Starting Eleven Read Online Free

left. ‘Time to get home and showered. Well done!’
    I looked at Abs. ‘There’s some good players coming back on Thursday,’ I said.
    ‘I don’t care,’ replied Abs. ‘We’ll be better than them again.’
    I turned to Chris and Jason. ‘What do you two think?’ I asked them.
    Chris shrugged and Jason shook his head.
    ‘It’s gonna be hard,’ Jason said.
    ‘Not if some of them don’t make it in time,’ said Chris mysteriously.
    ‘Huh?’ I asked.
    ‘Never mind,’ said Chris. ‘Just leave it to me . . .’
    He winked at me and then refused to tell me what he was on about all the way home.

Chapter 5
    Wednesday
    THE NEXT DAY all we talked about was football. Very soon everyone else at school started to get fed up. The first person to say something was a girl called Lily Jones. Only she wasn’t actually fed up. She was just mad!
    ‘Can’t you talk about anything else?’ she asked me and Jason as we sat on a wall during morning break.
    Jason shrugged and asked her what she wanted to talk about. His face went a bit red because he fancied Lily.
    ‘Oh, anything,’ she replied. ‘Just not football. I mean, I like football. I even play, but can’t we
please
talk about music or something?’
    I groaned as Jason just smiled at her. The fool.
    ‘But you weren’t even talking to us,’ I said to her.
    Lily grinned. ‘Yeah – but I
could
have been,’ she replied as one of her friends, Parvy, joined her.
    ‘And . . . ?’ I asked.
    ‘
And
just think of all the
cool
points you could get . . .’
    Parvy started to giggle.
    ‘I mean – it’s not every day that someone like
me
talks to you, is it?’ Lily continued.
    But I didn’t have a clue what she was on about.
    ‘Er . . .’ I began.
    ‘And with me being so beautiful and clever – just think how jealous everyone else will be . . .’
    She took my hand and squeezed it hard. I tried to pull it away but she held on tight. Then she kissed me on the cheek! Jason’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. From behind us I heard a really irritating voice. It was Nilesh – the school geek.
    ‘
EHHHH!
’ he whined. ‘
Dal just kissed Lily! Dal just kissed Lily!
’
    ‘
Dal’s got a girlfriend! Dal’s got a girlfriend!
’ sang his silly friend, Mark.
    As I pulled away from Lily she shook her head.
    ‘Boys are
sooo
silly!’ she said to Parvy as they walked away.
    ‘What was that all about?’ asked Jason.
    ‘I don’t know,’ I replied, feeling embarrassed. ‘She’s crazy, she is.’
    Jason looked kind of worried. ‘Are you and her going out?’ he said.

    ‘
No!
’ I said really quickly. ‘I don’t like girls. I only like football!’
    Jason nodded at me.
    ‘Come on,’ I said. ‘It’s time for our next lesson.’
    ‘I didn’t know Lily played football,’ said Jason as we walked in.
    ‘There’s a girls’ team at the club,’ I told him. ‘I saw a notice about it.’
    ‘Be funny if she played for the boys’ team,’ added Chris.
    I gave him a look that said
forget it
.
    ‘That’s never,
ever
happening,’ I replied.
    We walked into our classroom and sat down. Abs and Chris were already there. They’d been helping our teacher, Mr Kilminster, with something.
    ‘What did the Killer want you to do?’ I asked Chris. Killer was Mr Kilminster’s nickname.
    ‘Nothing much,’ replied Chris. ‘We just helped him move some boxes around. What did you get up to?’
    ‘He didn’t get up to much,’ said Parvy from behind us. ‘He was too busy kissing Lily!’
    ‘
Eh?
’ said Chris, looking shocked.
    ‘No way!’ added Abs, who’d overheard. ‘Did you kiss Lily?’
    I shook my head. I could feel myself going red. Why had she kissed me? I didn’t even like her!
    ‘It wasn’t like that,’ I explained, just as Nilesh and Mark walked in, sniggering at each other.
    ‘He just walked up, asked her out and then kissed her,’ Parvy said, lying through her teeth. ‘Just like that. Didn’t even buy her a pen or