Loser Read Online Free Page B

up from his knees. “I’m being mad because we lost.”
    Baby Polly is bawling.
    â€œWell, you can start being madder, because this little demonstration will cost you your allowance for a week. And you have five seconds to bring that pacifier back.”
    Â 
    Zinkoff is determined to become a better loser. In the following weeks he practices his losing in the backyard. But he never again gets a chance to show his stuff on Saturday, for the Titans win all the rest of their games.
    No great thanks to Wild Foot.
    One time, amazingly, he finds himself alone with the ball and a clear field ahead of him.Propelled by an excitement of whistles and screams behind him, Wild Foot boots the ball on and on, never realizing he has long since gone out of bounds. He crosses two other soccer fields and is finally stopped in the parking lot.
    On another occasion he throws up on the ball, which in turn causes two other players to throw up.
    It is after this incident that several Titans ask the coach if Zinkoff can be traded to another team. They are soon glad it didn’t happen.
    The last game of the season comes down to a play-off between the Titans and the Hornets. The Hornets also have lost only one game. The winner will be champion.
    The game goes as usual for Wild Foot. He runs around a lot. He swings his foot a lot but seldom connects with the ball. Sometimes he makes himself dizzy running in circles as he tries to keep up with the action swirling around him.
    Late in the second half the score is still 0–0. Zinkoff is standing in front of the Hornets’ net, wondering where the ball is, when suddenly it hits him in the head. It bounces into the net fora goal, and Zinkoff is instantly mobbed by cheering teammates. The final score is Titans 1, Hornets 0.
    The Titans are Peewee champions!
    The Titans go wild. They jump like kangaroos. They fall onto their backs and churn their legs in the air. They ride their parents’ shoulders and thrust up their fingers and crow, “We’re number one!”
    Zinkoff goes wild too. He tries to stand on his head. He shouts into baby Polly’s face “We’re number one!” and makes her blink. He climbs onto his father’s shoulders and proclaims to all the wide world: “We’re number one!”
    And then he looks down and sees the face of Andrew Orwell, his neighbor. Andrew is a Hornet. Zinkoff has never seen a sadder face in his life. It reminds him of a monkey’s face. He begins to notice the other Hornets, in their black-and-yellow shirts. They are slumped on the grass. They are slumped over their parents’ knees. Not one of them rides a shoulder. Every one is monkey-faced and crying and slumpy.
    Then they give out the trophies. Every Titangets one. Zinkoff has never won a trophy before. It’s a golden soccer player on a black pedestal with a golden soccer ball at his foot. It glows as if it has been painted in sunlight. It is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.
    Zinkoff sees the other Titans kissing their trophies, so he kisses his too. As he does so, he sees the Hornets slumping away to the parking lot.
    And suddenly he’s running, he’s yelling, “Andrew! Andrew!” Cherise and Andrew turn in the parking lot. Zinkoff runs huffing up to them. “Andrew, here.” He holds out the trophy. The look in Andrew’s eyes tells him he has done the right thing. “You take it.”
    Andrew reaches for it, but his mother catches his wrist. “Donald, that is really nice of you, but you’re the one who won it. Andrew will win a trophy of his own someday.”
    Andrew’s fingers are curled like claws. They can feel the golden trophy inches away. As his mother leads him off to the car, he cries out, “I want it!”
    That afternoon Zinkoff sits on his back step. The trophy is beside him, brighter than ever.
    Zinkoff is playing a game he invented called Bugs on a Stick. In the next backyard