt—the same way about things.

  It was scary to think that maybe that would soon be ending too, now that they weren’t going to be together all the time.

  “Okay. Bye,” he said, giving Ronde a quick nod and going inside.

  Tiki fished out his program card and checked it one more time. “Math—room 208,” he read. He found a staircase and started up to the second floor, lost in a sea of unfamiliar faces.

  Wait—there was that kid Kevin, who was in his class way back in second grade! Tiki wondered whether he should wave, or say hello. He decided not to risk it—Kevin might not even remember him after all this time. He might think Tiki was weird for saying hi, considering they barely knew each other.

  The rest of the way up the stairs, Tiki concentrated on the floor. So many feet! All those different kinds of shoes . . . Were his cool enough? He’d figured he couldn’t go wrong with sneakers, but then, you never knew.