8 I’m a Good Kicker

CHAPTER EIGHT I'M A GOOD KICKER PICASSO PARK IS really big. It's got all kinds of stuff—two baseball diamonds, a fishing pond, a basketball court, a big playground, a walking trail with ten exercise stations, three soccer fields, and four tennis courts. The tree was by the basketball court on the other side of the park. We saw four people on the way. First, we saw my mom. For real. She was at the first exercise station on the walking trail. She was using her stretchy elastic band. It was wrapped around a pole and she pulled on it and

grunted. When she saw us, she stopped. "What are... you three... up to?" Mom asked after saying hello to Simon and Rosie. She panted a little bit between words. "And what... are you doing...with all... that stuff?" "We have to get a ball out of a tree," I answered. "Balls can... grow... on trees?" Mom asked. She was joking. But Simon didn't know she was joking. "I kicked it up into the big pine tree by the basketball court," he said. "Rosie and Molly are going to help me get it out." "I see," Mom said and nodded. She didn't care that Simon didn't get her joke. She started to pull on her elastic band again. "Molly, when I finish the trail... it's time... to go home. It's a school night."

We also passed Mr. Garcia at the fishing pond. He fishes there all the time. He said he hadn't caught anything yet. And there were two teenagers playing tennis. Then we got to the basketball court—and the tree. "It's taller than I thought," Rosie said, stretching

her neck to look up at the top. "It's huge." "How did you kick Max's soccer ball all the way up there?" I asked. "I'm a good kicker, I guess," Simon said and shrugged. "You must be." "Come on," Rosie said. Her eyes were squinted and her lips were squeezed tight. "Let's get started." We tried the white PVC pipes first. It took a long time to connect them all. We had to squeeze the pipes into the connectors really tightly—and sometimes they were a little too loose and sometimes they were a little too tight. But when we did finish, the result was excellent. The final pipe was almost as long as the basketball court. "This will totally reach the ball!" Simon yelled from the far end of the long pipe. He was excited that our first idea could work. "Let's lift it up!"

"Okay!" Rosie called. She and I were at the other end. We had just attached the final piece. Rosie seemed confident too. Just to me, she said, "This is going to be easier than I thought." Then we lifted the super long pipe. We found out that it wasn't going to be easier than we thought. We also found out we were running out of time. Mom was already doing push-ups at station three of the exercise trail. And we saw someone else arrive at the park—someone we really didn't want to see.