Chapter 9

Chapter 9 KEEP YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME! BUT IMAGINING YOURE A WIZARD IS OKAY, TOO. Po's thoughts were being pulled in a half dozen directions. He was thinking about the play. He was worrying about the sinister guardians of the glowstone bridge. And he was wondering what the source of the Evoker's King power actually was. With all that on his mind, it probably shouldn't have been a surprise when Po made a mistake on the court. What should have been an easy block went wrong, and the referee hit him with a penalty. With their free throws, the other team took

the lead. "Keep your head in the game, Po!" yelled his coach. Po didn't like being called out like that. Especially when the coach was right. Po needed to focus on one thing at a time. Then again, Po felt he was often at his best when he let his imagination run wild. It was one of the reasons he enjoyed trying out new skins in Minecraft. With each skin, he became a different character. Those characters were often bold, fearless—so that even when Po himself was afraid, he could pretend to be someone who wasn't.

Surely the great mage Po the Wise would not be bested at basketball. In his mind, the wizard flew across the court, covering yards in mere seconds. Po approached the basket. The wizard was suddenly surrounded by fierce opponents. The wizard smiled. Po passed the ball to his teammate Raul. The horde rushed the wizard too late. Raul made a heroic three-point shot.

That was something else Po the Wise knew well. Teamwork was a real-life superpower. "Attaboy, Po!" said Coach. "There's my star." Normally, Po would have loved hearing that. Tonight, it made his stomach twist. Po's basketball team was a mixed-ability wheelchair team. That meant the team played in wheelchairs, even though many of the players didn't use wheelchairs outside of the sport. Po hadn't been able to use his legs since birth. But he'd always been active and energetic, and he'd always hated being told he couldn't do something. Po suspected the reason he'd fallen in love with wheelchair basketball in the first place was because some people assumed people with paraplegia couldn't be athletes. Proving the doubters wrong? That was just the sort of challenge Po relished. Po didn't want to be just a basketball player, however. He wanted to try other things, too. Acting, for instance. But the thought of telling his coach that he

would miss some games for play rehearsal? The idea of telling his teammates that he wouldn't be there for them? The possibility of giving up all those high fives and cookies? Those things were difficult to imagine. Po liked being a star. If he gave up basketball for something new, he would risk losing all he had. At that moment, Raul passed Po the ball. Po's head snapped back into the game. He forgot about everything except the ball in his hands, the basket up ahead, and the friends and teammates all around him. "Po, you were amazing!" said Jodi. "Oh, yeah," Morgan said. "Good game, buddy."

It had been a really close game, in fact, but Woodsword had managed the win. Friends and family had swarmed the court after the game clock hit zero. Po hadn't even realized that Morgan and Jodi were in the bleachers. "You two skipped play practice?" he asked. "The set-design team is ahead of schedule," Jodi