12 The Secret Play

Chapter 12 The Secret Play We all ran to the sideline and huddled around Coach Hyatt. "Take a knee, kids," she said. "Where should we take it?" I asked. "Quiet!" barked Coach Hyatt. Then she started whispering. "Okay, this is it. It's time." "Time for what?" Ryan asked. "It's time for The Secret Play," Coach Hyatt told us. "Oh no!" said Neil the nude kid. "Not The Secret Play! The last time we tried The Secret Play, we fell all over ourselves." "Yeah," I said. "I almost broke my leg." "It's going to be different this time," the coach told us. "Now we've got Andrea. You ragamuffins can do this. Just like you picked

up my car. Do it for the Chipper." "Who's the Chipper again?" I asked. "My hamster!" Coach Hyatt barked. "Oh, yeah." The ball was on our twenty-yard line. We had to drive eighty yards in eleven seconds. It looked impossible. We got into position. "Hut-one!" Andrea shouted. "Hut-two! HIKE!" Wyatt hiked the ball to Andrea. Andrea flipped it to Ryan. Ryan passed it to me at the thirty-yard line. I shoveled it over to Michael. Michael ran to the fifty-yard line and lateraled it to Neil. Neil ran all the way to the ten-yard line and handed it off to Wyatt. Wyatt ran almost to the goal line, and then he suddenly stopped.

"Run, Wyatt! Run!" we all screamed. There was no time left on the clock. Wyatt was just standing at the one-yard line. If he didn't score, the game would be over and we would lose. "RUN!" we all screamed. A Shark was about to tackle Wyatt! That's when the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. Wyatt picked his nose. Well, that's not the weird part, because

Wyatt picks his nose all the time. The weird part was that Wyatt picked his nose, and then he stuck the booger right on the Shark's face! Ew, disgusting! The Shark shoved Wyatt away from him! Wyatt fell on his butt and landed… in the end zone! Touchdown! 78–77. The Moose win! Everybody went crazy! You should have been there! Our whole team ran to do the end zone dance. We shook our butts, lifted one of our legs over our heads, hopped up and down for a while, and then put our hands in the air and waved them around like crazy people. Nah-nah-nah boo-boo on the Sharks! We ran to the sideline, and all the parents were taking pictures of us. It was a

real Kodak moment. "You made a home run!" my mom yelled. I slapped my forehead. Everybody was going nuts and hugging each other. Andrea came over to me. She opened her arms. "Give me a hug, Arlo," Andrea said. "Not gonna happen." "I want a hug, Arlo," Andrea said. "Not for a million hundred dollars." "Come on, Arlo," Andrea said. "I would rather eat a live-bug sandwich." We went back and forth like that for a while. "Arlo, I'm on your team!" Andrea said. "Humphf!" Hmm. Andrea had a point. After a big win like this, you should hug your teammates. Andrea was on our team, and she won the game for us.

But she was a girl! If I hugged Andrea, the guys were sure to make fun of me. I was faced with the hardest decision of my life. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I had to think fast. I was concentrating so hard that my brain hurt. Suddenly, Andrea reached out to grab me. I faked left. Then I faked right. Then I faked left again. But Andrea didn't fall for my fakes. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me.